The Unreleased 1977 Neil Young Album We are Lucky to Have Today

should have been released between "American Stars and Bars" and "Comes a Time"

This is a good time to be alive if you are a Neil Young fan. For years, Neil Young, an archivist like few others, has saved everything. And when I mean everything, take a gander at the Neil Young Archives. Here we find photographs, original lyric sheets, ephemera, videos, and all the music. The music quality, it goes without saying, is also presented in a similarly archival manner. For those who stream, you are treated to a digital source that is as close as you can get to the analog source. But since we like our Neil pressed lovingly in all its full spectrum splendor, this record is an AAA affair made directly from the original master tapes. The best quality available is what Neil Young has always promised and delivered. This album is no exception. Sponsored by nobody :- ).

For Neil Young devotees, you have previously heard many, if not all of these songs. They were sprinkled, in one way or another, across many albums over the years and can be found in the Archives. Yet, this release delivers the full album, as it was originally intended, after it was completed in 1977. This record would have directly preceded Comes a Time.

And, it beautifully reflects what came before and what was around the corner. In this way, it’s one of the most natural archival releases. And, I have to say as a lifelong fan, it’s certainly one of my favorites. In fact, let’s take a quick look at what was going on in 1977 for Neil Young. Get ready to feel bad about what you did last year.

1977 starts off with Neil finishing the until only recently released, Chrome Dreams. Hello “Pocahontas” and “Captain Kennedy”! Both songs are featured in their original mixes on Oceanside/Countryside. Then we see American Stars and Bars completed— a country romp that nestles right up to the feel of Countryside. How about some live bar shows in Santa Cruz with The Ducks in the summer, and then a trip to Nashville for the stunning pastoral beauty of Comes a Time?

To say that this was a uniquely prolific time for Neil would be an all-time understatement.  It should also be noted that many of the aforementioned albums were recorded over a period of years. He didn’t stroll into a studio and lay down the tracks in one go. Some of these records that he has now released were recorded over months and, in some cases, years. And, to a degree, they sound that way. But Oceanside/Countryside sounds very much like a cohesive album, although it was recorded over several months at some of the best studios found across America. It’s a scrapbook of the year that was 1977, and it really works. And, you can really hear the inspiration for what would become Comes a Time— easily one of his most beautiful and sunny albums. But, missing are the soaring orchestral arrangements found on that album. Yet, we get all of the beauty that is Neil’s voice at this time and some of his best songwriting. It’s pure, often stripped down, and gorgeously captured in all of its analog glory. I should also add that if you contextualize where Oceanside/Countryside falls, it makes perfect sense to follow the rawness of American Stars and Bars and to precede the sweeping pastoral quality found on Comes a Time. 

For the devotees, it’s fun to hear the sonic artifacts that make up these various recordings. They were captured at various iconic studios: “Sail Away”, “Lost in Space”, “Goin’ Back” and “Human Highway” were all recorded at Triad in Ft. Lauderdale. They all have that ethereal, otherworldly quality that I love about Neil Young’s music. They also sound like he’s right in front of you in such a golden, organic way. You can almost hear the ocean. Well played, Neil. “Captain Kennedy” and “The Old Homestead” sound like something from another time. And they truly are from another place, Malibu’s “Indigo Ranch Studios”. Both recordings are bone dry and haunted. Neil may as well be on a stool 6 feet in front of you. You can hear him moving around the mic, and his guitar is part drum in the way he keeps rhythm with his right hand. This pressing takes you there perfectly. The Nashville tracks from “Crazy Mama’s” in Nashville sound like what you think a 70’s country band should sound like. You can just about smell the manure- in a good way. It’s also easy to hear the bond of friendship that Neil and Rufus Thibodeaux shared in the spirited fiddle playing that weaves through the Nashville tracks—just check that back cover photo to get a visual representation.  

So, if you want to hear Oceanside/Countryside, this is the only way you can do it on vinyl. And, that’s a very good thing. There’s no hunting for pressings- skip the forums. The fact that it has been preserved in such a gorgeous, purely analog way with the original artwork on a dead-silent pressing- and all of this for a totally reasonable price- shows that there is always light, even in the darkest of days. A much needed record for right now. Thank you, Neil. 

(Neil Young Archives Special Release Series – NYA SRS 7, Neil Young Archives Special Release Series)