Neil Young was on a creative high in 1975. By the end of the
summer, Zuma was finished, though still not released. Yet
Neil carried on recording his new songs. Sometimes he recorded
solo and sometimes with Crazy Horse. Lots of these songs would
remain unheard by the public until quite a while later, but
by late ’75, Neil had already written and recorded versions
of such future classics as Like A Hurricane, Powderfinger,
Sedan Delivery, Pocahontas and Ride By Llama.
He carried on recording in 1976. More great songs were put
down on tape, such as Will To Love, Stringman and Campaigner.
Some of us may feel that the Long May You Run album with Stephen
Stills robbed us of the natural successor to Zuma, but Stills
always suspected that Neil was holding back his best stuff
for his solo album. That solo album was a work in progress
throughout this period. Titles were reported in the press:
Ride My Llama, In My Neighborhood, American Stars ‘N Bars,
Chrome Dreams.
When American Stars ‘N Bars was released in 1977, Neil had
scrapped most of the material he’d been recording since late
’75, replacing much of it with a series of rough hewn cowboy
songs. Fun stuff to be sure, but had Neil committed the latest
in a series of difficult to explain career suicides? Who else,
except maybe Bob Dylan, would sit on a stash of such quality
songs and not let the public hear them?
Tracks 1 to 12 of this compilation are thought to be the unreleased
Chrome Dreams album, readied for release weeks before Neil
recorded those country hoedowns and rethought his strategy.
Some of these song titles will be more than familiar to you,
but the actual performances may surprise you.
Powderfinger is performed as an unadorned solo acoustic song;
Sedan Delivery, a second song destined for Rust Never sleeps,
is presented in its pre-punked up arrangement and, in many
people’s opinion, sounds all the better for that. You’ll also
find the definitive Stringman, a song not given an official
airing until Neil’s Unplugged set, heard here in a 1976 live
performance enhanced by subtle yet beautiful studio vocal
and guitar overdubs; Hold Back The Tears is another solo performance,
longer and more ghostly that its later remake for American
Stars ‘N Bars; Pocahontas is the same performance as the one
that made Rust Never Sleeps, but in its original "Naked Mix;"
Too Far Gone wouldn’t be officially released until the Freedom
album in 1989, yet here’s a version from 14 years earlier
with Poncho Sampedro adding a tasty mandolin part.
The other six songs from the album were released unchanged
on the albums American Stars ‘N Bars, Comes A Time and Hawks
And Doves, yet you may still be able to pick out slight differences
in the mixes. Homegrown, for one, would seem to have a little
more fire in the guitars. Have a listen and see what you think.
We’ve chosen a select batch of bonus cuts to give you a further
taste of just how creative Neil was during this fertile period.
If the version of White Line (here retitled River Of Pride,
maybe because Neil forgot to sing the actual White Line lyric)
didn’t make the Chrome Dreams shortlist, then its continued
circulation among collectors is something of a mystery. Maybe
it was pressed onto acetate as a possible contender for Decade,
which Neil was also preparing at this time. Whatever the truth,
it’s a stupendous version of the song, recorded in 1975 with
a loose and joyful Crazy Horse. Neil’s remake for Ragged Glory
in 1990 may have been fine but it doesn’t quite capture the
spirit of this earlier version. Campaigner did make Decade,
but not before losing one of its verses. You can hear the
full-length version here.
Three live cuts follow. No One Seems To Know is an aching
piano ballad that Neil once described as Part 2 of A Man Needs
A Maid, it’s first class but remains unreleased; Give Me Strength
dates from an earlier ill-fated album called Homegrown (an
album that would have also featured Star Of Bethlehem, the
oldest cut in this collection) and is another lost classic;
Peace Of Mind is heard as an electric rock song played with
the Horse and very different from the version Neil released
on Comes A Time.
And, as a nod to Zuma, we close with Crosby Stills Nash &
Young. Human Highway was recording during the Stills-Young
sessions in 1976. The song was always meant to be a CSNY track,
but Neil had run out of patience by the Comes A Time LP. Now
you can have a glimpse of what might have been, which, come
to think of it, is also true of the whole collection. - Jules
Gray (May 20, 2004), in the sleeve notes to Chrome Dreams
(Rust Edition) |
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Track
Details:
01. Pocahontas
02. Will To Love
03. Star Of Bethlehem
04. Like A Hurricane
05. Too Far Gone
06. Hold Back The Tears
07. Homegrown
08. Captain Kennedy
09. Stringman
10. Sedan Delivery
11. Powderfinger
12. Look Out For My Love
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Bonus Tracks:
13. River Of Pride ('White Line', Unreleased Studio Version,
27 Nov 75)
14. Campaigner (Unedited, Unreleased Studio Version, Summer
1976)
15. No One Seems To Know (Live, Tokyo, Japan, 10 Mar 76)
16. Give Me Strength (Live, Chicago, IL, 15 Nov 76)
17. Peace Of Mind (Live, Chicago, IL, 15 Nov 76)
18. Human Highway (CSNY, Unreleased Studio Version, April
76)
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