Neil Young
Neil Young’s Harvest Celebrated With 50th Anniversary Edition
Time fades away, indeed. Neil Young‘s Harvest, his most commercially successful album and one of the most enduring rock releases of all time, will be reissued in a 50th anniversary edition on Dec. 2 via Reprise. It will be available in two-LP/7″/two-DVD and three-CD/two-DVD incarnations. Both editions include Young’s long-bootlegged Feb. 23, 1971 BBC In Concert performance (a version of “Heart of Gold” from that show is out today) and the previously unreleased two-hour documentary Harvest Time, which chronicles the making of the album. A three-song 7″ vinyl single is exclusive to the vinyl box, and features the first physical release of the Harvest outtakes “Bad Fog of Loneliness,” “Journey Through the Past” and “Dance Dance Dance.” [embedded content][embedded content] Young’s fourth solo ...
Neil Young and Crazy Horse Announce New Rick Rubin-Produced Album
Raise your hand if you had Neil Young and Crazy Horse teaming up with Rick Rubin on your 2022 Bingo card. OK, put your hand down. The rock legends are teaming up with the bearded producer for their upcoming album, titled World Record. The group released their most recent album, Barn, last December. In a recent post on his Neil Young Archives website, Young described the album as “Real magic lasts and we think we have it.” The group shared the first single from World Record, “Love Earth.” Listen to the mellow piano-driven song below. [embedded content][embedded content] The album was recorded live at Rubin’s Shangri-La studios in Malibu and is comprised of 10 songs. On a recent episode of Rubin’s Broken Record podcast where he was speaking with guest Jack White, Young unexpec...
Beck Covers Neil Young’s ‘Old Man’ in Homage to Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes
Last night during a commercial during the Sunday Night Football clash between the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos, Beck covered Neil Young’s “Old Man.” Now, his version of the song is available to stream. But how do Beck and Young relate to football? In highlighting the song’s lyric, “24 and there’s so much more,” the NBC Sports ad was to promote the forthcoming Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs game (Oct. 2) and was made in tribute to both team’s quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes, who both won a Super Bowl at the age of 24. (Young’s music is still unavailable on Spotify after he pulled it in January after he was dismayed by the streamer keeping Joe Rogan on its platform.) The advertisement shows clips of Brady and Mahomes celebrating their Super Bowl victories a...
The 50 Best Albums of 1982
Looking back at 1982 in music, the headline is obvious: Thriller Sells A Bajillion Copies, Becomes World’s Biggest Album. But is it the year’s best album? Funny enough, Michael Jackson‘s sixth LP hardly even affected the charts that year — it snuck out in late November, just as Men at Work’s 1981 blockbuster, Business as Usual, began its commercial stranglehold in the U.S. Only one record on our list, Fleetwood Mac‘s chart-targeted Tusk follow-up, Mirage, hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200. (Doesn’t it seem weird, looking back, that Prince‘s 1999 peaked at No. 9?) Lots of fascinating shit was happening in 1982, and you didn’t always find it on the radio. On our list, we included everything from early hip-hop (Grandmaster Flash) to horror-punk (Misfits) to lo-fi synth-pop (Solid Space). Revisit...
Neil Young to Release Lost Crazy Horse Record ‘Toast’
More than two decades after it was originally recorded, Neil Young reveals the full details of a Crazy Horse-era album called Toast. The album, Young explained in a lengthy statement below, was “too sad” to put out at the time. It’s an album about a relationship, he said. And the music (“murky and dark”) matches the emotional toll it took on him. Young said that he decided to shelve the album and move on to the next one. The full Toast album will be released on July 8, 2022. But the first official recording from the record, a gritty rocker called “Standing in the Light of Love,” was released on May 26. Check it out below. The prolific musician has been opening the vault more frequently these days. In June 2020, Young released Homegrown — his 40th album — which contained music that was...
The 50 Best Albums of 1972
Last year, when helping assemble SPIN‘s 50 Best Albums of 1971, I wondered if that year could have been popular music’s absolute peak. Now I’m asking myself that same question all over again. As I built a spreadsheet for 1972, gathering our writers’ votes alongside my own weird choices, I was once again struck by how many bronze-cast classics came out that year: LPs from David Bowie, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, The Allman Brothers Band, Yes, Stevie Wonder, Roxy Music, and on and on. Run down basically every genre – glam, soul, prog, art rock, Southern rock, metal, folk, MPB — and you’ll find the very best shit, whether eternally famous or sadly obscure. (My poor spreadsheet, swelling each day, originally had hundreds of worthy records. But you have to start chopping eventually.) Here’s wher...
Every Neil Young Album, Ranked
Neil Percival Young grew up in Winnipeg, but he moved to America in the ‘60s to become the greatest rock star Canada has ever produced. For over 50 years, he’s remained restlessly creative and committed to his political ideals, an influential guitarist as adept at heartbreaking ballads as fiery protest songs. While other classic rockers have slowed down their output, Young has remained ever-prolific, releasing nine albums in just the last decade. Neil Young’s latest album, Barn, with longtime backing band Crazy Horse, was released in December. But in recent weeks he’s been in the news more for taking a stand against Spotify, removing his music from the streaming service over its backing of controversial podcaster Joe Rogan. Fortunately, there are still a lot of ways to enjoy the song...
Neil Young to Spotify Employees: ‘Get Out of That Place Before It Eats up Your Soul’
Neil Young isn’t letting go of his anti-Spotify sentiments just yet. In a post shared on his Neil Young Archives website, the rocker continued to rip Spotify and its CEO, Daniel Ek. He also encouraged Spotify employees to leave the streaming giant. “To the workers at SPOTIFY, I say Daniel Ek is your big problem – not Joe Rogan. Ek pulls the strings. Get out of that place before it eats up your soul,” Young wrote. “The only goals stated by EK are about numbers – not art, not creativity.” On top of taking yet another swipe at Spotify, Young also had a few choice words for big banks as well. In particular, in Young’s crosshairs, are Chase, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. “To the baby boomers, I say 70 percent of the country’s financial assets are in your hands compared with just about ...
Crosby, Stills and Nash Put Differences Aside to Support Neil Young in Spotify Spat
In solidarity with bandmate Neil Young in his battle with Spotify, David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Stephen Stills (you know, CSN) are removing their discographies from Spotify. Although CSN has a lengthy history of disagreements, they have chosen to put them aside in support of on-again, off-again bandmate Young’s protest of Spotify’s practices. Young removed his music last week after Spotify refused to stop platforming The Joe Rogan Experience, a podcast that has spread COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation. Nash has already begun removing his solo music from the platform, with Crosby’s and Stills’ solo projects soon to follow. Recordings from CSNY and CSN will also be removed shortly. Several other artists have pulled their music from the streaming platform amid the controversy includ...
Joe Rogan on Spotify Disclaimer on Podcasts: ‘I’m Very Happy With That’
Following the controversy surrounding Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removing their music from Spotify, Joe Rogan responded to the legendary musicians who are against Rogan’s alleged spreading of COVID misinformation on his podcast through the same streaming service. Last week, Young wrote an open letter claiming he wanted to remove his music from Spotify because of Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, on which he has interviewed numerous people and discussed the COVID vaccine. Mitchell and Nils Lofgren also took their music off the service to support Young and his opinion. Last night, Rogan responded in an 11-minute-long Instagram video. Rogan said his podcast is a series of conversations intended to be entertaining. Alongside interviewing artists, Rogan has interviewed medical p...
Neil Young on Joe Rogan, Spotify Spat: ‘I Support Free Speech’
Neil Young removed his catalog from Spotify this week after Spotify podcast host Joe Rogan made skeptical remarks about the Covid-19 vaccines. But in a new letter posted on his Archives website, the veteran rocker clarified that his qualms are with Spotify profiting from Rogan’s pot-stirring just as it profits from inferior audio quality. “Amazon, Apple Music and Qobuz deliver up to 100% of the music today and it sounds a lot better than the shitty degraded and neutered sound of Spotify,” Young wrote. “If you support Spotify, you are destroying an art form. Business over art … I met Daniel Ek when he started Spotify. It sounded to me like he was really going to be getting into it. That was a long time ago. I wonder what happened.” Young also addressed the issue of censorship. In recent day...
Neil Young Vs. Spotify: Where Do We Go From Here?
On Monday, rock legend Neil Young published an open letter to his label and management on his own website asking that all his music (over 40 studio albums and many more live albums and compilations) be removed from the streaming service Spotify. Citing Spotify-exclusive podcast The Joe Rogan Experience and Rogan’s role as a voice of COVID-19 misinformation and vaccine skepticism, Young made an ultimatum: “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” The letter has since been deleted from Young’s website, but it appears that he’s sticking to his guns. By the end of the day on Wednesday, his albums were all gone from Spotify. All that remains on his artist page are a scattered array of collaborations and compilation tracks, the most popular of which is a 1992 live recording of Young, Bob Dy...
