‘Archives Vol. III’ Will Make You Reconsider Neil Young’s Eighties
The third volume of Neil Young’s ongoing Archives box set series chronicles 1976 to 1987. In that time frame, most artists might release three or four records, one possibly being a Greatest Hits comp. But not Young. After all, this is the guy who wrote “Cinnamon Girl,” “Cowgirl in the Sand,” and “Down by the River” all in one evening (with a deliriously high fever, no less). Between 1976 to 1987, Young churned out 10 solo albums — and left a lot on the cutting room floor. “I did a lot of recording during that period that was never listened to,” he told us in 2021. Now, we finally can.
This 11-year period featured some triumphs (think the gorgeous Comes a Time, the primal, badass Rust Never Sleeps) and some puzzling genre-based releases that baffled fans and enraged his label, particularly 1983’s rockabilly foray Everybody’s Rockin’ and the famously bizarre, vocoder-heavy Trans he described as “robots trying to teach a baby to communicate in a hospital.” You know, normal Eighties stuff.
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So keep this mind while exploring all 22 discs, 28 hours, and 198 tracks of Archives Vol. III. This train is moving fast, thundering forward in an unpredictable direction. One minute you’re in Linda Ronstadt’s Malibu home hearing her crack up at that beloved Beach Boys line in “Long May You Run,” and then suddenly you’re sitting through three consecutive outtakes from that time Young put on a pink suit and started playing Fifties rockabilly. This listening journey is not for the lighthearted (for that kind of vibe, might we recommend Harvest?).
The collection features 15 tracks that have never been released in any capacity. Fans can finally hear the Comes a Time-era “Lady Wingshot,” his tribute to Annie Oakley, and savor some oddities like 1982’s “Island in the Sun,” a tranquil, tropical ditty not to be confused with the Weezer song of the same name.
As always, there’s some excellent Crazy Horse here, like a club show from 1984 on the 14th disc, where they break out in-progress versions of Landing on Water tracks like “Violent Side” and “I Got a Problem,” years before they were completed. The highlight of this set is the gnarly, raucous “Touch the Night” — arguably his best song of the decade — that stretches 11 minutes. For any haters of Eighties Young, let this track be proof that he still had the goods. At a time when many Seventies artists struggled to make sense of this new era filled with synths and drum machines, Young hurdled forward, never once letting his rock power waver.
And yes, that even goes for Trans, the album that still manages to confound listeners 40 years after its release. Going through a rigorous therapy program to try and communicate with his son, Ben, who has cerebral palsy, Young was inspired to go full Kraftwerk and create an electronic album. This is where we’d recommend watching the incredible Blu Ray discs included in the box set, featuring concert films that have been largely unavailable until now. Check out In a Rusted Out Garage, a Crazy Horse gig from the Cow Palace in Daly City, California in November 1986. Young wears a flannel shirt with the sleeves cut off, and when he straps on the vocoder to tear through Trans material, songs like “Sample and Hold” and “Computer Age” shine through. Come for the Sam Kinison cameo, stay for Mr. Young’s goofy dance moves.
The late Nicolette Larson, who sang on Comes a Time and made a hit out of Young’s “Lotta Love,” is featured on the seventh disc, Union Hall, an intimate Nashville rehearsal with the Give to the Wind orchestra. Young has described it as “the highlight of everything I’ve ever done with Nicolette,” and you can see why. The disc showcases her underrated harmonizing — her voice melding perfectly with Young’s on gems like the Hank Locklin cover “Please Help Me, I’m Falling” — and powerhouse vocals, like on “Motorcycle Mama.”
“She was absolutely fearless,” Young told Rolling Stone, in our career-spanning feature on Larson. “She told me, ‘I’m the best one. I can follow you anywhere you want to go. No one can follow you better than I can.’ And she could.”
Instead of slapping music on CDs and releasing a box set, the packaging on Archives III is intricate, completed with a stunning 176-page book of rare photos. And Young is right there with you in his “raps,” providing context on many of the discs to give you a sense of where he was in his creative process.
Spanning 11 years, Archives III can sometimes feel broad and sprawling; fans have argued it would have made more sense for Archives III to begin in 1980, right after 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps (Archives II, which focused on 1972-76, could have easily covered more years). But Young never worried too much about satisfying others, anyway, and the outpouring of material only adds to his legacy. For him, it’s just another line in the field of time.
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