The latest release in Neil Young’s stellar Archive Performance Series is a truly exceptional collection that fans of classic 70s Neil will absolutely love. Songs For Judy comprises 22 tracks culled from recordings of the solo sets with which Neil opened his shows with Crazy Horse during a short tour in November 1976. Featuring intimate performances on acoustic guitar and piano, the album is a wonderful companion to classic Young albums like After The Goldrush, Harvest and Tonight’s The Night.
Although the title is new, the collection, in a significantly inferior form, will be familiar to serious fans as a legendary bootleg. The recordings were made by rock journalist Cameron Crowe and Neil’s photographer and guitar tech Joel Bernstein, who both accompanied the tour and recorded every show with the help of Neil’s crew for their own personal enjoyment. The pair went through the recordings immediately afterward to fill a 90-minute cassette with what they considered the best versions of each song that Neil performed solo. They gave copies of that cassette to crew members, and, perhaps inevitably, a copy found its way into the hands of a bootlegger. Latterly known as The Bernstein Tapes, the bootleg became a legendary fan favorite over the years. Songs For Judy features the same recordings taken from the original first generation tapes, and carefully mastered for release by Neil. Fans of the old bootleg have never heard it sound so good.
Songs for Judy is the latest release in a series of live releases from the Neil Young Archives. Known as the Performance Series, it will include more than a dozen releases in total. The titles are numbered in chronological order according to when they were recorded but not released in numerical order; hence Songs For Judy is #7, even though numbers 9, 11 and 12 have already been released, and numbers 4 and 6 are yet to appear. Get Songs For Judy here.
The Neil Young Archives is also the name of the massive boxset Neil released in 2009 covering the years 1963-72, as well as some promised volumes that have yet to appear. It is also the name given to Neil ’s incredible online portal – a stupendously deep site through which fans can listen to all of Neil’s music is superb quality sound. Fans can check it out here.
The Neil Young Archives Performance Series
Volume 00: Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 1968
Featuring highlights from two shows at Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, MI on November 9 and 10, 1968; shows which are legendary among Neil Young collectors, because the version of the title track that showed up on Decade. These shows took place a month or two shy of the release of his first solo album and capture Young as he steps away from the security of a hit-making group (Buffalo Springfield) and goes it alone.
Volume 01: Live at the Riverboat 1969
Taken from a series of shows at the Riverboat Coffeehouse in Toronto in February 1969, and recorded by fellow Canadian (and future Emmylou Harris producer) Brian Ahern. It’s only 4 months since the Canterbury House show but Neil has one album out an is in the midst of recording the classic Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.
Volume 02: Live at the Fillmore East 1970
Neil and Crazy Horse with all guns blazing in March 1970. Some fans consider this greatest Neil Young live album, and we’re not here to disagree.
Volume 02.5: Live at the Cellar Door
The numbering suggests Neil sees this as a solo companion to Crazy Horse Fillmore set; it was recorded in Washington D.C. during six-show between November 30 and December 2, 1970. Time spent with Crazy Horse had certainly not diminished Neil’s solo strengths, and this one includes the debut performance of "Old Man" and a unique piano version of "Cinnamon Girl."
Volume 03: Live at Massey Hall 1971
Recorded just before the release of Harvest, following the release After the Goldrush. Another solo guitar and piano set that shows how deep Young’s catalog was even so early in his solo career, this one includes CSNY favorites "Helpless" and "Ohio" and well as debut performances of several songs from Harvest and Time Fades Away.
Volume 05: Roxy - Tonight's the Night Live 1973
Released earlier this year, this one is culled from a series of shows played during the opening of the Roxy Theatre from September 20–22, 1973. The shows featured Young backed by the Santa Monica Flyers and songs from the recently recorded Tonight's The Night.
Volume 07: Songs for Judy
As discussed above. From 1976.
Volume 09: A Treasure
A leap forward to 1984-85, this documents Neil’s 1984-1985 tours, on the back of Old Ways. While that album is considered one of Neil’s lesser efforts, the shows, with a band he called the International Harvesters, featuring the likes of Ben Keith on pedal steel and Spooner Oldham on keys, were country-rocking greatness.
Volume 11: Bluenote Café
Documenting the 1987/88 tour behind another oft-panned album This Note's for You, this set is heavy on horns and blues rock and finds Young’s now-famous righteous ire starting to form in songs like “Ordinary People” and “Crime in the City.”
Volume 12: Dreamin' Man Live '92
Features all ten songs from the album Harvest Moon performed live in 1992.
