ROIO of the Week [Recordings of Indeterminate Origin]

We continue our singer-songwriter series with another show from 1971. Was this show considered for an official release back then?

Click on the panels to download artwork

Neil Young
Going Back To Canada [no label, 2CD]
Live in Canada, Jan 19, 1971. A soundboard stereo recording.

While researching about lost albums, this entry in David Downing’s 1994 book, A Dreamer Of Pictures: Neil Young, The Man And His Music, revealed that Reprise, Young’s record company, had released a press statement in January of 1971 of an imminent live album. He wrote:

"The track listing issued to the music press showed six previously unreleased songs: Old Man, Dance Dance Dance, See The Sky About To Rain, The Needle And The Damage Done, Bad Fog Of Loneliness and Wonderin’. Two of Young’s compositions for Buffalo Springfield - Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing and Flying On The Ground Is Wrong - would make their first appearance on record with the author on vocals."

The absence of several songs on this show we offer suggests that that show is another one probably recorded late in 1970 either during his trip to Europe when he did play the two Buffalo Springfield songs or during his final US tour in December 1970 when he played at Carnegie Hall, Fillmore East and in Boston.

This show we offer was recorded live at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada on January 19, 1971. It surfaced among collectors in 2005 on the Aurora Borealis label. This version was cleaned and mastered by THEFACE07 but as it is sourced from a few generations away from the master tape, it has some hiss.

This was the tour when Neil Young was promoting After The Goldrush, an album that fired the imagination of young Americans. Together with James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James, it marked the arrival of the confessional singer-songwriter. But Young had so much more to offer.

The standout of this show is how a solo Neil Young can rivet his audience with just his guitar and piano. No gimmicks, no SFX and no Crazy Horse. It was the anti-thesis of pop fluff. There were no obvious hit singles, catchy choruses or power pop hooks. It was his thin, sincere vocals and thoughtful songs that cut to the heart of the matter. There is also a clear sense of hopelessness running through this recording. Bad Fog Of Loneliness remains unreleased to this day.

There has been some suggestion that this is the lost Reprise album but we think not. It may have been recorded to be part of a compilation live Neil Young album but at the time, the record company probably thought it best to step aside for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s double live album, Four Way Street, which appeared in stores in early 1971.

This show sets the standard for the solo singer-songwriters to compare against. Whether lo-fi or hi-fi, Neil Young delivers.
- The Little Chicken

Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality, stereo MP3s - sample rate of 192 kibit/s). As far as we can ascertain, these live tracks have never been officially released.

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