Neil Young Archives
The Neil Young Archives is a longtime project by singer-songwriter Neil Young. It started as a series of archival releases featuring previously released as well as unreleased studio and live recordings. It eventually developed into a website featuring almost the whole of Young's recording output throughout his career, available for streaming in high resolution audio format. The project has been long in the making – work began in the late 1980s. Throughout its development, Young himself has made several statements about the material included, release dates, and marketing that have proven false as the project was modified for new multimedia formats and expanded upon to accommodate new releases or other relevant material.[1] Young has said that there will be five volumes covering approximately 50 years.[2]
The archives are divided into several series. The main series consists of several volumes of box sets, each covering a separate period of the artist's career. The Performance Series consists of individual releases of live material, each representing a specific show or tour. Finally, there is the Special Release Series, which consists of previously unreleased albums. These different series also overlap; for example, two volumes of the Performance Series that are included on each of the first two Archives box set releases are also available separately. Homegrown is also included in its entirety on Neil Young Archives Volume II: 1972–1976 but was also released on its own earlier in 2020.
As of 2019, Young has launched a subscription website and application where all of his music is available to stream in high resolution audio. The Neil Young Archives also include his newspaper, The Times-Contrarian; The Hearse Theater, which shows limited runs of concert films and rare footage; and photos and memorabilia throughout his career.[3]
Box sets[edit]
Volume I: 1963–1972[edit]
The first volume, The Archives Vol. 1 1963–1972, was released on June 2, 2009. Covering Young's early years with The Squires and Buffalo Springfield, it also includes cuts, demos, outtakes and alternate versions of songs from his albums Neil Young, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush, and Harvest, as well as tracks he recorded with both Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young during this time. Also included in the set are several live discs, as well as (on the Blu-Ray/DVD versions) a copy of the long out-of-print film Journey Through the Past, directed by Young in the early 1970s.
Volume I was released as a set of 10 Blu-ray discs in order to present high resolution audio as well as accompanying visual documentation.[4] It is also available as a 10 disc DVD set and an 8 disc CD set. On January 31, 2010, the box set won the Grammy Award for Best Art Direction on a Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, and was shared by Neil Young along with his art directors Gary Burden and Jenice Heo.
Volume II: 1972–1976[edit]
Similar in scope to the first box set, Neil Young Archives Volume II: 1972–1976 was officially released as a deluxe box set and for streaming on the Neil Young Archives site on November 20, 2020. Covering Young's work with The Stray Gators, Santa Monica Flyers, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Crazy Horse, and The Stills-Young Band during this period, Vol. II includes album cuts, demos, outtakes and alternate versions of songs from his albums Time Fades Away, Tonight’s the Night, On the Beach, Zuma, and Long May You Run, as well as the then-recently released album Homegrown in its entirety and tracks from CSNY's multiple sessions for their aborted Human Highway album. Also as with Volume I, included in the set are several live discs, including the unreleased live album Odeon Budokan. Volume II was released as a set of 10 CDs (with a deluxe edition containing a hardbound book), and did not have accompanying Blu-ray or DVD editions as Vol. I did due to, as Young has explained, “economic reasons.”
Volume III: 1976–1980s[edit]
Neil Young Archives Volume III is tentatively scheduled to be released in the first half of 2024. During a Zoom call Young had with Patron members of his Neil Young Archives site on November 29, 2023, Volume III will include, among other tracks, an album and film called Across the Water that further documents his 1976 tour of Japan and Europe with Crazy Horse; A Snapshot in Time, an "audio documentary" of a rehearsal with Nicolette Larson and Linda Ronstadt prior to recording American Stars 'n Bars; Winward Passage, a live album of tracks recorded with The Ducks in Santa Cruz; the unreleased album Oceanside Countryside; Union Hall, a recording of Neil rehearsing with Larson and the Give to the Wind Orchestra prior to their November 12, 1977, gig in Bicentennial Park in Miami; an album and film documenting his 1977 Boarding House residency; songs from both his unreleased album Island in the Sun and the original version of Old Ways; a live album documenting Neil's February 7, 1984, shows with Crazy Horse at The Catalyst; and a two disc set of live tracks and studio cuts Neil recorded with the International Harvesters.[5] In all, Young said that Volume III will cover roughly "17 discs and four or five films."
Volume IV (1990s)[edit]
Volume IV will feature tracks from the 1990s.
In September 2020, Young officially announced a new series of releases called the Official Bootleg Series.[10] The original intent behind this series was to duplicate popular bootlegs, down to their original cover art, but upgrading the audio fidelity. However, the concept changed with the first officially announced entry, Carnegie Hall, which will take its audio from the December 4th, 1970 show as opposed to the heavily circulated December 5 midnight set.
On October 7, the first six entries of the Official Bootleg Series were announced,[11] as well as that Niko Bolas will be helping Young in the production of these releases.
An article on the Neil Young Archives site announced a target release date of September 10, 2021. The first was released on October 1, 2021.[12]
Official Bootleg Series 01:
Official Bootleg Series 02:
Official Bootleg Series 03:
Official Bootleg Series 04:
Official Bootleg Series 05:
Official Bootleg Series 06:
Although the Archives label is predominantly used for previously unreleased material, the name is also being attached to remastered editions of existing albums. Such releases are labeled Neil Young Archives Official Release Series. Since the introduction of PonoMusic, the following albums have been re-released as part of the Official Release Series:
Official Release Series 01:
Official Release Series 02:
Official Release Series 03:
Official Release Series 04:
Official Release Series 05:
Official Release Series 06:
Official Release Series 07:
Official Release Series 08:
Official Release Series 08.5:
Official Release Series 09:
Official Release Series 10:
Official Release Series 11:
Official Release Series 12:
Official Release Series 13:
Official Release Series 14:
Official Release Series 20:
Official Release Series 21:
Official Release Series 22:
Official Release Series 23+:
Official Release Series 24:
Official Release Series 25:
Official Release Series 30:
Compact disc versions of the first four above albums were released on 14 July 2009. In addition, the albums were reissued as limited edition box sets on 24 November 2009, in both 180-gram vinyl and 24k gold CD versions. 140-gram vinyl editions of the individual albums were also issued on that date.[15] On the 28th of November 2014, the series no. 05-08 were also reissued as limited edition vinyl box sets. When the PonoMusic Store went live in the end of 2014, another six albums were reissued as digital downloads, making a total of 14 albums available in 24 Bit & 192 kHz (including the 1973 album Time Fades Away, which hadn't been officially re-released before then).
Digital Masterpiece Series[edit]
In 2003, Neil Young released On the Beach, American Stars 'N Bars, Hawks & Doves, and Re·ac·tor on compact disc for the first time. These were reissued as HDCDs as part of the Neil Young Archives Digital Masterpiece Series. The CD versions were subsequently joined by DVD-Audio versions.
Special Release Series[edit]
Neil Young has also announced a part of the archives known as the Special Release Series. Toast, an album recorded in 2000 with Crazy Horse, was the first album to be announced as being part of the Special Release Series.[16] Though announced in 2008, Toast remained unreleased until July 8, 2022. It was then announced that The Archives Vol. II would include four SRS releases: the studio albums Homegrown, Chrome Dreams and Oceanside/Countryside, and the live album Odeon-Budokan.[17] Homegrown was released standalone in June 2020, before Odeon Budokan was released as part of Neil Young Archives Vol. II: 1972-1976 and Chrome Dreams followed with an official release in August 2023. Oceanside/Countryside is scheduled for a future release, likely as part of The Archives Vol. III.
Volume 02: Homegrown
Homegrown, a long lost unreleased 1975 album, was finally announced for a release in early 2020. Originally scheduled for release on April 17 as part of that year's Record Store Day, it was delayed until June 19 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[18]
Volume 03: Dume
A double LP with Crazy Horse drawn from the 1975 Zuma sessions, including most of the material that would appear on Zuma, alternate versions of songs that appear on Rust Never Sleeps, Homegrown, and Hitchhiker, as well as other unreleased songs from the period. It was released as part of the Neil Young Archives Vol. II: 1972-1976 box set on November 20, 2020. A standalone vinyl version is scheduled to be released on February 23, 2024.
Volume 04: Odeon Budokan
An unreleased live album featuring recordings from the 1976 shows at Budokan Hall, Tokyo and Hammersmith Odeon, London with Crazy Horse, Odeon Budokan was released as part of the Neil Young Archives Vol. II: 1972-1976 box set on November 20, 2020. It had been temporarily scheduled for a stand-alone release in 2019, but was delayed in favor of Tuscaloosa. A standalone vinyl version was eventually released on September 1, 2023.
Volume 05: Hitchhiker
Hitchhiker features an entirely solo 1976 session at Indigo Ranch Recording Studio in Malibu, California, possibly intended for release in the late 1970s but rejected by Reprise at the time. It was released on September 8, 2017, becoming the first officially released SRS volume.
Volume 06: Chrome Dreams
Chrome Dreams, officially released on August 11, 2023, is a showcase of songs that Young had recorded over the previous two years, having been compiled from several different sessions with various collaborators and backing musicians. First compiled as an acetate for consideration as an album for release in 1977, a copy of the acetate was widely circulated as a bootleg in the decades prior to its release.
Volume 09: Toast
Toast, a shelved Neil Young & Crazy Horse album recorded in 2001. Released July 8, 2022.[19]
Volume 10: Original Soundtrack from "Paradox"
Paradox was released on March 23, 2018.
Young has mentioned many as-of-yet unreleased studio albums and live albums that he has recorded over the years, including: