Neil Young - Re-ac-tor (1981)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

At the dawn of the 1980s Neil Young could look back on a successful solo career and a brilliant series of albums released throughout the past decade. What would the new decade have in store for him? After the low-key Hawks & Doves, his next album reunited him with backing band Crazy Horse. Re-ac-tor was a rough, loose affair, with plenty of electric guitar crunch but nothing in the way of truly great tunes. It was perhaps not the most inspiring collection of songs, but the truth was that Young had other domestic priorities in his life to see to, having two sons diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He did not tour at all during these years, actually only performing one show between the end of his 1978 tour and 1982. Seen in context, it's lucky he actually found time to record an album at all, and Re-ac-tor would be far from the strangest album he would put out in the 80s...

Hawks & Doves (1980) <|> Trans (1982)
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Neil Young - Hawks & Doves (1980)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

Neil Young's first album of the 1980s was a mellow, low key affair. The songs that made up Hawks & Doves came from a variety of sources. On side one he dug up a number of outtakes dating as far back as 1974. Despite this they did all tie together nicely, with a sparse, somewhat eerie acoustic sound. Two were solo performances, one was a little studio experiment with Young overdubbing all the instrument himself, and "The Old Homestead" featured Tim Drummond on bass and Levon Helm on drums (plus Tom Scribner on electric saw, of all instruments!). Side two of the album featured all new songs, recorded with a band put together just for the session - Ben Keith (pedal steel), Rufus Thibodeaux (fiddle), Dennis Belfield (bass) and Greg Thomas (drums). They were hardly songs which were going to become highlights of Young's canon, but with their relaxed country style they were pleasant enough.

Overall the album came together well. It turned out to represent the end of an era for Young, as with the start of the 80s he was about to embark on the most artistically confusing decade of his career.

 
Rust Never Sleeps (1979) <|> Re-ac-tor (1981)
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Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps (1979)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

In 1978 Neil Young started touring again, first with a 10-date solo tour that introduced lots of new songs, and then for a bigger US tour with his backing band Crazy Horse. Several of the new songs he debuted with Crazy Horse had an even more distorted sound than what they had done before, perhaps in response to punk rock. The gigs themselves featured bizarre theatrics, with stage props including giant microphones and amps, and roadies dressed as Jawas.

The tour was highly successful, and three products came from it, the first being a concert film called Rust Never Sleeps. An album of the same name also came out in 1979, mostly made up of live recordings with overdubs, and introducing new classics to the record-buyers such as "Powderfinger", "Welfare Mothers", "Sedan Delivery", and a song which appeared in both acoustic and electric forms as "My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)" and "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)" - it has since become one of his best-known and best-loved compositions. Two of the songs weren't from the '78 tour - "Sail Away" came from the earlier Comes A Time sessions (featuring bassist Joe Osborn, drummer Karl Himmel and singer Nicolette Larson), and "Pocahontas" was a live recording from back in 1975 (embellished with various subtle overdubs). Though the album's recording details suggest something of an erratic and unfocused collection, the truth was it came together wonderfully into an instant classic, one which is still today seen as among his best.

The third product from the tour was the soundtrack from the film, released at the same time as Live Rust. It featured many of the same tunes as on the Rust Never Sleeps LP, but in a raw live form without overdubs, and interpersed by lots of older songs (many sounding re-invented in their new solo or Crazy Horse arrangements). The opening song "Sugar Mountain" he had actually been performing steadily since the start of his solo career in 1968, but it had never made it onto an album (though it had been used as a b-side many times), so its belated debut here was truly welcome.

I have put both Rust Never Sleeps and Live Rust together here in the same download.

Comes A Time (1978) <|> Hawks & Doves (1980)
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Neil Young - Comes A Time (1978)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

In 1977 Neil Young came to Reprise Records with a solo acoustic album. They liked what they heard, but asked if he wouldn't mind adding full band arrangements. He agreed to it (one of the few instances of Young going along with his record company's suggestions), and went down to Nashville to flesh out his songs, calling on a host of professional session musicians (including bassist Tim Drummond, drummer Karl Himmel, keyboardist Spooner Oldham, fiddler Rufus Thibodeaux and his steel guitarist friend Ben Keith). He also found a backing vocalist in a young Nicolette Larson, whose harmonies added a little extra magic. Some of the songs were even given lush string arrangements, a rarity for Young.
The end result was Comes A Time. With a pastoral, summery sound, it was the closest he had been to pure country at the time, and also in many respects his most accessible and radio-friendly record (Young himself has referred to it as one of the albums he is most pleased with).
Not all the songs came from the Nashville sessions - "Look Out For My Love" and "Lotta Love" were recorded with Crazy Horse (Frank Sampedro on acoustic guitar on the former, and piano on the latter) in his home studio at an earlier date, and have a rougher edge to them (though even then "Lotta Love" was an upbeat, catchy number, and Nicolette Larson herself got to #8 with a cover of it the same year).
It also featured one cover song (another rare thing for Young), a splendid version of the classic "Four Strong Winds" by fellow Canadian Ian Tyson.
It became his highest-charting album since Harvest (#7 in the US and #4 in Canada), and retrospectively can be called one of his strongest, most consistent works.

American Stars N Bars (1977) <|> Rust Never Sleeps (1979)
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Neil Young - Archives Selection Vol 1 (1968-1972)

Compilation
Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

Over his long recording career, Neil Young has amassed a large quantity of unreleased material, which has all been widely bootlegged by his fans. He has been stating his intention to release a series of archive releases for many years, but the first volume did not come out until 2009. A 9-CD box set, it chronicled the first period of his career (1963-1972), featuring his original album tracks (including the Buffalo Springfield days) interspersed with a vast array of outtakes, remixes, live recordings, demos and more.
I have put this 11-track compilation together to showcase the most valuable recordings to have surfaced from the box set. Rather than include remixes that don’t differ that much from the original releases, I have just included songs that have never been released before and alternative recordings of already familiar songs from his early solo career. These are mostly outtakes from his first four albums (Neil Young, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, After The Gold Rush and Harvest) plus a couple of fantastic live recordings with CSNY. Clocking in at 32 minutes, it makes an excellent little album by itself. Many of these songs could easily have been highlights of those first four albums, and the reason for their fate remains a mystery.

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Neil Young - American Stars N Bars (1977)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.
 

By 1977, Neil Young was well into a new chapter in his career, the first being his critically acclaimed and commercially successful early solo era (including his membership of CSNY), and the second being his dark, troubled, but artistically rewarding 'depression era'. Since then, he had made a combeback with Crazy Horse (1975's Zuma), recorded an album with Stephen Stills (1976's Long May You Run), and appeared in The Band's all-star cast farewell concert film The Last Waltz. Throughout this period he had also been recording alot of material which never saw release, including the aborted Homegrown album. His next release was 1977's American Stars N Bars.
The songs featured came from a variety of sources. The entirity of the first side was new material, recorded with a countrified Crazy Horse - Frank Sampedro (guitar), Billy Talbot (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums) accompanied by Ben Keith (pedal steel) and Carole Mayedo (fiddle), with backing vocals from Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette Larson. These songs had a rough, live-in-the-studio vibe, and though they weren't anything groundbreaking, were a nice new addition to Young's canon.
The second side of the album was the more interesting one, its four songs dug up from various recording sessions. The ethereal, spooky "Will To Love" came from 1976 and featured Young playing all instruments including vibraphone and drums. "Star Of Bethlehem" was a quiet country-rock number from the Homegrown sessions, recorded in 1974, with backing vocals from Emmylou Harris. The last two songs came from 1975, shortly after the Zuma sessions, with Crazy Horse backing him. Of these, it is the epic guitar jam of "Like A Hurricane" that has endured as one of his most highly regarded songs, having already been a concert staple of his '76 tour with Crazy Horse.
Though its not regarded as one of his best albums overall, American Stars N Bars is evidence of the genius of Young's songwriting in the way he was able to dig around in his recent archives to come up with such great material and throw an album together.

Zuma (1975) <|> Comes A Time (1978)
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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Four Way Street (1971)

Crosby, Stills & Nash are a folk-rock 'supergroup', made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. They are sometimes joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young.

After the success of their chart-topping Deja Vu album, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young went on tour together for a second time, accompanied by Fuzzy Samuels on bass and Johnny Barbata on drums. Recordings were made form the concerts, and a live album was produced. Shortly after the tour all four members released high-profile solo albums, the debuts of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and the third for Young. Many of the songs they had debuted on the tour appeared on record for the first time on these albums.
In 1971 the live album taken from the tour was released. Four Way Street was a two-LP set, divided between an acoustic disc and an electric disc. The acoustic segment featured all four members performing both by themselves and in various configurations, all of them getting to take the spotlight in turn. A notable inclusion was Neil Young's "On The Way Home", an old song he had originally written when with Buffalo Springfield (their version featured Richie Furay on vocals). He had been performing it in his solo set for years (usually as the opening song), but this was the first time his version had been released on record (the other three helping out with extra guitar and vocals). Crosby also sang "Triad", a song he had written and recorded when with The Byrds, but never released (Jefferson Airplane instead had released the first version of it), and "The Lee Shore", a number he performed with Nash for years, but did not see its studio version released until their 1991 box set (also available here). The electric half let Stills and Young resume the extensive electric guitar workouts they had originally performed with Buffalo Springfield, in particular on the long jams of "Southern Man" and "Carry On".
The album got to #1. However behind the scenes, tensions between the four members were high, and eventually they were stretched to breaking point. By the time of the album's release, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young had officially broken up, and they all went back to work on their respective solo careers (though Crosby & Nash continued to work as a duo). There would be various attempted reunions over the years, and they did tour again in 1974, but attempts to record together again took a long time to see any results. Crosby, Stills & Nash managed to release albums in 1977 and 1982, but another album credited to all four of them had to wait until 1988.

This version of Four Way Street is actually the 1992 expanded edition, which features four bonus acoustic tracks.

Deja Vu (1970) <|> CSN (1977)
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The Stills-Young Band - Long May You Run (1976)

The Stills-Young Band was a short-lived collaboration between Stephen Stills and Neil Young.

In 1976, Stephen Stills and Neil Young hadn't recorded togethether since 1970, with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Deja Vu and the live album Four Way Street. Since then, Stephen Stills had recorded five solo albums, and two with his band Manassas. Neil Young had seen much greater success with his critically-acclaimed solo career, releasing his most famous work between 1970 and 1975. There had also been a CSNY reunion tour in 1974, but attempts to record an album with the quartet had failed.
In 1976 they began work on an album together. They used Stills' session musician friends as their backing group, all of whom had appeared on his recent solo albums - Jerry Aiello (organ/piano), George Perry (bass), Joe Lala (percussion) and Joe Vitale (drums). Both Stills and Young handled the guitars. David Crosby and Graham Nash joined in with the recording, adding their vocals to many songs, and at one point it looked likely to transform into the long-awaited CSNY reunion album. However they at the time were busy with an album of their own (Whistling Down The Wire), and Stills and Young wiped their vocals from the finished album. This led to a big fall-out between the four of them.
The album was released in September 1976, and the Stills-Young Band embarked on a tour to promote it. However after nine dates Young dropped out, and Stills was forced to complete the tour by himself. The brief experiment was over. Retrospectively, the album can't really be seen as a highlight of either of their careers, but it does contain some good material, in particular the title track, which has endured as part of Young's set-list to the present day. The song is actually about his car.

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Neil Young - Zuma (1975)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

After his famed 'Ditch Trilogy' of albums, Neil Young made a move away from despair and the dark themes his music had taken after the success of Harvest. This coincided with the reformation of Crazy Horse at last, signalling that the ghost of Danny Whitten had been put to rest. Since Whitten's death, Crazy Horse had released two albums by themselves with new members, but neither lineups had stayed around for long. When they re-united with Neil Young, they found their new guitarist in Frank 'Poncho' Sampedro, who has ended up staying with the band until the present day.
Zuma was a more positive and upbeat album than the ones that preceded it, with a rough, guitar-driven garage rock sound characterstic of the Horse. Young's electric guitar was to the forefront, in particular on the long jam "Cortez The Killer", which has endured as one of his best-loved songs. Most of the other songs were short, concise and catchy, with one notable exception (the gargantuan, lumbering "Danger Bird"). Two of the songs did not come from the Zuma sessions but were dug up from past recording sessions - the acoustic "Pardon My Heart", from the aborted Homegrown album, and "Through My Sails", a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song from their attempted follow-up to Deja Vu which had never really got under way.

On The Beach (1974) <|> American Stars 'N Bars (1977)
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Crosby, Stils, Nash & Young - Find The Cost Of Freedom (1969-1973)

Compilation
Crosby, Stills & Nash are a folk-rock 'supergroup', made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. They are sometimes joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young.

Shortly after the massive success of their Deja Vu album, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young quickly followed it by the fantastic single "Ohio". The song was written by Neil Young as a reaction to the Kent State shootings of May 1970, and it quickly made it to #14 on the singles charts. It is today both one of the band's and Young's best-known songs.
However the song and its fantastic Stills-written b-side ("Find The Cost Of Freedom") were never actually released on an album, barring greatest hits packages and live albums. Therefore I've put this ten-song compilation together, both songs bookending a selection of outtakes. Four of these songs were released on the band's 1991 box set, whilst the other four are rarities.
The best song here is surely David Crosby's "The Lee Shore". A live solo version of this song was released on Four Way Street, but this studio outtake (with full band arrangement) is really something else, and perhaps even one of the best ever CSNY recordings. There's also a fantastic version of Joni Mitchell's "Urge For Going", and acoustic readings of The Beatles' "Blackbird" and Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" (the latter performed solo by Stills). For Neil Young fans, there is an early group version of "Human Highway", and a fantastic rocking studio cut of "Sea Of Madness" (a song which has never been released except the live version on the Woodstock soundtrack).

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Neil Young - Live At Carnegie Hall 1970

Bootleg
Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

In the winter of 1970, Neil Young went on his first solo, unaccompanied tour. He had already toured with Crazy Horse backing him, and as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but this was the first time he went out on his own. It was also at a time when his career was starting to really go somewhere, after his time with CSNY and the recent success of his third solo album, After The Gold Rush. He was becoming seriously popular. The tour has been widely bootlegged, and recently (2007) a concert recording from Toronto's Massey Hall was released as part of his Archives series. However long before this release Neil Young fans had been sharing recordings of concerts from this tour.
This is one of them, from one of his performances at Carnegie Hall in New York City, in early December 1970. The sound quality might not be quite as good as the official Massey Hall release, but it doesn't really effect the quality of the experience, the whole concert being performed solo on acoustic guitar and piano. Caught at an exciting time in Young's career, the songs come from his Buffalo Springfield days and his first three solo albums, plus "Helpless" and "Ohio" from his tenure with CSNY... and a few then-unreleased songs. These are "Old Man", which would be released on his next album (1972's Harvest), plus a few that wouldn't see release until many years later ("See The Sky About To Rain" came out in 1974, "Wonderin'" didn't see release until 1983, and "Bad Fog Of Loneliness" remained unreleased until the Massey Hall album). All twenty one songs are given new life through these stark solo arrangements, and the recording just makes for more evidence of Neil Young's genius as a songwriter.

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Neil Young - On The Beach (1974)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

Neil Young had had a whirlwind few years in the early 70s. After the breakup of Buffalo Springfield, he had quickly recorded two solo albums, joined Crosby, Stills & Nash (and then left), and then released two more massively successful solo albums, the second of which (Harvest) had given him a #1 single and subsequently a huge new fan base. Then came a dark period in his life… he had recorded a ragged live document (Time Fades Away), followed by an even more ragged studio album (Tonight's The Night) which had been shelved by his record company.
His next studio album, On The Beach, is often referred to as the third and final instalment of the ‘Ditch Trilogy’. Recorded after but released before Tonight’s The Night, to the record-buying public it was his first studio release since Harvest, so expectations were high. Had he put his depression behind him? Was it going to be a return to chart success? The answer was… yes and no. Though it is undeniably a downbeat album (the second side in particular), there is a hint of optimism to be found in On The Beach, a signal that Young was moving forward. He wasn’t getting overwhelmed by despair, but bidding farewell to it. It signalled the conclusion of one chapter in his life and the start of another.
Personal issues aside, On The Beach is a fantastic record, and is often referred to as one of his best. The musicians backing him were a loose grouping of friends and colleagues, all playing a variety of instruments. The full list consists of Ben Keith (pedal steel/slide/dobro/bass/electric piano/organ/percussion), Tim Drummond (bass/percussion), Ralph Molina (drums/percussion), Billy Talbot (bass), Levon Helm (drums), Rick Danko (bass), David Crosby (guitar), Graham Nash (electric piano), George Whitsell (guitar) and Rusty Kershaw (slide guitar/fiddle). Though it was still characteristically raw and loose, it was more polished than Tonight’s The Night, and was so better received by his record company. It reached #16 on the album charts.
A year later Tonight’s The Night was finally released. Young had exorcised his demons and was ready to move on to pastures new.

Tonight's The Night (1973) <|> Zuma (1975)
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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu (1970)

Crosby, Stills & Nash are a folk-rock 'supergroup', made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. They are sometimes joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young.

After the success of Crosby, Stills & Nash, the trio had to think about going on tour. However to perform as a full electric band they needed extra members. In the end they chose to bring in Neil Young, who had played with Stills in Buffalo Springfield, and had recently started out on his own solo career. Now a quartet, they became Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Stills and Young gave them a formidable double lead guitar attack, and between the four of them they could handle all acoustic and electric guitars as well as keyboard duties. And with four practicing singer-songwriters on board, they already had a huge repertoire of material. They kept drummer Dallas Taylor on board, who had played on their debut album, and brought in 19-year-old Motown bassist Greg Reeves to complete the touring outfit. Young's contract allowed him to continue with his solo career whilst he performed with the group. They went on tour in summer 1969 - their second ever gig together was at the Woodstock Festival. The folk-rock supergroup were becoming a huge success, and expectations were high when they came to record their next album.
Deja Vu proved to differ somewhat from the first album. The group broadened their pallette, resulting in a more diverse collection of songs (and perhaps a less consistent record for that reason). More so than the first album it sounded like a coalition of four singer-songwriters rather than a band. Crosby and Nash's signature songwriting styles become even more apparent. Crosby contributed the hippie blues lament "Almost Cut My Hair" and the surreal, dream-like title track, whilst Nash came up with the radio-friendly country-rock of "Teach Your Children" and the whimsical ode to domesticity of "Our House". Stills contributed the opening song "Carry On", which defined the archetypal CSNY sound, and the quiet solo number "4+20". Young wrote two songs, the slow, aching "Helpless" (which became one of his best-loved songs) and the three-part suite "Country Girl". They also recorded a rocking version of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock", and "Everybody I Love You" was a collaboration between Young and Stills. Most of the instruments were played by the four of them with Taylor and Reeves, but there were also guest appearances from Jerry Garcia on pedal steel and John Sebastian on harmonica.
However, was the album actually the perfect coalition that the record sleeve would have you believe? Crosby & Nash added their superb vocal harmonies to all the songs except Stills' solo number, and Stills himself is on every song playing some instrument or another even if he's not singing. But what of Young? Apart from his own two songs he doesn't sing anywhere else, and just adds guitar to three others. He was always the outsider in the foursome (perhaps because he didn't rely on the others - he had by far the most successful solo career), and his presence on Deja Vu is really as a guest guitarist who gets to sing two of his own songs. Various personality clashes and power struggles meant the group eventually imploded after their 1970 tour, and despite numerous sporadic reunions over the years that continue to the present day, they have never come close to the quality of their first two classic albums, upon which their whole reputation as folk-rock's first and foremost supergroup rests.
Because despite the group's hidden flaws, Deja Vu was a commerical success. It reached #1 on the pop album charts, and "Woodstock", "Our House" and "Teach Your Children" all reached the Top 40 on the singles charts.

Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969) <|> Four Way Street (1971)
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Neil Young - Tonight's The Night (1973)

Not released until 1975
Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

Neil Young's life had entered a dark period after the death of friend and bandmate Danny Whitten, and coming just after his biggest commercial success (1972's Harvest). His 1973 tour had been a grim and ramshakle experience, resulting in the live album Time Fades Away. The death of Whitten was soon followed by that of Bruce Berry, a roadie for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - heroin overdose. Berry had apparently been turned on to heroin through Whitten, and once stole one of David Crosby's guitars to pawn for drug money.
In the latter half of '73 Young formed a new band from the remnants of Crazy Horse. Drummer Ralph Molina and bassist Billy Talbot were joined by pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith (from the Stray Gators, who had appeared on both Harvest and Time Fades Away) and Nils Lofgren (who had played on 1970's After The Gold Rush). Young shared both guitar and piano duties with Lofgren. He christened this band the Santa Monica Flyers, and they started touring small clubs throughout the US.
If people had been confused by the Time Fades Away tour, the performances from The Santa Monica Flyers were positively confounding. Young was frequently wasted on tequila, surrounded by strange stage props and performing entirely new material that none of the audience had expected. The album to come out of the studio sessions from this time documented this dark and crazed period of his life. It took his rough, raw and unrehearsed approach to recording to a new extreme. Tonight's The Night is referred to as the second of Young's famed Ditch Trilogy. It wasn't that the music was particular downbeat, it was just raw to the point of painfulness. Opening and closing with two different versions of the title track (which forever immortalizes the deceased roadie Bruce Berry), it includes a recording of Young with Crazy Horse back in 1970 - a live rendition of "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown" from the Horse's eponymous album, with Whitten singing lead. A fitting tribute to Young's greatest guitar sparring partner.
The ambience of the album is perhaps best summed up by "Borrowed Tune", a solo performance of Young sitting at the piano which unashamedly steals its melody from The Rolling Stones' "Lady Jane". The lyrics: 'I'm singing this borrowed tune / I took from the Rolling Stones / Alone in this empty room / Too wasted to write my own'.
Young's record company (Reprise) did not like what they heard, and shelved the album. It wasn't actually released until 1975. In retrospective it is generally considered one of his greatest artistic triumphs.

Time Fades Away (1973) <|> On The Beach (1974)
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Neil Young - Time Fades Away (1973)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

In 1972 Neil Young released his most successful album to date - Harvest. It gave him his only #1 hit with the single "Heart Of Gold". Importantly, this commercial success earned him a host of new fans. They were all eager for the follow-up to Harvest, but if they were expecting more accessible, mellow country-rock, they were about to be shocked and dissapointed. It was the first of numerous strange career moves that would alienate many of his fans, and requires a little background to understand.
Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten was on a downward spiral fuelled by drug abuse. He was ceasing to function as a musician, despite the efforts of his friends and bandmates. As Young prepared to go on tour in support of Harvest, he offered Whitten a place as rhythm guitarist to flesh out the Stray Gators. However Whitten struggled to learn the material and was obviously not functioning properly. He was too far gone. At last an infuriated Young sent him home, with $50 and a plane ticket back to LA. Later that same night Whitten overdosed on a mixture of valium and vodka, and died. Young was seriously shook up, and on the eve of the biggest tour of his career.
The tour proved to be a ramshackle affair, with Young and the rest of the band (pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith, pianist Jack Nitzsche, bassist Tim Drummond and drummer Kenneth Buttrey) inebriated and squabbling. To make matters worse, Young got a throat infection and had trouble singing. He called in Crosby & Nash to help out on vocals, causing more friction within the band. Eventually Buttrey grew so frustrated he quit, and Johnny Barbata was called in to replace him for the rest of the tour. Young was playing new, darker songs, which were not welcomed by the fans who had come to hear him play the Harvest material.
Young's next record turned out to be a live album taken from the tour, featuring all new material. The dark themes, shaky performances and often poor sound quality did not go down well. Harvest II it was not. Many people thought Young had lost it right on the brink of hitting it big. Time Fades Away was actually just the beginning of a low period in Young's life, the first in the famed 'Ditch Trilogy' of albums.
However, time has allowed it the chance to be seen in a different light, and it is now highly regarded among Young fans, often cited by other artists as an inspiration. The loose, raw vibe it exudes arguably adds to its charm. Whichever way you see it, its a worthwhile album and an important chapter in the history of Young's life and his music.

Harvest (1972) <|> Tonight's The Night (1973)
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Neil Young - Harvest (1972)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

After the disintegration of folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Neil Young released his first solo album since 1970, and it proved to be his most successful by far.
He went to Nashville to record at Elliot Mazer's studio, with a backing band consisting of top Nashville session musicians - drummer Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond and pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith (the latter of whom would stick with Young until his death in 2010). At Mazer's studio they began recording the basic tracks. Piano from Andy McMahon and John Harris was added, as well as acoustic guitar from Teddy Irwin. Young also got backing vocals from his superstar friends Linda Ronstandt and James Taylor.
Back at his ranch in California, Young took Buttrey, Drummond and Keith, with the addition of his old friend Jack Nitzsche on piano, and recorded some more electric-based songs. He christened this band The Stray Gators. Two other solo piano songs were recorded by Nitzsche with the London Symphony Orchestra (an unusual move for Young, especially when heard in comparison to his previous two solo record), and "The Needle And The Damage Done" was a live performance taken from Young's solo tour. Several of the songs had backing vocals later overdubbed by Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Putting all these songs together, Young created a fine (yet actually quite uneven) country-rock record - Harvest. It featured two hit singles - "Old Man" reached #31, and then "Heart Of Gold" managed to make it to #1. It became the best-selling album of his career and catapulted him into super-stardom.
Due to its succes it is often cited as his greatest album, but Young aficionados usually argue against that. Its renown is generally due to its chart performance based on the "Heart Of Gold" single. Its success took Young completely by surprise, and he famously wrote that Harvest "put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch." This brief time in the centre of the highway earned him a legion of new fans, who were all about to be confounded and alienated by his next career move.

After The Gold Rush (1970) <|> Time Fades Away (1973)
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Neil Young - After The Gold Rush (1970)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

In early 1970 Neil Young had joined with his friends Stephen Stills, David Crosby and Graham Nash to release the chart-topping Deja Vu album as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Though the album only included two Young songs, it was nevertheless a big step in making him a star, raising his public profile in a way that his first two solo albums hadn't quite managed.
For his follow-up solo album, he planned to combine CSN's lush acoustic folk-rock with the rough garage rock of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, his 1969 album with Crazy Horse. With this in mind he assembled a band consisting of Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina, CSNY bassist Greg Reeves, and a young Nils Lofgren of the band Grin on piano. Lofgren's role as pianist was a typically idiosyncratic decision of Young's, as he was actually a proficient guitarist and had never played keyboards on a regular basis until After The Gold Rush (though he did get to play some acoustic guitar on one song). This core band recorded the bulk of the album at Young's make-shift basement studio. Other guest musicians who appear throughout the album are Stephen Stills, pianist/producer Jack Nitzsche and the rest of Crazy Horse (guitarist Danny Whitten and bassist Billy Talbot - the entirity of Crazy Horse do back him on three songs).
Though it has moments of electric rock, most of After The Gold Rush is in a laid-back, acoustic country-rock style. It wasn't immediately a hit with the critics, but it reached #8 on the charts, the highest placing of any of his solo albums at the time, and confirmed his place as one of rock's rising stars. Today it is still considered one of his best albums.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969) <|> Harvest (1972)
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Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

After his subtle and understated debut album, Neil Young made a big change for its follow-up. He hired guitarist Danny Whitten, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina, members of a little-known band called The Rockets, and re-christened them Crazy Horse. They proved to be the ideal backing group for Young, as their rough, simplistic sound fitted his style perfectly. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was produced with a seriously raw, one-take vibe, with no overdubs, very different in comparison to his debut. Stylistically it fits in with the folk rock and country rock of its day, but with a rough garage edge, driven by the thin, buzzing guitars of Young and Whitten. Two songs (“Down By The River” and “Cowgirl In The Sand”) would become among his best loved songs, notable for their lengthy guitar improvisation passages. Elsewhere the band played hard rock superimposed with delicate harmonies (“Cinnamon Girl”) and laid back country rock (the title track and “The Losing End”). The quiet acoustic number “Round And Round” featured guest musician Robin Lane on guitar and harmony vocals, and the dark “Running Dry” featured fiddle player Bobby Notkoff, another member of The Rockets. Besides these two guests, the entire album was performed solely by Young, Whitten, Talbot and Molina. Overall Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere made much more of an impact than the debut album, as Young had seemed to have found his voice as a solo artist, thanks in no small part to his new backing group.

Neil Young (1968) <|> After The Gold Rush (1970)
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Neil Young - Neil Young (1968)

Neil Young is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter who has been releasing records since the 60s.

Born in Ontario, Canada, Neil Young played in many bands in his youth including The Squires and The Mynah Birds, as well as performing solo in folk clubs across the country. In 1966 he went to L.A., and formed Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin. For a brief period the Springfield were one of the best folk-rock bands of their era, though they only ever had one hit (Still's "For What It's Worth"). Before long the band had fallen apart, as all three frontmen were keen to start new projects. For Young, this was the commencement of a solo career.
His eponymous debut album came out in 1968, consisting of some low-key folk rock. Backed by drummer George Grantham and bassist Jim Messina (both of Richie Furay's new band Poco), he played most of all the guitars and keyboards himself, though a couple of songs were produced with Jack Nitzsche (whom he had collaborated with in his Buffalo Springfield days), and featured some elaborate backing vocals and orchestration from outside musicians. It’s clear he was still finding his feet at this stage in terms of his musical identity. His later work would be known for its raw and simplistic production, so Neil Young is a direct contrast in its careful yet understated layering of sounds, and its moments of quiet beauty. His vocals here are unsure and subdued, but at this stage in his career his strength as a songwriter was already obvious.

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