Chrome Dreams
Chrome Dreams is the 46th studio album by Neil Young. It was first compiled as an acetate for consideration as an album for release in 1977. A copy of the acetate widely circulated as a bootleg in the decades prior to its release. The album was officially released on August 11, 2023 to universal acclaim from critics.
Chrome Dreams
August 11, 2023
December 13, 1974 – February 6, 1977
Quadrafonic, Nashville
Broken Arrow Ranch, Woodside
Indigo Ranch, Malibu
Point Dume
50:28
- Neil Young
- David Briggs
- Elliot Mazer
- Tim Mulligan
- Richard Kaplan[1]
Recording history[edit]
First compiled in spring 1977, Chrome Dreams is a showcase of songs that Young had recorded over the previous two years. It compiles songs from several different sessions with various collaborators and backing musicians. The earliest recording, "Star of Bethlehem", was recorded at the end of 1974 and intended to be the closing track of Homegrown, an abandoned album eventually released in 2020. "Sedan Delivery", recorded during the Zuma sessions, has a slower pace than the Rust Never Sleeps take and contains an additional verse. "Too Far Gone", "Homegrown", "Like a Hurricane", "Look Out for My Love" were all recorded at various sessions at Young's Broken Arrow Ranch with Crazy Horse during the fall and winter after the release of Zuma and before the supporting tour of Europe and Japan in the Spring of 1976. "Too Far Gone" was not released until 1989's Freedom. It is presented on Chrome Dreams with Crazy Horse's Frank "Poncho" Sampedro accompanying Young on a 1917 mandolin. "Stringman", a piano ballad, was (according to Shakey) written for Jack Nitzsche and is presented as a performance from Young's 1976 European tour with slight studio overdubs. Eighteen years later Young revived it for his Unplugged performance. "Powderfinger", "Pocahontas", and "Captain Kennedy" all date from the August 1976 session featured on the 2017 album Hitchhiker. "Pocahontas" is the same version heard on Rust Never Sleeps without overdubs. "Will to Love" has Young performing before a fireplace at his ranch. He later overdubbed additional instrumentation. The acoustic solo performance of "Hold Back the Tears" has additional lyrics not found on the band recording on American Stars 'n Bars.[2]
Album history[edit]
According to Jimmy McDonough's Shakey: Neil Young's Biography, Chrome Dreams was first compiled onto an acetate in 1977.[3] A copy of the acetate was subsequently copied and widely circulated by bootleggers in the 1990s.[4] The album takes its name from a sketch David Briggs made on a studio tape reel. Young said, "What Chrome Dreams really was, was a sketch that [David] Briggs drew of a grille and front of a '55 Chrysler, and if you turned it on its end, it was this beautiful chick...I called it Chrome Dreams."[3]
The 2023 official release of Chrome Dreams has artwork almost identical to the above description, but is credited to musician Ronnie Wood.
Writing in The Guardian, Alexis Petridis opined that the album "could have been Young's strongest album of the 70s".[5]
On October 23, 2007, Neil Young released a new album titled Chrome Dreams II.[6]
On June 30, 2023, Young announced that he would finally release Chrome Dreams on August 11.[7]