NEIL YOUNG : ARCHIVES VOL. I (1963-1972)

Label : Reprise

Release Date : June 2, 2009

Review (AllMusic) : Any project in the works for two decades is bound to generate its fair share of myths and so it is with Neil Young's Archives, a series of a multi-disc box sets chronicling Young's history. Originally envisioned in the late '80s as a Decade II, the project quickly mutated into a monster covering every little corner of Neil's career. With its escalation came delays, so many that it sometimes seemed that the project never really existed; it was just a shared fantasy between Neil and his faithful. During that long, long wait, fans held tight to the idea that Archives was a clearinghouse of rarities similar to Bob Dylan's The Bootleg Series, a treasure trove of unreleased songs and epochal live performances that would trump whatever bootleggers had to offer. While rare and unheard music is certainly a key part of Archives, particularly on the first disc covering the pre-history of 1963-1965, viewing this project as merely a CD box set is wildly misleading. Neil Young has designed Archives as nothing less than an immersive multimedia autobiography, an interactive experience where the music, text, video, and pictures feed off each other, creating a virtual journey through Neil's past. Because this is a biography, Archives, Vol. 1 winds up relying very heavily on previously released recordings, containing almost all of Neil Young, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush, and Harvest, key Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cuts, and the previously released archival live albums Live at the Fillmore East 1970 and Live at Massey Hall 1971. Such a large chunk of familiar material is bound to disappoint any listener expecting Archives to be a rarities-only set, forgetting that its origin was as a sequel to Decade, the triple-LP set that mixed up hits with unreleased tunes. Archives follows a similar blueprint, excavating many rare gems - some, like "Bad Fog of Loneliness" quite familiar to bootleggers; some, like an extraordinary "Dance Dance Dance" cut with Graham Nash, not - and placing them neatly alongside his well-known jewels, so the end effect isn't a rush of discovery but ongoing quiet revelation, an impression underpinned by the set's leisurely pace. The entire Archives is designed to trace Neil's evolution, to explain how his dead ends were really detours and how his mood swings weren't all that wild; it preserves Young's history as he perceived it. To that end, the DVD and especially BluRay editions of the set are essential to understanding both the project and Neil himself, so much so that the CD edition feels almost like an afterthought, a skimming of the surface of a deep lake. Often, Young delayed Archives due to the limits of technology, a claim that seemed no more than an excuse to keep the project incomplete, but Archives in its BluRay incarnation lives up to all of Neil's promises over the years, coming close to collecting everything - lyrics, press, artwork, TV performances, doodles, scraps of every sort - in one place, letting users linger for as long as they'd like in a specific era. Surely, the sound quality on BluRay is extraordinary - the music leaps out of the speakers yet never sounds overly clean, digital, or modern - but it's the interactive nature of the set that impresses most. While the DVD set also is complexly interactive, BluRay is designed to be continually updated via the Internet, so Young can add songs and videos whenever he wants, placing the new material as a virtual pushpin on each disc's time line. Acting as a supplement to the text biographies on each disc - the biography only covering the years on the disc - the time line places Young's evolution on a broader scale and is illuminated by this extra material, such as a downright thrilling CSNY performance of "Down by the River" on ABC-TV, but this is merely a teaser for the main event: the virtual filing cabinet, where every song on the set has its own folder bulging with handwritten lyrics, press clips, photos, snippets of in-concert introductions, alternate takes - the list is almost endless and it's always different, so it's easy to flip back to a song and discover a bunch of information you missed the first time around. Add to this, there are an untold number of Easter eggs, sometimes housing the best stuff here, such as videos of Young combing through the archives and reminiscing in 1997, or a 15-minute film clip of Young discovering a CSNY bootleg while record shopping in the early '70s and then taking it from the store. This level of detail may suggest the one serious flaw in Archives: it cannot be taken casually. It demands complete, undivided attention, requiring users to dig as deep as they'd like, and it's no stretch to say that it could take a week or two to discover everything here. Also, the set comes so tantalizingly close to being complete, it's a major irritation to have one song lopped off of each the albums; surely, the extra storage space on DVD and BluRay could have allowed for complete runs of Everybody, Gold Rush, and Harvest. But really, these complaints feel churlish when faced with a box that is an embarrassment of riches, offering so much more than anybody could have imagined during that long, long wait. Not only was the wait worth it, Archives feels like it was 20 years in the making. It's an extraordinary work that redefines what an autobiography can be.

Disc 1 : EARLY YEARS (1963 - 1968)

1. Aurora (The Squires)
2. The Sultan (The Squires)
3. I Wonder (The Squires)
4. Mustang (The Squires)
5. I'll Love You Forever Young (The Squires)
6. (I'm a Man And) I Can't Cry Young (The Squires)
7. Hello Lonely Woman (Neil Young & Comrie Smith)
8. Casting Me Away from You (Neil Young & Comrie Smith)
9. There Goes My Babe (Neil Young & Comrie Smith)
10. Sugar Mountain
11. Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
12. Runaround Babe
13. The Ballad of Peggy Grover
14. The Rent Is Always Due
15. Extra, Extra
16. Flying on the Ground Is Wrong Young (Buffalo Springfield)
17. Burned (Buffalo Springfield)
18. Out of My Mind (Buffalo Springfield)
19. Down, Down, Down (Buffalo Springfield)
20. Kahuna Sunset (Buffalo Springfield)
21. Mr. Soul (Buffalo Springfield)
22. Sell Out (Buffalo Springfield)
23. Down to the Wire (Buffalo Springfield)
24. Expecting to Fly (Buffalo Springfield)
25. Slowly Burning (Buffalo Springfield)
26. One More Sign (Buffalo Springfield)
27. Broken Arrow (Buffalo Springfield)
28. I Am a Child (Buffalo Springfield)

Review (Wikipedia) : Early Years (1963-1968) vormt deel 1 in de boxset. Het betreft de periode van The Squires en Buffalo Springfield. Uit de beginperiode zijn er onuitgebrachte nummers, maar ook nummers die onder Buffalo Springfield zijn uitgebracht. De muziek uit het allereerste tijdperk heeft veel weg van de muziek van The Shadows, maar al snel is het eigen geluid van Young te horen in Buffalo Springfield. Track 23 en 24 zijn georkestreerd en laten qua stijl een terugbeweging in de tijd horen.
Length : 79:37

Disc 2 : TOPANGA 1

1. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
2. The Loner
3. Birds
4. What Did You Do to My Life?
5. The Last Trip to Tulsa
6. Here We Are in the Years
7. I've Been Waiting for You
8. The Old Laughing Lady
9. I've Loved Her So Long
10. Sugar Mountain
11. Nowadays Clancy Can't Even sing
12. Down by the River
13. Cowgirl in the Sand
14. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Review (Wikipedia) : Topanga 1 (1968-1969) vormt deel 2 in de boxset. Topanga was de woonplaats van Young gedurende de periode herfst 1969-1970. Het album bevat nooit eerder uitgebrachte opnamen, dan wel remixen alsmede liedjes die terecht kwamen op de albums Neil Young en Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.
Length : 68:20

Disc 3 : LIVE AT THE RIVERBOAT

1. Sugar Mountain
2. The Old Laughing Lady
3. Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
4. On the Way Home
5. I've Loved Her So Long
6. I Am a Child Young
7. Bubblegum Disaster
8. The Last Trip to Tulsa
9. Broken Arrow
10. Whiskey Boot Hill
11. Expecting to Fly

Review (Wikipedia) : Live at The Riverboat (Toronto 1969) vormt deel 3 in de boxset. Het betreft een selectie uit een aantal optredens, die Neil Young als soloartiest verzorgde voor de The Riverboat in Toronto, Canada. Het album is even los te koop geweest bij de uitgave van Chrome dreams II, maar wordt nergens meer als apart album aangeboden. Alle nummers zijn liveversies van reeds beschikbare nummers, behalve Bubblegum Disaster, dat is nog niet eerder uitgegeven.
Recording Date : February 4 - 9, 1969
Venue : The Riverboat, Toronto, Canada
Length : 56:54

Disc 4 : TOPANGA 2

1. Cinnamon Girl
2. Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)
3. Round and Round (It Won't BeLong)
4. Oh Lonesome Me
5. Birds
6. Everybody's Alone
7. I Believe in You Young
8. Sea of Madness (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
9. Dance Dance Dance
10. Country Girl : Whiskey Boot Hill/Down, Down, Down/Country Girl (I Think I love you)
11. Helpless
12. It Might Have Been

Review (Wikipedia) : Topanga 2 (1969-1970) vormt deel 4 in de boxset. Het betreft de beginperiode als soloartiest, maar ook zijn samenwerking met Crazy Horse. Sommige tracks zijn te beluisteren op de albums Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere en After the Gold Rush, andere zijn onuitgebracht materiaal. Er staan ook opnamen op met Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY).
Length : 45:31

Disc 5 : LIVE AT THE FILLMORE EAST

Disc 6 : TOPANGA 3

1. Tell Me Why
2. After the Gold Rush
3. Only Love Can Break Your Heart
4. Wonderin'
5. Don't Let It Bring You Down
6. Cripple Creek Ferry
7. Southern Man
8. Till the Morning Comes
9. when You Can Dance, I Can Really Love
10. Ohio (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
11. Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
12. Tell Me Why (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
13. Music Is Love (Crosby, Nash & Young)
14. See the Sky About to Rain

Review (Wikipedia) : Topanga 3 (1969-1970) vormt deel 6 in de boxset. Het bevat een aantal opnamen, die Neil Young thuis inspeelde, alleen of samen met de band Crazy Horse. Ook is af en toe aanwezig Nils Lofgren, de latere gitarist bij de band van Bruce Springsteen en van zijn eigen bandje Lofgren. Lofgren zou Neil Young later ook nog begeleiden tijdens tournees, bijvoorbeeld traden ze samen midden jaren 80 op in Sportpaleis Ahoy.
Length : 47:53

Disc 7 : LIVE AT MASSEY HALL 1971

1. On the Way Home
2. Tell Me Why
3. Old Man
4. Journey Through the Past
5. Helpless
6. Love in Mind
7. A Man Needs a Maid/Heart of Gold (Suite)
8. Cowgirl in the Sand
9. Don't Let It Bring You Down
10. There's a World
11. Bad Fog of Loneliness
12. The Needle and the Damage Done
13. Ohio
14. See the Sky About to Rain
15. Down by the River
16. Dance Dance Dance
17. I Am a Child

Venue : Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Date : January 19th, 1971

Length : 67:38

Review (Wikipedia) : Live at Massey Hall is het tweede cd-album, dat is uitgegeven in de Neil Young Archives serie. Het is een registratie van het concert dat is opgenomen in Toronto, Canada. De enige muzikant is Neil Young zelf, op gitaar en piano.

Review (AllMusic) : The second volume of Neil Young's long-promised, suddenly thriving Archives series is Live at Massey Hall, preserving a 1971 acoustic show at the Toronto venue. Where the first volume captured a portion of Neil's past that wasn't particularly well documented on record -- namely, the rampaging original Crazy Horse lineup in its 1970 prime -- this second installment may seem to cover familiar ground, at least to the outside observer who may assume that any solo acoustic Young must sound the same. That, of course, is not the case with an artist as mercurial and willful as Young, who was inarguably on a roll in 1971, coming off successes with Crazy Horse, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and his second solo record, 1970's After the Gold Rush. The concert chronicled on Live at Massey Hall finds Neil dipping into these recent successes for material, as he also airs material that would shortly find a home on 1972's Harvest in addition to playing songs that wouldn't surface until later in the decade -- "Journey Through the Past" and "Love in Mind" wound up on 1973's Time Fades Away, "See the Sky About to Rain" showed up on 1974's On the Beach -- and then there's two songs that never showed up on an official Neil Young album: the stomping hoedown "Dance Dance Dance," which he gave to Crazy Horse, and "Bad Fog of Loneliness," which gets its first release here. This is a remarkably rich set of songs, touching on nearly every aspect of Young's personality, whether it's his sweetness, his sensitivity, his loneliness, or even his often-neglected sense of fun. True, the latter only appears on "Dance Dance Dance," but that comes as a welcome contrast to the stark sadness of "See the Sky About to Rain." But even if "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand" retain their intense sense of menace when stripped of the winding guitar workouts of Crazy Horse, this concert isn't dominated by melancholy: it's a warm, giving affair, built upon lovely readings of "Helpless," "Tell Me Why," "Old Man," and an early incarnation of "A Man Needs a Maid" (here played as a medley with "Heart of Gold") that removes the bombast of the Harvest arrangement, revealing the fragile, sweet song that lies underneath. While this concert isn't as freewheeling and rich as Young's studio albums of the early '70s -- each record had a distinctive character different from its predecessor, thanks in part to producer David Briggs, arranger/pianist Jack Nitzsche, and Young's supporting musicians, including Crazy Horse or the Stray Gators -- it nevertheless captures the essence of Neil Young the singer and songwriter at his artistic peak. That's the reason why this concert has been a legendary bootleg for nearly four decades and why its release 36 years after its recording is so special: it may not add an additional narrative to Neil Young's history, but it adds detail, color, and texture to a familiar chapter of his career, rendering it fresh once more. No wonder Briggs wanted to release this concert as an album between After the Gold Rush and Harvest: it not only holds its own against those classics, it enhances them. Live at Massey Hall was also released as a two-disc set that contained a CD of the show and a DVD containing the same concert in high fidelity audio.

Disc 8 : NORTH COUNTRY (1971-1972)

1. Heart of Gold
2. The Needle and the Damage Done
3. Bad Fog of Loneliness
4. Old Man
5. Heart of Gold
6. Dance Dance Dance
7. A Man Needs a Maid
8. Harvest
9. Journey Through the Past
10. Are You Ready for the Country?
11. Alabama
12. Words (Between the Lines of Age)
13. Soldier
14. War Song

Review (Wikipedia) : North Country (1971-1972) vormt deel 8 in de boxset. Het betreft de periode,dat Neil Young was verhuisd naar Woodside (Californië), een ranch die hij later omdoopte tot Broken Arrow Ranch. De nummers zijn opgenomen in de aldaar gebouwde studio, dan wel tijdens optredens van Young.
Length : 57:06