OK, I admit it. I caved. On pre-ordering the first installment of the Neil Young Archive Box Set, that is. I wrestled with this one for a while. And it wasn’t Neil’s testimonial to the Blu-Ray format on his web site that made me more amenable to the lofty prices for this set, which is available in three formats, Blu-Ray, DVD and CD.

But I figured I would wind up buying it at some point anyways because it covers what I find the most interesting aspect of Young’s career, 1963-1972, and it seems that recently the best prices you can find on new releases are available before they are released. Although I have noticed the prices going down a little on the CD and Blu-Ray sets since I ordered.

Also, if you pre-order it in either Blu-Ray or DVD, you receive a preview disc in Blu-Ray of the first disc in the set, labeled Disc 00 (how high tech!?!),  just the kind of offer for which I’m a sucker.

This set has been in the pipeline for something like 15 years. Ridiculous, isn’t it? In the meantime, Young has refused to re-master any of his early albums, the ones I believe are his best, because he hates the CD format for sound quality almost as much as he hates digital downloads.

I’m with him on the latter, but he’s overstating it on CD. Many of the recently mastered CDs sound fine. Given the reassessment of some re-mastering jobs, though, it’s now sobering to find out some of the original CD transfers from the late ’80s, which are quite rare and pricey, are the preferable versions because many came from better sources, i.e. original master tapes.

For the record, I ordered the DVD version. I don’t own a Blu-Ray player for my TV and I would never listen to music through my TV sound system. I listen only through my stereo, which is a much better quality system as well as being somewhat classic. I’ll play it on an SACD player connected to my system, which is capable of playing DVD. I do, however, have a Blu-Ray drive in one of my computers, so I listened/viewed the preview disc through that.

Granted the software for the program is probably not as compatible as having a dedicated Blu-Ray player, but I had quite a few problems getting this disc to run initially and some functions never worked. Also, if you receive it, watch out! The disc has a nasty habit of falling out of the cardboard sleeve it came in. That’s happened to me twice already. These little cardboard sleeves are cool looking and remind you of album covers but when they aren’t manufactured correctly, just as with the sleeves for the Beatles Capitol remasters that are a disaster, the discs fly in every direction. Take note Neil, the quality control on this one isn’t up to snuff.

On to the disc. Disc 00 is called Early Years, covers 1963-65 and contains 15 tracks, everything you will receive in the 10-disc set with the exception of two hidden tracks (I couldn’t find them). The first 15 include songs by one of Neil’s first bands in Canada, The Squires, and demos and sessions of Young solo and with Comrie Smith.

The sound quality on some of these early tracks, particularly the ones by The Squires, is quite good. Some of the demos though from a later period are not, but it would appear the original recordings have a lot to do with the final mastering results. The Squires play several instrumentals and sound like a Canadian version of the Ventures. They pull it off nicely with Aurora and The Sultan, which were released as a single, another instrumental, Mustang, and I Wonder, I’ll Love You Forever and (I’m A Man And) I Can’t Cry, all sung by Young and previously unreleased.

The material with high school buddy Comrie Smith, recorded in an attic, includes Hello Lonely Woman, Casting Me Away From You and There Goes My Babe. It’s rough but you have to take into consideration the recording limitations. Young had yet to find his feet as a songwriter here but it’s interesting to hear the early offerings.

Further demos are in better sound quality and show Young developing as a songwriter but still looking for his voice as a singer. Even the familiar Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing is quite different from Neil’s distinctive high-pitched delivery. Of course he never sang Clancy in Buffalo Springfield, having been deemed not up to it.

The version of Sugar Mountain is one of the worst I’ve heard. And as much as I love this song, I think I’ve heard enough versions of it. The classic live cut on Decade and the one on Live At Canterbury House 1968 will suffice.

The disc also includes a Timeline of Young’s career that is interactive, graphically pleasing and very informative. Also, while you’re listening to the disc various reel-to-reel tape deck animations are displayed on the screen. They are kind of neat but it’s not really something that’s essential. Young seems fascinated with this type of thing though since a lot of his Live At Massey Hall DVD was simply shots of a tape recorder rolling. I don’t really need to look at something like this while I’m listening to music.

My overall impressions of Disc 00 are favorable on content and sound quality, even though this will probably be the least listened to disc in the set for me. I’m much more interested in Buffalo Springfield, the first solo album, The Loner, vastly underrated, After The Gold Rush, Young’s gold standard, and Harvest. Although 48 of the 128 cuts are previously unreleased, there are several cuts from the Buffalo Springfield Box Set and other sources, which I already have. That surprised me a little. But this will the first time these early albums and tracks from Buffalo Springfield Again will have been remastered, plus there is a plethora of unreleased mixes, takes, demos, first pressings and so forth from the early work, albeit some coming at the cost of the original album cuts.

There is also a previously unreleased live concert, Live At The Riverboat (Toronto 1969). Two of the discs have actually already been released (that’s kind of weird), Massey Hall and Live At The Fillmore 1970 with Crazy Horse. I have the Massey Hall.

The CD set, which can be had for about $80, comes minus a DVD of Journey Through The Past, which was a limited released movie Young shot in the early 1970s as well as other footage from various sources, another reason why I opted for the DVD, which will set you back $200, that’s 20 bucks a disc. The Blu-Ray, however, lists for $350. Give me a break. With the track record of the Preview Disc I received, which has stopped working since I started writing this, I’m glad I passed on it.