NEIL YOUNG ARCHIVES BOX: IT'S REALLY HAPPENING

knowing neil, archives vol. 2 could very well be a 23-blu-ray version of "arc"

ARChives volume 23

if we get a pono-only archives 2 I might riot

Considering the main selling point of the first Archives box was the visuals on the blu-ray, the Pono-only thing makes no sense.

seriously

it will have a lot of the same content that the Blu-ray (of the first Archives) had."

WTF

goddamn it this was my greatest fear about pono

eh i don't buy it. his record company will want it in various formats.

WTF

Yeah, that's not exactly clear; I'm hoping he meant that any blu-ray release will have the same type of content.

his record company will want it in various formats.

I work for a division of Warner Music. Twice a year, we have a charity record sale; each WMG label donates stuff they've got too much of and it gets sold at ultra-cheap prices ($1 for a single CD, $4 and up for box sets. Last year, I got the Stooges Fun House 7CD box for $10.). Anyway, I've been going for a couple of years now, and every time I go there are giant piles of Archives Vol. 1 that no one touches. WMG took a fucking bath on that thing. I'm not at all convinced they'll want to produce an equally elaborate second installment.

Last year, I got the Stooges Fun House 7CD box for $10.

Damn

haha, can you let me know when the next one is, i would like the fun house box for $10.
won't they take more of a bath on it if they only do it on pono? i mean, they certainly won't sell many.

The first Archives was released in three physical formats (BD, DVD, CD) -- I imagine the overhead on Archives 2 would be significantly lower with no physical manufacturing/distribution.

i have another great idea neil you could also sell a lot more vinyl if you didn't charge twice the going rate for your records

i'm kinda PONOpressed right now :(

that 24-bit depression

lol.
i dunno, if they took such a bath on the first archives, why are they doing such a lavish "deluxe" version of "Letter Home" (with a CD version even!). [not that i doubt they lost money on the archives, but that might be more to do w/ neil's contract than anything else?]

that delux Letter Home version is bonkers

that luxe Letter Home is looking for punters who are all "hello i love neil young and hate money"

Warners might've just fucked up in estimating how many Archives boxes they thought they could sell, and pressed an amount way out of proportion to its target audience. Presumably, they're pressing saner quantities of A Letter Home (and/or Third Man is footing part of the bill).

being a neil young fan is so stressful. let's just chill and listen to this shitty audience tape from 1976 (electric "helpless"!) http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=1814

IIRC, the deluxe Archives boxes where remaindered/put oop pretty quickly. When I saw him live live in 2010, they had discounted copies of the blu box on sale at the merch table, and I also seem to recall Collector's Choice slashing prices for both higher end versions in their contemporary catalogs.

Warners might've just fucked up in estimating how many Archives boxes they thought they could sell, and pressed an amount way out of proportion to its target audience. Presumably, they're pressing saner quantities of A Letter Home (and/or Third Man is footing part of the bill).

^^I imagine even the regular Archives box was a hot seller upon the initial weeks of release, and then dropped down to nothing aside from xmas sales and then later closeouts like Borders closing (I still remember the piles of the Springteen Darkness blu boxes behind the counter in practically every location I visited).

"Every record I've ever made" will be available on Pono in the fall"

including Homegrown?!

yeah i was wondering that? or chrome dreams 1? oceanside/countryside?

ha, i assume he means "every record I've released" but who knows

"Every record I remember releasing...for $49.99. Apiece."

It's kind of amazing that for something that was in gestation for so long, the archives projects have been released in such largely inept fashion.

The first time I heard about it was a 1990 interview in the Chicago Tribune; then, it was going to be a 10-CD set, which sounded absolutely massive at the time.

David Briggs mentioned in Shakey that Neil had a crew doing archives work at the ranch during the Ragged Glory sessions.

did not know this was on Spotify, lol

currently jamming the shit out of Fillmore 1970

stop bumping this if it's not about Archives 2 the wrath of shakey

I love Neil, but Archives remains a shit deal. I can't justify it. Such a pity that he isn't as laissez-faire as Dylan, and can't allow something à la Bootleg Series.

if something god forbid happened to neil, i wonder if there would then be a bootleg series type thing or if his will states that everything must be cremated with him

with the divorce who knows what's going to happen to his estate. obviously his kids can't take care of it.

Elliott Roberts

with the divorce who knows what's going to happen to his estate. obviously his kids can't take care of it.

There's still Amber! She apparently just married an investment banker or something.

truly hope his pov is "i'll be reissued to others satisfaction when i'm dead" rather than "bury me with the compumixes"

ah right I forgot about Amber

Pegi will get all the Archives.

I love Neil, but Archives remains a shit deal. I can't justify it. Such a pity that he isn't as laissez-faire as Dylan, and can't allow something à la Bootleg Series.

― Duke, Thursday, September 4, 2014 6:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the performance series is pretty similar, no?

i mean, dylan is releasing the complete basement tapes and neil has 3 unreleased proper studio albums that are supposedly bona fide classics that haven't been released

it does seem increasingly weird that dudes like dylan and young with these deep archives of live performances aren't looking at what the grateful dead does and just copying that. neil performance series is great, but it's not quite dick's picks. if he just told jonathan bernstein to do the same thing as dick's picks, there would be tons of great (and complete) shows available.

iirc, the members of the Dead don't want to listen to any of the Dick's Picks series. Which is great for fans, obviously -- no meddling -- but I can see how artists a little more hands-on like Young and Dylan would be wary about something like that.

(and don't get me started on the Who's lack of a live series...)

yeah, as with almost everything else, the dead are a unique case. [don't know if i'd call dylan hands on though -- if he's listened at all to any of those bootleg series' i would be kind of surprised]

the best dylan quote ever i read in this article where a journalist was talking about doing an article where he got to hang out w/dylan during the Infidels sessions. he'd obviously heard all the songs and assumed the "Blind Willie McTell" would be the centerpiece of the album. He comes back to hear the final mixes and is horrified that Dylan has left the song off the album and starts to protest, Dylan says "Hey man, don't worry about it, it's just an album, I've made 20 of them"

i think clinton heylin had some conspiracy theory that dylan held back "blind willie mctell" because he knew that not releasing it would immediately catapult it into "classic" status. and it did! (not that it isn't a genuinely great song)

it does seem increasingly weird that dudes like dylan and young with these deep archives of live performances aren't looking at what the grateful dead does and just copying that. neil performance series is great, but it's not quite dick's picks. if he just told jonathan bernstein to do the same thing as dick's picks, there would be tons of great (and complete) shows available.

sactly

"Hey man, don't worry about it, it's just an album, I've made 20 of them"

ha, wonder where different singer/songwriters reached that degree of cynicism re: individual artifacts. Probably around the time they realized the wiggle room on their concert setlist was decreasing.

"ok i gotta play these 8 songs till the end of time, so reasonably this album is only going to provide one to four songs on future setlists, so fuck the b side"

"we're going for a sort of 'mediocre' vibe on this particular record, that song wouldn't fit"

Heylin's Behind the Shades basically repeats the same narrative for each and every Dylan album: that it coulda been something much greater had it been recorded/mixed/sequenced/whatever differently. You come away with the feeling that Dylan's career was just one huge missed opportunity

I love Neil, but Archives remains a shit deal. I can't justify it. Such a pity that he isn't as laissez-faire as Dylan, and can't allow something à la Bootleg Series.

― Duke, Thursday, September 4, 2014 6:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the performance series is pretty similar, no?

― mizzell, Friday, September 5, 2014 5:48 PM (3 hours ago)

Fair point. But there could be so much more.