Billboard report on Neil's missing 6

http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1886578

I'll believe it when I see it but this looks encouraging. Can't see why they would release Hawks and Doves and Reactor before Time Fades Away.....

Chris

 

Good find, Chris. I'm with you on "Time Fades Away."

mud-

 

A CD release of ON THE BEACH would be extremely cool, but I agree, TIME FADES AWAY is the one I'm longing for the most. The title track alone is priceless.

 

TFA isn't even mentioned in the article. That doesn't bode well. Thank goodness I burned a CDR of my vinyl a couple of years ago.

 

Any of these are welcomed! We'll see is right!

 

Re: Re: Billboard report on Neil's missing 6

I noticed the article said, "four studio albums." Now TFA is live. That's 5 of the 6. What's the other live album??? I'm having a brain cramp.

mud-

 

Re: Re: Re: Billboard report on Neil's missing 6

Journey Through The Past

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Billboard report on Neil's missing 6

Journey isn't really a live LP. It consists of studio rehearsals of Harvest material, an alt take of Ohio, audio from a Buffalo TV performance, a bit of Handel's The Messiah and Let's Wait Awhile from Pet Sounds. I'm a Neil fanatic and I can do without the LP.

Chris

 

I've heard the vinyl of Hawks & Doves myself and it is really amazing. He sounds like he's playing in your living room. I'm just glad they really seem to be coming out finally on CD. I've only heard Hawks & Doves out of the missing 6 so I'm just excited for anything to come out.

 

Why isn't Trans out on CD still? All of his Geffen CD's are out except Trans. I know this is most criticized CD but I still think it should be in print w/ his other Geffen CD's. I'm picking up the remainder of the Geffen CD's that I don't have (Everybody's Rockin, Old Ways, and Life) this week.

 

i guess, they're not considering TFA a "studio" album
and that seems to be the focus at the moment.
perhaps, it will come later?
maybe, 30 years after the introduction of the compact disc.

btw, mastered properly H&D should sound amazing on cd as well.

 

This is great news! I have all of the missing 6 on vinyl but have been craving them on cd for years. On the Beach is maybe my favorite album of all time. I hope it really happens (we've been close before). I hope the remastering is done well. I've always thought Neil's back catalogue sounded very thin and tinny on cd. I hope this is done better. I don't understand why Time Fades Away isn't included. It's a live album, but of all new songs never officially released elsewhere.

 

Maybe "Time Fades Away" will be released as part of "Archives" in the year 2023 (the 50th anniversary edition!). I love that album too but in the meantime, this is among the years best news in reissues this year. As much as I like having "Journey Through The Past", it really is nothing more than an oddity...however, if everything else is eventually reissued why not?
Even it's critics have to admit that it has more musical value than Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" and that is out! Come to think of it, Neil sort of had his own version of "MMM" with the "Arc" disc in 1991.

 

Trans was released on CD in europe in the late 80's. It may still be in print.

 

It is in print in Europe but I was wondering why it isn't in the US. All the others are available here.

 

I'm glad I have TFA on vinyl... wish I had On the Beach. Journey Through the Past is okay, but as others have noted, a low priority, especially considering all the other live Neil available.

If the sound of Hawks and Doves vinyl is that good, I'll need to hunt down a copy--seems it's always been easier to find than the above titles, and I always liked side 1 of that album. Any opinions on Reactor's sound?

 

I worked in music retail from 1989 to 1995. I was primarily the "import" buyer in this ma & pa store. I stocked "Trans" regularly on CD. "Trans" and the country album "Old Ways" were released by Geffin in Germany back then, and as mentioned, may still be in print.

I wonder if the missing "4" will be the HDCD remasters that were done in around 1997.

I found this article on the "missing 6".

The missing six story:

What are the Missing 6?

They are the only 6 albums from Neil's catalog that have never been released on CD.

Journey Through The Past
Time Fades Away
On The Beach
American Stars'n'Bars (footnote)
Hawkes & Doves
Re-ac-tor

If you find any of these CDs you have to know that they are pirated versions recorded from LPs and not official releases.

The Missing 6 albums were actually remastered during the 90s using HDCD technology, had been scheduled for release several times during the 90s ' ( radio spots hyping the upcoming release were distributed and recalled!), but it never happened.

Why? in an interview Neil said:
“The record companies have a huge problem right now. They have the DVD audio standard, and the quality is unbelievably better than the CD. It approaches what you expected from digital in the first place. It’s a wonderful standard, where the artist has control and programs the DVD so that when you put it in, it configures your system to play it back optimum for what’s on the disc. The artist decides and the format keeps changing as the artist programmed it. So you get to take advantage of all the digital information that the DVD has.”
“So what happened? We got it all together and somebody figured out how to crack it. So now they could be duplicated and the record companies wouldn’t make any money off it. But that already happened with the CD. What’s the big deal? Why not put out the quality? If people are gonna crack it and send it around on Napster or MP3, who cares?” “So the answer to the question is, I really didn’t see these albums on CD because CDs don’t sound very good. I like the original analog masters and I didn’t want people to have bad-sounding CDs to listen to for the rest of time. I want to wait until the things are ready to be dumped into a format that I can understand and is relative to the original format.”

Well, this is part of Neil Young personality, the most crazy thing about it is that most of these album are incredible (On The Beach, ) or really good (Reactor and Hawks and Doves ) and i hope they will be released one day, on CD or DVD...