Neil Young gave fans of his Archives project an extra-special Christmas gift this year, dropping the eight-track Summer Songs record that he first teased last month.
- ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut
- READ MORE: Neil Young & The Crazy Horse – Barn review
The archival album was initially recorded in 1987, tracked at the Broken Arrow Ranch in Redwood City, California. It’s unclear who Young made the album with – if anyone – but every instrument played on it was played by Young himself. The version released on Saturday (December 25) was produced by the Volume Dealers and mastered by Tim Mulligan.
Take a listen to Summer Songs in its entirety below:
As seasoned fans will note, most of the tracks on Summer Songs would eventually pop up elsewhere in Young’s discography. “American Dream”, for example, made it to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s titular ’88 record (as did “Name Of Love”).
“Someday”, “Wrecking Ball” and “Hangin’ On A Limb” all appear on 1989’s Freedom, while “One Of These Days” went to Harvest Moon in ’92, and “For The Love Of Man” appeared on Young’s 2012 album with Crazy Horse, Psychedelic Pill.
As Young noted with the record’s announcement, however, many of the lyrics featured on these demos “are significantly different from their subsequent master album releases”, with tracks sporting “several completely new and unheard verses”.
Summer Songs comes as the first chapter of Neil Young Archives Volume III. The second volume of the project was issued last year, covering unreleased music recorded between 1972 and ’76. Among the records shared was Homegrown, which – made up of recordings from ’74 and ’75 – languished as an unheard album for decades before its release in June 2020.