I actually count This Note's for You as the beginning of Neil Young's creative resurgence--"Someday" and the sublime "Crime in the City" came out of sessions for that album--though they showed up on Freedom. Both albums also share musicians, production and a certain "sound." Ragged Glory has a totally different feel because it's a Crazy Horse album of extended jams recorded quickly at the Ranch.
I may be wrong, but I think Sixty to Zero/Crime in the City was written just after TNFY, along with Ordinary People (he's claimed he wrote both on the same night). That would be the moment his mojo returned.
Yes, a 4lp box set would be prime. I have the one lp Ragged Glory and them sides are jammed to the labels!
Even better would be a two LP set of the original and a separate 2 LP set if needed for the outtakes. Dang it all that is the only reissue of Neil’s I’ve been waiting for in a simple two LP set. I’ll stick with my crammed original if my only option is an expanded set. Newly discovered my ***. Thinking is deadly for the Horse my ***. Those marketing types are just SO kewl.
Judging from this image of the streaming player on the NYA page, it looks like it indeed was a 16-44 digital recording based on the fact that it's purported to be playing at full resolution. Honestly though, well mastered vinyl from a 16 bit source can sound mighty fine. The real issue with the original vinyl is that it crams 62:43 (!!!) onto one LP. My copy sounds less than stellar and is an instance where the original CD is certainly better. This is really gonna need to be a triple or a 4 disc set for it to sound good. I hope they come to that realization.
2020 will be the 30th RG Anniversary. It's likely that RGII will be released for that date without need of pushing back other planned releases.
This could be his best release in the last 10 (20?) years. No railing against Monsanto or weakly-produced nonsense in a "phone booth" - a stone-cold classic! One of the best shows I ever saw - with Sonic Youth and Social Distortion as openers, Young and Crazy Horse came out and taught those "kids" a lesson.
For those concerned about it being a digital recording, Neil mentioned they found the original analog masters!! Neil Young Archives
So the album wasn't recorded digitally? I'm sure there's a long discussion about it elsewhere but I don't want to trudge through the archives to find an answer.
I've been on the cusp of trimming my NY collection down to as few discs as possible (the guy has just po'd me too often the last while, won't get into that here....) but this album would always be a keeper and an expanded version would actually get me to pony up and buy another Neil release, and that's not easy these days.
Ragged Glory is quite possibly my favourite Neil Young record so this is as "instant buy" as it gets.
Both were written after he'd played a few shows with Dylan, in between Bluenote tours. Days That Used to Be also came from that period ("Letter To Bob"). He "borrowed" the power-chord riff for Sixty To Zero from the electric version of Masters Of War he'd been playing with Bob. I think he was still in the phase of combining analog and digital technology: the final master may be analog but it likely went through a digital stage. Regardless, the Ragged Glory CD sounds fantastic; if a little bass-shy. Its a classic Briggs sound with an uncrowded soundstage and the guitars cranked up. I much prefer the hard-and-hitting sound used here (digital or otherwise) to the "listening through a layer of foam" analog effect that's on some of his more recent electric records with John Hanlon.
“Born To Run” , “Boxcar”, “Interstate” and “Natural Beauty” are the out-takes (source Musician interview in 1991), and of course "Don't Spook THe Horse"
Fantastic news! Ragged Glory is one of my favourite Neil Young albums. I'm very pleased that they are doing it as a stand-alone release also. Can't wait.
This period saw Neil Young with something to prove. After being dropped by Geffen, he quickly begun work on the "typical Neil Young album", Freedom, with no character to play. Next came a classic Crazy Horse record, a full-blown follow-up to Live Rust and an "official" sequel to to his best selling record, Harvest. (The muse might not be controllable, but it certainly knows how to do the right things when your career is on the line). This period saw Neil working very intensely, very deeply, on his music. On Sleeps With Angels, according to Briggs, "some of the best things were written with the clock ticking at a hundred and ten grand a week". He worked on Harvest Moon for months. Ragged Glory was the result of playing the same set of songs "over and over" for two weeks. And the Weld tour was his most intense ever, a tight setlist of emotionally explosive performances, concluding after 50+ shows with the band ready to kill each other. All of these working methods strike me as ways of getting deeper and deeper into the songs, getting to the real heart of the inspiration he's been given. I much prefer these instinctive approaches to the "finish the record in five minutes" attitude he's grown into in later years, which usually results in some fantastic ideas that aren't really developed beyond their skeletal origins. This period (1989-1994) is really special. Not just because of the strong vein of inspiration he was served with, but because of the lengths he went to to convert those raw materials into something powerful, something real. A perfect blend of art and professionalism, inspiration and craft. It didn't always come easy for Neil back then, but through persistence he found a way to make it work anyway. And that's why the records are as amazing as they are.
Zero chance of this being released next year. Please prove me wrong or alternatively, you heard it here first.
