I've been wondering if the full Performance Series will be mapped out on this site. If so I'm excited to see what's going in the gaps. Also Neil would be stupid to not have an app built around this as well. It will work a lot better than a website especially on mobile devices even though Apple and Android don't support up to 24/192
It will be very annoying if there isn't at least a release of Archives 2 in the same formats as Archives 1. But, as so often, with such matters, what the consumer/collector wants seems to be the last thing on their (Neil/record company) mind....e.g.: the packaging for the remastered Decade. Having said that, other back catalogues are also guilty of this. The Bowie 2CD 30th anniversary releases were all over the place in terms of packaging. Is it so OCD to want such things to look nice on a bookshelf? If so, I am guilty, m'lud.
The keyword is "Plans". e.g. "an intention or decision about what one is going to do." Soooo, Neil 'intends' online archive and is making a decision He's been having fun since 1975.
This is the quote I'm thinking of, from Rolling Stone 2005, "One live performance, the rock vet is convinced, trumps the original recording: the entirety of Tonight's the Night, recorded live at London's Rainbow Theatre. Says Young, "It's better than the record."
i have an audience b**t of a performance from the 1973 rainbow, and it is insane. hard to hear neil's ramblings at times, but a PSA release would blow my mind.
This website makes sense as a way to organize all of Neil's archives and get everything out. For once it feels like he is responding to technology/the market in terms of the way things actually are instead of trying to go against the grain and create his own unique thing in a niche market (blu-ray live, Pono). And the timeline format he had already created fits this. Now, what do I want from it? Streaming is fine as far as it goes, but I'm not a streaming type. I hope to be able to download "albums" as well. I have so much Neil physical media, I would be happy to able to just get the music in all its hi res glory. It also seems like anyone who wants physical media should be able to order it. Eeverything will already be mixed and transferred to digital. Downloads are easy, no brainers. The physical media is more difficult, hard to say if he will do that. Maybe selectively, or in limited numbers as each album is added.
I'd pay $1,000 without even blinking for Archives Volume 2 on Blu Ray ine the same form as the first release. A web version is great too but why not give people a choice? If they are worried about getting stuck with inventory just go the Grateful Dead route and make it a limited edition that will sell out. Or give people a certain amount of time to pre-order and just say they are only going to produce the number that are pre-ordered by that date. I just have zero faith in a website lasting forever. We've seen many examples from Neil and others of web exclusives no longer existing. Or situations where things on Netflix, etc. disappear. The only thing that guarantees having it forever is having a copy of your own. Yes, I guess a download you own would work but with the age of Neil's fan base you've got to think a lot of people will buy a physical copy that won't spend the same money on a download. I'm 47 so I'm probably on the younger end of that fanbase and I want a physical version of this. I'll add that after what is supposed to be Volume 2 the demand is going to fall off for his 80's material and beyond. However, I think Volume 2 would easily sell well enough to justify multiple physical format releases along with a web version.
You'll probably be able to buy most if not all of the material that would have been included in a massive Archives box, just not all at once. The previously released albums from the period are being reissued on LP and CD (some may already be out). I'd be shocked if they weren't also sold as hi-res downloads. Much of the unreleased recordings will be made available in album form, starting with the Hitchhiker collection. And the performance series will continue. There will probably be some stray tracks only available through the Archives site. But let's not forget that Archives Vol. 1 was hardly complete. I didn't like the fact that only select tracks from his albums were included.
I was at this concert, 5 November 1973 at London’s Rainbow Theatre, the 3rd of 7 dates in the UK with The Santa Monica Flyers, (Ben Keith, Nils Lofgren, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina). This was the second time for me at a Neil Young concert following his only UK acoustic date two years earlier at The Royal Festival Hall in February 1971. The Eagles opened and were tremendous, (Desperado had been released 6 months earlier) and for me, this, their original line-up was never bettered. They started with Glenn’s now familiar, (but not then) “Hi, we’re the Eagles from Los Angeles” spoken intro and straight into “Take It Easy”. They played for about an hour, probably most of those first two albums, and I remember, one new song called “Don’t Be Mean To Your Badman”, which I never heard again. I won’t pretend what happened next wasn’t a bit of a shock, there was no YouTube in those days, the only way any of us in England got to know what The Dead, Joni, Van Morrison, The Band etc. were doing was the fortnightly “Rolling Stone”, which of course, by the time we got hold of a copy was already about a month out of date. The English music papers were hopeless, OK if you wanted to read about Elton John or Rod Stewart, but if you wanted an update on the new Crazy Horse album, forget it!. (Incidentally, the standard of British music journalists then, compared to their American cousins, was hopeless). I’d read album reviews by Jan Wenner, Ralph Gleason, Jon Landau, Janet Maslin, etc and just sit back in admiration. Can’t really explain it, just great writing, so much insight and intelligence. So the whole Tonight’s The Night experience was something of an experience, looking back with over 40 years of hindsight, yes, amazing, but at the time, completely unexpected, “a little more light on the Palm Tree BJ” and “welcome to Miami Beach ladies and gentleman”, was certainly different. Nine new songs, starting and finishing with “Tonight’s The Night”, was followed by, I think, solo acoustic renditions of “Flying On The Ground” and “Human Highway”. “Helpless” was next, and I’ve still got vivid memories of Nils Lofgren appearing from stage right with an accordion, swaying from side to side, looking like he was having trouble standing up. Finally, the encore with the band, good versions of “Don’t Be Denied” and “Cowgirl”. And that was it, great, but not really what anyone was prepared for, although they’d already performed this show a dozen times in the States the previous August/September, (but we didn’t know that then.) The other thing I recall about that time, was not being able to obtain tickets for the last night of the tour, a week later at The Royal Festival Hall. I think it may have been added at the last minute, I don’t think we were aware of it that evening at The Rainbow, by the time we found out a day or two later, it was completely sold out. Yes, it would be great to have an official recording of any night of that tour, I’ve got a copy from Manchester a couple of days earlier, (the first UK date), which is pretty good and I think widely available. Very interested to read there doesn’t appear to be many decent recordings from that Rainbow gig, and to qtrules, personally I didn’t have a problem hearing most of Neil’s ramblings, (we were only 6 rows back) it’s just that at the time, no one knew what he was talking about!
I frequently find that between song talking, no matter how interesting at first, gets old with repeated listening. But I think with this show, it's necessary to have it all. The character Neil played between songs was an integral part of the whole experience.
A good example to the Dylan archives? Nothing has been done yet other than a placeholder website. Meanwhile Dylan's archive actually exists as a place people can visit.
thanks for sharing!! i actually relistened to my audience boot of the rainbow show today when it was mentioned earlier, and i forgot how striking it all is. NY takes all the mockery and audience goading really in stride. the best, and saddest, exchange comes while he's introducing 'don't be denied', and dedicates it to danny whitten who "couldn't be here tonight." i think it might be nils who says "his name was danny" only to be corrected by neil; "his name is danny." i think that exchange sums up TTN and the santa monica flyers era up perfectly.
Assuming this whole new setup for the Archives allows the listener some kind of option for a format that they can keep -- LP, CD, digital download -- then I think it's a good idea. If the only option from here on out is just streaming then I don't see too many people being happy with that.
Yes would be great to be able to Download whatever you want and then make up your own playlists and or Compilation Dics,Very Cool.
You are correct. The Pentagon, Credit Bureaus, Health Care Systems, etc have all been hacked, and in all likelihood even more serious breaches we know nothing about. Either Neil is naive, or thinks we are.
I would like to see an interactive Archives app I could use on an iPad that somehow controlled the HD audio stream on my Oppo...
Agreed. Wouldn't it be something if Neil simply announced that the music/archives were ready for download/release? When he states he has "plans," who knows what that really means....
At the top of Neil's new Archives note he says he is only doing this for himself rather than his audience.Perfect summary of the way the whole thing has been handled.Hopeless optimist that I am still hoping this will change or what Neil and his audience wants might coincide at some point very soon.
