Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II

from http://www.neilyoung.com/news/index.html

YOUNG PLAYS NEW RECORD FOR REPRISE
NY Times, August 16, 2007

Continuing a tradition that goes back to 1969, Neil Young played his latest recording for Reprise yesterday. The recording was played for about 100 people in Burbank. Produced by "The Volume Dealers," NY and Niko Bolas, the recording runs 60+ minutes and includes two giant songs that time in at 18:30 and 13:00, respectively.

Drawing from three songs written previously, and 7 new songs, the latest Neil Young is a very diverse recording. A release date is unknown at this time. The title is Chrome Dreams II.

Chrome Dreams is a legendary NY album from 1977 that had originally been scheduled for release but was shelved. The original cover for Chrome Dreams was created by Neil's long-time producer and friend, the late David Briggs. Unfortunately, all original documentation and art for this album was lost in a fire that destroyed Neil's Malibu home in early 1978.


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A few added bits:

From the rust list (the best place for news on Neil Young and many other bands), via

http://www.thrasherswheat.org/wheatfield.html

New cd Chrome Dream tentatively scheduled Oct. 16. Touring for 7 weeks beginning Oct. 13. Performing at Farm Aid Sept 9 & Bridge School Oct 27-28. To be determined date in 2008 cd & dvd archive set includes 8 cds, 3 dvds, & 160 page book in box packaging.


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There’s much speculation as to what the three previously written songs are that are going to be included, with mentions of “Ordinary People” (considered by many to be one of Neil Young’s best songs, it dates from 1988, and has never been released), “Live to Ride” (sometimes referred to as Dream Machine), and “Sixty to Zero.”

Speculation is fun, but I doubt “Sixty to Zero” will be on this CD (I’ve been wrong about things like this sooo many times) as quite a bit of it was excerpted to make “Crime in the City” on neil Young’s 1989 album Freedom.

“Ordinary People” and “Sixty to Zero” have been targeted because their running times in concert were near 13:00 and 18:00 respectively, though there’s no reason to believe that the long running times mentioned would be for the previously written songs.

Whatever this all means, when Neil Young’s songs stretch near (and/or past) the 10:00 minute mark, they’re always interesting.

If I were to speculate, I would guess that Neil Young is calling this album Chrome Dreams II, because it has a similar attitude as the 1977 Chrome Dreams, which would be a very good thing, because that album reportedly had a great mix of electric songs ("Like a Hurricane," "Homegrown," "White Line," and "Sedan Delivery") as well as great acoustic and intimate songs ("Will to Love," "Pocahontas," "Powderfinger," and "Star of Bethlehem").

October, hurry up.

PS. Reprise: if you send me an advance copy I promise to blog about it for a whole week.

PPS. Double promise.