Neil Young Archives - Forthcoming Physical Release Information & Anticipation Thread

This is sad and unnecessary in so many ways. The desire for archival Neil Young was denied when it mattered most, and would have had a huge impact both historically and financially. Now, it's a weird mix of elation and lost opportunity to see so much coming all at once. It's not unlike unrequited love at a young age, only to meet the real person when the flame has dimmed and time has moved on. Maybe nice as a nostalgic interest, but not what it might have been.

 

I don’t get it.

Do people NOT want this stuff released?

I was critical before of Neil Young’s painfully slow schedule of Archival releases - now he speeds it up and people are saying ‘pass’ and ‘nothing new’ we have ‘Massey Hall’ already etc...”Do I need this?” is another statement that comes up, usually followed by a calculation of the number of recordings of ‘Heart Of Gold’ already in their collection. No, you don’t ‘need’ anything, but if you’re a fan of live music then surely you’d WANT it?
“Is any of this new?” Well, yes. All of it. This is a previously unheard show. No other tape exists. Likewise for the 1971 ‘Bootleg Series’ shows coming in May e.g. the Dorothy Chandler show, for which there’s only an audience recording FROM BOOTLEG VINYL. The alternative is that he cancels all this because of ‘Massey Hall’ already being out and all these great concert recording go unheard forever. Then there’s just a handful of archival releases possible if people want no further duplication of songs.

Same criticism is thrown at Dylan’s Bootleg Series. People complained about “The Cutting Edge” because it didn’t have any previously unknown songs on it. Similarly the “TroubleNo More” set had several great performances largely overlooked - like the great version of “Dead Man, Dead Man” because it was/is assumed that songs like “Making A Liar” MUST be some kind of lost masterpiece. (which it isn’t).

I’m 100% behind the increased frequency of releases and 100% behind the release of multiple shows from the same tour or year. Just because the same songs are on it as some other release doesn’t invalidate it or make it redundant. It’s a different show. The performances are different. If you don’t get that then I’m not sure live music recordings are really your thing.

I’m hopeful that in addition to the Bootleg Series discs in May, dare I say it, there are another four or five Archives releases this year as Neil suggested. Plenty for everyone.

 

If you don’t want it don’t buy it.Personally I will be getting every Archives release he puts out on CD or stand alone DVD/bluray.The 4 early solo acoustic Performance Series releases all have a very different vibe and even if Massey Hall is the stand out each of them are highly enjoyable and don’t feel like repetitions.I am sure Young Shakespeare and the solo acoustic Bootleg Series shows will all be very individual in character.
The great thing about the proposed volume of releases is that if there are 1 or 2 that don’t interest you something will come along soon that will.
Get on board the Archives Express!(Ironic expression as I am now up to 79 days since Warner’s handed my Archives Volume 2 box to Canada Post and it still hasn’t arrived).

 

These Neil Young fans are old cranky people as Neil wrote on NYA. Plenty here. Sad. I hope che it's just a side effect of this terrible Pandemic.

 

As an avid bootleg collector of many years, I downloaded almost every show I could get my hands on. I always thought there was merit in having multiple shows from the same tour, as performances and setlists do vary.

Even is he releases 20 archival albums this year I'd be happy, the more the merrier, I've got a lifetime of listening to look forward to.

 

Tell me why off Shakespeare sounds great, his voice is strong and he's playing his D45. Must buy for me.

 

Partially released. I hope a complete standalone release will follow.

 

I’ll never get how on earth people get mad because they’re offered too much of something they like. If you think it’s too much for you, don’t get it. Simple as that.

I long for the day when Floyd, Genesis, Queen, Elton and all my other favourite artists, do a NY and open their archive floodgates.

 

I buy all of these releases. I’ve given up on the expensive box sets. I just don’t have the time to listen to the vinyl and watch the DVDs. As long as they are good to great interesting shows I will keep buying the Cds. I buy the Bruce Springsteen Live downloads and quite a bit of other music so I find I struggle to keep up with everything I buy so I’m not throwing £60+ at box sets which will just gather dust.

 

and a certificate of authenticity!

 

I for one am in for every one of these releases. They are typically great sound and great performances. I have nothing negative to say and will buy every one of them and cant wait! Probably won’t always get the deluxe box but will buy the vinyl of all of them. It is a great time to be a Neil fan( same goes for Dylan, Stones, Bowie) as these releases are such a treat!

 

Agreed. I note that there is an option to get the Shakespeare DVD on a standalone basis so no need to buy the box to get it. I will likely buy the DVD and maybe the vinyl depending on how I like it and what the quality is like. Looking forward to more!

 

Can't possibly agree more with this. I've only been a Neil Young fan 12 years now, but in that time the one constant was people complaining that he should free the archives. Neil has an unbelievable amount of releasable material and in the last 6 months we've only just been scratching the surface. If his intention is to get as much out while he's still around to oversee it, it pretty much has to come at this kind of pace. I understand not everyone is going to buy every release, and that for many Massey Hall will suffice for this time period, but some people seem overtly angry that he is releasing material that others will enjoy. This makes no sense to me because the alternative, which we've lived with for decades is that he releases 0-1 things per year. I'm guessing there aren't too many who haven't found a single thing in the last six months they've gotten excited about? So how can this in any way be a bad thing. It's not even like the old days where a release of something you didn't want pushed something you did want back years or even decades, we're talking things being delayed by months, sometimes weeks. This is an unprecedented time of deliverance for Neil Young fans and these items are being released in multiple formats through multiple retailers, and if you don't want to buy each individual one, they immediately become available to stream for the convenient cost of $20 a year, about the cost of buying any single individual release.

Even for those people saying it's too much 1970/71 it's not like that's all that is being released. In the last six months we've gotten:

1) Archives Vol II - containing whole studio and live albums worth of unreleased songs 1972-1976
2) Return to Greendale - 2003 concert and film
3) Rust Bucket - 1990 concert and film
4) 5 Timeline Concerts from 1989, 2001, 2009, 2013 and 2016
5) Hearse Theater concerts - Buffalo 1991, London 2008, BBC 1971, Timeless Orpheum 2019, Unplugged 1993

And that doesn't even include outtakes, sneak previews or one offs in the Hearse Theater, and of course the next six months seem to be just as promising. If you look at Neil's spread something from pretty much every era of his career has been released in just the last six months. The only era really that hasn't been represented is late 70's-mid 80's, but that's understandable because that is the period the next archive set will focus on and the one thing Neil has heard loud and clear is people don't want to be rebuying things on the archive sets. So if you're a fan of Neil, I find it hard to believe something hasn't been released that has given you a good deal of excitement in the last 6 months. For him to truly release the archives there will be many releases some aren't interested in, and that's fine, leave them for the ones that are and wait a couple months something else seems to be in the pipe.

Even Young Shakespeare is the first physical release from 1971 since Massey Hall in 2007, and it contains a concert video so that right there makes it a worthwhile addition and companion to Massey Hall. And it's not like these are shabby performances, Neil might be at the peak of his vocal abilities here.

 

Not every criticism is the same. Some here are relatively new to buying Neil Young, others have been around since his career began and see the arc of his releases over time. While some claim there's repetition, I believe most of the regret voiced here is that this stuff was kept hidden for far too long. But that's only because we all wanted it when it wasn't available. I don't think many would argue the old adage: Better late than never.

 

Some people have no problem buying 7 different copies/editions of the same album, but balk at buying a second concert from the same tour because it's too similar.

 

You guys aren't getting it: yeah, love Neil, think all of this is good stuff . . . but coming out like it is it is not having the effect it deserves. Just before my post almost every poster said they were probably not going to buy it and would maybe listen to it on a streaming service. That's REAL LIFE fan talk based on the actual roll out of this material. That's real life burn out, not fan allegiance which has its place.
Neil does rule but all this stuff coming out at once is both a blessing and a curse.
Folks here are also hardcore consumers, I can't tell half the time if I'm hearing an opinion on music quality or purchase addiction talk, no offence.

 

I think you've described this feeling I have very well. If I'd been able to hear all these live Neil albums 25 years ago I'd have been ecstatic. Now I feel that's good that they're being released but I can't get excited about many of them. For many years the music industry believed in the saying "Always leave them wanting more" despite the music industry being aware of the existence of & appetite for bootlegs. Now the music industry are recognising the demand for archive material but are finding that demand for such material isn't there to the same extent. It's a bit like competitive sport; if you're on top of your opponent you've got to take the opportunity to make it pay. The music business is waking up the the fact that it missed the opportunity to make bigger sales.

There's also the saying "Better late than never". I agree but with many of these releases it's too late for me.

 

I agree totally that the rapid release of this stuff diminishes each releases ability to stand and be appreciated fully on it's own. Yes in an ideal world this stuff would have come out more spread out over the past 50+ years, but unfortunately it didnt. So it leaves three options really:

1) release it all one after another
2) continue to release them spread out over a number of decades
3) don't release large portions of it

I think given those three options whats happening now is a best case if less than perfectly ideal approach.

 

Young promised some release from Island In The Sun and Old Ways in 1988(Rolling Stone interview). With the return to Reprise there were again huge recording contracts, but probably the main interest of the Artist was for the release of new albums. In retrospective Neil could launch a vintage series with a couple of cds released every year. He waited for the arrive of the right media and technology for following his own vision, Blu Ray and now NYA, but really he wasted long years on making. But for him it was just life. He was working on these things and others. We were waiting for these archival releases. Now the market for these things is changed, it's much smaller and the fans are getting older. It's the life. It's nice anyway to listen to all these things now, although much later than hoped. We can't change the past.

 

I agree 100%, the Stones opened up their vaults years ago and just about everything has been a major upgrade to the bootlegs, so I say keep them coming, if there’s something I don’t want, I don’t buy it.

 

I think there's more to it than "it's great he is releasing everything" versus "he's releasing too much". I love it when artists I enjoy release a lot of material but it can be a bit draining when it costs as much as the Neil releases do. Archives II cost a huge amount. I wanted Rust Bucket but it was just too much additional money at the time it was announced and now I've cooled on it. When the Young Shakespeare preorder went up, I went for it because it was significantly less than Rust Bucket, even though I'd probably get more enjoyment from Rust Bucket.

Incidentally, preordering Neil releases is always a real pain. It always takes me several goes to make the order go through. In the case of Young Shakespeare, I think I've preordered it. I have a pending Paypal charge but received no confirmation from Neil's website and got an error message. But for the pending Paypal charge, I'd assume it didn't work. If it turns out the preorder didn't go through, I'll probably let this one go too and not end up buying because, again, once the excitement of the preorder dissipated, I was able to look at this rationally as another cost - i.e. another high cost I can do without right now.

So...I don't think anyone is right or wrong about his/her motivations for ordering/not ordering. I do think cost is the most significant factor, even if it isn't always discussed.

 

If you buy these items on Amazon are relatively unexpensive compared to Greedy Hand. Anyway, the vinyl releases are expensive for the costs of production. If someone wants to listen to a new release, not necessarily he's forced to buy deluxe or vinyl editions. He can buy cds, downloads or simply listen to the streaming. Before this vinyl resurgence, everyone was listening to cds or downloads.

 

If you stick to the cds and bypass all the DVD deluxe multiple format crap then it becomes a lot easier.

 

I'm not one to buy music DVDs, so I always stick to the CD or vinyl. Buying the vinyl certainly can get pricey for sets like Rust Bucket, but I couldn't stop myself on that one!

 

Tell me about it !
(King Crimson did it too. )