Neil Young - Chrome Dreams

There was a mention in the comments recently asking about Neil Young material that didn't make the cut in the first volume of his enormous Archives box set. Well, I'm not the biggest fan of Neil so I can't say that I have much from his earlier years, but I do find his mid to late seventies recordings interesting and have spent some time researching Chrome Dreams, Tonight's The Night and his early eighties computer freak-out, Trans. This said, I've got a few things that are worth posting so, if you like Neil, keep your eyes peeled for the next month or two as there are at least two more posts in the works, but for my first installment of Neil Young goodies, I'm putting the focus on Chrome Dreams.

For those unfamiliar with Chrome Dreams, let's start in 1976 when Neil was preparing the Decade retrospective. It was supposed to see release that November but didn't appear. Rumors abounded that Neil might have suffered an overdose causing Reprise to cancel the release as damage control, but six months later he released a new album, American Stars 'N Bars. By today's standards, this is pretty typical Neil, but in '76, this was confusing business, especially since reviewers had received test pressings of Decade and it was looked at as an easy sell within the industry. Stranger yet, there had been mentions prior to the release of Stars of a different album, even albums, named Ride My Llama (AWESOME ALBUM NAME!!!) and Chrome Dreams.

Apparently Llama and Chrome Dreams were the same albums with different names, but it didn't matter because nothing was heard about either until 1992. That's when a collector found an acetate dated March 16, 1977 that contained some previously released material from the Stars era as well as a number of either completely unreleased songs or versions. Initially, many fans were skeptical and varying information about the acetate's origin further clouded the topic, but eventually a bootleg CD appeared that proved the legitimacy of the acetate as well as confirmation by several fans who were able to examine and play the acetate first hand.

Since then, excellent quality copies of the acetate have circulated and the album, now widely accepted as Chrome Dreams, has been labeled a classic that should have seen release. That said, there is still speculation that the acetate may have actually been an early version of American Stars 'N Bars, but that doesn't take away from the importance of it's discovery. For die-hard fans, finds like these are practically just as good as legitimate new releases, especially when they sound as nice as this one does.

Most of my information about Chrome Dreams comes from the excellent Neil Young database at Side Street Records which discusses many of his rare or unreleased albums in great detail. If you're interested in Neil or Chrome Dreams you should definitely pay them a visit.


Neil Young - Chrome Dreams

01 Pocahontas
02 Will To Love
03 Star Of Bethlehem
04 Like A Hurricane
05 Too Far Gone
06 Hold Back The Tears
07 Homegrown
08 Captain Kennedy
09 Stringman
10 Sedan Delivery
11 Powderfinger
12 Look Out For My Love