Archival Live Collection Documenting Young's Treasured November 1976 Solo Acoustic Tour Featuring the Previously Unreleased Track "No One Seems To Know"
Songs For Judy is a thoroughly engaging collection of live acoustic performances culled from Neil Young's November 1976 solo tour and features twenty-two songs recorded at various cities along the tour. This song cycle of live recordings is particularly powerful and unique. Young had spent much of the year traveling around the world on tour with Crazy Horse. When touring on his own, he recharged and focused on songs that would not surface in recorded form for several years. Of the albums many treasures, "No One Seems To Know" would not see the light of day until now and it remains unreleased in any other iteration.
The raw versions of the tracks found on Songs For Judy reflect an artist completely unvarnished and unafraid to allow the songs to breathe and to find their own shape when performed in a solo setting. Songs written in that era would come into focus and then seemingly disappear only to re-enter Young's orbit somewhere down the road. "White Line" and "Give Me Strength" are such examples of finding the light in 1990 and 2017 respectively. It's also fascinating to hear Young revisit early gems such as Buffalo Springfield's "Mr. Soul" (1967), "Here We Are In The Years" (1968), and "The Losing End" (1969) from some of his earliest solo recordings which remain as timeless as ever.
Curated by director Cameron Crowe and producer/photographer Joel Bernstein, both of whom contribute to the fascinating liner notes, Songs for Judy marks the debut release from Young's Reprise Records imprint, Shakey Pictures Records. "The tour had been so satisfying, and so different from all that rock would become in the ensuing years, something indelible was captured in our humble collection," explains Crowe. "Listening to it today is a little like discovering postcards from home. It was a precious time in Neil Young's journey, a breath of oxygen in between some of his biggest adventures."
Songs For Judy captures lightning in a bottle, illuminated for all time here on double vinyl!
- Songs for Judy (Intro)
- Too Far Gone
- No One Seems to Know
- Heart of Gold
- White Line
- Love Is a Rose
- After the Gold Rush
- Human Highway
- Tell Me Why
- Mr. Soul
- Mellow My Mind
- Give Me Strength
- A Man Needs a Maid
- Roll Another Number
- Journey Through the Past
- Harvest
- Campaigner
- Old Laughing Lady
- The Losing End
- Here We Are In the Years
- The Needle and the Damage Done
- Pocahontas
- Sugar Mountain