Just checked the track listing... and what a disappointment. I was expecting a box full of rare and unreleased tracks - what are all those album tracks doing there? (And do I want to buy the archival live discs once again?)

There's an extensive preview of the North Country disc from the archives on the Neil site - you can navigate through it as you would the dvd. Includes unreleased versions of Bad Fog of Loneliness, Journey Through the Past, Heart of Gold, and Dance Dance Dance, different mixes of Soldier and A Man Needs a Maid, the JTTP version of Words, and War Song.

http://www.neilyoung.com/archives/northcou...disc8-demo.html

This finally comes out next week. Anyone feeling wealthy enough to buy it? I was disappointed to see that it looks like being a bit of a mess. Lots of the material has already been released, either as original albums or as the 'performance series' live discs (Massey Hall and so on). Plus, there are two versions – an eight-disc CD version and a 10-disc Blu-ray DVD version (currently £168.98 on Amazon).

Neil obviously knows what he's doing as he has apparently been working on this for 20 years, but wouldn't it have been better to create sets of only unreleased material?

Something seems to happen with esteemed rock stars as they hurtle towards 65 - they start thinking about their "legacy". This clearly happened big time with Dylan and you can see it in Paul McCartney, too. So they put out these sort of anthologies, make a film with Martin Scorsese, write their memoirs or authorise someone to write an official biography saying they were the talented, experimental one etc etc...

Just had a look on Amazon and the standard version is going for £89 - the reviews there are hilarious. Young seems to have pissed off a lot of his most devoted fans with this farrago...

I enjoy Mr Young's work, possess about twenty album and have seen him play live a few times but really who's got the time (and the money) to waste on a 10 CD set. I'd be interested to see the sales figures. How many sufficiently hard core fans are there to invest time ploughing through all those CDs, DVDs and whatever else you get in the box?

Why not? It'll only take them about 5 hours by the sound of it!

What a bargain.

I won't be in a hurry to get this any time soon, I eventually will, but it can wait a while and when I do it'll be the DVD version. The track listings are ridiculously disappointing and to make matters worse we're expected to fork out for albums we already have as well as tracks from the Studio albums - it's mystifying why it's taken 20 years to get this together. The book looks interesting I suppose (although it's worth noting that it isn't included in the CD-only box) but there's no way I'm buying a fucking blu-ray palyer just to suit him :lol: what am I going to watch on it? Journey Through The Past?

Remember the days when you had to save up for a double LP and wait for Xmas money to maybe buy a boxed set of LPs?

Too much merch these days in virtually all genres. Concert DVDs are becoming a bit of a yawn. Too much pressure on artists to become prolific.

I'm more interested in re-buying the 20-or-so Neil Young albums that I sold when I got bored of him 10 years ago. What a short-sighted and expensive mistake that was.

I'll download it - He can fuck of for that price :rolleyes:

I've sold quite a few, too :unsure:

Might download them as well :D (I'll be in touch sometime next year. My connection is slooooooow)

I hope to be getting the DVD version next week and am in a state of fevered anticipation. It was originally due out today but Warners UK held it back for a week just to upset me personally.

There's been a lot of misinformation about it - for example the review in the current issue of Mojo (by the usually infallible Sylvie Simmons) suggests that only the Bluray version includes any video footage (the standard DVD does as well) and that you have to pay extra for the downloadable updates that you get with the Bluray (you don't). As for the Amazon reviews, most reasonable people would tend to wait until they've heard a record before posting a one-star or five-star review of it.

Some of the more obsessive Neil fans seem to be shelling out for Bluray players and so on. Like daddyslittlegrandpa, I couldn't justify this even if I could afford it. I'm hoping that the downloads will be leaked anyway and I doubt that I could tell 24-bit 96kHz audio (DVD) from 24-bit 192kHz (Bluray) even if my system was up to it. I've really liked the DVDs that have come with recent Neil albums so that'll do me.

The track listing did seem odd to me initially, but this is suppposed to be a completist exercise rather than a rarities collection. I downloaded Archives Be Damned, a huge bootleg comp of unreleased tracks, recently, and despite the inclusion of many lost classics, it doesn't add up to a satisfying listen. The sonic upgrade of Archives further justifies the inclusion of album tracks for me. What bothers me most is the omission of some tracks. I see from the tracklist on Wikipedia that some of these appear as hidden tracks, but Out on the Weekend is still nowhere to be found, which works against the supposedly comprehensive nature of the set - I'm hoping it turns up in the film or somewhere. I agree that it was indeed a mistake to include the previously released live discs. Another plus for me though is the video material, not mentioned in the main track listings, much of which sounds amazing.

Nobody has to buy this, but it's worth remembering that the CD and DVD versions, and the inclusion of an MP3 download card with DVD and Bluray, exist due to popular demand.

I rang the local HMV to get this held for me when it arrives, and yesterday decided to drop in make sure they'd hold the right version, and it turns out there was no mention of me on the system at all. I'm dreading the possibility of a protracted saga of disappointment similar to my attempts to procure the Peel Sessions box when it came out. Anyway, assuming I do manage to get it, I'll report all my joy and disappointment here in a full and frank manner.

Gonna have a look for that Archives Be Damned set now you've mentioned it :)

Here's that baffling tracklisting. What's the point of hidden tracks? Also, what's the sense in having a 'disc 00'? Looking forward to your verdict on hearing this, WR.

Disc 00 - Early Years (1963-1965)

"Aurora" - The Squires – from the 45 RPM single (mono)
"The Sultan" - The Squires – from the 45 RPM single (mono)
"I Wonder" - The Squires – previously unreleased song (mono)
"Mustang" - The Squires – previously unreleased instrumental (mono)
"I'll Love You Forever" - The Squires – previously unreleased song (mono)
"(I'm A Man And) I Can't Cry" - The Squires – previously unreleased song (mono)
"Hello Lonely Woman" - Neil Young & Comrie Smith – previously unreleased song
"Casting Me Away From You" - Neil Young & Comrie Smith – previously unreleased song
"There Goes My Babe" - Neil Young & Comrie Smith – previously unreleased song
"Sugar Mountain" - Neil Young – previously unreleased demo version (mono)
"Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" - Neil Young – previously unreleased demo version (mono)
"Runaround Babe" - Neil Young – previously unreleased song (mono)
"The Ballad Of Peggy Grover" - Neil Young – previously unreleased song (mono)
"The Rent Is Always Due" - Neil Young – previously unreleased song (mono)
"Extra, Extra" - Neil Young – previously unreleased song (mono)
"I Wonder" - The Squires – previously unreleased alternate version (mono) (Hidden track)
"Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" - Buffalo Springfield – from the album Buffalo Springfield (mono) (Hidden track)
"I Wonder" - The Squires – previously unreleased basement rehearsal (mono) (BD-Live download)

Disc 01 - Early Years (1966-1968)

"Flying On The Ground Is Wrong" - Neil Young – from the Buffalo Springfield Box Set (mono)
"Burned" - Buffalo Springfield – from the album Buffalo Springfield (mono)
"Out Of My Mind" - Buffalo Springfield – from the album Buffalo Springfield (mono)
"Down, Down, Down" - Neil Young – previously unreleased version (mono)
"Kahuna Sunset" - Buffalo Springfield – from the Buffalo Springfield Box Set (mono)
"Mr. Soul" - Buffalo Springfield – from the Buffalo Springfield Box Set (mono)
"Sell Out" - Buffalo Springfield – previously unreleased song (mono)
"Down To The Wire" - Neil Young – from the album Decade (mono)
"Expecting To Fly" - Buffalo Springfield – from the album Buffalo Springfield
"Slowly Burning" - Neil Young – previously unreleased instrumental
"One More Sign" - Neil Young – from the Buffalo Springfield Box Set
"Broken Arrow" - Buffalo Springfield – from the album Buffalo Springfield Again
"I Am A Child" - Buffalo Springfield – from the album Last Time Around
"Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It?" - Buffalo Springfield - from the album Buffalo Springfield (mono) [Hidden track]
"Flying On The Ground Is Wrong" - Buffalo Springfield - from the album Buffalo Springfield (mono) [Hidden track]
"For What It's Worth" - Buffalo Springfield - from the album Buffalo Springfield - second version (mono) [Hidden track]
"This Is It!" - Buffalo Springfield - excerpts from their final concert - previously unreleased montage (mono) [Hidden track]

Disc 02 - Topanga 1 (1968-1969)

"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" - Neil Young – from the stereo promotional 45 RPM single-second pressing
"The Loner" - Neil Young – from the album Neil Young
"Birds" - Neil Young – previously unreleased version
"What Did You Do To My Life?" - Neil Young – previously unreleased mix
"The Last Trip To Tulsa" - Neil Young – from the album Neil Young
"Here We Are In The Years" - Neil Young – from the album Neil Young–second version
"I've Been Waiting For You" - Neil Young – previously unreleased mix
"The Old Laughing Lady" - Neil Young – from the album Neil Young
"I've Loved Her So Long" - Neil Young – from the album Neil Young
"Sugar Mountain" - Neil Young – previously unreleased stereo master
"Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"Down By The River" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – from the album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
"Cowgirl In The Sand" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – from the album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – from the album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
"The Emperor Of Wyoming" - Neil Young - from the album Neil Young [Hidden track]

Disc 03 - Live At the Riverboat (Toronto 1969)

"Sugar Mountain" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"The Old Laughing Lady" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"Flying On The Ground Is Wrong" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"On The Way Home" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"I've Loved Her So Long" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"I Am A Child" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"1956 Bubblegum Disaster" - Neil Young – previously unreleased song
"The Last Trip To Tulsa" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"Broken Arrow" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"Whiskey Boot Hill" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"Expecting To Fly" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version

Disc 04 - Topanga 2 (1969-1970)

"Cinnamon Girl" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – from the album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
"Running Dry (Requiem For The Rockets)" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – from the album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
"Round And Round (It Won't Be Long)" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – from the album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
"Oh Lonesome Me" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – previously unreleased stereo mix
"Birds" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – from the 45 RPM single (mono)
"Everybody's Alone" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – Previously unreleased song
"I Believe In You" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – from the album After The Gold Rush
"Sea Of Madness" - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – from the original soundtrack album Woodstock
"Dance Dance Dance" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – previously unreleased version
"Country Girl" - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – from the album Déjà Vu
"Helpless" - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – previously unreleased mix
"It Might Have Been" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – previously unreleased live version
"I Believe In You" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse - previously unreleased mix [Hidden track]
"I've Loved Her So Long" - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - previously unreleased live version (mono) [Hidden track]

Disc 05 - Live At the Fillmore East (New York 1970)

"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"
"Winterlong"
"Down By The River"
"Wonderin'"
"Come On Baby, Let's Go Downtown"
"Cowgirl In The Sand"

Disc 06 - Topanga 3 (1970)

"Tell Me Why" - Neil Young – from the album After The Gold Rush
"After The Gold Rush" - Neil Young – from the album After The Gold Rush
"Only Love Can Break Your Heart" - Neil Young – from the album After The Gold Rush
"Wonderin'" - Neil Young – previously unreleased version
"Don't Let It Bring You Down" - Neil Young – from the album After The Gold Rush-first pressing
"Cripple Creek Ferry" - Neil Young – from the album After The Gold Rush
"Southern Man" - Neil Young – from the album After The Gold Rush
"Till The Morning Comes" - Neil Young – from the album After The Gold Rush
"When You Dance, I Can Really Love" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse – from the album After The Gold Rush-first pressing
"Ohio" - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – from the stereo 45 RPM single
"Only Love Can Break Your Heart" - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – previously unreleased live version
"Tell Me Why" - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – previously unreleased live version
"Music Is Love" - David Crosby, Graham Nash & Neil Young – from the album If I Could Only Remember My Name
"See The Sky About To Rain" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"Don't Let It Bring You Down" - Neil Young - from the album After The Gold Rush - second pressing [Hidden track]
"When You Dance I Can Really Love" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse - from the album After The Gold Rush - second pressing [Hidden track]
"Birds" - Neil Young - from the album After The Gold Rush [Hidden track]

Disc 07 - Live at Massey Hall (Toronto 1971)

"On The Way Home"
"Tell Me Why"
"Old Man"
"Journey Through The Past"
"Helpless"
"Love In Mind"
"A Man Needs A Maid/Heart Of Gold (Suite)"
"Cowgirl In The Sand"
"Don't Let It Bring You Down"
"There's A World"
"Bad Fog Of Loneliness"
"The Needle And The Damage Done"
"Ohio"
"See The Sky About To Rain"
"Down By The River"
"Dance Dance Dance"
"I Am A Child"

Disc 08 - North Country (1971-1972)

"Heart Of Gold" - Neil Young – previously unreleased live version
"The Needle And The Damage Done" - Neil Young – from the album Harvest
"Bad Fog Of Loneliness" - Neil Young with The Stray Gators – previously unreleased version
"Old Man" - Neil Young with The Stray Gators – from the album Harvest
"Heart Of Gold" - Neil Young with The Stray Gators – from the album Harvest
"Dance Dance Dance" - Neil Young – previously unreleased version
"A Man Needs A Maid" - Neil Young with the London Symphony Orchestra – previously unreleased mix
"Harvest" - Neil Young with The Stray Gators – from the album Harvest
"Journey Through The Past" - Neil Young with The Stray Gators – previously unreleased version
"Are You Ready For The Country?" - Neil Young with The Stray Gators – from the album Harvest
"Alabama" - Neil Young with The Stray Gators – from the album Harvest
"Words (Between The Lines Of Age)" - Neil Young with The Stray Gators – from the original soundtrack album Journey Through The Past
"Soldier" - Neil Young – previously unreleased mix
"War Song" - Neil Young & Graham Nash with The Stray Gators – from the 45 RPM single (mono)

Disc 09 - Journey Through the Past - A Film By Neil Young

Special features include the theatrical trailer, radio spots and archival galleries.

As this is only the first of four in the series, the hardcore NY fan could be shelling out around £960 on the lot. And that's not counting the concurrent Performance CDs. Better start saving now just in case MES decides to follow suit in around a decade's time.

What's all this "first pressing" and "second pressing" of After the Gold Rush all about? I can't find anything on the interwebs that mentions variations in the pressings of that one... :unsure:

As far as I know, the discs have the songs in chronological order but were compiled to be as listenable as possible as albums. The hidden tracks seem to be mostly alternative or original mixes of already included tracks that would be a bit repetetive were they to appear again on the main tracklist. They're not on the CD version and are accessible as easter eggs on the DVDs. The navigational aspect of DVD is a prominent feature of the set too, with virtual filing cabinets and folders, so it's also presumably intended to exploit that potential in a fun way.

Disc 01 of the CD version consists of the same tracks as disc 00 and disc 01 of the DVD and Bluray versions, but those discs would contain video, hidden tracks, photographs etc, so maybe there was too much content to fit those on one disc. People who preordered DVD and Bluray sets got a preview Bluray disc 00 so maybe that had something to do with it... or they were intended as two discs and just happened to fit handily on one CD.

The CD/DVD version of Sugar Mountain is apparently in a hidden drawer in the box too (DVD & Bluray only).

I've read a lot on this in the last few weeks so forgive me if I'm coughing up chunks of info and coming across like a walking press release :lol:

I think I made a comment on this in the Neil Young thread. (Merge alert?)

From what I can gather from wiki even the 8 CD set comes with 2 DVDs...
I'm deffo going to download it now - I don't wanna watch the bloke, I wanna hear tracks I've not yet heard!
At least with a torrant you can decide what you want or not. I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Which did you sell?

Everything from 1980 onwards, and a few live bootlegs here and there.

The ones I'm beginning to miss badly are Freedom, Ragged Glory and Sleeps With Angels.

And also Hawks & Doves, funnily enough.

Same with me bar the sublime Sleeps With Angels and (for some reason, maybe it was scratched) the pretty weak Harvest.
Also flogged After The Goldrush by mistake as it accidently ended up in the pile I took to Vinyl Exchange :ohdear:

No, it doesn't - a couple of years ago it was advertised as 8 CDs & 2 DVDs. Forget it Gaz - it's wikitown.

Typical bleedin' Wikipedia... -_-

Cheers for the heads up.

I'd guess it's something to do with Young's obsession with the sound quality of all the editions of his records. He and his team of scientists probably detected a difference in reproductive quality of one pressing over the other.

It'd have been more useful to just get some decent fucking rare stuff out officially a long time ago, before manyh lost interest, or will just steal it off the internet, or wait until it's inevitably in a bargain bin.

Which is somewhat ironic as he is rumoured to be as deaf as a post.

Hence the team of scientists :lol:

I'm assuming it's a case of different mixes on the fisrt & second pressings like with the first album.

Yep, he certainly knows how to rip off fans.

I have a spare blu-ray copy of this. If anyone wants one, please PM me. Thank you.

Got the DVD version yesterday (not the Bluray). My immediate problem was that everything is packed in really tight. Once you unwrap the book, it's expands and won't easily slip out of its slot. There's a not very secret "secret" drawer that took me about 10 minutes to get out of the box, and the individual discs are also packed in their holder extremely tightly. So despite being nicely packaged in theory, there's a few irritating design flaws. I'm going to have to place a few bits of paper around the various components in order to be able to get them out easily.

Apart from that, I'm really pleased with it so far. Have played three of the discs, and the remastered sound is outstanding, with lots of previously inaudible detail revealed in the familiar songs, but the recordings are not unnecessarily cleaned up - in quieter parts you can hear lots of reassuring tape hiss.

The (often hidden) extras are great too - several surprisingly good (for this CSN sceptic) CSNY versions of Neil songs including a wild tv show performance of Down by the River, Only Love Can Break Your Heart at the Filmore, and Sea of Madness amid a hippy free for all at Big Sur. There's even footage of Alabama being played in the actual barn where some of Harvest was recorded. The Sultans tracks are surprisingly worthwhile, more than mere historical curiosities. Lots of period audio interview snippets as well. A particularly amazing inclusion is a 15 minute piece of film showing Neil finding a CSNY boot in a record shop and insisting that he can take it because it's his - a totally verite piece that, like the various photos, letters etc adds a lot of period atmosphere.

The book is seriously lavish, pretty much a scrapbook format replicating the photos and documents on the disc.

There's definitely a lot of content in this, the audio tracklist doesn't put across how much is here. Still, at its current price at least, it's not a casual purchase and will only really appeal to those who have already decided they want it, or those who are excited by descriptions of what's on it.

hmm, like the sound of that, as well as the rest of your description.

So, is it possible that the Americans who hadn't seen this might have been a little OTT with comments along the lines of "that greedy jerk should f*** off back to Canada!!" ? :rolleyes: :D

That clip is kind of a warts and all thing - Neil has a point but he is acting the rock star a bit, and causes considerable stress for the hapless clerk who repeatedly explains that he doesn't buy the records for the shop and doesn't even know anything about records, as he only listens to tapes :lol:

Oh don't worry, I genuinely meant it sounds good, and I do think Neil had a point.

As for the clerk...well I've been delivering posters for a live gig I'm co-organising, so I can well relate to dealing with shop people who say 'I'll have to ask the manager tonight / tomorrow' over the simplest of requests. :rolleyes:

Journey Through the Past is much better than one might expect. Of course as a 1970s cinema experience it wouldn't have been up to much, but as a period piece in a box set it's great. Visually it's often stunning, very impressionistic with lots of saturated shots of odd goings-on in idyllic Californian locations. Much stoner rambling from Crosby and co but at least this is verite if irritating. Apparently Neil was influenced by Godard's One Plus One aka Sympathy for the Devil and it shows.

The Live at the Riverboat disc is excellent - a hell of a lot of stoned banter though, and Neil is in a rather prickly mood. I thought I could do without yet another version of Sugar Mountain but the version on this is now my favourite, it made the song seem new for me again.

who'd have thought? :o :D

when was that recorded then? :)

It's from 1969. Hoo boy, is it good. That "Last Train to Tulsa" followed by "Broken Arrow" - wow.

WR, I am greatly enjoying your descriptions of the Archives, even if I can't afford to enjoy the Archives themselves.

If you use Amazon - and if you don't, you should :) - put it on your 'wish list' and wait for it go down in price in the secondhand section maybe.

My 'wish list' is getting quite long these days... :rolleyes: