Neil Young Recording Guide

Useful links

The Early Years: 1963–1965

July 23, 1963: CKRC radio studios, Winnipeg, Canada [with The Squires]

Producer: Harry Taylor

Engineer: Bob Bradburn

Recorded:

  • [O] The Sultan [1, 2, 3]
  • [O] Aurora [1, 2, 3]

Sources:

  • [1] The Squires: "The Sultan" b/w "Aurora" (V Records V-109; September 17, 1963)
  • [2] Archives 06 [fan compilation CDR set (source: radio broadcast 2005)]
  • [3] Neil Young Archives Vol 1: 1963–1972 (disc 0) [Reprise; June 02, 2009]

'The Sultan' and 'Aurora' (both instrumentals) were released as a single by V Records around Fall 1963.

"It was my first recording session and I was just glad to be there for the experience, but I was still searching for the right sound." [1]

"I started off writing instrumentals. Words came much later. My idol at the time was Hank B. Marvin, Cliff Richard's guitar player in the Shadows. He was the hero of all the guitar players around Winnipeg at the time." [2]

References:

April 2, 1964: CKRC radio studios, Winnipeg, Canada [with The Squires]

Producer: Harry Taylor

Engineer: Bob Bradburn

Recorded:

  • [O] I Wonder [1, 2]
  • [O] Mustang [1, 2]

Sources:

  • [1] Archives 06 [fan compilation CDR set (source: radio broadcast 2005)]
  • [2] Neil Young Archives Vol 1: 1963–1972 (disc 0) [Reprise; June 02, 2009]

'I Wonder', a fragment of which circulates, is an early incarnation of 'Don't Cry No Tears'. 'Mustang' is an instrumental.

[Legend has it that 'Don't Cry No Tears' from Zuma is the first song you ever wrote:] "No, that was only one of the first 30 or 40 songs I wrote! Oh yeah, there were a lot of them from back then. Unfortunately, we only have 'glimmers' of most of them but we do have actual recordings of five of them which you're going to hear when the Archives finally appear. I really love these tracks, by the way, I'm not embarrassed by them or anything because I was so young. I mean, some of them I wanted to hear over and over again, whereas others were clearly not so successful. I think it's real interesting when you hear the 'bad' ones with the good ones..." [1]

References:

November 23, 1964: CJLX radio studios, Fort William, Canada [with The Squires]

Producer: Ray Dee

Recorded:

  • [O] I'll Love you Forever [1]
  • [O] I Wonder [1*]
  • [?] Together Alone

Sources:

  • [1] Neil Young Archives Vol 1: 1963–1972 (disc 0 [* hidden track]) [Reprise; June 02, 2009]

ca. early 1965: "basement", East Kildonan, Canada [with The Squires]

Recorded:

  • [O] (I'm A Man And) I Can't Cry [1]
  • [O] I Wonder [1*]

Sources:

  • [1] Neil Young Archives Vol 1: 1963–1972 (disc 0 [* BD-live download]) [Reprise; June 02, 2009]

ca. late August/early September 1965: attic of 45 Golfdale, Toronto, Canada [with Comrie Smith]

Recorded:

  • [X] Run Around Babe
  • [O] Hello Lonely Woman [1]
  • [X] Yesterday's Tomorrows [Comrie Smith]
  • [X] High-heeled Sneakers
  • [O] There Goes My Babe [1]
  • [O] Casting Me Away From You [1]
  • [X] Casting Me Away From You [Comrie Smith vocal]
  • [?] Betty Ann
  • [X] Don't Tell My Friends
  • [X] My Room Is Dark 'Cepting For The Light Of My Cigarette

Sources:

  • [1] Neil Young Archives Vol 1: 1963–1972 (disc 0 [* hidden track]) [Reprise; June 02, 2009]

[Comrie Smith:] "It was a perfect place, really . . . There was a bathroom up there, a couple of chairs, a table. One night I said, 'I know this guy with a tape recorder. I could call him and we could make a tape'. And Neil said, 'Great idea.'

"He didn't have ["Run Around Babe"] quite right, he wanted harmony on it and we went through a whole side of the tape with this one song. We turned the tape over and Neil says, 'I got this kind of blues song.' He's sitting there tapping his foot on the linoleum and starts in, 'Hello, Lonely Woman.' And he says, 'No, no, Comrie, you started before the tape recorder went on. 'Okay—go,' and he starts again. Then about halfway through, he stops and pulls out a harmonica." [1]

"I remember a song of Neil's called 'Betty Ann' that had the line 'Betty Ann, if you can, won't you mend my broken heart again.' Marty Onrot who was sort of managing Neil had him make a tape of his songs around then and I think I heard parts of that. But this is a different tape from that same period. It was kind of a routine for us at night. We'd go to this hamburger place up in Willowdale and get a hamburger around 8 or 9 at night. Then he'd come back and I had my girlfriend's tape recorder and Neil would fool around on it, all these wonderful monologues on it making up stories about his auditions or pretending he was a club owner telling him, 'Hey kid, you don't need drumsticks. You just need pencils 'cause you're too loud,' all in his humorous voice. We had a lot of fun with that. I wish I still had those tapes."

"So we were up in the attic and there were some heavy vibes going on. There was another guy running the recorder. 'Hello Lonely Woman' was kind of an R'n'B number and you can hear Neil's foot tapping on the linoleum. I felt pretty bad about my playing on the tracks, it wasn't that good. There was a great version of 'High Heeled Sneakers' on that tape but I guess it didn't get used for copyright reasons. There was another one of Neil's on the tape called 'Don't Tell My Friends' that was an early Neil Young tune." [2]

References:

November 1965: Elektra tape library, NYC

Recorded:

  • [O] Sugar Mountain [1, 4]
  • [O] Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing [1, 3, 4]
  • [O] Run Around Babe [1, 2, 4]
  • [O] The Ballad Of Peggy Grover [1, 2, 4]
  • [U] I Ain't Got The Blues [1, 2, 4]
  • [O] The Rent Is Always Due [1, 2, 4]
  • [O] Extra, Extra [1, 2, 4]

Sources:

  • [1] Neil Young Meets Buffalo Springfield & The Squires [bootleg CD]
  • [2] Archives 06 [fan compilation CDR set]
  • [3] Missing Herd [fan compilation CDR set]
  • [4] Neil Young Archives Vol 1: 1963–1972 (disc 0) [Reprise; June 02, 2009]

February 1966: Motown Studios, Detroit, MI [with The Mynah Birds]

Recorded:

  • [U] I'll Wait Forever
  • [O] Go On And Cry [1]
  • [U] I've Got You In My Soul
  • [X] Out In the Country
  • [O] It's My Time [1]
  • [X] Little Girl
  • [U] Masquarade
  • [U] Fantasies

Sources:

  • [1] The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966 [Hip-O-Select; 2006]

The Mynah Birds (Rick James on vocals, Young on lead guitar, John Taylor on rhyth guitar, Bruce Palmer on bass, Rickman Mason on drums) recorded several songs for Motown Records. "I'll Wait Forever" was co-written by Young, as was "It's My Time". An album of the Mynah Birds recordings with catalog number MS 697 was due for release by Motown in 1979, but was cancelled:

  1. It's My Time
  2. I've Got You In My Soul
  3. I'll Wait Forever
  4. Go On And Cry
  5. Out In The Country
  6. Little Girl

"Yeah, there are tapes of me and The Mynah Birds but I've not been able to get hold of them. I only sang a little bit in that group... Rick James and Bruce Palmer were in the group also... After I arrived in Toronto I tried to keep my band going and then tried to work with several others. But it just never worked out for me there. I could never get anything going in Toronto, never even got one gig with a band. I just couldn't break into that scene. So I moved instead towards acoustic music and immediately became very introspective and musically-inward. That's the beginning of that whole side of my music." [1]

"Neil used a 12-string a lot... But we never did anything as a band. It was all done in parts and they put it together. Then everybody would drop in and do songs with us, like Smokey Robinson and Tammi Terrell. They made R Dean Taylor our look after guy because he was white and Canadian too." [Mason, quoted in (2)]

Single "Mynah Bird Hop" b/w "The Mynah Birds Song" was released by Columbia Canada, but was recorded before Young joined the line-up. [3]

References: