Stream the full "new" Neil Young album on NPR.

[Miles Archer]

No "new" songs, all archive stuff from the mid-to-late 70s, some alternate versions and unreleased tracks.

In this raw way, Hitchhiker is pre-history, offering tunes from Young's extensive archive in just-past-sketchbook form. In his 2014 memoir, Special Deluxe, he recalls that he viewed the songs as a unified whole and recorded them that way, in rapid succession, "pausing only for weed, beer, or coke." Then he sat on the results. Like other occasions throughout his career, he ultimately decided against releasing it. His explanation in the book: "I was pretty stony on it, and you can hear it in my performances."

Still, Young knew the material was strong: Eight of the 10 tunes became part of his repertoire, albeit with significant alterations. "Powderfinger," for one, mushroomed into something of an epic with Crazy Horse; here, it's a crisp Deliverance-style tale of river life, delivered in underreachingly earnest phrases that capture the scattered anxieties of its 22-year-old narrator.

There are two never-before-released tracks – an underdeveloped ballad called "Hawaii" and a stunning traveler's prayer, "Give Me Strength." This one is a stone-cold stunner, with a beautiful Pete Seeger-ish chord sequence and lyrics that evoke the bittersweetness of the wandering life.

It's not clear why Young chose to share Hitchhiker now, but the music itself might hold clues. "Campaigner," which was on the 1977 Decade compilation, talks about political speech and duplicity, using almost pitying terms to speculate on the "soul" of Richard Nixon. Change the name and....voila, instant protest song!

http://www.npr.org/2017/08/31/547036559/first-listen-neil-young-hitchhiker

[Hoyt]

1. This should be good. I remember the song "Campaigner" was quite good at the time.

[Miles Archer]

3. The whole "Homegrown" versus "American Stars & Bars" thing was interesting

He's scrapped a few "almost there" albums, like "Chrome Dreams."

I also loved "Campaigner." In the 70s, I had collected a few NY bootlegs. He was quite engaging at that time, when it was just him and an acoustic guitar. One of the real revelations for me was his own version of "Flying On The Ground Is Wrong," which came out on his "Archives" set as well as the Buffalo Springfield box set.

There's also a VERY tasty version on the archive album with the International Harvesters, "A Treasure." Richie Furay sang lead on the original Buffalo Springfield track, and I have always enjoyed it, as well as his later work in Poco. But Richie isn't, and never has been, Neil. He doesn't have the same vibe or sensibilities.

[Callalily]

2. Thank you for the link!

[Miles Archer]

4. My pleasure.