NEIL YOUNG WITH CRAZY HORSE : EARLY DAZE

1. Dance Dance Dance
2. Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown
3. Winterlong
4. Everybody’s Alone
5. Wonderin’
6. Cinnamon Girl
7. Look At All The Things
8. Helpless
9. Birds
10. Down By The River

Label : Reprise Records

Length : 38:40

Release Date : June 28, 2024

Review (PopMatters) : Neil Young and Crazy Horse have had a long (if intermittent), critically acclaimed, and commercially successful run. Looking back from 2024, their union feels inevitable, their connection almost inherent to their artistry. That future wasn’t predictable in 1968 (or even in 1970 after the acts separated). Young, while clearly a musician of note, had just put out his first solo album. Crazy Horse were still the Rockets, a psychedelic rock group of no note (and virtually no sales). They knew Young, who had played with them at a show in 1968, and he decided to use some of the Rockets as his backing band for his next solo album and its tour. Then, the artists found they fit each other with a staggering sound. Young’s new album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, would turn out to be one of the best of his career, and Young and Crazy Horse – off and on and through regular lineup changes – would remain connected as artists from then on. But in those first days, it was hard to imagine Neil Young and a band of ragged country rockers creating one of rock’s most essential sounds. It happened almost immediately, though, and the new archival release Early Daze showcases ten tracks (most previously unreleased) from the 1969 sessions. At this point, the group comprised Danny Whitten (guitar, vocals), Billy Talbot (bass), and Ralph Molina (drums, vocals), along with Jack Nitzsche, who’d recorded with Young before, on piano. Whitten’s guitar playing proved to be essential to Everybody, shaping the sound and giving Young freedom for his wild playing. He would tragically die of an overdose just a few years later, but Talbot and Molina have remained the core of Crazy Horse ever since (Nitzsche never quite fit and was part of the group for just a brief run). Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Everybody's Alone (Official Audio) For anyone familiar with Neil Young’s early 1970s output, the quality of these songs won’t be surprising. “Dance, Dance, Dance” became popular as an archival release, although a different version ended up being a key piece of Crazy Horse’s self-titled debut. Likewise, “Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown” (written mainly by Whitten) found initial release on that record, only appearing later on Young’s Tonight’s the Night in 1975. The addict-focused lyrics contrast with the buoyant music, and the singer does not see the risk (though that’s more visible in the timing and setting of Young’s record). The sound perfectly fits the Young and Crazy Horse aesthetic, a country rocker that takes idiosyncratic turns, always raw and energetic. That description could apply to much of Early Daze. Neil Young and Crazy Horse worked fast, putting energy into intense early takes (oddly, it’s “take 14” of “Come on Baby” used here). They latched onto new music quickly, and those immediate responses were often the best. This compilation closes with the first take of “Down By the River”, not drastically different than what listeners would be familiar with except for an alternate vocal. The cut’s as fantastic now as it was 50 years ago and even packaged as part of outtakes and demos that come through. Of course, that’s the limitation of Early Daze. In retrospect, it’s amazing to hear how quickly this sound came together and the amount of classic material Young and Crazy Horse would develop. At the same time, it isn’t always that insightful. The “Cinnamon Girl” included in this set is the seven-inch mono mix with a guitar outro not included on the LP, which amounts to just a few seconds. “Everybody’s Alone” is a hidden gem but gets a different mix (and in a smaller package) here than in The Archives Vol. 1. Fans will pick up some differences in the alternate versions and probably enjoy the dissection, but the set – at least uncoupled from all the other archival material – doesn’t shed much insight into the process or the behind-the-scenes work, even the studio chatter does add nice touches. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Look At All the Things (Official Audio) In the end, that point might or might not matter. The ten songs here are primarily great and well performed in that classic Neil Young and Crazy Horse style. It adds only a bit to our understanding of who the musicians were and are, but it does highlight their early connectedness, a characteristic that allowed their art to flourish not only immediately but over the decades, too.

Review (Variety) : One of the biggest challenges for any artist is knowing when a creation — a song, a story, a painting — is finished and ready to be shared with the world. More than many, Neil Young has shown a willingness to wait, recording songs and full albums — and even performing them in concert — and then sitting on them for years… or decades. In just one of many examples, “Winterlong,” one of his greatest songs, was previewed in concert as a work in progress in 1968, recorded and performed live with Crazy Horse over the next two years, then re-recorded and slotted for inclusion on at least two different albums before finally being released on his “Decade” compilation in 1977. Likewise, his legendary 1970 Fillmore East concert with Crazy Horse was almost released several times before he finally issued it thirty-six years after it was recorded; his “Chrome Dreams” studio album was considered for release in 1977 but didn’t come out until last year. And in 2020, upon the belated release of his excellent 1975 studio album “Homegrown,” he actually apologized to his fans for holding it back for so long. So nearly all of Young’s albums have parallel histories — alternate versions including contemporaneous songs that wouldn’t be released until long after. His mercurial nature and sudden changes of heart are part of his legend and what keeps fans fascinated, more than 60 years after his recording career began. While “Early Daze” wasn’t intended to be an album, it includes many songs recorded in 1969, in the months after the release of Young’s iconic “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” breakthrough. Nearly all of these songs would turn up in different versions in many different places: There are early versions of “Winterlong”; “Dance Dance Dance” and “Downtown” (both of which turned up on Crazy Horse’s 1971 debut album); the classic “Helpless,” which would be one of the timeless tracks on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s “Déjà Vu”; the countryesque “Wonderin’,” which Young wouldn’t release until 1983’s rockabilly-flavored “Everybody’s Rockin’.” There are also different mixes or versions of the “Nowhere” tracks “Cinnamon Girl” and “Down by the River,” along with early versions of “Birds” (an alternate recording would appear a year later on “After the Gold Rush”) and, finally, a version of “Look at All the Things,” written and sung by Crazy Horse’s enormously talented guitarist-singer Danny Whitten, who would die of a drug overdose in 1972 and sadly inspire Young’s dark “Tonight’s the Night” album. While all of these songs are complete and the playing is on point, there’s also a loose quality to them that feels like you’re sitting in on a rehearsal — Young famously loved Crazy Horse’s ramshackle groove, which could go off the rails at any moment and often did in concert (and still does, as the band’s current summer tour shows), but also can make for absolutely electrifying rock and roll. Young, just 23 when most of these songs were recorded, had only been playing with this group for a few months: Whitten, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina had been appropriated from a band called the Rockets, and were joined by Young’s longtime collaborator Jack Nitzsche, a keyboardist/ arranger who’d worked extensively with Phil Spector and the Rolling Stones (and also Buffalo Springfield). That newness contributes enormously to the freshness of these versions, which also have that surreal sense that often accompanies early versions of now-iconic songs: At one point, we hear producer David Briggs say, “Okay we’re rolling, what’s the name of this one Neil? ‘Down by the River’? Okay, ‘Down by the River,’ take one…” More than a half century later, you’re there with them at Wally Heider Studio in Hollywood, hearing Young and Crazy Horse spend nine minutes breaking in one of rock’s most classic songs, and lots more besides …