Whoa!! That was the very first Neil show I saw and it changed my musical life completely. I can’t believe it’s available to listen!
This is something I find especially rewarding about the timeline concerts is that many people are getting to hear shows in pretty great quality they attended years or decades ago. It must be a real time capsule in that regard, especially since they feature the entire show banter and all. He hasnt posted one I've attended yet, but if he ever does it'll be interesting to see how it stacks up to my memories of the gig.
Yeah, I'm really excited to listen to this tonight. I have so many memories of that gig, but as we know, memory is a fickle thing. I still remember hearing "This Note's For You" for the first time and my friends and I thinking it was the funniest thing ever. The pre-Bluenotes mini-set was an unexpected surprise as well, but it was the final barrage of songs that completely blew my 16-year-old mind and made me a Neil fanatic for life.
This 1987 concert is great - I saw them a few nights before at the Mann Music Centre in Philly - similar setlist I also agree with Royal Pineapple - I like the soundof this - the bit of muffle is not a deterrent at all. One test for me is whether some songs I normally skip ("Sugar Mountain," Dance Dance Dance") are any good. I really like these versions, for what it's worth. I keep coming back with NYA to thinking that this would have been a $50 bootleg purchase in 1995. Now we get this - and so much more - for $40. What a deal!
A few new updates from the recent batch of LTTE that have been posted today: -John Hanlon has done some mastering work on Toast recently. Neil also says “I really want to get it out there to all you folks who would like to hear it.” -He also says “Barn comes out this year! We are waiting for the vinyl which takes a long time these days. I wish it was out now.” -In another response, he says that Barn “is very special” and that it’s “weeks now til the first track drops.” -He says that “Guilty Train” we never completed, and that another similar version to what’s on Songs for Judy will be on Volume III. -In another response, he mentions that Volume III is still scheduled for 2022
I thought Hanlon backed away? So I wonder then is the work on Toast not that recent or is Hanlon back?
I took the original statement to mean that he was reducing his work load with NYA, but not necessarily retire completely.
That would make sense. From the time of the inception to the Neil says Uncle Eddie sez release it all at once phase probably had Hanlon pulling out his hair wondering what he had signed up for!
Well, us fans have suggested a solution for that, but if you insist on releasing all formats at once, what can you do?
Getting all the timeline concerts easily accessable on mobile (for Rust Tier+ subscribers) should be next. (Nothing fancy, nothing expensive to implement*—just a basic index page that reliably works.) Otherwise we're in a position where users who have paid for "Rust Tier" are getting a less user-friendly experience than if they just stayed as base-level subscribers and streamed the "Concert of the Moment" on mobile. (And with that in mind — do Rust Tier+ subscribers need to get a few exciting exclusives from time to time? Otherwise, is there any real motivation to upgrade?). _________________________ *The main challenge facing NYA is what I suspect are quite ridiculous expenses. Most artists can only dream of having literally tens-of-thousands of paying subscribers — there's no lack of potential here. That only matters, though, if less money is going out than coming in. For now, NYA survives on Neil's readiness to pour in funding from his other successes. But as with any other business, long-term sustainability comes from making a profit.
Well, Neil took Harm's "advice" (so to speak) about the audio mix on the Rust Bucket DVD — and he hasn't kicked the aforementioned bucket yet. Pineapple re-mix version: The day Neil starts taking advice from his fans indiscriminately, he's toast (or at least, less of an artist).
Many of us, of course, could tell Neil how to make an album we'd be pleased with. (We know what we like, and we can put it into words. That bit's easy.) And that's why Neil gets offered a lot of money to do a "Harvest 50th Anniversary Tour", and stuff like that. But none of us, perhaps, would have suggested taking a compilation of concert recordings and then overdubbing a wildly-creative array of animal sounds, car horns and church bells; forming a sort of multi-dimensional soundtrack to life on Earth (and commentary on genetic modification). We fans are good are knowing what we like. We're not always so good at predicting the startling innovation we will really love.
wildly creative? that's...generous. i will say this about earth. i was picking huckleberries in the forest once while listening to "earth", and i thought i was about to be murdered by crows.
I was at the first US show of the 1987 Life Tour. This Note’s For You wasn’t in the set, but an excellent American Dream and Name of Love were, along with Don’t Take Your Love and Big Room. Edit: Also included the unreleased Someday. So five new songs! The band was in a rocking mood for the second set. I remember them simply tearing up Opera Star. Was a fun night!
It pains me to say that the Bluenotes songs, bar Don't Take Your Love Away From Me is the stuff I like the least, needs more horns and less Billy and Ralph. For some reason, all these songs seem to drag a bit. As if Billy and Ralph weren't comfortable playing these songs.
Well, it didn’t take Neil long to replace them. Personally I thought the more horns and straighter the rhythm section got, the more unauthentic the Bluenotes sounded. I guess I thought Neil played more creatively and less blues cliched with the CH rhythm section. At least the stuff I’ve heard.
It was great to be able to play the latest Timeline concert via the app and BluOS. I really hope that’ll happen for all of them.