neil young saves the planet

PHOTO VIA EXCLAIM

Just as we were bemoaning some of the old rockers being a bit mean with their previews of new work along comes Neil Young, of all people, and despite his previous miserly previews proves at last he isn't shy of letting us hear some unreleased songs. Albeit 3 different versions of the same one. Yep, that's our Neil, never one to go for the obvious.
Here he gives us 'Who's Gonna Stand Up?' which comes from his new (gulp) orchestral album due in November.
In an interview with Billboard Magazine he explains why he wanted to do it -

"I'd like to make a record with a full-blown orchestra, live -- a mono recording with one mic. I want to do something like that where we really record what happened, with one point of view and the musicians moved closer and farther away, the way it was done in the past. To me that's a challenge and it's a sound that's unbelievable, and you can't get it any other way."
VIA HENNEMUSIC

A press release describes the new song, (NY not having left his 60's routes far behind)

"is a plea to end our dependence of fossil fuels and realize our responsibility to protect our earth's fragile eco systems to ensure the quality of life for future generation."
VIA EXCLAIM

He's already been performing this song acoustically and with Crazy Horse on a few shows but to take it on with an orchestra is a completely different risk, not that he ever cares about risk taking, and if it all sounds nuts you can bet Young can't wait to prove us all wrong. You have to say though, this orchestra sounds huge.

The three versions are on Warner Brothers at Soundcloud along with a whole load of other WB stuff so be careful.
Anyway now here's the live version of 'Who's Gonna Stand Up?' with Crazy Horse making this version really take off.
Gawd only knows what the old boy will come up with next.

neil young in a booth

Neil Young's new album 'A Letter Home' is released on May 27. It was recorded in Jack White's phono booth thing.
Rolling Stone interviewed Young about the strangeness of it all.

“The recordings were done in September, just before Farm Aid last year, I was at Third Man on Record Store Day that year [in April]. I tried the booth. Jack and I are both into mechanical things. We’re kind of geeky, I guess. I checked it out. And he had people coming in, recording on it all day long. Jack’s a real interesting character; he has kind of a Barnum-and-Bailey thing going on.
So we got into talking about this, and I said, ‘You know, Jack, I’m going to come back and do an album, in this thing.’ I spent the summer, during whatever else I was doing then, learning these songs, finding the right ones to do, talking to people, researching it. I was looking for songs that affected me – songs that meant something to me in my life, to me in my songwriting craft.”

And as a token of Neil's generosity he streams the whole album for you in the Warner Music widget below which is really exciting and wonderful except we here in the UK can't play it because we get a sign in place of the tracks saying "We're sorry, the stream is not available in your territory".. territory? territory? it's the fecking UK you nerks at Warner and we have given alot of our money to Neil over the years so what the feck is that all about.
So you Warner phonuckers that's no sale here even when it is available. And by the way it's available in lots of ways as well as a huge boxset which will likely cost more than Jack White's booth thing.

But for some of you who are in a more fortunate "territory" you can see the tracks and you will be able to hear Neil's new record and who are we to deprive you of that. So here it is.
(Yes we know, use a proxy... but frankly we aint got time.)
Hope it all sounds great.

neil young at the carnegie hall, 2014

The audiences for Neil Young's 4 nights at Carnegie Hall in early January were in for an unexpected treat. With just acoustic guitars and a set list picked from his earliest albums - Harvest, After the Gold Rush and songs from Buffalo Springfield it was a performance that no one could have expected. Young's as notoriously and gloriously difficult to predict as Dylan with live shows but this one must have brought a tear to the eye for many who could never have expected such a flood of songs from his past.
Young's voice and playing was in the finest form, he seemed relaxed and happy to be there on a stage that was barely lit. The songs poured forth.

"Many of the songs had been unplayed for years, and the performances were breathtaking. The ushers at Carnegie Hall were more vigilant than usual about cameras and were quick to shine a flashlight on anybody filming, but fans still managed to flood YouTube with videos."
ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE

And thanks to this video posted by Jersey Nola, (which is the best quality in picture and sound of all the clips out there so far), you can see him reach into the Crosby Stills Nash and Young days with a fantastic version of "Ohio" from the concert on the 9th January. A joy to behold.

warner brothers stream neil young's 'live at the cellar door'

December 1970, and Neil Young now aged 25 had been in the eye of a storm of success and disillusionment. First off his marriage had fallen apart, by June his role in the super-group that was CSN&Y and had debuted their hugely successful album 'Deja Vu' had finished their June tour with what was to be the first of their repeated bust ups. By contrast to that by the end of summer his own solo album 'After The Gold Rush' had ripped up the charts and had made him just about the hottest property of the year. His gigs at the Cellar Door in December had to be seen as a sublime end to the mayhem. But it wasn't because then came the slipped disc putting him out of action for months. And if you can walk through that series of doors you'll most likely survive the rock and the roll that comes in later years.

The highly rated 'Cellar Door' and part of Young's archive recordings have been just released for streaming by Warner Brothers. Whether Young's notoriously prickly views on digital downloading have softened is difficult to tell, maybe he see's streaming as a good option to encourage sales, or maybe Warner Brothers have made it clear for him. Yesterdays post on the results of Iron Maiden's South American file sharing turned album sales should be enough to remind all record labels it's not good enough anymore to just dangle the bauble before the fans, but reach out and prove how good an album might be. The gold rush then might just be waiting.
So here it is then, Neil Young's 'Live At The Cellar Door'. Listen to it now (before someone decides no you can't do that). And if you dig, go and buy it on December 10th in all manner of versions, CD, vinyl and download.

the cellar door

With Richard Wilson's latest album (below or here ) dowsing 70's rocks history he'll know doubt be listening intently to another part of that real history which is being brought to life again by way of Neil Young's original recordings made in November and December 1970 of his famous solo performances at The Cellar Door in Washington D.C.
Just an acoustic guitar and piano was all Young needed to work over songs from his previous days in Buffalo Springfield and songs from his then newly released and possibly his most successful solo album (in the UK for sure), 'After The Gold Rush'. 13 songs are included in the second of Young's Archive releases. Cleaned and clear, they are released on all formats including vinyl on December 10th. Find it at iTunes and Amazon etc.
Although it should be available from his own site there's no sign of it as yet, but then his web site is one crazy horse. Check that out here
And here's the trailer for The Cellar Door.

neil young finds bootleg. 1971

Neil Young finds a bootleg LP, by the looks of it a Crosby Stills Nash and Young performance, and much grumpiness ensues. But Neil isn't firebrand in your face annoyed he just pursues the store assistant with a resolute determination to have the offending bootlegs removed. The hapless assistant remains completely ignorant about his job in a stunningly thickheaded manner "I don't listen to music that's why I don't... (mumbling) know" as he then goes on to change the records he's playing in the shop. He also has absolutely know idea who it is that's actually upsetting his state of indifference to music, as do the rest of the customers who come and go throughout the 15 minutes that unfolds. One arrives to flog his cassettes (did anyone ever do that) while one other has seen the future and is attempting to get shot of his 8 Track tapes.
The whole sequence is a fascinating and rare look into a genuine 1971 record store on Melrose Avenue in LA. although not exactly an average record shop judging by the ennui that falls upon those that work there.
The music played in the background is first 'Green Eyed Lady' by Sugarloaf a hit in the States in 1970 and then tracks from The Beatles' 'Magical Mystery Tour' US release LP, which is a little surprising given that was released some 3 or 4 years earlier, but then not anymore than could be expected from the ever switched off assistant.
In the present day Neil has similar feelings towards MP3's as he does to his 1971 self on bootlegs. That may be a little more tricky to resolve than it was in the shop.
So here is the Record Store and a world that has now almost completely disappeared.

VIA RICHARD METZGER AT DANGEROUS MINDS

neil young : psychedelic pill

The one thing that can be relied on is Neil Young is never going to take the easy way out and pander to the mass when releasing an album, or for that matter with his live shows. Over the decades his music has turned and twisted in admirably unpredictable fashion yet throughout there's that instantly recognisable voice never appearing a day older.
His new album "Psychedelic Pill" is a real tour de force. At 66 years years old he shows no sign of giving up on his journey of personal truth and when plenty more throw in the towel to popular trends Young stubbornly avoids them and sticks it to the listener.

Just the opening track alone coming in at a gob smacking 27.36 minutes tells you there's going to be no compromise here, and also immediately ruling out anyone with attention span of a small child, which takes out one large lump of a modern audience immediately. And radio play? forget it at this length.

Taken from the track “Walk Like a Giant” he sings “I used to walk like a giant on the land/Now I feel like a leaf floating in a stream,” and which Young then goes on to set the verse against the first guitar break of such apocalyptic sound it could be Hurricane Sandy itself. The track full playing time is around 15 minutes. Yes indeed, Neil Young is most definitely sticking it to the listener.
As excellently described by David Hens at Examiner.com
"I expect some listeners to complain about the meandering guitar solos that don’t deliver an instantaneous payoff and others to claim that Young is clinging to a lost era, but what else is new?
Immediate gratification has corrupted society’s thinking to such a degree that people dismiss things if they don’t grasp all concepts within the first 30 seconds of the experience."

Here's the shortened radio edit of “Walk Like a Giant”... well OK, some compromise was taken to get this heard but I doubt whether Young was particularly bothered or involved. He'd made his statement.
This records impact may not be realised for some time to come.

neil young

Happy birthday Neil Young on this day.
One of rock and roll’s greatest songwriters and performers and one of the most influential of his generation.
Live at the BBC 'In Concert' series in 1971.
Notice a completely quiet audience brings a tremendous sense of solitude to his performance. An event unlikely to occur in the present sing a long age, more's the pity. The Youtube ad does nothing to improve watching a video but some artists record companies are just too mean to let us view this piece of 40 year old history without making a buck, particularly this song which always includes an advert.