When I put this together, I removed five songs from the "Folksinger" album that fit better here. So if you have that, I suggest you get the latest version to avoid duplication of those songs. That said, three songs from that album ARE duplicated here - "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing," "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong," and "There Goes My Babe" - because these are different performances. I figure the first two especially are too important as Buffalo Springfield songs not to be included.
The songs are arranged in rough chronological order from when they were first done by Young (with or without Buffalo Springfield) at the time. All the versions are from the 1960s, but some are from a bit later. For instance, the song "Down to the Wire" was played in public by Young only one time in his long career, in a solo acoustic version in 1969. So I've included that, but with other 1966 songs, since that's when Buffalo Springfield recorded their version. Also, the best acoustic version of "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong" I could find is from another 1969 concert, so I've used that, but also put it in with other 1966 songs. I also used a lot of live versions from 1968. (But for all the live versions, I removed the audience noise to make them sound like acoustic demos.)
This year, 2021, I've gained new sound editing capabilities thanks to the new program Spleeter. I've used that here to create mostly acoustic versions of the songs "Sell Out" and "Burned." The sound quality isn't great, since Spleeter can only do so much in removing the drums and bass, but I figure it's good enough for inclusion. Note that these the only actual Buffalo Springfield recordings here. There aren't more because Young's unusual voice was considered non-commercial at the time, so he didn't get to sing lead vocals in the band on many songs.
Thus, a few songs he did during this time period aren't represented here, because there's nothing close to an acoustic version existing, and often no version with him singing lead at all. Those songs are: "Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It," "Whatever Happened to Saturday Night," and "It's So Hard to Wait." (That last one was co-written by Young and Richie Furay.)
As I said above, I'm not totally happy with the versions of "Sell Out" and "Burned" I created with Spleeter. But I figure especially with "Burned," it's hard to have a collection of Young's songs with the band without that one. Also, we're unlikely to ever hear an acoustic version, since Young never played the song in concert until 2009, and that was with a full band, with his voice significantly changed. This version has a lot of backing vocals and other instruments, but it does sound interesting, in my opinion, without the bass and drums. Although note there are two short breaks with just bass guitar. I kept the bass for those bits, because it sounded weird having silence instead.
Also, this version of "Sell Out" is almost a minute longer than the only officially released version on the "Buffalo Springfield" box set. That's because Young didn't like some sections where he just sang "la la's" instead of words, and edited them out. But a bootleg version with the "la's" is available, so I edited those bits back into the released version, before using Spleeter on it.
Note that "Down, Down, Down" later became one section of the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song "Country Girl."
When Young released his "Archives, Volume 1" box set in 2009, he posted some extra performances that didn't make the cut on his website. I've used four of those here: "Runaround Babe," "High School Graduation," "Expecting to Fly," and "Broken Arrow." I've included them here to help bring these rarities more to light. I probably would have used a different version of "Expecting to Fly" since this one has double vocals, and I'd prefer single vocals for an acoustic album, but this version is fine, and like I said, rare.
There are two bonus tracks. There's nothing wrong with them in terms of sound quality. The reason they're bonus tracks is because they appeared on his 1969 solo albums. I plan on making all-acoustic versions of those albums, so you might not want them here and also on those albums.
This album is 45 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.
01 Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing (Neil Young)
02 Flying on the Ground Is Wrong (Neil Young)
03 Out of My Mind (Neil Young)
04 Down to the Wire (Neil Young)
05 Burned [Edit] (Buffalo Springfield)
06 Down, Down, Down (Neil Young)
07 There Goes My Babe (Neil Young)
08 One More Sign (Neil Young)
09 Runaround Babe (Neil Young)
10 Sell Out [Edit] (Buffalo Springfield)
11 High School Graduation (Neil Young)
12 Mr. Soul (Neil Young)
13 Expecting to Fly (Neil Young)
14 Broken Arrow (Neil Young)
15 On the Way Home (Neil Young)
16 I Am a Child (Neil Young)
Round and Round (Neil Young)
The Old Laughing Lady (Neil Young)
The photo of Neil Young dates to 1967. I don't know the details beyond that.
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