''Neil Young'' is the debut studio album by Canadian / American musician

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fu ...

following his departure from

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song " For What It's Worth", r ...

in 1968, issued on

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...

, catalogue number RS 6317. The album was first released on November 12th 1968 in the so-called 'CSG mix'. It was then partially remixed and re-released in late summer 1969, but at no time has the album ever charted on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artist ...

Release history

The first release of the album used the

Haeco-CSG The Haeco-CSG or ''Holzer Audio Engineering-Compatible Stereo Generator'' system was an analog electronic device developed by Howard Holzer, Chief Engineer at A&M Records in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, Hollywood, California. His compan ...

encoding system. This technology was intended to make stereo records compatible with mono record players, but had the unfortunate side effect of degrading the sound. Young was unhappy with the first release. "The first mix was awful", he was reported as saying in Cash Box of September 6, 1969. "I was trying to bury my voice, because I didn't like the way it sounded". The album was therefore partially remixed and re-released without Haeco-CSG processing. Most of the songs from the original album were re-released as-is, only without the Haeco-CSG processing. Only three were remixed, which were replaced on the master tapes: "If I Could Have Her Tonight", "Here We Are in the Years", and "What Did You Do to My Life?". The words "Neil Young" were added to the top of the album cover after what was left of the original stock had been used up, so copies of both mixes exist in the original sleeve. Copies of the original mix on vinyl are now rare and much sought-after by Neil Young fans who believe that the remix diminished the songs, especially "Here We Are in the Years". ''Neil Young'' was remastered and released on

HDCD High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) is a proprietary audio encode-decode process that claims to provide increased dynamic range over that of standard Compact Disc Digital Audio, while retaining backward compatibility with existing compa ...

-encoded

compact discs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octob ...

and digital download on July 14, 2009, as part of the Neil Young Archives Original Release Series. It was released on audiophile vinyl in December 2009, both individually and as part of a box-set of Neil's first four LPs available via his official website. This box set was limited to 1000 copies. The remaster was also released on CD, individually and as Disc 1 of a 4-CD box set ''Official Release Series Discs 1-4'', released in the US in 2009 and Europe in 2012. High resolution digital files of both the CSG and non-CSG albums are available to subscribers on the Neil Young Archives website.

Reception

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

'' wrote "in many ways, a delightful reprise of that Springfield sound done a new way". In its retrospective review,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

described it as "an uneven, low-key introduction to Young's solo career".

Track listing

All tracks are written by

, except where noted.

Arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

s on "The Old Laughing Lady", "String Quartet from Whiskey Boot Hill" and "I've Loved Her So Long" by Young, Jack Nitzsche and

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, ...

. Track timings are from the original 1969 vinyl release, catalogue number RS 6317.''Neil Young'' rear cover; http://www.45worlds.com/vinyl/album/rs6317

Personnel

* Neil Young –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

guitars The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a ...

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''rank ...

, production *

– guitar, production *

Jack Nitzsche Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spec ...

–

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

, arrangements, production * Jim Messina,

Carol Kaye Carol Kaye (née Smith, born March 24, 1935) is an American musician. She is one of the most prolific recorded bass guitarists in rock and pop music, playing on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career spanning over 50 years. Kaye began play ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

George Grantham George Grantham may refer to: * George Grantham (baseball) George Farley "Boots" Grantham (May 20, 1900 – March 16, 1954) was an American Major League Baseball second baseman who played for the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Red ...

Earl Palmer Earl Cyril Palmer (October 25, 1924 – September 19, 2008) was an American drummer. Considered one of the inventors of rock and roll, he is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Palmer was one of the most prolific studio musicians of all ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

Merry Clayton Merry Clayton (born December 25, 1948) is an American soul and gospel singer. She provided a number of backing vocal tracks for major performing artists in the 1960s, most notably in her duet with Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones song "Gimme Sh ...

Brenda Holloway Brenda Holloway (born June 26, 1946) is an American singer and songwriter, who was a recording artist for Motown Records during the 1960s. Her best-known recordings are the soul hits, " Every Little Bit Hurts", " When I'm Gone", and " You've Ma ...

Patrice Holloway Patrice Yvonne Holloway (March 23, 1951 – October 3, 2006) was an American soul and pop singer, and songwriter. Career Patrice Yvonne Holloway was born on March 23, 1951 in Los Angeles, California, the youngest of three children born to Wade ...

, Gloria Richetta Jones,

Sherlie Matthews Sherlie Matthews (born November 10, 1934) is an American singer, songwriter and former Motown Records producer, best known as a backing vocalist for pop, R&B and rock groups from the mid-1960s to the present time. Early life Matthews started ...

, Gracia Nitzsche –

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

* unidentified - trumpet, trombone, tenor saxophone, French horn, clarinet, timpani, strings Production * David Briggs – production * Dale Batchelor, Donn Landee, Mark Richardson, Henry Saskowski –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

* Rik Pekkonen – arrangements, engineering * Danny Kelly – photography * Ed Thrasher – album art direction * Roland Diehl – cover painting

Charts

References

External links

Official documentation for ''Neil Young''
{{Authority control Neil Young albums 1969 debut albums Albums produced by David Briggs (producer) Albums produced by Jack Nitzsche Reprise Records albums Albums produced by Neil Young Albums produced by Ry Cooder Albums recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders Albums recorded at Wally Heider Studios