Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972

Well, I hummed and harred for a week or two but decided I had to have it. So I went out last weekend and bought Neil Young's new box set; the much talked-about, uber-delayed Archives Vol. 1 - 1963-1972.

Neil Young has been talking about releasing his archives - in one form or another - since the mid-to-late 1980s. There was talk of a 35-CD box set of entirely unreleased material. There has been all sorts of talk - and the eventual box set (eight CDs or 10 DVDs) has been hyped for over a year.

And then, as the release drew near, word came through that a couple of the discs were previously released (the 1971 solo concert and the 1970 Crazy Horse show) and that only a few of the tracks would be previously unreleased - the box would include a Young-selected version of his hits from that period. So, yes, you buy Archives and you get Heart of Gold. In fact you get a couple of live versions and the original.

So, as I say, I hummed and harred. I'm a keen Neil Young fan - he was the only reason I went to this year's Big Day Out - and in a perfect world he would have performed his own show the night before/after so that I didn't have to walk around for eight hours, avoiding lacklustre performances and crummy bands that no one will remember in a year or two before finally seeing Uncle Neil. (Actually in a perfect world it would have been Crazy Horse up there with him rattling through the entire Ragged Glory album and a few other, older Horse tunes as encores). But I'm a keen enough Neil Young fan to enjoy seeing him in the context of the BDO - since that was all that was on offer. But I wasn't sure I was keen enough to take the plunge and buy Archives.

I contacted Warners and asked for a copy to be sent through - offering to review it on the Good Morning TV Show and here @ Blog on the Tracks - and was told that they did not send samples of expensive box sets. So, by that rationale you won't get to read or hear reviews of it elsewhere in NZ - since reviewers just wait for free CDs...

Well I wanted to own Archives - I felt I needed to hear it. And I really think that it's a pretty cool start to what will be an amazing collection. Context is the key word. Neil Young is assembling a history of his music in his own lifetime. And even though any Neil Young fan considering buying Archives will have so many of the songs - it's pretty fascinating to hear them laid out in a line like this.

I've read reviews saying that the CD-version is a waste of time (Young hates CD quality and was supposedly waiting for Blu-ray technology to catch on before releasing the set; that's one of the excuses anyway). But I don't have a lot of time to waste and I don't have a flash enough music/DVD system nor a big enough house to devote an area to a state-of-the-art home theatre setup (nor the money: I'm busy out buying my own box sets to review). I made the call - I listen to CDs mostly in the car, sometimes on the kitchen stereo and I load them up to my iPod - maybe down the track I'll buy the Blu-ray edition...but what am I really missing out on? Sure there's some visual footage, but I don't really want to see the Journey Through the Past film. So for the price I don't think I'm missing much. Or am I?

It's hearing Neil Young jamming with his early surf-rock combo The Squires and moving on through to Buffalo Springfield material and then first, tentative solo steps. That's the magic. We get to hear some of the material from his eponymous album without the cloaking of overly syrupy string arrangements. This is juxtaposed with the early Crazy Horse material (both live and studio versions) from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. From there we get a revealing live show from 1969 - solo, acoustic - and on to demos and album-tracks right up to and including 1972's Harvest.

The stuff to salivate over is a solo acoustic See the Sky About To Rain - before it would end up in its recorded version within On The Beach's delights. And then there's the outtake Bad Fog Of Loneliness - excellent. You can also hear how Young repeats himself in an endearing way throughout his career; taking a guitar line, a familiar little lick, a percussive strum and turning it into the basis for more than one song. It's as if he goes back, listens to something he did, decides he likes that and goes "that'll work again". Here with Archives Vol. 1 he has done that with a whole bunch of his stuff. And I think we're pretty lucky to see the start of this roll out during his lifetime.

There's potentially volumes two, three and four to come - maybe a volume five - and who knows what else. Young will play it out until he's happy and could suddenly back away from the rest of this series. But I doubt it. And I like the idea of seeing/hearing his recorded life - the bits that tell the story - unfolding in a series of box sets. To think that in nine years Young could achieve more stylistic growth and diversity than so many people manage in careers three times that length means that there will definitely be some good things to look forward to in the future volumes. We fans know that already, from the best of his released material.

But hearing it correctly contextualised - for me - made it worth the price of admission.

What about you? Have any of you taken the plunge? Can anyone sell the DVD/Blu-ray versions as being most necessary? Or are you not enough of a fan? Maybe you have all the Neil Young you need already? What do you think of this Archives set? Anyone buy it and feel totally underwhelmed?

And anyone get a free copy?