£13.99 at Amazon UK too https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitchhiker...7725763&sr=1-1&keywords=neil+young+hitchhiker ... 'Roxy' down to £17.99 at both retailers also ...
Turn it sideways and the signature (swiggle) will reveal itself to be a CB, if you google it you should find it
Bought the vinyl on ebay this morning for $17 total. Grabbed the cd on release and of course loved it.
well, this one I know. Lovely track. Usually substitute Changing Highways with it on Broken Arrow. And Baby What you Want me I replace with Theme from a Deadman. And a killer album becomes EVEN MORE killer.
Was it ever confirmed if Neil's memory was indeed hazy and all these songs weren't recorded on a single night?
There's no way to tell. I don't think Neil would have consciously lied about it, but it was a long, hazy time ago!
The main source of uncertainty comes from Indigo owner and engineer Richard Kaplan (I think?), who remembered the different masters being recorded over multiple nights, differing to Neil's recollection. As far as I know there is no definite conclusion either way, though the date was presumably settled on for a reason. On the other hand, if the album was sourced from one of David Briggs's tapes then it's entirely possible it was complied from multiple nights and later mislabelled. Another interesting question is, if these masters were indeed all recorded on one night, what was Neil recording at Indigo on the other nights he had the studio booked?
I think I was the one who originally posted the Kaplan videos. His memory is also subject to the same follies as Neil's, however the last sentence is the real question. The thing is that it is so easy to fire off take after take doing it like Neil did on Hitchhiker, if he had an "on" night, it would be totally plausible. I just recorded a band live in my studio and we did 10 new songs in about 2 and a half hours, with a couple retakes and some arrangement changes/instruction, a couple breaks. Even with some sloppy tracking of tapes, who know what tape was from what night? There is that story of neil carrying around a big chest with 2" session tapes in it. If you mix some boxes up... So I don't think we'll ever know for sure unless all the tapes come out or something like that.
I don’t see what the point in doubting the recording dates. I’m sure that by the seventies that all Tapes would’ve been dated. Kaplan describes the first three songs exactly as they appear on the tape. He never said they stopped recording after the third song. Do we believe he was sniffing coke before that unhinged Performance of Hitchhiker?
Kaplan's memory was that Neil recorded a "trilogy" of songs on the first night at Indigo. This trilogy was the first three tracks on the Hitchhiker record. These tracks do indeed sound very tonally consistent with one another, as do several (but not necessarily all) of the others. At this point, an impressed David Briggs, Neil and Kaplan excitedly arranged for the studio to be booked for three nights a month (centred around the full moon) for the next few months. To facilitate this, other artists were told their sessions would have three-day breaks to make room for Mr. Young and Mr. Briggs. Of course, we are talking about memories from 1976. If you and I can't remember what we had for dinner four nights ago then musical recollections from 40+ years ago are unlikely to be completely reliably accurate, either. That's where the provenance of the album becomes important. These are the original Briggs mixes. If this album was sourced from one of the compilations that David Briggs commonly put together from his sessions then that muddies the water further: the songs could be sourced from any number of dates without accurate documentation. On the other hand, if they have the complete tapes fastidiously labelled then that makes it much more likely everything was properly identified. But regardless of whether all the known masters were recorded on this first night or not, the most interesting question is what did they record at the various other Indigo sessions scheduled in 1976? And will any of it be seeing the light of day on NYA?
Of course not, but the point is that there is a lot of unknown information about these Indigo sessions, which tapes were used, who complied them etc. So as you say, there is some serious doubt introduced, because the recollections of artist and engineer differ dramatically and both stories raise more questions than they solve. I don't have a (crazy) horse in this race, both stories are entirely plausible. I can easily believe this record was made in one night. It wouldn't be a total shock either if Hitchiker was in fact one of Briggs's compilations. There is also some precedent in the series of unreliable narration, with the Roxy compilation originally being advertised as opening night and the Massey Hall '71 dvd not making clear that the footage was in fact from Stratford.
Three decades later, the million dollar question: how did you know which songs were on the album that soon?
So in the middle of quarantine boredom I read through this entire thread again. And I totally forgot about how messy of a roll-out this was: the appearance of the cover art on a designer's website; the Guitar World article that was published and pulled; it's sudden appearances, disappearances, and re-appearances (sometimes with new release dates) on various Amazon and record store websites; the surprise appearance of the first single on a German streaming site; the surprise appearance of ANOTHER new single (from The Visitor) in the middle of this; a reviewer mentioning that he's heard the album and then expressing dismay that it was postponed yet again; and the fact that reviews appeared in multiple music websites and publications before it was even officially announced (though none as big of a print publication as Uncut or MOJO). In hindsight, the reason for the delays were probably because they wanted to time it with the release of the Archives website, but it's still funny how much of the same issues from this roll-out also took shape with the roll-out of Homegrown (something about his archival releases of unreleased studio tracks, I guess). But I'm also curious: how do we all feel about this album more than two and a half years after it's been released? For me the title track is definitive in this version, and it's great that the acoustic version of "Powderfinger" is available for all to hear. With that said, this is the perfect album to put on while the sun is setting on a warm spring day; a highly enjoyable acoustic record, but at the same time nothing that feels like a lost masterwork.
Next to Massey Hall, Hitchhiker is my most listened to of all his archival releases. The length makes it very easy to put on. I like the calm, relaxed '76 stoned vibe. You finally get Neil completely solo in the studio. Old Country Waltz on piano is a revelation. Campaigner has always been a favorite. Pocahontas is 5-star - I understand why he added the overdubs in 1977, but I don't need them. It has a very good version of Hitchhiker (the 1992 live versions are my favorites - acoustic, but a little slower. One version even on 12-string). Hawaii - I could put that on repeat all day. I dream that there might be an electric Crazy Horse version of Hawaii somewhere in the vaults. But I think what makes this record so strong is the amazing imagery in all the songs - it is so expansive. Think of all the places Neil brings us to during this album. Yes - Hitchhiker is a favorite of mine - worthy of being amongst Neil's amazing string of albums from 1966-1978.
I definitely agree with you there; I never gave that song too much thought until I heard this version. Also "Hawaii" is a very good mid-70s Neil song that I enjoy, and it does have a bit of that spooky vibe that I love about some of his best songs. But by comparison, I think the majority of the officially unreleased songs on Homegrown are stronger.
Yeah Hawaii was kinda like THE song for me because it was completely brand new mid-seventies Neil. It was like reliving my teens and that feeling of getting a new Neil album on cassette. I think Powderfinger, Captain Kennedy, Hitchhiker, Campaigner And Country Waltz are some of the very best performances of his career. Powderfinger for feeling... Hitchhiker is flailingly good, played with complete abandon on the acoustic. And when you get to Campaigner, it’s like slow motion (he must be coming down), I remember the feeling of listening to the album for the first time and being struck by murky pace of Campaigner more than I ever had before. Oh geez just completely forgot about Human Highway too. Favourite version of that song for sure, and there are many versions.
Campaigner is one of his best acoustic songs, IMO, and you're right, hearing it in the context of this album really is something. Also this version of Human Highway is very good. But the version that was recorded with CSNY during the Long May You Run sessions? *Chef's kiss*.
I’ve been coming back to it every few months or so; it’s got a great feel and I enjoy it quite a bit.
