Neil Young
13 Days of Neil
RustWorks, Vol. 12
Stringman

I recently acquired Chris Davis’ fantastic Jerry Garcia compilation, “8 Days of Jerome” and thought that somebody should do the same for Neil Young. Well, taking my own advice I embarked on this little project in May 2011 and, hoping others will enjoy it, decided to share. The title, “13 Days of Neil” is an obvious rip-off from Chris and Neil (Lucky 13), but feel free to call it whatever you want. Neil’s birthday is on 11/12 and this set contains 14 volumes. Yeah, it makes no sense.

Vol. 12-Stringman He may not be a virtuoso, but Neil’s piano playing is always melodically and emotionally satisfying. My personal favorite performances of Heart of Gold were these early pairings on piano with A Man Needs a Maid. I love the brilliantly disastrous performance of After the Gold Rush; from the abandoned Sugar Mountain to the dropped lyrics to bad chords to the impossibly high register in which Neil sings. I can’t imagine anyone but Neil Young getting away with that kind of shit onstage and making the audience love him all that much more. Philadelphia and Stringman, of course, are the indisputable masterpieces on this piano volume. And I threw in a few tunes we just wouldn’t expect to hear on piano: Dangerbird, Campaigner, Homefires and This Notes for You.

Coastline (Santa Cruz, 1983-01-05)
Mexico (Boston, 2007-12-06)
Stringman (Los Angeles, 1993-03-01)
Try (New York, 2007-12-16)
Out of My Mind (San Francisco, 1978-05-27L)
Love in Mind (Boston, 1971-01-21)
A Man Needs a Maid (Boston, 1971-01-21)
Heart of Gold (Boston, 1971-01-21)
Journey Through the Past (Toronto, 1973-01-15)
Intro-After the Gold Rush (Louisville, 1973-02-15)
*After the Gold Rush (Louisville, 1973-02-15)
Dangerbird (Frankfurt, 2003-05-01)
Homefires (Minneapolis, 1992-11-22)
Love Art Blues (Minneapolis, 1992-11-22
Philadelphia (Houston, 1999-06-01)
Campaigner (New York, 1992-02-18)
Winterlong (Rotterdam, 1989-12-13)
I Believe in You (San Francisco, 1978-05-27L)
Someday (Rotterdam, 1989-12-13)
This Note’s for You (Nagoya, 1989-05-05)

The selection process for this compilation was quite simple. I attempted to pace the songs in a loose chronological order, creating counterpoint with slow and uptempo tunes, and above all include versions of songs that I can enjoy over and over. In that sense, this is more of a retrospective than a greatest hits or best of compilation. Basically, it’s just a bunch of songs that just seem to go well together. Of course, the fact that Neil is so prolific made this project fairly mind-boggling simply in terms of available material. Clearly, I avoided any officially released material, or any that was likely to be released in the foreseeable future.

This collection is also a showcase for the great people and bands with whom Neil has played over the years: Danny, Bert, Nicolette, all those Nashville players, Crazy Horse, the Stray Gators and Santa Monica Flyers, the Springfield, CSN, Pegi. Listen closely and you’ll hear all of them at one point or another. This goes out to Long Grain in particular. If not for Ben Keith, I fear there would be no Neil Young as we’ve come to know, and love, him.

A word about compilations: I compiled these performances for my personal listening pleasure, and share them for the same reason. There are many Neil Young compilations available out there: “Archives be Damned 2000” (and 2006), “Acoustic Masterpieces,” “A Perfect Echo.” Of course, the one must-have compilation is the officially released “Archives.” Nothing beats the original tracks themselves. This compilation is not meant to replace any of the aforementioned. It, simply, is what it is.

I urge you to seek out the original performances (they’re all available somewhere). Thank you so much to the original tapers and uploaders and all who share this great music (what we do here at DIME is a rare and precious thing). And, of course, thanks, Neil.

Enjoy,
1chucho
November 2011


Lineage: All recordings obtained from various torrent sites (DIME, Trader’s Den, HungerCity, TapeCity, Zomb): FLAC > WAV > CD-R > FLAC (8) > DIME
Notes on Sound Quality: All Audience Recordings except as noted, the SQ is Excellent to Excellent+ throughout except*
*SQ is Fair to good
Convert to lossy for personal use only
NOT FOR SALE-SHARE FREELY
Please support this artist-purchase official recordings, attend live performances regularly, and visit the websites:

www.neilyoung.com
www.thrasherswheat.org
www.sugarmtn.org

RustWorks, Vol. 1: Sugar Mountain
RustWorks, Vol. 2: Heart of Gold
RustWorks, Vol. 3: Tired Eyes
RustWorks, Vol. 4: On the Beach
RustWorks, Vol. 5: Interstate
RustWorks, Vol. 6: This Old Guitar
RustWorks, Vol. 7: Let it Shine
RustWorks, Vol. 8: Out of the Blue
RustWorks, Vol. 9: Into the Black
RustWorks, Vol. 10: Transformer Man
RustWorks, Vol. 11-Part I: Don’t Spook the Horse
RustWorks, Vol. 11-Part II: Don’t Spook the Horse
RustWorks, Vol. 12: Stringman
RustWorks, Vol. 13: Borrowed Tune
RustWorks, Vol. 14: Looking Forward