Hey there!
Any chance we could get the audio-only tracks from “The Complex Sessions” on the Archives? I know they were released as a promo-only CD in ’94 and it’d be great to have these versions for easy listening in the app.
Thank you!
-nm
nm
It is being scheduled
LOVE
NEIL
BE WELL
Hi Neil,
Interesting times of change globally and personally. Thankful we are entering the Year of the Horse and now are finally shedding the skin of the Snake of last year. I recently wrote to Reverend Billy regarding the GOD particle theory, are you familiar? Basically, if we hate upon, or boycott, it gives the ‘other’ more power. Remember when you boycotted Starbucks? Look at them now. I get that we must be consciously aware of the companies we support as it relates to the imbalance and shift. The POTUS and his posse are truly concerning. Surprised he hasn’t publicly dissed you.
The Department of Heath and Human Services is making some positive strides in the medical field. I am hopeful that we will shift to more availability of functional medicine doctors. I had another ER visit. If you have to go I recommend an early arrival. Got a bunch of testing. Seems I got some bad guidance from a doctor which caused a BP spike along with an allergic reaction.
The flip side of the GOD particle theory is sending love. When one thinks kindly and lovingly upon another, those thoughts energetically transfer and create miracles. I guess my question is how do we say that ‘one’ is a narcissistic, greedy human and ‘we’ do not respect their treatment of others, with love? Food for thought.
No driver for the return this time. Best medicine, Johnny. We spent the day together. Enjoyed music and watched rock climbing movies. Did you see Alex Honnords recent live climb? Part of the shift….
I do think that older souls have a bit more … Johnny started rock climbing … I have Lyme. Be mindful of your ‘power and position.’
Much love,
Linda
Thanks Linda for your kind and thoughtful message
LOVE
NEIL
Be well
Neil,
Not one reflection on the life of Bob Weir?
He deserves more light than ICE or f’ing Stephen Miller for goodness sake!
RIP Bob … VOTE everyone, VOTE!
Peace MPLS
Wish he was still around to lay down some funk and bring attention, awareness and real unity.
Not too many good people remain.
“We need a new leader … stand up, organize”
G
Thanks G.
You are right about Bob
I am very distracted by our situation.
I met him a few times and he was nice guy. Good vibe. great musician
Crazy times…..
LOVE
neil
be well
Modern World & Ocean Way
Thank you for the enjoyable Patrons event this week, for sharing those striking, poignant lyrics to one of the new songs you’ve written recently, and for some detail on Archives V4.
There’s a mouthwatering mix within what you’ve already mentioned (though I noticed there was no mention of anything from the OPL Echos shows) but I was wondering just how much you have/will release from the Rick Rubin Ocean Way sessions.
Rick’s work on “World Record” was sublime: crystal clear sound like I was in the room as the Horse played, and I would love to hear whatever you have from those 1997 sessions.
“Modern World” is the one for me—I love the Catalyst live takes that came along on the Timeline show (I always liked it on the audience bootleg too); your harp playing is so cool, Billy’s bass thumps and those breezy pop sensibilities are so unusual for a Horse song (see also “Bright Sunny Day” as a distant ancestor to “Modern World”).
Have you listened to the Rubin produced “Modern World” recently as you review V4 content? Are you happy with how it sounds now?
I can almost see the Chrome Hearts getting to grips with Modern World somewhere in Europe….
… BTW … last one… the new songs you have written. Are you recording now? Full moon time … and is it/will it be a Chrome Hearts record?
Thanks, as ever, to all at NYA for what you do,
Mark
Norfolk, UK
Mark
Modern World is in V4 and sounds great. I love it.
Hope I get to work with Rick again.
Chrome Hearts and producing with Lou on this one…
LOVE NEIL
BE WELL
Hi Neil,
Please explain how no shopping, working, or school will help to stop funding for ICE. It will hurt small businesses that rely on each day’s sales. Some people cannot afford to miss a day’s work, and I can see them being harassed by those who took off. Small business should be supported any way possible.
Mary Jane
Mary Jane, stopping support for the corporations that directly support ICE and Trump will have big effect. GOOGLE and META are two big examples. School is not on a list of things to stop. Read and learn how to Vote with your wallet. Many corporations are listed in the Editorial section of the Times Contrarian.
If you read the editorial section it explains the shopping, but I can tell you here…only stop buying from those who support the TRUMP ICE thing. Do shop at any small stores.
With the honors given to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, I am reminded of when Charlie Kirk was killed. In the past you have given a message hoping people would refrain from violence and respect others that had different views. Instead, the song which was etched on the bullet was honored as well as a song that to me implied he basically got what he deserved. I thought then that “Throw Your Hatred Down’ and ‘Love and Only Love’ belonged to a bygone era. An era I greatly respected.
Those two songs belong here and now.
When Charlie Kirk was killed, it was a murder. I do not support that. I strongly disagreed with his views.
If you want me to quit sharing my views with you, just let me know, or don’t rely to my letter. I can take a hint. Your response to my last letter sounded like you were quite irritated by the views I expressed.
Mary Jane
I like all your letters. i don’t care if you agree. You have a good voice and I appreciate your using it. When you say something like you said in the first paragraph, please enclose a copy of what I said so I can understand.
With love for you and our nation
Mary Jane
LOVE
PEACE MARYJANE
NEIL
be well
Hey Neil,
I was curious—and you know I am a curious guy—about the carbon footprint of touring and the comparable values of say buses and trucks compared for example to trains. I started thinking about all of this because of your thoughts in Times-Contrarian on touring Australia. What interested me was the fact that there are fairly regular trains running the whole stretch from say Brisbane to Sydney, from Sydney to Melbourne, and on from Melbourne to Adelaide. (Let’s leave Perth and Darwin out of the equation for the moment since they are indeed rather off the beaten track!)
Now I know that such calculations are a very complex wasps’ nest, and I am not a scientist anyway, but it seems to me that the kind of figures that Google AI come up with are likely to be able to give at least a rough idea of comparative values.
So I thought you might just like to look at what I came up with.
Europe long hauls by coach/truck—example European Tour 2025
The total road mileage of the 2025 tour was roughly 9,000 km counting from say Stockholm through all the places you visited in order (but excluding for the sake of argument any possible empty bus mileage for UK buses coming from say London to Stockholm, or back from Paris).
I assume a minimum of three buses and one, maybe even two trucks were involved. Never been a roadie so I have no idea how big a touring company is! Could be more but probably not less.
Three buses with one truck covering 9,000 km produces, according to Google AI, 42 tonnes of CO2. Three buses and two trucks create as much as 54 tonnes of CO2. I know, I know, it sounds terrible … and I am not sure what happens to the CO2 if the buses, etc. run on bio-diesel…. That may be one answer to this whole conundrum.
However, the main problem here is the number of people being transported. Divide those figures by say 40 people and you come to as much as one tonne, or up to 1.3 tonnes, per person. Less of course per person if more people are involved, but that doesn’t affect the actual total of CO2 produced and that is really what matters.
You will notice I have left the flights to and from Los Angeles out of the equation here. HOWEVER Los Angeles–Brisbane is 11,500 km and Los Angeles–Stockholm (2025) is 9,000 km. So there is not really so much more mileage involved. And since planes burn a large part of their total fuel climbing and landing rather than cruising eight miles high, the significant difference between the routes would be even smaller.
But how might all this compare with an Australian tour if you could use the trains which run there?
Australia long hauls by train.
Fly into Brisbane—direct flights from LAX. Brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to Melbourne, and Melbourne to Adelaide are each about 900 km, so that makes very roughly 2,700 km. Now Google AI tells me that an empty diesel train apparently produces 25 to 50 tonnes of CO2 on a stretch of that length depending on various factors. OK, that is not so much less than the road trip in Europe. BUT, now here’s the thing—those trains are running anyway, you are not adding to the footprint by doing what you are doing, AND the trains are hopefully carrying a lot more passengers than just your touring crew. Even if there were only 60 extra passengers in addition to your 40, that all comes out at between 0.25 and 0.50 tonnes of CO2 per person.
Now here’s the real catch. I just checked. The intercity trains in Australia are mostly electric!!, so you can basically forget the comparative CO2 calculation. And the journey times for stretch are 10–12 hours only. There are it seems both day and overnight services with sleeping cars and of course restaurants, etc. and you can take longer walks than inside a tour bus!
Now I know it’s all not that simple. The road crew, for example, work to different schedules and need more time than the band before and after the shows. But with a slightly more relaxed timetable between shows—which I am sure would be much healthier for you and Spooner too—it shouldn’t be totally impossible to do most of the transport by train, even if a truck or two were necessary from time to time. You would certainly have a lot of spare CO2 in the calculation to play with.
I am happy to see you here in Europe of course. And if you don’t want to tour Australia, that’s your business and rightly so. But I am not sure the environmental argument cuts it in this case.
Again I am no scientist so it would be good to get my figures checked by someone who really knows what they are talking about. I certainly don’t!
Thank you, by the way, for offering me Judy’s impossible-to-fill role in looking after the Members Column. I shall be coming up with some good articles soon. And thank you too for the generous 3-month RUST offer for her FB group, which I am currently helping the wonderful Margaret Oakes Maher to run until they get back up to speed without Judy. I’m also wondering if you have read Constant’s book. I don’t think there is anything in there you won’t like, otherwise I wouldn’t have helped him do the English version!
Take care of yourselves over there. Am I glad I am over here in Europe, though I would very seriously consider going to defend the coast of Greenland if it came to it, even at my age … 73 next week!
Love and only love
Broadfoot
. . .
Sorry Neil, just one final idea regarding my thoughts on environmentally friendly touring to Australia. Go solo. Maybe even go by boat. Stop off in Hawaii and a few Pacific Islands on the way before they disappear under the rising ocean. What a statement that would be. A lot less stressful, also financially more efficient, and I am sure Daryl would love it. Imagine the movie! Sunrise over Tonga. Train rides across the Australian landscape. Sunset over the Great Barrier Reef…. Like a second honeymoon! You could then even do New Zealand too. Make a statement about Mother Earth! The world would be following you.
Love and only love
Broadfoot
Thanks Broadfoot
We investigated every angle, trains boats planes……It is not working for me yet. We are still looking at ways…..routing, other countries and gigs enroute etc…We use the cleanest diesel possible, at all times. Don’t know if its available in Australia do you? LMK.
The damage to earth worries me. I just cancelled a tour.
LOVE
Neil
be well
I just want to let you know that there are some of us that support ICE and the removal of illegal aliens and criminals from our great country. It saddens me that you stand by true liars and tyrants in the Democratic Party that don’t believe in law, order or sovereignty. There is no way cities can operate safely when the law of sanctuary prevents local police departments and officials from working to deport criminals that don’t belong here. I wish Neil, you would see this side of this issue. Thanks for your open mindedness and keeping things in spirit of the earth and love. Thanks, Ross in West Seattle.
Hey Ross
ICE is not the answer. Racism is not the answer. White Supremacy is not the answer.
ICE treats Americans like shit.
ICE is a Fascist tool for control.
We must find a better way..
Any ideas?
LOVE
BE WELL
neil
Searching for the Philosopher’s Stone
Stay strong, reactor, Life
Peace and love,
Jason
PEACE
LOVE
THANKS
neil
Good on you mate. Have just heard about your Greenland step, am subscribing and will stay subscribed. Very glad to get and listen to your music, used to like it, haven’t listened much lately.
I’m a pretty young feller for you, sixty three.
Wishing you all the best mate,
Mark
PEACE
LOVE
THANKS
neil
hello, Neil, I’m so looking forward to your European tour this summer—I’ll be traveling down to Lucca (from London) for your concert.
I’ve been listening to ‘Ohio’—it captures these times so well alas … Would you consider adding it to your tour setlist? It would be great to hear your update of it
Uma
Uma
So sorry Uma. The tour has been cancelled.
LOVE NEIL
BE WELL
Hello Neil: I cancelled my NYA account because of the anti-President Donald Trump song on your last recording like back in August 2025. I also sold the tickets I bought on your website for the Sept 2025 Hollywood Bowl concert. Last year when you announced your upcoming tour that you would even invite Trump to go to your show as you wanted to celebrate the music and for all to have a good time. You lied. Trump is the best thing that has happened to our country since President Reagan. Open borders is destroying this country along with Europe (Canada) also. ICE and homeland security is doing what most Americans want and when these IDOIT violent protesters obstruct law enforcement doing their job bad things happen. Your Neil Young Times Contrarian section on your website is pure left wing propaganda like the old soviet union PRAVDA. You so-called Artists like Springsteen Dylan Mellencamp etc should stick to playing music because most people don’t want to here about politics.Also the prices for tickets are outrageous. Anyway good luck with your touring but you would think at you age you would want to play the music and entertain the fans instead of fanning the flames of anarchy.
I dont agree with anything you said. I don’t have all the answers. BUT IT’S NOT ICE AND TRUMP
LOVE NEIL
Be well
Dear Neil,
1. Today, exactly 54 years ago, Harvest was released. An album so important for me, because I initially did not like it at all. My brother bought the record and I listened to it, and it was just boring. Especially Words, nothing happened in that song. I was used to hear blistering guitar solos. And then your voice, high pitched.…
Several months later I slowly started to like Words, and it began to grow on me. The live version of The Needle And The Damage Done was one of the songs that inspired me to start playing the (acoustic) guitar.
The album Harvest has always remained one of my most favorite albums. Even the album sleeve was special, with that carton like material. It is the only record I ever bought twice, because of the original being worn out!
Many years later the DVD-Audio version came out, with that same special disc sleeve material. How cool, and so much better than that glossy CD booklet.
Fast forward to 2011: Mojo Magazine released a free tribute CD, called Harvest Revisited. With all the songs from Harvest covered, in the same sequence as the original. Now I’d expect that you will not have much interest in what other people do with your music, because you are a creator yourself. So this is probably more a release for fans of your music. But that 2011 Mojo Harvest Revisited CD has some mighty fine covers of your songs. There are some surprising renditions of the original songs, like Heart Of Gold. But two songs really shine: Words (great guitar playing) and A Man Needs A Maid (emotionally very close to the original, but listen to that voice!).
I found that Mojo CD just recently, what a gem! Highly recommended.
2. Just another note: ‘Anonymous’ wrote this letter recently to you: ‘There’s a wonderful performance on YouTube of “On the Beach” at Rosemont Theater in Rosemont, IL on May 1st, 1999.’ That reminded me of a much better version I heard long ago: it is probably from the Euro Solo Tour 2003, Hamburg April 29. Acoustic 6-string, very bluesy, lots of improvisation, and in a never-heard-before style from you. I wonder how you would look back on that performance of On The Beach.
Stay well and (as always) greetings from Germany, Jan
Thanks Jan
LOVE
Neil
be well
Hi Neil,
I was listening to a compilation from your Greendale tour in Europe second set material and there were some funny moments. In Stuttgart there was a pause and many song requests were made, with someone requesting “Carry On” to which you responded in a stunned voice, “Carry On, what’s that?” and played a few bars on the piano as the audience members screamed out “Hello.” In London someone yelled out, “Thanks for showing up this time” to which you responded, “It’s not good when I don’t show up.” In Hamburg, someone requested Hitchhiker and you strummed a few notes and said “there are too many words, and I’d have to work on it” but played it the next night in Berlin. You hadn’t played it in 11 years and after this performance didn’t play it for seven more years. Maybe a new section, The Lighter Side of Neil, dealing with audience banter could be a worthwhile addition to the site. These are troubling times and a few laughs could help us all.
Andrew J
Thanks Andrew.
Quite an idea!
LOVE NEIL
Be well
Dear Mr. Young,
I started listening to your music when I was 14 years old. I am now 55 and I still listen to you almost every day, including as I write this note. I went to my first concert of yours in 1986 and most recently last year in New Hampshire. Thank you for all the music you have made and continue to make. Thank you for being such an important part of my life and for making my life better.
God bless,
Rich W.
Thanks to you Rich
LOVE
Neil
be well
Hi Neil,
Here is not even a poem or lyrics for a song, but a ditty on the thoughts of the day!
The Monks cross the Country for the Peace,
Ice does battle in the Streets,
Greenland guards it’s borders well,
And says to Trump ‘Go to Hell!”
Lies, lies all we hear are lies,
Even when the Truth is plain to see,
We just keep hearing lies
On a lighter note, do you ever consider writing a song about Old Black?
Gareth
Gareth
Nope!
Have not ever thought about an OLD BLACK song.
LOVE
BE WELL
Neil
Hi Neil,
I have been so appreciative of your push to get hi-res music and it has brought me back to listening again!
I was wondering what your thoughts are on DSD quality compared to the PCM that is most common.
The technology is so intriguing and to my mind can allow for even higher more analog-like resolution although the size of the files can become quite large.
… a fan for 65 years,
Dale
Anything that improves the sound!! I love analog.
LOVE NEIL
BE WELL
Hi Neil,
Thank you for all that you’ve done to inform people regarding the relationships between corporate America and the current administration. I think “Vote with Your Wallet” is the perfect message, as it does seem to be the one vote that gets people’s attention. We certainly saw the proof in the response to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension in 2025 (in case anyone has doubts about the power of voting with your wallet).
I also saw you may be considering some US dates leading up to the mid-term elections. If you do end up doing so, as an idea, you could call it the “Take America Back” tour. I certainly would be interested in attending that 🙂
For what it’s worth, the states that appear most critical to win for the House and Senate to flip are Arizona, California, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Each of those states have two “toss up” races. Also important for the Senate are North Carolina and Georgia.
Despite the dark times, I hope you are in good spirits and have a great time in Europe later this year. Looking forward to hopefully hearing your new music soon.
Doug
Thanks Doug. I had to cancel my tour of Europe, but hope to be back on the road soon. LOVE
Neil
be well
Dear Neil,
Does there exist a tab overview of the solo you played together with REM during COUNTRY FEEDBACK at BSB 1998?
Best, Albert.
Albert
we are checking that
LOVE
BE WELL
thanks
neil
Dear Neil:
I am sitting in a conference room in Santa Fe (the old Navajo Trail) far from home and preparing for a trial against META and am listening to Coastal. Being here makes me think of your song Albuquerque and contemplating the best place to find me some fried eggs and country ham. I love this song. I am not sure when you played it live last, and I know you are not a human jukebox, but it really is a great song and I hope to hear you play it live at least once.
Much love and respect to you and Daryl always,
Mike
Thanks Mike
Santa Fe is less than 90 miles away!
LOVE
PEACE
Neil
be well