Neil Young Releases Archives Volume 1. Another “finally.” Rumored in the works for years (and years) but held back because Young wasn’t happy with the available technology, Young and high-end technology finally merge and the result is a stunning integration of music, history, sound, and video. We’re talking about the high-end Blu-ray version here (a CD version contains just the music at CD quality, which is nothing to ignore, and the DVD version contains much of the video and still photos with improved sound) but it’s the Blu-ray version that is going to make its mark and lead the way to the Brave New World of great-sounding music. (Tom Petty just released a Blu-ray version of his career-retrospective as well.)
The NY archive is an onion of information and detail, and as you peel back the layers you find handwritten lyrics, photos, prospective record plans, alternate LP covers, memorabilia, alternate takes, demo live versions – and feather roach clips that link to live video recordings. Other hidden paths lead to video moments such as Young stalking a record store where he discovers a bootlegged concert of his and a clip of Young in 1997 opening a letter he mailed to himself in 1963 as an informal copyright of “The Sultan.” And an interactive timeline connects users to the internet and allows Young to send out updates of new material – audio or video performances, posters, set lists, etc. as Young uncovers them is what must be a vast Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse of material.
Not for the casual Neil Young listener, but for the fan this set is a must. And we haven’t even mentioned the sound, which is knock-down “you are there” and the only reason you need to get it. A live recording at Toronto’s Riverboat nightclub from 1969 puts you front and center with Young on a stool with guitar in his lap. You can hear the room and feel the space, and when Young plays live at the Fillmore East with Crazy Horse a year later the guitars make the place ring and you can hear how high the roof is just before the band blows it off. Danny Whitten never sounded better and Young never sounded more like he was part of a band.
Credit Young and the musicians to begin with, and then credit the remastering. Then credit Young’s attention to detail, foresight, and patience for waiting until he could pull off what he had in mind. But he couldn’t have done it without the Blu-ray process which enables storage and withdrawal of so much information so quickly that as a listener you can be right “there,” whether it’s in the barn during the Harvest sessions or in the constrained-sounding Gold Star studios recording Buffalo Springfield and his first solo record. The only complaint? Why not release Blu-ray versions of all the records? Instead in late fall Young released regular CD remasters, gold CD remasters, and 180-gram vinyl remasters of his first four LPs. Hope you kept your turntable!
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