Try to imagine Woodstock without Neil’s guitar. He took the song to the next level. Agree with your assessment about how he filled out their live act.
I’ve been burned on missing out on awesome LP releases over the years (cough...cough...Donald Fagen Cheap Xmas). This set exceeded expectations. If you are on the fence, go for it. You won’t be disappointed.
Has it ever surfaced online? Unfortunately the only chance now of hearing any of this unreleased Stills solo stuff is maybe one of his kids becoming his archivist in the future.
i have heard 'woodstock' live without neil young........i gotta tell you, it was pretty ****ing good, stephen stills knows how to play too
Thank you, I wanted to do this but didn’t have time to look them all up on Archives. Beautifully done. Not sure where the myth came from that Neil went off and did his tracks alone. Sea of Madness and Everybody’s Alone were also done with the band. Even the Birds demo has Nash. Neil played with the band on Cut My Hair and Woodstock and Everybody I Love You. He played on the Lee Shore and Horses in a Rainstorm outtakes on the CSN box. And, as was discussed upthread, it sounds like him playing on a bunch of other outtakes. if I had to guess, I think was Neil was up to playing on an album where they played live in the studio, and maybe did some vocal overdubs. But when the sessions changed into a layering and overdubbing and re-doing thing he lost interest. He was unhappy that Stills redid his vocal on Woodstock. He praised Cut My Hair by saying, “It's really Crosby at what I think is his best. It's all live, three guitars, bass, organ and drums, and there are no overdubs. One vocal, and the vocal was sung live ... we did it in San Francisco at Wally Heider's.” That is the album Neil wanted to make.
I want to say that an interview with Stills or Nash talked about Neil taking the tapes of his songs (presumably with a basic track cut with the group) to another studio without the other guys to do instrumental and vocal overdubs, mixing, etc. Which is strange since it sounds like he wanted everything cut live with all four members present.
Exciting news - during his Howard Stern appearance, Crosby announced a new CSN documentary in the works. Directed by Rober Zemeckis, no less!
great release! but does anyone here know if they will release the complete fillmore east concerts at blueray? would be a dream come true Crosby Stills Nash and Young Live at Fillmore East 1970 - video Dailymotion
At 90 minutes or so, it was pretty good. Fortunately, Crosby did most of the talking. A lot of the time, for those who don’t listen to Stern, he tries to pry information out of his guests. Crosby, on the other hand, ran that show. Howard tried to dig into Crosby’s CSNY and Nash issues. Crosby was entirely pessimistic about having anything to do with either Nash or Young in the future. But he said he had “hero worship” for Stills. Howard mistook “Almost Cut My Hair” and “Long Time Gone” when retelling the story of how Stills took the song and totally rearranged it. Crosby didn’t correct him.
I wouldn't be surprised if that "Stills hero worship" is just a way of Crosby sticking it to Graham and Neil...
Only tangentially related to the reissue, but I'll use any opportunity I can to boost this vintage Spanish-language cover of "Carry On": Despite the name, they're Mexican.
Sorry dudes - anyone got a link to the full Crosby/Stern interview? For whatever reason, the link here ain't working for me. David Crosby Talks Death, Drugs, Joni Mitchell Dumping Him, and Why He's Not Worried About a Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young Reunion | Howard Stern
It's available on the SiriusXM app and site if you're a subscriber, but I don't see it anywhere else right now. It may get posted here in the future: Howard Stern
Received my copy for Father’s Day last Sunday. Wow, what a great release. The 3 discs with demos, sessions and alternatives are all a revelation. The alternatives disc speaks to how much the original album could have used a remix including a surround. But I understand the folks who don’t believe in remixing the past.
The Eagle has landed! Repeating myself, but I wish this had been $149 instead of $249. I wish the book had been bigger. I wish Neil had been more cooperative with regard to his outtakes. I strongly suspect that this box will get blown out or discounted at a far cheaper price than I paid for it. And that the individual LPs will slowly be pieced out for Record Store Day, as we already see with the “Alternates” album scheduled as a standalone release for the next Record Store Day drop. And that Rhino will doubtless do a second, unnumbered printing run of this vinyl box for a far cheaper price than I paid for it. But I don’t really care about any of that right now. Ten seconds after dropping the needle onto “Carry On,” it was quite obvious that Chris Bellman knocked this out of the park. I have five different “keeper” copies of Déjà Vu, with the one I return to most often being an early German pressing, as well as an original 3 3/4 ips reel to reel of the album that is, by some distance, the best-sounding 3 3/4 ips reel I’ve ever heard. I’m pretty familiar with this album, and this cutting of the main album on vinyl sounds really, really good. The gatefold sleeves and photos on the alternate/outtake/demo albums are fantastic. I love the photo of Neil and Stephen sitting together in the window jamming together on the cover of the Demos album. The little sleeve with 8 x 10 photos and shots of the band is a nice touch. At this price, I kind of wish there had been even more stuff like that included, or even more music, especially from Neil, but I’m glad I locked in getting the vinyl edition of this box now.
Moving on to side one the Demos LP, it sounds as good as the main LP. Nash’s demo of “Our House” meets my most basic definition of “audiophile”: if you close your eyes, you can imagine Graham Nash is in the room singing to you. Same deal with Neil and Graham singing “Birds,” it sounds like they’re in the room busking for you. On the demo of “4+20” you can hear an awful lot of tape hiss, suggesting that, even if this was cut from the dreaded hi-res digital, it wasn’t futzed with in bad ways. Once again, it’s easy to imagine ways this set could have been even better, for me, but the quality of the LPs you do get, is, so far, 10/10. Probably the most exciting CSNY or solo vinyl archival release ever, although Neil’s Original Performance Series and Original Release Series LP reissues certainly set a high bar for sound quality.
Well, that's a lot, as I think that the stretch of the album from "Almost Cut My Hair" to "Woodstock" on Side 1 is what elevates the album to masterpiece status. I listened to the entire vinyl box tonight. It's fantastic. I think that the music has aged very well. Quick question for those with the vinyl box - did you replace those soft plastic inner sleeves? Do you think they will scratch the records?
Listening to Know You Got To Run from disc 4 on the box again, I thought the track sounded awfully similar to what ended up on Everybody I Love You on the final album. Sure enough, they are in fact the same, with new vocals (obviously), some new guitar fills, and some new percussion. And editing. Know You Got To Run: 0:00 - 0:12 - edited out 0:12 - 1:11 - used in Everybody I Love You 1:11 - 1:58 - edited out 1:58 - 2:13 - used in Everybody I Love You 2:13 - 6:31 - edited out 6:31 - end - used in Everybody I Love You The (mono) drums from Know You Got To Run are mixed left in Everybody I Love You. That final cymbal crash is present, which overlaps the new (stereo) drums for Everybody I Love You. My guess is they copied the Know You Got To Run multitrack (presumably from Stills' house), edited it down, added the Everybody I Love You section on the end and added some new overdubs (like the shaker in the right channel) for all of it (at Wally Heider).
