Neil Young - Shots - Non-Album Tracks (1976-1978)

Note that I've posted this Neil Young stray tracks album already. However, I just deleted that post and I'm reposting it with a new mp3 download file, due to the fact that I've just posted another Neil Young stray tracks album, "Ranch Romances," that significantly changed what's on this one. I want to make sure that the people who downloaded that also download the latest version of this.

Neil Young has long had a habit of writing a song and then not releasing it for years afterwards, sometimes waiting decades. For all of these stray tracks albums, I've imagined that he released his songs in the normal fashion, putting them on an album a year or two later at the most.

A majority of the songs here would be released by Young in different versions years later. "Peace of Mind" was released on the "Comes a Time" album in 1978, just two years after the version here. However, I've included it here because this is a rocking full band version that's very different from the 1978 country version. It's a similar situation with "Hold Back the Tears." That was on "American Stars n' Bars" in 1977, but this is a different version that remains unreleased. "Cryin' Eyes" came out in a drastically different version on the "Life" album in 1987. "Lost in Space" and "Captain Kennedy" were both recorded in 1977, but not released until the 1980 album "Hawks and Doves." A different version of "The Ways of Love" was included on the 1989 album "Freedom." A rocking version of "Shots" was included on the 1981 album "Re-act-or," but this is an acoustic version.

That leaves just "Windward Passage" and "Lady Wingshot" as songs that are still unreleased in any form today.  "Lady Wingshot" is a song about the famous female sharpshooter Annie Oakley, by the way. This version of "Windward Passage" sounds great, and comes from a soundboard, but it got cut off before it ended. However, I faded it out at a point where I feel it sounds finished.

There's at least one more unreleased original song from this time period, "Bright Sunny Day." Young only played it one time in concert, in 1978. Unfortunately, the bootleg recording of it sounds terrible, so bad that I couldn't even bear to include it as a bonus track. But if you're curious, you can find it on YouTube. 

Chances are, if and when "Archives, Volume III" is released, we'll find out about other unreleased songs or versions. For instance, it's known the song "Unknown Beauty' was first written around 1978, but wasn't released until the "Harvest Moon" album in 1992.

1978 is not just the chronological end of this album, it was the end of an era for Young. He had two hit albums in 1979, "Rust Never Sleeps" and "Live Rust." But they were recorded in 1978. He didn't play any concerts or do any studio recording in 1979 at all, because he'd given birth to a child with cerebral palsy, and taking care of him would end up taking 15 of more hours of his day, every day, for the next few years. So Young's 1970s flood of songwriting creativity ends in 1978. In my opinion, it would take him a long time to fully get his groove back.

For the bonus track, I've added another version of "Windward Passage." That's because the version I put on the album sounds great since it's from a soundboard bootleg, but is incomplete at about four and a half minutes long. The bonus track version is compete at over eight minutes long, but it comes from an audience bootleg that still sounds decent but doesn't sound as good. Personally, I prefer the shorter version, not only for the sound quality but because I feel the extra four minutes don't do much anyway. Here you can take your choice. (By the way, I tried to merge the two versions together, but I couldn't get that to work, due to different pitches and tempos and so forth. If anyone else can, please let me know.)

01 Shots (Neil Young)
04 Lady Wingshot (Neil Young)
05 Windward Passage [Instrumental] (Neil Young & the Ducks)
06 Cryin' Eyes (Neil Young & the Ducks)
07 Country Home (Neil Young)
07 Lost in Space (Neil Young)
08 Captain Kennedy (Neil Young)
09 Hold Back the Tears (Neil Young)
10 Peace of Mind [Electric Version] (Neil Young)
10 The Ways of Love (Neil Young)

Windward Passage [Instrumental] (Neil Young & the Ducks)

https://www.imagenetz.de/iQfsH

The cover art photo comes from a Crosby, Nash and Young (no Stills!) concert in Santa Cruz in August 1977. I cropped the photo so that Crosby and Nash aren't included.