The Official Neil Young Thread

[liebzz]

I listened to Mirrorball probably 2-3 times this past week after not hearing it for a few years...I really love this album. Really though, can't go wrong with Neil Young writing an album with an assist from Pearl Jam at its sonic peak.

[evenslow]

Fucking finally:

Neil Young's music service Pono, which will provide listeners with downloads of high-resolution songs made to sound like their initial recordings, is almost ready to roll. It's set to launch in early 2014, according to a Facebook post written by Young.

"The simplest way to describe what we've accomplished is that we've liberated the music of the artist from the digital file and restored it to its original artistic quality – as it was in the studio," wrote Young. "So it has primal power."

Along with an online library of songs, Pono will release a line of portable players as well as digital-to-analog conversion technology. The project was designed as an alternative to the compressed, often lower-quality audio that listeners get with MP3s.

"PONO starts at the source: artist-approved studio masters we've been given special access to," Young continued. "Then we work with our brilliant partners at Meridian to unlock the richness of the artist's music to you. There is nothing like hearing this music - and we are working hard to make that experience available to all music lovers, soon."

No word yet on just how big the Pono library will be, but the company has struck a deal with Warner Music Group, and as of last year, it was reportedly in talks with the other two labels in the Big Three — Universal Music Group and Sony Music — about contributing remastered versions of their catalogues.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... z2e2hZlFPn

[Kevin Davis]

Supposedly there's a new Archives release coming this fall too, though this site has the release date being tomorrow, and nothing is up on Amazon yet:
http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org ... ellar.html

Solid though I'm sure it will be, this will be the fourth acoustic show from 1968-1971 in the series. With so much other great stuff to unearth, I can't help but feel a little unenthused.

**Edit: Looking through the comments it looks like that release date was nothing to take too seriously. Oh well.

[dimejinky99]

Fucking finally:

Neil Young's music service Pono, which will provide listeners with downloads of high-resolution songs made to sound like their initial recordings, is almost ready to roll. It's set to launch in early 2014, according to a Facebook post written by Young.

"The simplest way to describe what we've accomplished is that we've liberated the music of the artist from the digital file and restored it to its original artistic quality – as it was in the studio," wrote Young. "So it has primal power."

Along with an online library of songs, Pono will release a line of portable players as well as digital-to-analog conversion technology. The project was designed as an alternative to the compressed, often lower-quality audio that listeners get with MP3s.

"PONO starts at the source: artist-approved studio masters we've been given special access to," Young continued. "Then we work with our brilliant partners at Meridian to unlock the richness of the artist's music to you. There is nothing like hearing this music - and we are working hard to make that experience available to all music lovers, soon."

No word yet on just how big the Pono library will be, but the company has struck a deal with Warner Music Group, and as of last year, it was reportedly in talks with the other two labels in the Big Three — Universal Music Group and Sony Music — about contributing remastered versions of their catalogues.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... z2e2hZlFPn

How long before Pj sign up for this? Where's Spenno?

[evenslow]

Fucking finally:

Neil Young's music service Pono, which will provide listeners with downloads of high-resolution songs made to sound like their initial recordings, is almost ready to roll. It's set to launch in early 2014, according to a Facebook post written by Young.

"The simplest way to describe what we've accomplished is that we've liberated the music of the artist from the digital file and restored it to its original artistic quality – as it was in the studio," wrote Young. "So it has primal power."

Along with an online library of songs, Pono will release a line of portable players as well as digital-to-analog conversion technology. The project was designed as an alternative to the compressed, often lower-quality audio that listeners get with MP3s.

"PONO starts at the source: artist-approved studio masters we've been given special access to," Young continued. "Then we work with our brilliant partners at Meridian to unlock the richness of the artist's music to you. There is nothing like hearing this music - and we are working hard to make that experience available to all music lovers, soon."

No word yet on just how big the Pono library will be, but the company has struck a deal with Warner Music Group, and as of last year, it was reportedly in talks with the other two labels in the Big Three — Universal Music Group and Sony Music — about contributing remastered versions of their catalogues.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... z2e2hZlFPn

How long before Pj sign up for this? Where's Spenno?

You would think they'd be one of the first on board. Maybe Neil filmed something with Ed in LincVolt.

[super nintendo chalmers]

First live performance of covers by folk heroes Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Tim Hardin and Ivory Joe Hunter. Along with Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" all star ensemble of Pete Seeger, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews and Neil Young, it was a sight to see and bear witness. Musically? Not so much.

From Sugar Mountain - Neil Young Set Lists:
Neil Young
2013-09-21
Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, New York, USA
Farm Aid 2013
Solo

01. This Land Is Your Land (guests with Pete Seeger; backing vocals)
---
02. Blowin' In The Wind (Bob Dylan song; acoustic guitar)
03. Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot song; acoustic guitar)
04. Old Man (acoustic guitar)
05. Heart Of Gold (acoustic guitar)
06. Since I Met You Baby (Ivory Joe Hunter song; acoustic guitar)
07. Reason to Believe (Tim Hardin song; pump organ)
08. Changes (Phil Ochs song; acoustic guitar)
---
09. Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die (guests with Willie Nelson)
10. I Saw The Light (guests with Willie Nelson; harmonica)

Neil's set on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWURZKtQw9E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEVusEYoKgQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra-BES2h2Uc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85qJDl0oGd4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddaaBx4VynM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du98mhHRdGI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9gyHnWegb4

[Simple Torture]

Just listened to Living With War, and I think it holds up surprisingly well. Any other fans?

[Hatfield]

possibly the best Neil song

My all-time favorite Neil song.

Kevin,
when you get a few spare minutes, can you write up some thoughts not only on Thrasher, but on the entire Rust Never Sleeps album? As I said earlier, finding this song/album coincided with my move to Colorado. To have such a deep album be the soundtrack to this scary and freeing, life changing adventure has been incredible. Having it be a Neil album I had never given the time of day has made it all the more meaningful.

Thanks!

[Kevin Davis]

"Rust Never Sleeps" definitely seems like it would be an appropriate album for that type of experience, Hatfield--"Thrasher" in particular with its vast topographical imagery of highways and rivers and canyons, and its looming sentiment of leaving the old behind in pursuit of the new. At one point I read an article on Thrasher's Wheat (sort of the Neil version of "TSIS") speculating (with reasonably sound backing, it seemed) that the song is actually Neil documenting his departure from Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and while at first it kind of bummed me out to learn that such a deep song would ultimately just be a series of metaphors for drama between rock stars, in the end it's a credit to Neil as a songwriter that he's able to take this highly specific circumstance that would be foreign to most laymen, find the universal elements in it, and manipulate them into a song that seems to reflect the totality of the human experience in five and a half minutes. It's proven to be a song that I can check in on at any point in my life and find it eerily relevant to my circumstances, despite the fact that my circumstances are forever changing and the song never changes a note. It's good to have songs like that in your life.

To be honest I don't think I've ever really given a great deal of thought to the album as a whole, or what it means as a piece, apart from just thinking it's a wonderful collection of songs; like a lot of Neil's records I think it's assembled at least in part from songs that were originally conceived in different circumstances, and intended to belong to different collections, so it's hard to say what kind of message, if any, Neil intended to send by grouping them together. There are a lot of scattered references to cultural figures both historical (Pochahontas, Caesar, Cleo) and modern (Marlon Brando, Johnny Rotten), and allusions to geography and travel that give the songs, as a collection, a feel of expansiveness across time and space that seems almost mythological. But mainly this was the album that, as a fifteen year-old kid, really opened my ears to the idea of the power of simplicity--the idea that the right songwriter could take a few chords and an unassuming, almost obvious melody and make them into a powerhouse of emotion. I'll give it a listen this week and see if anything better jumps out...

[Kevin Davis]

Just listened to Living With War, and I think it holds up surprisingly well. Any other fans?

I haven't listened to it since it came out, I remember really hating it at the time. It's due for another listen.

[Mike]

Downloading Ragged Glory. This will be my first venture into the more rocking side of Neil Young.

[VinylGuy]

Downloading Ragged Glory. This will be my first venture into the more rocking side of Neil Young.

RG is amazing. It might be my favorite album..maybe. Mirrorball is owning me today, Scenery is a fucking raw masterpiece.

[super nintendo chalmers]

Downloading Ragged Glory. This will be my first venture into the more rocking side of Neil Young.

Enjoy! Come to think of it, about ten years ago my roommate freshmen year in college found a copy of Ragged Glory in our school's free box. Knowing how much I liked Neil, he snagged it for me. Solid dude.

Here's a b-side from Ragged Glory.

[MadTIGERmaN]

Downloading Ragged Glory. This will be my first venture into the more rocking side of Neil Young.

RG is amazing. It might be my favorite album..maybe. Mirrorball is owning me today, Scenery is a fucking raw masterpiece.

Ragged Glory and Mirrorball are def my top 2 NY albums...

Mirrorball + Long Road + I Got Id + Walk With Me (Bridge SchooL) + RITFW (PJ20) is a fav mix cd of mine

[McParadigm]

Downloading Ragged Glory. This will be my first venture into the more rocking side of Neil Young.

RG is amazing. It might be my favorite album..maybe. Mirrorball is owning me today, Scenery is a fucking raw masterpiece.

Sleeps with Angels tops both of those for me, but really Neil's entire 1989-1995 resurgence is a better run of music than most artists manage in their entire careers.

[Kevin Davis]

Here's a b-side from Ragged Glory.

Never heard this, thanks for posting.

Is there a list somewhere of Neil's officially released B-sides and non-album tracks?

[VinylGuy]

Downloading Ragged Glory. This will be my first venture into the more rocking side of Neil Young.

RG is amazing. It might be my favorite album..maybe. Mirrorball is owning me today, Scenery is a fucking raw masterpiece.

Ragged Glory and Mirrorball are def my top 2 NY albums...

Mirrorball + Long Road + I Got Id + Walk With Me (Bridge SchooL) + RITFW (PJ20) is a fav mix cd of mine

Thats a very good mix...

[DeLima]

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-deta ... ?id=453386

Any Crazy Horse fans with dime accounts should grab this show. Probably the last time Dangerbird will be played live (along with the version a week later in Auckland), and it's magnificent. So is Cortez, so is Barstool Blues, so is everything here.

01. The Alchemists Appear And Begin Scurrying Around The Stage - (37:51)
02. A Day In The Life (1967) - (Lennon-McCartney) - The Oversized Amplifier Cases Are Raised & The Oversized Microphone Is Lowered To The Stage - (5:10)
03. Advance Australia Fair (Late 19th Century) - (McCormick). The Australian National Anthem Is Aired (Instrumental Version) - (1:02)
04. Love And Only Love - (14:31)
05. Powderfinger - (8:28)
06. Born In Ontario - (4:35)
07. Walk Like A Giant - (24:13)
08. "The Woodstock Music & Art Fair" (1969) (Audio Excerpt) - There's A Hole In The Sky - (5:03)
09. Heart Of Gold - (3:50)
10. Twisted Road - (4:14)
11. Singer Without A Song - (6:25)
12. Ramada Inn - (16:17)
13. Cinnamon Girl - (4:50)
14. Cortez The Killer - (16:20)
15. Dangerbird - (14:05)
16. Barstool Blues - (3:22)
17. Prisoners Of Rock 'N' Roll - (4:23)
18. Opera Star - (5:13)
19. My My, Hey Hey, (Out Of The Blue) (Electric Version) - (6:01)
20. Sedan Delivery + The Lowering & Pausing Of The Oversized Amplifier Cases To Tease The Audience - (8:10)
21. Like A Hurricane & Final Farewells + The Lowering Of The Oversized Amplifier Cases - (22:42)

[Fuzzcharger]

I remember hearing talk of this show maybe coming out on an official DVD release.

I sure hope so.

[Heathen]

Supposedly there's a new Archives release coming this fall too, though this site has the release date being tomorrow, and nothing is up on Amazon yet:
http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org ... ellar.html

Solid though I'm sure it will be, this will be the fourth acoustic show from 1968-1971 in the series. With so much other great stuff to unearth, I can't help but feel a little unenthused.

**Edit: Looking through the comments it looks like that release date was nothing to take too seriously. Oh well.

A new release date of November 26 has been announced and the tracklist is also a bit different from what was posted there.

http://exclaim.ca/News/neil_young_colle ... live_album

1. Tell Me Why
2. Only Love Can Break Your Heart
3. After The Gold Rush
4. Expecting To Fly
5. Bad Fog Of Loneliness
6. Old Man
7. Birds
8. Don't Let It Bring You Down
9. See The Sky About To Rain
10. Cinnamon Girl
11. I Am A Child
12. Down By The River
13. Flying On The Ground Is Wrong