Neil Young Reissues?

[Moon Pix]

Does anybody know if theres going to be any remastered CDs of Neil Young? I always ask cause Ive been bitten a time or two with unremastered versions of old albums only to find out that theyre available in better sound quality from a different year/label (like the shitty flat sounding edition of Pronounced by Lynryd Skynryd versus the remastered one.).:)

[tinobeat]

well there were the three ones remastered some 2-3 years ago, but those were the last three not available on CD ever until then. I have no idea if there will be a comprehensive remastering campaign. My guess, though, is "not anytime soon"

All the classic records should be pretty easy to find on vinyl, and any remasters can only hope to sound as good as those, so maybe try those?

[Moon Pix]

well there were the three ones remastered some 2-3 years ago, but those were the last three not available on CD ever until then. I have no idea if there will be a comprehensive remastering campaign. My guess, though, is "not anytime soon"

All the classic records should be pretty easy to find on vinyl, and any remasters can only hope to sound as good as those, so maybe try those?

Is there any particular year I label I should look for on those records, specifically Tonights the Night but I guess it would apply to any of his releases.

[maroonwalrus]

well there were the three ones remastered some 2-3 years ago, but those were the last three not available on CD ever until then.

Time Fades Away still isn't available on CD, which is weird because it's some of the best stuff he's ever done. Thank goodness for that On the Beach reissue though -- it was about time!

[tinobeat]

I'm of the opinion that, while REALLY good, On The Beach's mystique was overblown by its relative rarity compared to the rest of the catalog. I'd forgotten about Time Fades Away...

um, as far as dates, I don't know? I'd say go to the used record store, see if you can find a Reprise pressing of an old NY album, go for it. The one thing I CAN tell you is that Tonight's The Night originally had a very heavy stock cover that was practically warping from all the ink needed to make it as black as it is. I have a reissue of it that just has a regular ol' sleeve. Still sounds awesome, but the heavy matte sleeve is really cool.

[Elijah]

As far as I know, none of Neil Young's CD's have come out more than once. And while Tonight's the Night is an old master, it's not bad compared to a lot of CDs that were reissued around the same time.

[Moon Pix]

As far as I know, none of Neil Young's CD's have come out more than once. And while Tonight's the Night is an old master, it's not bad compared to a lot of CDs that were reissued around the same time.

Are you sure, it doesnt suffer from that horrible lifeless, undynamic flat sound that a lot of the really old cds suffer from?:)

Can I just ask something else (something that the long timers on this board will surely know) - has Neil got a big following on this board?

[Elijah]

Are you sure, it doesnt suffer from that horrible lifeless, undynamic flat sound that a lot of the really old cds suffer from?:)I'd say that it's on par with or slightly better than the Beatles discs that came out in 1987. Not the best, but certainly not the worst.

Supposedly, Neil has resisted doing a new series of remasters because he first wants to release his 32-or-so disc boxed set first. I'm betting that the compact disc becomes obsolete by the time he's done compiling the thing.

[Paul]

Are you sure, it doesnt suffer from that horrible lifeless, undynamic flat sound that a lot of the really old cds suffer from? Like Elijah says, it really doesn't matter because there's not going to be a reissue campaign any time in the near future. They really don't sound so bad, though. Just mastered low (which is probably a benefit).

[jef]

I just wanna hear all of the unreleased material from the Tonights the Night/On the Beach Era, and the Lost Album (Homegrown, which he apparently thought was too personal... Asshole.. Haha) I know it'll be released sooner or later though...

[pizzagratis]

If it means anything, I'm planning on reissuing my copy of After the Goldrush to cassette tape at some point. No bonus tracks planned yet, but there will be new artwork. Limited edition of 1.

[Funk]

I'd forgotten about Time Fades Away...

um, as far as dates, I don't know? I'd say go to the used record store, see if you can find a Reprise pressing of an old NY album, go for it. The one thing I CAN tell you is that Tonight's The Night originally had a very heavy stock cover that was practically warping from all the ink needed to make it as black as it is. I have a reissue of it that just has a regular ol' sleeve. Still sounds awesome, but the heavy matte sleeve is really cool.

This is true. It's a nice jacket.

I think Tonight's The Night and Decade are still in print, or Warner Bros. pressed far too many in the dying days of vinyl, cuz you can still get sealed copies for real cheap.

Time Fades Away might never get a CD issue, for technical reasons. Look under "History": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Fades_Away.

[Dean]

Moonpix,

If you're looking for Neil Young freaks look no further. It does no disservice to the men of Silkworm, Pavement, The Kinks, etc. to say that if stuck on the hypothetical desert island I would find sufficient musical comfort accompanied only by the collected works of Mr. Young. I ran out of actual Neil Young releases awhile back and have taken to collecting shitty bootlegs from various seventies tours.

Anyway, to reiterate what's already been said, a Neil Young CD reissue campaign is about as likely as Liz Phair re-signing with Matador. The man hates the format, and seems pretty uncomfortable with big reissue nostalgia fests anyway.

The worst thing I've noticed about old CDs is the terrible things the digital format tends to do to reverb, and given that Neil Young used reverb very very sparingly (Tonight's The Night, especially is a really dry record for the most part) it's not really a problem. They ARE mastered lower than stuff nowadays, but that's why your stereo has a volume knob.

Funk--I always assumed those super-glossy sealed Tonight's The Night's were some sort of questionable-licensed foreign repress, like the shitty Sergeant Pepper records you can get at Virgin that have blurry, obviously-scanned reprints of the original album art.

The original Reprise Tonight's the Night came with a bunch of weird album inserts. It had a black inner sleeve with a photo of the Santa Monica Flyers on one side and lyrics on the other, a reprint of a period concert review from a German newspaper (in German), and a strange little book thing that looks like it was pieced together randomly from a pulp novel (and has "Goodbye Waterface" scrawled across it--hence the lame/obscure username) I also read that it came with a packet of gold glitter. The copy I have has everything but the glitter.

The glossy-cover reissue has none of this, just a plain white inner sleeve.

[Moon Pix]

Look under "History": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Fades_Away.

F***ing hell! This man is a true idiosyncrat if there ever was one (and if thats a real word which I don't think it is - I never made up a word on my birthday before so thats a first).

Neil's shipwrecked on his own island as far as making commercially viable decisions is concerned.:)

[tinobeat]

Funk--I always assumed those super-glossy sealed Tonight's The Night's were some sort of questionable-licensed foreign repress, like the shitty Sergeant Pepper records you can get at Virgin that have blurry, obviously-scanned reprints of the original album art.
...
The glossy-cover reissue has none of this, just a plain white inner sleeve.

yeah, the version I have I got for $8 new last year, and it was definitely along the lines of those Scorpio reissues of classic LPs with thin glossy stock and just a white dust jacket. The thing about these reissues is that they're not cheap scanned LP covers reprinted. They're actually licensed reissues, just not as high quality. You can always tell by looking at the fine print on the back cover. If the logos and text look a little fuzzy, then its a scanned cover reprinted, but if its sharp, then it was actually re-made. The Tonights The Night and Decade's that you'll find for cheap and sealed now are of that variety.

Not bootlegs, but just reissues that aren't as nice as the OG copies. I really want one of the real Tonight's the Night's

[Funk]

Funk--I always assumed those super-glossy sealed Tonight's The Night's were some sort of questionable-licensed foreign repress, like the shitty Sergeant Pepper records you can get at Virgin that have blurry, obviously-scanned reprints of the original album art.

Nah, they're legit, they have "Imported by Warner Music Canada" stickers on them up here, and Canada's not gonna fuck with Neil. I honestly think that they're leftovers from the late-1980s that didn't get destroyed, or that NY wanted left "in print".

I remember a few years back, Vapor (his "indie" label) were saying something on their web site about bringing all his albums back into print on high quality vinyl, but he's never been real quick with his promises of looking back for consumer money, as this thread shows. That certainly would be a lot nobler than putting out a Spoon record, but that's neither here nor there.

[Miss Tasty Princess]

Time Fades Away might never get a CD issue, for technical reasons. Look under "History": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Fades_Away.Interesting. I bought that one around 15 years ago when I heard it was OOP and like it very much. I only have a few others, though: Tonight's the Night, Rust Never Sleeps, the El Dorado EP and Ragged Glory. I used to have Sleeps with Angels and Broken Arrow (is that right?) but thought both were pretty dull. I definitely need more!

[tinobeat]

This is as good a place as any to say that if you're even marginally interested in Neil Young as a recording artist and as a personality, the biography about him called Shakey is required reading. Fascinating stuff, even if the author does take the opportunity to insert himself into the story a bit gratuitously.