My initial misgivings about volume 1 of Neil Young’s Archive Box Set, based on a faulty Blu-Ray preview disc, are quickly being dispelled by the actual set, which arrived this past week.

The 10-disc set I have is in DVD format and it contains a plethora of re-mastered work, unreleased tracks, alternate mixes, videos and much more from 1963-72, my favorite period of Young’s career. It’s also available in Blu-Ray or as an eight-disc set in CD, minus the feature film Journey Through The Past and videos.

I have a dedicated SACD/DVD player connected to my stereo and that’s where I have listened to it the most, although I’ve played it through one of my computers to access the visuals available while songs are playing, hidden tracks and other goodies that you can only see with a monitor.

I don’t care for listening to music through my TV setup but this set has tempted me to add a small monitor to my player to access the extras.

Speaking of extras, to my surprise, the set came with a few unexpected items. The first thing you see when you open the large rectangular tower the set is housed in is a vinyl 45 by The Squires, one of Young’s first rock groups in Canada, of the instrumentals Mustang and Aurora, which are on Disc 0 of the set, covering 1963-65. The DVDs are in a special cardboard box that folds in half revealing five discs in each half and a poster of the file cabinet screen, which is used on the discs to access individual tracks.

A luxurious leather-bound book includes myriad photos, articles, lyric sheets and details of each track in chronological order, which is how much of this set is presented, with recording dates, session locations, producer credits, and mix and format information. Full credits for each track follow in the back of the book. There is also a handy sheet with much of that info and more glued to the wrap that the set ships in, but you have to be careful removing it for fear of easily ripping it.

In a slightly less obvious box that takes some time to discover and pry open is an additional CD/DVD of Sugar Mountain Live At Canterbury House 1968, which was released last fall and is a very worthy addition here, a credit card with a code that lets you download the entire box set in MP3 format from neilyoung.com and a small Whisky A Go Go note pad that for the life of me looks like it has actual writing in pencil and pad, not a reproduction.

I’ll start with the discs I’ve listened to the most and move to the rest of the set in subsequent posts. Three I find the most fascinating are Topanga 1, 2 and 3 (discs 2, 4 and 6), referring to Young’s house during the time when most of his first three solo albums were recorded between 1968 and 1970.

Disc 2 opens with an interesting and quite different version of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, recorded not with Crazy Horse, but Jim Messina on bass and George Grantham, drums, original members of Poco. Those two recorded much of Young’s first self-titled album with him. Everybody, which is a 45 promo single, has a faster, bouncier feel with a pipe organ solo played by Young. The approach is lighter and fresher sounding compared with the slower tempo of the track from the Everybody album, Young’s second. Although the LP version has its fascination as well.

You get a good example of what most of this set sounds like from track 2, The Loner from the first album. The word that comes to mind is balanced. The highs are not edgy or over emphasized, but rather smooth and crisp, the lows are warm and not bottom heavy. The stereo spectrum is distinct, the separation clear and clean sounding. In short, this track and all the tracks from Neil Young have never sounded better, not even on vinyl. The original album had a somewhat cloudy indistinct sound on some tracks. That’s gone.

Five tracks come directly from the album on this disc, along with a lively unreleased version of Birds with a full band, which I prefer, rather than the solo piano piece on Gold Rush. Two of the tracks are previously unreleased mixes, What Did You Do To My Life? and I’ve Been Waiting For You, which will probably bother the purists because the original tracks are absent. Both sound just fine. A second version of Here We Are In The Years also replaces the original, an unreleased stereo master of  Sugar Mountain, unreleased live version of Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing and three original cuts from Young’s second album, the title cut Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Down By The River and Cowgirl In The Sand, which have never sounded so clear and clean, complete the disc. The last three tracks were fairly pristine recordings to begin with but this takes it to another level.

There is nothing like listening to a playback in a control booth for a direct, clean and often overpowering experience. These tracks don’t get you quite there, but it brings the listener in his listening room a lot closer to that up-close sound. How close, of course, depends on the system you are listening to it on.

Each of the other Topanga discs has a similarly interesting set of tracks, plus many extras such as radio interviews available just underneath the main listing screen for each track. The hidden track on Disc 2 is curiously the opening instrumental from Neil Young, Emperor Of Wyoming. Why you would hide that one is a mystery but the hidden tracks are clearly marked in the book and accompanying sheet and this one, as many do, sounds extraordinary.

Disc 4, Topanga 2, has a mix of tracks from Everybody and After The Gold Rush, including a previously unreleased song, Everybody’s Alone. The always rocking and soul-shaking Cinnamon Girl opens the disc, alternate versions of Oh Lonesome Me, Birds, Dance, Dance, Dance, Helpless and It Might Have Been (live) are featured with two hidden tracks, a different mix of I Believe In You and a duet with Graham Nash live on I’ve Loved Her So Long. The tracks from Gold Rush on Disc 4 are all recorded with Crazy Horse.

Sea Of Madness from the original Woodstock soundtrack, which is actually from a Fillmore gig, with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is included along with a live video performance of the same track from Big Sur, which features a good performance ruined by atrocious sound. That’s not the fault of this set. It sounds as good as it will get here, but the original recording is just lacking.

Disc 6 has most of the rest of After The Gold Rush, more CSN&Y, including Ohio, a gorgeous live version of Tell Me Why and again unreleased versions of some songs and even a first and second pressings of Don’t Let It Bring You Down and When You Dance, I Can Really Love. To my ears, the second pressing in both cases from a 1976 master sound better. Music Is Love from a David Crosby album, If I Could Only Remember My Name, and an unreleased live version of See The Sky About To Rain are also included.

These tracks from Gold Rush include Nils Lofgren on piano, guitar and vocals as well as Crazy Horse and Jack Nitzsche on piano on some tracks. Tucked underneath one of the song listings is a video of CSN&Y playing an acoustic version of Ohio in concert at the Fillmore East, which is absolutely chilling at the start.

So far, this set is simply amazing in content and sound. It’s hard to justify a wait of 15 years (?!?), but if anything can, this set lives up to its expectations. I can’t wait to explore the rest of it. More later.