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Neil Young's Archives: A sneak peek

If you check the weather in Hades today, don't be surprised to find Beelzebub shoveling snow.

Neil Young's Archives project is real. I just viewed a sampler Blu-Ray disc, ahead of the full 10-disc first volume's official release on June 2.

And if the taster disc that arrived in my mailbox today is a representative sample, it looks to be a game changing approach to documenting an artistic life. If the depth of information and creativity exemplified here is matched throughout the Archives' mooted three box sets, then 20 years of broken promises and disappointments related to this project will vanish the moment your home system loads the wickedly interactive Blu-Ray version.

The two-decades running melodrama of Young's on-again, off-again scheme to unveil his career-spanning opus is well documented (I took a crack at it here). Some months ago, June 2, 2009 was announced as the once-and-for-all, for reals release date for Blu-Ray, DVD and CD versions of the set. As an added come-along, if you ordered the whole magilla through Neil's website, you would receive a bonus "preview disc." And that's what arrived at my door today.

At this point, having followed this saga for so long and watched the set emerge on label release schedules and then mysteriously vanish, I knew better than to get my hopes up. And even now, with the preview disc in hand, I still half expect Neil could put the kibosh on the project once more between now and June 2.

With all those qualifications aside, here's what's on the disc.

The sampler appears to represent the content contained on the actual box set's disc entitled Early Years: 1963-1965. At its most basic level, that's 15 songs dating from Young's very earliest musical experiments growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba and working in Fort William, Ontario, fronting The Squires -- a Shadows-like outfit initially specializing in trebly instrumentals -- then through some tentative folk recordings with pal Comrie Smith in Toronto, then to a frequently-bootlegged audition tape recorded in New York City for Elektra Records.

So far, so much like just about every completist's collection. But the remarkable thing about Archives is not simply the music it collects; it's the way that music is matched with other material for a rich multi-media experience. The Blu-Ray is organized so you can simply play through the track list (with a visual of the appropriate playback machine "playing" the disc -- be it a 60s-era hifi or a professional reel-to-reel machine). Or you can access a virtual filing cabinet which contains a separate dossier on each song. As the song plays, you can click around to early photographs, newspaper articles, related business correspondence, a list of every gig the Squires played and some hilarious and poignant hard-luck letters Young wrote his mom from the road in those early days.

One file even contains a recent video clip of Neil opening a 1963 letter he mailed to himself with music transcriptions, as proof of copyright to the Squires' first songs. Other songs contain audio clips of Young listening back to the tracks and discussing his reaction. There's hours of reading, listening and viewing value packed into the disc.

As well, there's a fantastically detailed and illustrated time line which plots all the major events in Young's personal and professional life, as well as significant world events. Looking at the compression of activity in his creative life from the time he moves to Los Angeles and forms Buffalo Springfield through his dual careers with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Crazy Horse is breathtaking.

These very first recordings play back and sound very good considering their age. But they were created on fairly primitive equipment and so the sampler disc does not really test the true caliber of Blu-Ray's other big boasting point -- high definition audio. As the audio disc's set-up menu takes great pains to explain, Archives in its Blu-Ray incarnation plays back in 24 bit/196 khz audio. For those with limited audio capacity (it says here), the discs can also play back in lower fidelity 24/96, which is still 250 times what you can expect from the average CD (and Young goes on to further explain that CD audio contains 90 percent more data than the average MP3).

I'm not an audiofile by any stretch of the imagination, but it is quite clear that there is sonic resolution to burn here, and I can't wait until the full box set is released and those roaring chords to "Cinnamon Girl" test my speakers' mettle.

My impression is that Archives is fine to approach as just another collection of songs, but Young's intent is now much clearer. This is a multi-media biography. Every song, every photo, every newspaper article, every personal piece of correspondence, every fragment of film or TV clip has been carefully placed in context. Put it on in the background and listen if you want, but know that if you have the time and passion to really dig in, this is a deep, rich, interactive experience that has the potential to illuminate the artist's work and life in ways that really were not possible prior to this technology.

So with the first 10-disc Archives set now weeks away from official release, I'm eager to hear, read, watch and experience how Neil Young developed between 1963 and 1972. And then I want to do the same for the rest of his career as detailed on subsequent box sets.

And already I'm drawing up my short list of other artists I'd love to see get the same treatment.

Tags: archives, neil, young

Comment by Mark Gerking on May 7, 2009 at 8:07am: I'm all for sonic resolution. But I'm afraid the price tag might keep me infatuated with my old bootlegs for quite awhile yet....and then maybe not. Start saving up those empty beer cans. Of course I'd have to buy a Blu-Ray player too. Sheesh, maybe I'll get 10 friends together and we'll each throw in 40 bucks and have a raffle between us...

Comment by Brian Tombaugh on May 7, 2009 at 8:27pm: I'd like the audio quality of the Blu-Ray or DVD versions - but with the number of unreleased tracks in the set - I'd still like to be able to get CD quality versions of the music for listening on my iPod/car CD/computer when I'm not able to be at home with my Marantz setup. Maybe that could be or is part of the additional downloadable content Neil's website talks about. Anyone know?

Comment by Paul Cantin on May 8, 2009 at 5:27am: Mark, the music is available as a regular CD or DVD. Original indications were Neil was going to make this a Blu-Ray exclusive, or at least delay releasing it in any other formats. Perhaps he listened to some of the concerns from fans and changed the release scheme.

Brian, the order page at Neil's site has a message that says box set "includes a physical card with instructions to download mp3s of all the audio tracks from the Archives."

So if I understand correctly, if you order the Blu-Ray or DVD, but want to put the music on your Ipod or in your car, you get a free download of all the music in MP3.

Comment by Jeff Gilbert on May 8, 2009 at 5:53am: I'd really like to pick and choose MP3s to download; can't imagine wanting (or being able to afford) everything. Anyone know if there are plans to offer MP3s for purchase on a song-by-song basis?

Comment by Paul Cantin on May 8, 2009 at 5:59am: I don't think there is any way to purchase these as MP3s. You get them free if you buy the box sets, to make up for the fact that you can't easily rip audio from Blu-Rays or DVDs.

Comment by Ron Frankl on May 8, 2009 at 7:53am: This is borrowed, with love and affection, from Collector's Choice Music's website:

Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972 [Box] [6/2]
Neil Young

The Neil Young boxed set has been on and off WEA's release schedule for about 15 years, so news that it was finally coming was greeted with great skepticism in many quarters including ours. Well, after attending a demonstration of this boxed set's content and packaging, that smirk we had planted on our face has been wiped off forever. The simple truth is, the reason it took so long for this to come out is that it took this long for technology to catch up with Neil Young's vision of what this boxed set could be. Yes, this set lives up to its 15-year build-up, and here's how. If you buy the CD set, you get 128 recordings, 48 of which are unreleased, including an entire unreleased concert “Live at the Riverboat” taped in Toronto in 1969. Which is pretty amazing in itself, but, honestly, we strongly urge you to spring for the DVD set, or, if you have the technology, go for the Blu-Ray (we wouldn't go so far as to tell you to run out and buy a Blu-Ray player for this set, though the thought crossed our minds). First of all, the packaging on the DVD sets is simply unprecedented, including a 236-page leather-bound book with archival materials, a large fold-out poster and custom keeper for the discs. But more importantly, we've never seen anything like the incredible amount of content you get on the DVD/Blu-Ray sets. That includes 20 videos, film clips and trailers; 55 audio tracks of rare interviews, radio spots and concert raps; Neil's first film, 'Journey Through the Past', available for the first time since its theatrical release in 1973; rare performance and documentary footage of Buffalo Springfield and CSN&Y; scenes from the recording of the 'Harvest' album, and much, much more, all in 5.1 Surround Sound. Plus, a dozen “hidden” tracks, archival galleries, “Easter Eggs,” etc. And as for why you should get the Blu-Ray edition, well, the level of interactivity is just astounding, so much so that *Neil is going to make available for download more materials from this 1963-1972 period as he discovers them after the set comes out*. That's right—the Blu-Ray edition of Archives is going to be a living, breathing and GROWING document of the earliest days of one of the greatest singer-songwriter-guitarists of all time, from his start in Winnipeg through his stint with Buffalo Springfield, and then through his moves to Topanga and to a ranch in Northern California. You could honestly spend a solid week with this set, and not plumb its depths. And best of all—this is the first of four volumes!!!

Comment by Paul Cantin on May 8, 2009 at 7:57am: Four volumes?
To date I've only heard tell of three.
But then, like "Archives," Neil is a "living, breathing and GROWING" artist, so who knows how much material he can continue to generate?

Comment by Paul Cantin on May 8, 2009 at 8:07am: Uncut has a review of Archives (appears they have an advance DVD copy of the whole set).

http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&p=1172&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Quoting reviewer John Mulvey:
"It’s not a rarities set for obsessives, it’s more of a multi-media cultural autobiography that must necessarily include definitive recordings alongside all the ephemera."

and ...

"A second pass through the DVDs, however, starts revealing some of the riches that justify the bells-and-whistles treatment. It’s the dept of detail that intrigues: the poster for the Riverboat date, for example, that shows Young’s gigs were between ones by Mike Seeger, Doc Watson, Spider John Koerner and Jerry Jeff Walker. Or, better still, the film clips hidden in the timelines on each disc. A Johnny Cash TV special, where Cash delivers an anti-drugs homily before cutting to Young playing “The Needle And The Damage Done”. A Dutch TV doc where the camera crew follow Young and Elliott Roberts on the former’s ranch and meet up with the titular “Old Man” and his son, fresh back from the army. A session with the LSO in Barking Town Hall, with Jack Nitzsche swigging heartily from a can of Long Life. There’s a fingerpicking solo café show from 1970, with an intently fingerpicked version of “The Loner” segueing into “Cinnamon Girl”, and a finale of Young teaching the latter song to a fan in a park (quite effectively, seeing how our Production Editor was playing it a few minutes after watching the clip). And best of all, a 1969 TV show with CSNY playing an absolutely glorious “Down By The River”, with a great Stills/Young duel (could’ve done with this one as an audio track, too)."

Comment by Brian Tombaugh on May 8, 2009 at 8:07am: Thanks Paul. I somehow missed that when I was reading the site at 2 am. I just hope that they are fairly high bit-rate files. Thanks!

Comment by Paul Cantin on May 8, 2009 at 8:22am: Given Neil's obsession with audio quality, even with his evident aversion to MP3s, it would be kinda counter to all that if he created low-bit MP3s. But then, when you are talking about Neil, who knows?

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