Tag Archives: Canterbury House

Much to explore in Young’s Archive

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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.

ny-archive-box-2I 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. Continue reading Much to explore in Young’s Archive →

A man of more than expected words

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I’ve seen Neil Young give acoustic concerts twice over the years, and he’s never been particularly loquacious in between songs. But on a new release of a concert from 1968, Sugar Mountain — Live at Canterbury House, he’s positively chatty.

There are seven raps interspersed throughout the  set list and most are amusing, if not downright funny, from the laid-back, rambling Young. Perhaps the best is Bookstore rap, in which he talks about his only other job that lasted two weeks.

As for the concert, it’s excellent. It’s better than an earlier release from his archives, Massey Hall 1971, although not by much, from 2007. That one included a video DVD of the show, which is at times brilliant and other times (static shots of a reel-to-reel tape recorder) frustrating. This set comes in a two-disc version, the second being DVD audio.

What’s to like about  Canterbury House is the era. The show is from around the release of his first very under-appreciated solo album The Loner, and many of the tunes are from it. These songs played acoustically makes the set all the more fascinating and rare.

The sound is very dry, very little reverberation, since it was recorded in a small coffee house in Ann Arbor, lending a more intimate air to the proceedings. Massey, recorded in Toronto, has more of a concert hall ambiance.

I have great respect for Young, but honestly haven’t been into his latest ventures. In fact only Freedom with Rockin’ In The Free World and Harvest Moon even scratch the surface with me in the past two decades. I love his early work and The Loner and After The Gold Rush are my favorite albums.

But to hear If I Could Have Her Tonight, I’ve Been Waiting For You, The Last Trip To Tulsa, The Old Laughing Lady and the title track from The Loner shortly after the album was completed makes for a significant document.

In addition, there are Buffalo Springfield tracks, among them Mr. Soul, Expecting To Fly and Broken Arrow, the last two big production numbers on record but here stripped down to the essentials. Also you’ll find an early version of Birds, from After The Gold Rush, done on acoustic guitar rather than piano.

These releases from the archives — they aren’t really reissues although they seem to be classified as such sometimes — almost make up for Young’s reluctance to remaster his early albums. He claims he hates the CD format and it’s unacceptable for the sonic quality he aspires to. Don’t get him started on MP3s. I kind of agree with him there at least on the low bit rates. But he’s scheduled to release the first volume of a long-awaited box set series next year and it’s going to be available on only DVD and Blue-ray audio versions at a ridiculously expensive pricetag of more than $300. Nothing on a CD release of any kind is in the works. It is eight discs but really. That’s a bit much.