Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Early Daze LP

Yet another archival release from Neil & co repackaging a bunch of older material, whoop-e-doo (I still love ya Neil).

But hear me out, the reason to hear this one is because it falls short.

The cut of Down By The River included on this disc sounds to me like the same music as what eventually made the EKTIS, but with a different vocal take and a slightly different mix. Sure it still rips harder that 95% of recorded music, but it lacks the eeriness and otherworldliness of the album mix.

Goes to show how essential the right take and tweak in the right time at the right place can be!

(But yeah, pretty nice band version of Helpless and some Danny Whitten bits on this disc too and interesting to hear Neil morphing from his Buffalo Springfield days into the full ragged glory of the Horse.)

-Mitch