Unsomnambulist
Staff member
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The RYM reviews are intriguing.
The RYM reviews are intriguing.

on the Sam-O-Meter.Neil Young - Hitchhiker (rec. 1976, rel. 2017)
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Sadly, I haven't had much time for listening or posting lately.I have also largely lost track of the flood of archival releases from artists like Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Garcia and, of course, Neil Young. This one has been sitting in my "in basket" for quite a while so I decided to give it a spin today right after a video court appearance (suit jacket and tie over cargo shorts is now de rigeur in LA Superior). After 30 seconds I stopped writing up my notes to listen. This is truly earthshaking stuff. Rolling Stone explains:
On August 11th, 1976, Neil Young walked into Indigo Studios in Malibu and recorded 10 songs with his acoustic guitar. The results of that session are collected on Hitchhiker, a new Young LP due out on September 8th.
Many of the songs have surfaced on previous Young albums, albeit in different forms: “Human Highway” appeared two years later on 1978’s Comes a Time, while “Powderfinger,” “Ride My Llama” and “Pocahontas” showed up on Rust Never Sleeps (1979), and “Captain Kennedy” came out on 1980’s Hawks & Doves. Hitchhiker will also contain a pair of never-before-released songs – “Hawaii,” “a soaring ballad,” and “Give Me Strength,” which Young has occasionally performed live.
Young recorded Hitchhiker with David Briggs, who helped produce many of Young’s most famous albums, including Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush and On the Beach. John Hanlon, another long-time collaborator, contributed some post-production to the original Malibu recordings.
The intimate acoustic vibe sure does invoke the spirit of After The Gold Rush, with a top notch collection of songs. My first question was "why the hell wasn't this released?" In a Facebook post quoted on Wiki, Neil reveals that the session was intended to be released as an album not long after it was recorded, but Reprise executives were unimpressed. The material was considered to be no more than a collection of demos not fit for release, and the label suggested that Neil rerecord the songs with a backing band.
Ah yes, the same guys who thought Willie's Red Headed Stranger was too raw. Oh well, better late than never.
on the Sam-O-Meter.

No, but the eighth song is.So the first song was about Elizabeth Warren?![]()
Give me strength.No, but the eighth song is.
East of Eden, I'd wager (or, somewhere around Salinas, CA).Where’s Shallowgal now that we really need her?![]()
