A summary of some of Neil’s most interesting answers to Letters to the Editor dated May 12 to August 23, 2021
This is a look back at Neil’s replies to readers’ letters in the NYA Times-Contrarian Letters to the Editor column reproduced here from my “Neil Young Unreleased” Facebook group.
Albums / Songs / Timeline Concerts
– The first six albums in the Official Bootleg Series are “all mastered and ready to press. Just no factories to produce it. Most of it will come in 2022.” Neil says there are already more albums planned for the series than the six already announced.
– Asked to name a “special moment amongst a million others” which really mattered to him, Neil replied: “Yes, it’s called Welcome Back”, a new song which seems likely to be on his new album with Crazy Horse.
– Bootleg releases of concerts will normally be “complete shows”, Neil says. Might that mean the occasional double LP?
– Neil raises the possibility of issuing a new edition of Archives Vol. 1 containing new material not in the original edition.
– Archives Vol. 3 is now planned to cover the years from 1976 to “1987 or so” and not 1990 as was previously announced.
– Neil is looking at the possibility of making the Timeline Concerts available for purchase in some form.
– “Ragged Glory is coming in 2022”, which presumably means the reissue of Ragged Glory with four extra tracks subtitled Smell The Horse.
– “The song Philadelphia is coming soon. It has a problem with the intro missing. It’s a mystery. We are working on it.”
– Someone claims to have heard Neil playing The Pretenders’ “Tattooed Love Boys” live once, and Neil says “I will see if we have it”. However, no one else seems to know anything about it, and it is not mentioned in SugarMtn.org.
– Mudflow Mike says he listened to a great version of Motion Pictures on NYA but it seems more likely he was confusing it with something else, perhaps the Ambulance Blues outtake. Neil was understandably a little confused.
– Will the only known live recording of Evening Coconut be included on Archives Vol. 3, Neil is asked. “Maybe. We need to check it out.”
– Neil has a recording of the 1997 Columbus, Ohio, HORDE show with a ‘rare’ performance of Too Far Gone, played there for the one and only time between 1992 and 2007.
– Neil is still checking whether the Geffen era songs can be offered for download purchase in NYA.
– “We are looking at Canterbury House as an NYA album”, says Neil, though he does not say what an “NYA album” might actually be when compared for example with a normal album. Possibly separate song audio files put together in the form of an album compilation to appear as an album in the File Cabinet as well as on the Timeline/App together with more information and credits? Who knows?
– Neil is still waiting for permission from the movie company to use the soundtrack from Where The Buffalo Roam on NYA. He is also looking into the possibility of including his songs from the soundtrack in Archives Vol. 3.
– Asked about releasing the “complete 1970 Fillmore East performance with Crazy Horse including the acoustic set”, Neil says “not at the moment… we will check it.”
– Asked about recordings from “other projects” appearing on NYA, such as Imagine from the America: A Tribute To Heroes Telethon, Neil says “We are looking at that.”
– Neil does not totally exclude the possibility of a Crazy Horse Fireside or Barnyard session for as long as live concerts are still off the cards.
– Neil resists valiant attempts by a number of fans asking him not to delay hi-res digital and CD releases simply because of current production delays with vinyl. Whether it is for nostalgic or commercial reasons, Neil says he prefers to stick to the ‘all-formats-at-once’ formula, though in his most recent answers he seems to be weakening a little and implies he is looking again at the situation.
– Asked about releasing the studio version of Last Dance with the Stray Gators (15 Dec 1972) and Sedan Delivery from the Duma/Zuma sessions with Crazy Horse (22 May 1975), Neil says “We have both of those on our list and they will appear.”
– Neil says he will discuss and try to arrange a separate release (vinyl only?) of the Live At The Riverboat album from Archives Vol. 1.
– The book from the Déjà Vu 50th Anniversary release is not going to be published separately, says Neil.
– Neil is not exactly sure why Everybody’s Alone did not appear on the disc of that name in Archives Vol.2. He says it may not have been “good enough. It rushed and kept getting faster.” But he will ask around to see if anyone else knows!
– The line in On The Beach about ending up alone at the microphone stems from a true story when a radio interviewer left Neil and Elliot Roberts on their own to spin the records.
– Neil confirms that the handwritten lyrics on the Hawks & Doves album were not done by him but by “an artist”. In any event there is no credit on the album itself.
– ORS releases are remasters.
Videos / Movies
– Neil describes the available footage of the 1984 Crazy Horse Catalyst show, thought to have been planned for Archives Vol.3, as “rough video”. Does this mean perhaps it won’t be ready for Archives Vol. 3?
– The film of Mirror Ball Live in Dublin with Pearl Jam from 1995 is currently due next year: “We have a movie with PJ coming in 22.”
– The new version of the Way Down In The Rust Bucket DVD with improved audio is now available for separate sale in the Greedy Hand Store.
– Neil confirms he is not in fact involved in a soundtrack for a planned film of the cult book The Monkey Wrench, despite a previous press article to the contrary.
– The CSNY film Living With War will be returning to Hearse Theater.
– “We have very little old horse footage. None with Danny Whitten”.
– Asked if the movie Journey Through The Past will be rereleased on DVD or Blu-ray, Neil answers “We will be doing that soon. It is currently all in the shute.”
– Neil will look seriously at making the pay-per-view Bridge School videos available for more than the current 24-hour period. Releases of Bridge School shows on DVD is very unlikely as it would mean getting permissions from every artist and record company.
– Film of the 30 September 2018 Philadelphia Tower Theater solo show is “coming soon”.
NYA Stuff
– NYA applies the term “unreleased” to Neil’s recordings if they were “never released as audio”. This therefore means songs released only on video media do not count as “released” in that specific sense.
– Neil answered a suggestion that Crazy Horse’s own albums should appear on NYA by saying “good idea”. In a separate letter, Neil said Ralph Molina’s last solo album Love & Inspiration should be getting an airing on NYA as a guest album soon.
– As a separate financial enterprise, NYA currently has some 26,000 subscribers but is not yet breaking even.
– Neil says he will certainly think about the possibility of arranging a Zoom “listening party” to give Patron level members of NYA a special sneak preview of the new Crazy Horse Barn album.
– “We don’t want a message board we have to police” on NYA, says Neil, referring to a chat/forum function. “We will leave that up to others to spend time on.”
Archive Crawls / Reader Requests…
– Outtakes from Buffalo Springfield Again
– The complete livestream of the 2018 Fresno show with Crazy Horse
– The 1989 Coffs Harbour, Australia, show
– The original Buffalo Springfield recordings of For What It’s Worth and Bluebird from the Mannix TV show
– Birds from the CSNY Fillmore East film (performed 2 Jun 1970) which has only ever been seen once in Hearse Theater
– In My Room, solo, from the Brian Wilson MusiCares Gala (11 Feb 2005)
– Neil is asked for another “ripping” live version of Last Dance as a dying wish. He says he remembers one in particular and will try to find it.
Miscellaneous
– Neil says he has considered performing again in “tiny” venues with “hundreds rather than thousands” in the audience.
– A Neil thought for the day: “The moon is a beautiful way to keep track of things”.
– Neil confirms that none of his master tapes were lost in the Universal Studios fire in 2008.
– “John Hanlon has stepped back and is not working too much for me now. We all miss his stuff.”
– Neil confirms that he still owns the WN Ragland, his Baltic trader sailboat.
– Still no specific news on the opening of the EU/European Greedy Hand Store, apparently to be based in Germany.