Neil Young Vinyl

"Life" with Crazy Horse from the 80's is an under rated gem.

 

Yes I’m up to about a 30 albums wish list. Maybe approach this another way....what shouldn’t I bother with? (kidding)

 

I've tried to buy early pressings (vinyl) of Harvest but have never found a very quiet one. Any insights? I could stick with digital if need be, but I think of it as an LP worth owning.

 

Spotted a post by J. Hanlon on NY Archives.

He speaks about the Original Release Series Vinyl Numbering, and as we all know, the 4th box set of vinyl albums is next, but guess what, his post seems to indicate that the whole Geffen Period will be skipped.

"You will find this system in place on all of the vinyl records re-released in this fashion. That includes all of the albums contained in the first four box sets which means Harvest, After The Gold Rush etc through the soon to be re-released Eldorado that will round out Hawks & Doves, Re-Ac-Tor and This Note’s For You for NYA Box set 4."

I am shocked at this, all 5 Geffen studio albums, apparently ditched. It looks like none of these 5 albums will form part of these Original Release Series Box sets. We get Hawks & Doves + Reactor, then we skip the 5 Geffen albums, and land 6 years later on This Notes For You & Eldorado.

 

Are any of the Geffen albums now expensive/hard to find?

I’ve got them all (bought new) but this is the most long-lasting nadir of Neil, with the exception of the brilliantly deranged Trans. Attempts to elevate Life to underrated gem are bunk IMO. Ditching this lesser ditch period for vinyl box purposes fails to disturb me, although all Neil releases offer fascinating aspects, of course.

 

They are easily available, just like all of Neils vinyl up to the late ‘80’s anyway. But not in this level of quality in vinyl or artwork.

These box sets are the reason i didn’t buy pre 2000 vinyl, as the boxes are superb reissues, and original artwork, and all on heavy vinyl- in short - A very high quality product.

Maybe there is a chance Geffen will reissue these vinyls in one collection, (maybe adding the “Lucky 13” compilation)just very surprised, to see a strong indication, that these 5 albums- (granted, of varying quality), are being ditched in an otherwise, perfect reissue series, which has been notable, for meticulous attention to detail, and chronologically released- skipping 6 whole years- ‘82 to ‘87 inclusive, wtf !!??

 

Finally found a copy of Hitchhiker this week. Well worth the money

 

Neil confirmed that no Geffen era albums will be released as part of the Vinyl reissues Original Release Series, as Geffen would not allow it. This was confirned by Neil in the letters to Neil section of his website.

So, there will be a 6 years gap in ORS, which i find quite odd. Hopefully, Geffen will reissue these seperately, in the same high quality at Reprise have

 

Can anyone comment on the vinyl of the 2018 reissue of Reactor? Is it worth getting to replace my original Canadian, which is pretty good?

 

Bump! Keen to learn more about this reissue (and CB’s Hawks and Doves + Long May You Run).

 

Can anyone comment on their pressing of 2015/16 CB cut Time Fades Away? I've gone through two copies and both seem to have a pressing defect on B1, Don't be Denied. Pops/Ticks throughout the whole track. I'm not sure if I should keep trying or settle with what I've got. Thx!

 

90% of the original copies of Harvest out there were scuffed and damaged by the original custom textured inner sleeve. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but that’s how I feel about it. A packaging gimmick, like the real zipper on early pressings of Sticky Fingers, that was not the most practical. Harvest is an LP where perhaps the modern Neil Young Original Release Series reissue is a better bet to get a clean record. I don’t actually have a new pressing of Harvest from that series, so I don’t know if it replicates the textured inner sleeve, but I do have the ORS LP of After the Gold Rush and the Ditch Trilogy/Zuma ORS LP box, and they are all very well done.

 

I'm pretty OCD when it comes to surface noise.
Never noticed a problem on this Album.
Suspect you're having bad luck.

 

I just played "Don't Be Denied" from my copy of Time Fades Away from the ORS box (2014 release). There were about three very light ticks. The labels on the records in the box say they were all manufactured in Germany.

 

Thanks for doing that. Mine is much worse than three light ticks and so back to Amazon it goes. Unfortunately, it seems that as this is my replacement copy they won't let me exchange it again. Good excuse to pick one up locally!

 

Can anyone comment on the 2017 CB cut of Comes a Time? My original US copy has awful distortion on the last two tracks. I was hoping the remaster might fix this, but one of the comments on Discogs says otherwise. Can anyone who has the 2017 version comment on how it sounds?

 

Motorcycle Mama sounds like it may have had a slight improvement on the 2017 pressing but Four Strong Winds still sounds the same, distorted.

2017 ORS10 - distorted.
1978 US - distorted.
1978 Japan - distorted (slightly less).

 

Thanks for the helpful response. It sounds like trying to find a better copy would be futile. The strange thing is that the distortion isn't a problem on digital versions of the album, so it obviously isn't the tape, and it's weird that they put out a remaster with the same problems. Nicolette Larson is always going to sound a little shrill on Motorcycle Mama, and maybe that's hard to cut to vinyl; but there's no reason Four Strong Winds should be distorted.

 

I didn't think I was going to get the Live at Carnegie Hall from 1970.

But Amazon had one of its 2 for 3. So I got it and this a phenomenal release.

This is just as good as Massey Hall I think. Great CB cut also

A great track listing and Neil's voice is about as good as I have ever heard it

 

Wonder when we'll see a Sleeps with Angels reissue...

 

I'm neither a connoisseur nor a completist, but no collection should be without Tonight's the Night. Not only my favorite NY album, probably in my top 10 of any genre.