Author: Phil Bausch

Huge changes were made in the release of the Let It Be/Get Back movie.  Instead of a movie to be shown in theaters, it’s a three-part documentary streaming now on Disney+, and was to be released on DVD & Blu-ray February 8th, 2022, but was postponed until July 12th, 2022, because the Blu-ray had an audio flaw.

(At the end of this article are links to reviews of the Get Back movie, and the Let It Be album box set.)

The three films are longer than we were originally told.  Part one is 2-hours-37-minutes.  Part two is 2-hours-53-minutes.  Part three is 2-hours-18-minutes.

(All photos from Apple Corps LTD)

Director Peter Jackson (famous for the Lord Of The Rings trilogy) worked with the 56-hours of original Let It Be film footage for nearly four years.

Jackson says he was mostly able to select different camera shots and angles than were used in the Let It Be movie.  He sees it as a documentary about the making of the original film.  The quality of the film footage has been restored to a new clarity for today’s high-definition viewing.  They’ve also talked about making the original movie available in the higher quality form.

I’m guessing Peter Jackson completed a movie-length version of The Beatles: Get Back before the change was made to a three-part streaming version.  Update (November 2021):  Yes, it’s confirmed there is a one-hour-and-forty-minute version of the Get Back film…which is the normal length for a movie/documentary.  It was used at the U.S. & U.K. premieres that the family members of The Beatles attended.  The original length of the movie meant for August of 2020 was 2-hours-20-minutes.

For the first time, we can see the full 40-minutes of the rooftop concert.  The original movie had about half that.   Unlike a real concert, The Beatles played multiple takes that were later edited together to form more-perfect audio recordings for the album.  It was actually a pubic recording session that was captured on Abbey Road’s studio equipment down below.  Here is a list of the songs in the order they were performed.

Although the recording of the Let It Be album was done in just 21 days, The Beatles were also filmed running through songs that would later appear on Abbey Road and some of their solo albums.

The companion 240-page book was released on October 12th, 2021.  The book features transcribed conversations from the film audio recordings, and many unseen photos by Linda McCartney and Ethan A. Russell.  The list price is $60, but it’s online for $42 (and as low as $30).  There’s a review of the book on this site.

The music for the movie has been remixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell .  Box set anyone?  Update:  There is a 5-disc plus Blu-ray box set that was released October 15th.  It’s priced at $139.98.  A matching vinyl set is $199.98, and a 2 CD set with the remixed album, plus selected highlights from the box set, is $24.98.  

Here are the track lists for the CD’s and the vinyl records (click to enlarge and make clearer).  You can see the set has the new remix of Let It Be, plus the original unreleased Get Back album, and sessions & rehearsals.

Update: (Sept. 2022)  Get Back won five Emmy Awards in various categories, including for Outstanding Documentary Series, and Best Director for Peter Jackson.  It also won awards for sound & film editing.  Paul, Ringo, Olivia & Yoko all won Emmys as executive producers.

Here’s a link to my review of the Get Back documentary: https://ontherecords.net/2021/11/the-beatles-get-back-film-review-perspective/

Here’s the link to a review & perspective of the new box set:  https://ontherecords.net/2021/10/let-it-be-remix-box-set-review/

The latest Tom Petty vault release is a 25th Anniversary reimagining of the She’s The One soundtrack album from 1996.

It’s now called Angel Dream, and was released June 12th, 2021 as part of a celebration of Record Store Day, 2021.  It came out in digital form on July 2nd.  Three of the songs from the original soundtrack that were included in the recent Wildflowers box set, have been removed, along with four other tracks.  Instead, there are four previously unreleased tracks… “105 Degrees”, “One Of Life’s Little Mysteries”, the instrumental “French Disconnection”, and a cover of J.J. Cale’s “Thirteen Days”.  

Here are the songs on the original soundtrack (the new lineup of songs is farther below):

1. Walls (Circus)
2. Grew Up Fast
3. Zero From Outer Space
4. Climb That Hill
5. Change The Locks
6. Angel Dream (No. 4)
7. Hope you Never
8. A**hole
9. Supernatural Radio
10. California
11. Hope On Board
12. Walls (No. 3) [acoustic version]
13. Angel Dream (No. 2)
14. Hung Up And Overdue
15. Airport

When I started listening to the original album in 1996, it was initially disappointing.  “Walls (Circus)” sounded pretty good, but out of the first nine tracks,, the only other songs that appealed to me were “Climb That Hill” & “Hope You Never”.  Then beginning with #10, “California”, there were five good songs in a row.  When “Walls (No. 3)” started playing, my mind went…“Now that’s Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers!”  Then “Angel Dream (No. 2)” was so much better than the earlier version that had the distractingly odd percussion.  Plus, “Hung Up And Overdue” sounded like a blend of The Beatles and The Beach Boys (Ringo Starr & Carl Wilson are on it).  So, in the end, there were 8 songs I liked, and that’s more than most albums.

Here are the songs on the new Angel Dream:

Side 1…tracks 1-5,  Side 2…6-12

1. Angel Dream (No. 2)
2. Grew Up Fast
3. Change The Locks
4. Zero From Outer Space
5. A**hole
6. One Of Life’s Little Mysteries*
7. Walls (No. 3)
8. Thirteen Days*
9. 105 Degrees*
10. Climb That Hill
11. Supernatural Radio (extended by 41-seconds)
12. French Disconnection (Instrumental)*

*Previously unreleased

The seven tracks that went away are “Hope You Never”, “California”, “Hung Up And Overdue”, “Walls (Circus)” “Angel Dream (No. 4)”, and the instrumentals “Airport” & “Hope On Board”.  On the original album, “Hope On Board” served as a beautiful intro to “Walls (No. 3)”, and it’s a shame it was left off.  In fact, if you use GarageBand (or other song editor) to overlap the songs so “Walls (No. 3) starts before the last note of “Hope On Board” fades, it sounds like it was always meant to be.  Here it is:

The four new tracks are all on side two, which is the best side of the record.  “One Of Life’s Little Mysteries” is really different for Tom Petty.  It’s a slow song that sounds like an old fashioned tune from the 1930’s, or a song Randy Newman would have written for a movie or musical.  “Thirteen Days” is a very good studio version of J.J. Cale’s blues song, with cool slide guitar by Mike Campbell.  “105 Degrees” is an uptempo rocker that would have been fun in concert.  The final track is titled “French Disconnection”, but it’s really an instrumental version of “Angel Dream”.  It’s a pretty ending for the album.

(Recording session for “She’s The One” album.)

Extra:  Here’s a suggestion for making a playlist that combines the best songs from the two versions of the album.

1. Angel Dream (No. 2)
2. California
3. Hope You Never
4. Hung Up And Overdue
5. One Of Life’s Little Mysteries
6. Hope On Board
7. Walls (No. 3)
8. Thirteen Days
9. 105 Degrees
10. Climb That Hill
11. Supernatural Radio
12. French Disconnection (Angel Dream instrumental)

That would have been a worthy follow-up album to Wildflowers.

Great news for George Harrison fans.  His masterpiece, All Things Must Pass has been remixed for a 50th Anniversary edition!

(Note:  There is now a review of the new remix on this site.  Below in this article are the song lists and CD & Vinyl versions that are available.)

Review: https://ontherecords.net/2021/08/george-harrison-all-things-must-pass50th-anniversary-remix-review/

The reason it’s a big deal is that the remix has been done by the same mixer/engineer who recently did an amazing job with the John Lennon collection, Gimme Some Truth.  Paul Hicks has been working with George’s son, Dhani to improve All Things Must Pass.

Dhani says his dad thought the original album “had too much reverb.”  The album was recorded by the legendary producer Phil Spector, who was known for his “wall of sound”.  (Unfortunately, he was also known for being convicted of murder.)  Spector’s producing style had a tendency to bury vocals a bit, and could sound dated next to the clarity of today’s recordings.  Dhani Harrison says he wants the audio quality of his dad’s recordings to hold up in the future.  The results were released on August 6th, 2021, and the album sounds great!

Here”s a quote from George Harrison I found in my 2001 remastered set of All Things Must Pass, where he said he was tempted to remix the songs.  “I would like to liberate some of these songs from the big production that seemed appropriate at the time, but now seems a bit over the top with the reverb in the wall of sound.”

There’s a whole array of different versions of the set.  Below are the lists of songs for the five CD’s that are available.  After that you’ll see the various sets and their prices.  I found a bunch of articles about the release, but none of them had all of the sets and prices.  They were hard to find on Amazon too, because they’re not shown together.

(Each song list can be enlarged with a click or zoom.)

The 2-CD version is the remix of the original album, plus all sets have a poster.  The price is $20.

The vinyl version of the remixed album is on three records like the original release.  The price is $65.  (I remember paying $6.50 when the album came out in 1970.)  There’s also an e-commerce version of this set with green & black splattered colored vinyl for $76.

This is my choice.  It’s 3 CD’s, with that third CD being the outtakes as shown on CD 5 of the above lists.  There’s also a 20 page booklet.  The price is $30.  (The demos can be checked out on streaming.)

Here’s the 5 vinyl album version of the 3 CD set.  The price is $90.

The 5 CD version includes two discs of demos that are not in the 3 CD version.  Plus, there’s a Blu-ray with 5.1 sound of the original album’s songs. There’s also an added 56 page “scrapbook”.  The price is $150.

This 8 vinyl record version is the equivalent of the 5 CD set, plus there’s a 60 page “scrapbook”.  The scrapbook “pays homage to George’s love of gardening & nature.”  The price is $200.

This “Uber” collection will set you back $1,000.  If you want to see what you get for that, zoom or click this text:

(Close-up of the 1/6th scale figures in the box.)

Even though I’d purchased All Things Must Pass three times…records, CD’s, and remastered CD’s…I welcomed this remix to improve the sound.  Like the excellent Lennon collection, this is the best George Harrison’s recordings have ever sounded.

Extra…Here’s the link to an article about George’s solo career:

https://ontherecords.net/2017/09/george-harrison-solo-traveling-wilburys/

The story of the band Heart revolves around sisters Ann & Nancy Wilson, who became pioneers of women in Rock.

What caused these young girls to want to perform Rock & Roll?  Ann (left) and Nancy were about to turn 14 and 10 when they saw The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in February of 1964.  Nancy says that TV show, plus seeing The Beatles perform in their hometown of Seattle in 1966, were two major events that made them want to play guitars and become professional musicians.

It was about a decade later that the sisters released their first album with their band Heart.  Dreamboat Annie was recorded in 1975 in Vancouver, Canada, and released in 1976 in the U.S.  Their first single, “Crazy On You” broke into the Top 40 at #35, and “Magic Man” made the Top 10 at #9.  The album itself hit #7 and went platinum (a million sold).

The two singles are considered Hard Rock, while the title track is an acoustic song that leans to Folk.  Ann & Nancy had previously performed songs by Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon, but their biggest influence by the mid-seventies was Led Zeppelin.  The Wilson sisters became the first women to front a Hard Rock band.

While other women were integrated into Rock bands…like Grace Slick in Jefferson Airplane, and Stevie Nicks & Christine McVie in Fleetwood Mac…Ann & Nancy were the leaders of their band.  Of course the men in the band made significant contributions, but Ann & Nancy wrote the songs, Ann sang lead, played flute & acoustic guitar, and Nancy switched off on lead & rhythm guitar, and sang harmony & sometimes lead.  You can tell by the cover of their first album (above)…they were the faces of Heart.

In 1977, Heart had another rocking hit with “Barracuda” (#11), plus their second album Little Queen rose to #9 and went triple-platinum.  Their success continued with the album Dog & Butterfly in 1978.  It peaked at #17, and went double-platinum.  Singles included “Straight On” (#15) and “Dog & Butterfly” (#35).  Their 1980 album Bebe le Strange was highly ranked at #5, but sales dropped off dramatically to about half-a-million copies.  Thus ended their first major bubble of success.  During the next four years it looked like their careers might be winding down.  But soon, they would achieve their greatest popularity.

It took a move to Capitol Records, which invested a great deal to help transform Heart into an even bigger hit-making band.  In the 80s, MTV was an important part of marketing musicians.  Capitol made impressively shot videos of the group that accented Ann & Nancy’s sexuality.  The two have expressed some regret for agreeing to the videos, but really it was just the era, and there were many similar videos by other artists.  The biggest change was actually the songwriting.

While Ann & Nancy wrote their hits in the ‘70s, they were in a dry spell, so Capitol recruited professional songwriters, and it really paid off.  The album Heart topped Billboard’s album chart for three weeks in 1985, and went quadruple-platinum.  There were four big hit singles…”What About Love” #10, “Never” #4, “Nothin’ At All” #10, and “These Dreams”, which was their first #1 hit.  The song features Nancy on the lead vocal, and it was written by Bernie Taupin (of Elton John fame) and Martin Page.

Ann got her first #1 with Heart’s next release.  “Alone” was sent to radio stations as a CD single in May of 1987.  When we previewed it at our Rock station, it was easy to predict the song would top the charts.  “Alone” is one of the best power ballads from a decade of power ballads.  It showcased the strength and clarity of Ann’s amazing voice.

That hit ended up on Heart’s 1987 album, Bad Animals.  It also included the hits “Who Will You Run To” #7 (by famous songwriter Diane Warren), and “There’s The Girl” #12 (written by Nancy Wilson & Holly Knight).  The album hit #2 and was triple-platinum.

There was one album left in this second big bubble of popularity that started in 1985.  It was Brigade in 1990.  The album went to #3, and was double-platinum.  The main single was “All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You” #2, written by producer “Mutt” Lange.  The album also had “Stranded” #13, which turned out to be the last major hit for Heart.

After 1990, Heart had successful tours, but their major album releases were variations of “Greatest Hits” packages.  There were individual projects, such as Nancy working on movie soundtracks (including Almost Famous) with her then-husband, writer/director Cameron Crowe.   Heart did hit #10 on the album chart with Red Velvet Car in 2010.  That meant they had Top-10 albums in four decades.  Their total sales of albums exceeds 35-million.

Heart’s music has been popular for over 45 years.  They had two major peaks of success…1975 to 1980 and 1985 to 1990…either of which would be the envy of most bands.

Heart was inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013.  It was an honor they richly deserved.  Their work in the 1970s paved the way for female bands and female Rock singers of the 1980s and beyond.

The 1980s had an abundance of one-hit wonders, partly because MTV (which started in 1981) had to hunt for enough videos to fill their programming.  That included pulling in artists from other countries.  Typically, the term one-hit wonder is applied to artists who literally only charted one song (still a major accomplishment), or artists who had one big hit that overshadowed the rest of their career (at least in the USA).

One of the most popular songs and videos was by a Norwegian group, A-ha, who performed “Take On Me”.  The song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the video was ground-breaking in it’s use of film and graphics.  The animation, which was done in the United States, took nine months to complete.  They had only one other minor U.S. hit, “The Sun Always Shines On T.V.”, but charted over 20 hits in Norway.

Germany gave us “99 Luftballons” by Nena.  It went to #2 in 1984.  The German version was the most popular, but some radio stations played the flip side, which was the English version, “99 Red Balloons”.  The guy on the left seems to be seriously crushing on Nena.

Another German-born artist was Peter Schilling.  His 1983 #14 hit was “Major Tom (Coming Home)”, which was a follow-up to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” from a decade earlier.  The chorus started with a countdown:  ”4-3-2-1  Earth below us, drifting, falling…”  Hopefully that helps you remember it.

The song that leads off my 80s playlists is “I Melt With You” by U.K. group Modern English.  It was featured prominently in the movie Valley Girl, and was performed just last week on TV’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.  The main line is…”I’ll stop the world and melt with you”.  I grabbed my Top 40 reference book to look up the 1983 song, and it’s not there!  The song only made it to #76 on the Hot 100.  It did make it to #7 on the less significant Mainstream Rock chart.

The second song on my first 80s playlist is “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell, an English duo (Marc Almond & David Ball).  The song peaked at #8 in 1982, and still holds up today.  “Always Something There To Remind Me” by Naked Eyes was also a #8 hit, but in 1983.  They actually had a second significant hit with “Promises Promises”, #11 that same year.

A true one-hit wonder group was Devo.  Those are not flower pots on their heads, but “Energy Domes” they designed to give them an odd sci-fi look, or as one member said “kind of like a Lego”.  Their #14 hit is “Whip It”, which had a bizarre video.  This one didn’t make any of my ‘80s playlists.  They get credit for finding a way to get noticed, but the novelty wears off quickly.

Another one-hit group was proud they didn’t have anything weird on their heads…Men Without Hats.  The Canadian group (with an American lead singer) had an even bigger novelty hit by taking “The Safety Dance” to #3 in 1983.  By the way, the similarly named group, Men At Work, had five major hits in the 1980s, including “Down Under” & “Who Can It Be Now?”…both #1’s.  The bands missed a chance to combine for a big…Men At Work Without Hats…tour.

A band from San Francisco, Tommy Tutone, created the most famous phone number in history with “867-5309/Jenny”.  It was a #4 hit in 1982.  Above are the single and “Jenny” from the video.  In real life, people who had that phone number in various area codes had to change numbers, because of all the calls they received from people asking for Jenny.

The band Madness had a #7 hit in 1983 with “Our House”.  It wasn’t a very very fine house like the one in the Crosby Stills Nash & Young song, but that might have been because it was located “in the middle of our street”.  Maybe they really meant it was in the middle of their block.  Madness was very popular in their home country of England, where they had 15 Top 10 hits.

There are always bands with strange names, and A Flock Of Seagulls fits the bill.  The song they’re known for is “I Ran (So Far Away)”, #9 in 1982.  That was when bands like this were called “New Wave”.  They did chart a couple more minor hits after that.

“I hear the secrets that you keep, when you’re talking in your sleep.” is the main line of “Talking In Your Sleep” by The Romantics.  It reached #3 in 1983.  You may also remember their song “What I Like About You” which only made it to #49.

Among the quirky novelty songs from the ‘80s is “She Blinded Me With Science” by Thomas Dolby.  It reached #5 in 1983.  The song’s video featured Dolby as a mad scientist dramatically saying the title, followed by almost random sounding notes on a synthesizer.  Synthesizers were prominent in ‘80s music, and the terms synth-pop and synth-rock were used to categorize the music.

Harold Faltermeyer is a Grammy-winning film composer, with synthesizer being his main instrument.  He had an instrumental hit with “Axel F” which went to #3 in 1985.  It was the theme for the movie Beverly Hills Cop starring Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley.  If you can ask Siri or Alexa to play the song, you’ll probably instantly recognize the melody.

One of the one-hit 45’s I bought in the ‘80s was “Captain Of Her Heart” by the band Double.  I always liked the cool piano part, as well as the laid-back vocal.  It reached #16 in 1986.  In researching for this article, I discovered Double was a Swiss band, and their name is actually pronounced doo-Blay.

Sometimes I took a chance and bought the whole album by a new group.  In this case, it was a German band, Freiheit.  Their 1988 song, “Keeping The Dream Alive”,  didn’t make the Top 40, but did get airplay on some radio stations, and was a hit in other countries.  It was also included in the 1989 movie Say Anything.  When American Idol was still a juggernaut in 2009, “Keeping The Dream Alive” was featured several times.  The sound of the song is very Beatles-like, and it was even recorded at Abbey Road Studios.  Here’s a 63-second clip of the song:

Another Beatles-sounding ‘80s song is “I Don’t Mind At All”.  It barely edged into the Top 40 (#38) in 1987, but also made the Top 5 on the Adult Contemporary chart.  The group was Bourgeois Tagg (which are the last names of the two guys who formed it).  They were from Sacramento, California.  The song was produced by recent Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Todd Rundgren.

Speaking of Beatles-sounding, Julian Lennon had a short burst of popularity in 1984-85 with three hit singles…”Too Late For Goodbyes” #5, ”Valotte” #9, and “Say You’re Wrong” #21 (those are my record sleeves above).  John’s son, Julian, was just 21 at the time.  Volotte was his only platinum album, but he did have two more moderately successful albums. 

The 80’s had quite a few artists like Julian Lennon who had multiple hits, but not really enough to have their own 20-song playlists, at least at a hit-quality level.   But it’s great having ‘80s songs on the list like “I Love Rock & Roll” (#1, 1982) and “I Hate Myself For Loving You” (#8, 1988) by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.  Plus songs by The J. Geils Band, The Go-Go’s, Eurythmics, The Stray Cats, Blondie, The Bangles, Rick Springfield and more.

Rick Springfield is an artist whose popularity surprised me.  I mainly think of him for the ‘80s classic “Jessie’s Girl”, a #1 hit from 1981.  I figured he had another three or four hits, but when I looked in my Top 40 book, he had seventeen Top 40 hits.

Of course the 1980s had huge hit songs and albums by artists like Tom Petty, Dire Straits, Bruce Springsteen, The Police, Billy Joel, AC/DC, Paul Simon, Michael Jackson, U2, Van Halen, Phil Collins, and many more.  But, a lot of the distinctive musical flavor of the decade came from artists who had more modest success.

Now that Crosby Stills Nash & Young fans have explored the Deja Vu 50th Anniversary box set, there’s another box set that would be an even greater treasure.  There are only two rarities by Neil Young in the Deja Vu set, mainly because he had a relatively lesser role in making the album.

Neil wasn’t fully integrated into his new group.  He’s on only five of Deja Vu’s tracks.  The best ones are his song “Helpless” and Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock”.   At the same time, he was recording his solo album After The Gold Rush.  Many of the songs on that excellent album are better than the two songs he made available to the group.  Songs like “Tell Me Why”, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”, and “Southern Man” became CSNY songs only during their live shows.

The most studio recordings and highest quality songs Crosby Stills Nash & Young ever recorded together were for their unfinished 1970s album, Human Highway.  The quality of those recordings surpassed the solo versions that were eventually released.  Many, but not all of those group versions have surfaced, scattered over multiple albums and decades.  Those recordings (along with “Ohio”) represent the best work Neil Young did with the group.

So, a box set that would be more important and more valuable than Deja Vu would be the Human Highway Sessions.

(The planned cover photo for Human Highway)

It would contain the recordings from CSNY’s sessions from 1973, 1974, and 1976.  That’s where the real group studio recordings of Crosby Stills Nash & Young are hiding.  Neil Young’s songs and work with the group are much more significant, and CSN’s contributions to his songs far surpass singing “helpless” in the background.

Although logs of the sessions are somewhat sketchy, here are the best possibilities of the songs worked on during the Human Highway recording sessions.

May-June 1973:

1. Human Highway (Young)
2. Pardon My Heart (Young)
3. And So It Goes (Nash)
4. Prison Song (Nash)
5. See The Changes (Stills)
6. Through My Sails (Young)
7. As I Come Of Age (Stills)

December 1974:

1. Wind On The Water (Nash)
2. Homeward Through The Haze (Crosby)

March-May 1976:

1. Human Highway (Young)
2. Taken At All (Nash)
3. Long May You Run (Young)
4. Midnight On The Bay (Young)
5. Black Coral (Stills)
6. Ocean Girl (Young)
7. Time After Time (Crosby)
8. Fontainebleau (Young)
9. Traces (Young)
10. Separate Ways (Young)
11. Treetop Flyer (Stills)
12. No One Seems To Know (Young)
13. Make Love To You (Stills)
14. Guardian Angel (Stills)
15. Will To Love (Young)
16. Let It Shine (Young)
17. Little Blind Fish (Crosby/Stills/Nash/Young)

It’s almost certain that more songs were worked on, but this seems to be a reasonable list of the main titles that are known.  In addition, there would be various takes and versions of the songs.

Rather than trying to recreate a single Human Highway album, it would be much more important and historic to have all of these studio recordings from the band’s prime years.  Maybe there’s someone at the Warner/Rhino company who’s strong enough to get the band’s representatives to cooperate on the project.  Or maybe we’re just…helplessly hoping.

Bonus:  Since the Human Highway Sessions box set may never happen, here’s a playlist of the existing significant studio recordings that include all four members of Crosby Stills Nash & Young.  It also shows the sources for the recordings.  The title is 4 Together.

(The runner-up title was For Each Other.)

1. Woodstock (Deja Vu)
2. Helpless (Deja Vu)
3. Almost Cut My Hair (Alternates) [Deja Vu box set]
4. Ohio (So Far/CSN box set)
5. Find The Cost Of Freedom (So Far/CSN box set)
6. The Lee Shore (CSN box set)
7. Through My Sails (Zuma)
8. See The Changes (CSN box set)
9. Prison Song (bootleg/YouTube)
10. Hawaiian Sunrise (CSNY 1974)
11. Love/Art Blues (CSNY 1974)
12. Homeward Through The Haze (CSN box set)
13. Human Highway (NY Archives II, 1976 Version)
14. Taken At All (CSN box set)
15. Long May you Run (Decade)
16. Midnight On The Bay (NY Archives II)
17. Black Coral (Stills box set)
18. This Old House (American Dream)
19. Slowpoke (Looking Forward)
20. Looking Forward (Looking Forward)

Tracks:   1-6 ’69-‘70    7-17 ’73-’76    18-20 ’88-’99

These are in chronological order (the only cheat was slightly waiting to add “The Lee Shore” so it would be next to “Through My Sails”).  Two live versions were snuck in, “Hawaiian Sunrise” and “Love/Art Blues”.  CSNY apparently didn’t do studio versions of those two songs, but these recordings come close, and are too good to leave out.

“Love/Art Blues” is a perfect example of why recordings with all four group members are so good.  Neil Young thinks so much of the song that he put three versions of it in his Archives II set…a solo version, trio version, and one with the Stray Gators backing group.  They’re good, but the CSNY version takes the song to a higher level.  It’s because of excellent harmonies by Crosby & Nash, and impressive country/blues piano accents by Stephen Stills.  Here it is:

Crosby Stills Nash & Young made the best music when they were all four together.

Extra:  If you’d like to hear more songs by CSNY, here’s the link to the article about piecing together the lost Human Highway album:  https://ontherecords.net/2018/06/csny-human-highway-the-lost-album/

We have all been here before.  We’re experiencing Deja Vu again, only a lot more of it.  Fifty-one years after the 1970 release of Deja Vu, comes the 50th Anniversary Deluxe box set.  The recordings are remastered (not remixed), and the list price is $100.  The vinyl record and Disc One have the songs that were on the original album.

The review covers the other 3 CD’s that have 38 mostly *unreleased recordings. (Click or zoom lists to enlarge.)

Box sets like these might seem like “money grabs” by the labels, but serious fans want to hear how the songs developed, and what other songs were being worked on during the album sessions.  Plus, fans can simply listen to these songs on whatever streaming service they use. 

(Graham Nash, Dallas Taylor, Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Greg Reeves, and Neil Young)

Before the album was released on May 14th, 2021, an engaging duet of Neil Young’s “Birds” was previewed.  It’s just Neil on guitar and lead vocal, with Graham Nash adding his usual excellent harmonies.  The shame is…that’s the only Neil Young rarity (other than a previously released version of “Helpless”).  Reportedly, Neil had submitted other rarities, but withdrew them (no reason has been revealed).  Young’s Archive series has already covered this era, so what else is he going to do with the unreleased tracks?

Besides “Birds”, the best demo is “So Begins The Task” by Stephen Stills with his beautiful acoustic guitar and young expressive voice.  This song should definitely have made the cut for Deja Vu.  It’s almost unbelievable that Stills held it until his third album, Manassas.  The song is unnecessarily paired with “Hold On Tight”, which he also tries with “Change Partners” later.

David Crosby’s “Deja Vu” is a skeletal demo, but you can hear the potential, and understand why they spent a lot of time developing such a unique song.  There’s also an early alternate mix that sounds good.

John Sebastian was considered as a possible 4th member of CSN before Neil Young was chosen.  Here, Crosby Stills & Nash perform their version of Sebastian’s “How Have You Been”.  Lot’s of harmony and Still’s lead vocal carry it.

An early version of Graham Nash’s “Our House” shows the beauty of the song, even though they hadn’t quite come up with the final harmonies and other aspects of the arrangement.

“Our House” is about when Graham Nash was living with Joni Mitchell in a very very very fine house in Laurel Canyon.  Included is a casual version of the two of them singing it.  When Graham messes up a piano part and swears, Joni laughs, but they finish the song.  The part with the “La-La’s” has Joni singing in kind of a Baroque style.  If these two talented young people had ever recorded “Our House” seriously, it would probably have been the definitive version.

Stephen Still’s “Ivory Tower” outtake is mostly an early version of “Sugar Babe”, which appeared on Still’s second solo album.  It’s a fully produced track, close to being album ready.  It’s surprising they didn’t delete the “right on” Stills threw in as they were going into an instrumental break.  It’s like putting a random “groovy” in a ‘60’s song.

Of the other outtakes, “Change Partners” is pretty good, but it’s really a demo with none of the harmony added yet.  Crosby’s “The Lee Shore” is good, and deserved to be on the album; however, the needed harmony/vocal overdubs were not added until the 1991 CSN box set.  The only other strong outtake is a version of Crosby’s “Laughing”.  It’s done in a style different from the demo, or even the version on Crosby’s first solo album.  Like “The Lee Shore”, this outtake could have made the Deja Vu album if they had added harmony vocals.

On the Alternates disc, the aforementioned “Deja Vu” and “Our House” are good.  “Teach your Children” is good too, but severely misses the pedal steel guitar that was played by Jerry Garcia.  It was a wonderful coincidence that The Grateful Dead were recording in the next studio.  The only other significant outtake is a surprisingly interesting 10-minute version of “Almost Cut My Hair”.  The dual guitars of Stills & Young almost make CSN&Y a jam band.  If you thought David Crosby’s vocal on the original version was a little overwrought, you’ll like this version better.

The conclusion…  It’s always fun to take a deep dive into classic albums from great musicians.  I’ll definitely add some tracks to my CSNY Demos & Rarities playlist.  Admittedly, there are a lot of tracks you may never want to hear again, but fans will certainly want to at least give the set a listen.

Here are photos of my box set:

The cover of the set is beautifully done.  It looks just like the original cover, with a leather-like feel.  The printing is gold embossed, and the picture has the appearance of a separate piece that is attached to the cover.  When the gatefold is opened, the vinyl record & booklet go into the top of the left side, and the four CD’s store on the right.

The “book” is really a record-size 20-page booklet, with lots of very good quality black and white photos.  There’s also a long essay by Cameron Crowe and Joel Bernstein.

(Just another garage band…at Stephen Stills’ place in Laurel Canyon)

What’s missing is detailed information on each song.  Unlike the recent Tom Petty box set (or their own 1991 CSN box set), there is no list of musicians for each track, and no personal comments from the artists about each of the recordings.  That’s disappointing.

There’s a $250 all-vinyl 5-record set available from Rhino and the official CSN&Y site.  It includes the above Alternates album that came out on Record Store Day (June 12th, 2021).  The list price is $30.

How many times have you purchased Deja Vu?  I bought the original album when it was released in 1970.  After it was stolen when I was in college, I bought a new copy.  Then I bought the album when it came out on CD in the 80s.  All the major songs were also included in the 1991 CSN box set I bought.  And now, it’s Deja Vu all over again.

Extra:  For a complete article on the original Deja Vu album, you can click this link:    https://ontherecords.net/2018/08/csny-deja-vu/

Even Classic Rock fans should be impressed with how Taylor Swift is setting records!  Let’s start with a recent record that involves The Beatles, then look at more of Swift’s accomplishments, and compare more of her records with the Fab Four, including her total #1’s.  Her records keep coming, and they’re updated.

Taylor Swift broke a record The Beatles held for 54-years.  The Beatles had three #1 albums in England within just 364 days.  Now, Taylor Swift has had three #1 albums in only 259 days.  Wonder if that record will stand for 54 years.

(Swift obviously time-traveled back to 1968 to meet The Beatles.)

Naturally, Taylor Swift breaking The Beatles’ record really upset Ringo Starr.  Just kidding.  In a recent interview about today’s music, Ringo said “I love Taylor Swift…she’s the only one who’s doing well.”  Ringo is overstating it, but no one else is coming close to all the records Taylor Swift has been setting.

The three albums that broke The Beatles’ record are Folklore, Evermore, and her 2021 re-recording of her 2008 album Fearless.

The original version  had 13 songs, and the new one has 26, including six she wrote in 2008, but had never recorded.  Who writes 26 songs for an album?…and she was just 18!  The new album, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), was done because Taylor Swift was unable to purchase her old recordings.  She hopes to have control over her songs by re-recording her first six albums, and basically have the new recordings (labeled “Taylor’s Version”) replace the old ones.  She already owns her three most recent albums.

(Swift’s original 9 albums before re-recording began)

So how did the new Fearless (Taylor’s Version) perform in its first week?  It became Taylor’s 9th straight studio album to debut at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200.  It also started at  #1 on the Country chart.  It had the biggest first week for a Country album since 2015.  It might be best if the owners of her old recordings figure out that their value is going down, and just sell the rights to Taylor.

(T.S. with Folklore co-writer and co-producer Aaron Dessner)

In 2021, Folklore won the Grammy for Album Of The Year.  Taylor Swift has the record for the most albums of the year at four (after Midnights won in 2024).

Swift’s albums have been at #1 for a total of  69 weeks (1/10/24).  Only The Beatles have more, 132 weeks.  The Beatles also have the record of 19 albums to hit #1.  (Taylor has 13 as of 2023.)  Update 2/26/24:  Swift passed The Beatles for the number of weeks with albums in the Top 10.  She has 384 weeks, and The Beatles had 382 weeks.

Taylor Swift became a Beatles’ fan during her childhood.  She says she bought all their CD’s and studied their songwriting.  One thing she learned from The Beatles was to give most of her songs endings, instead of just fading out.

There are other records Taylor Swift shares with The Beatles.  They are the only two artists in history to have five albums that remained in the #1 position for six-plus weeks.  In July, 2023 Taylor Swift tied The Beatles as the only artists to have three singles from three different albums in The Top-10 at the same time.

In late 2020, Taylor Swift & Paul McCartney interviewed each other for Rolling Stone.  They were put together, because Swift has always cited McCartney as having a major influence on her career.

Taylor Swift holds the record for the most Albums Of The Year based on sales, with seven (12/12/23).  It’s too hard to keep up with all the awards she’s won, including an Emmy, Grammys, Billboard awards, just about every Pop & Country category available to her, and a bunch of Guinness World Records.

In 2014,, Billboard started a chart called the Artist 100.  It measures key metrics of music consumption, with a blend of Album & Track sales, Radio airplay, Streaming, and Social Media fan interaction.  Taylor Swift has dominated the chart.  Here’s an example of the chart from 3/20/24.

Most artists peak within their first five years or so, but Taylor Swift’s peak (as of 2024) is over 17 years into her career.  It’s hard to believe an artist could maintain such an incredible level of popularity for so long.  Swift has a shot at breaking The Beatles’ record of 19 #1 albums.

There’s already a Taylor Swift display in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, even though she won’t be officially eligible until 2031.  The display includes items actually used in several of Swift’s music videos.

Update: The re-recorded version of 2012’s Red was released November 12th, 2021.  Instead of the original 16 tracks, Taylor’s Version has 30 tracks that were originally written for the album.  Reviews are very positive, with Rolling Stone giving it a perfect 5 stars. 

In November, 2021 classic rocker Elvis Costello said about Taylor Swift…”I think we’ll all be working for her eventually.  She’s smart and knows what she’s doing.  She can write and sing, and people love it.”

At about that same time, Billy Joel had this to say about Taylor Swift.  “She’s productive and keeps coming up with great concepts and songs, and she’s huge.  You have to give her high marks.  She knows music, and she knows how to write. She’s like that generation’s Beatles.

Records Update:  On August 28th, 2022, Taylor Swift became the first 3-time winner of Video Of The Year, for “All Too Well”, at the VMA’s.  [Update: On September 12th, 2023, she won it for the 4th time, for “Anti-Hero”.]  She also announced an album of 13 new songs…  Midnights.

It was released October 21st, 2022, and is a synth-based pop album. Three hours after the official release, Swift released an additional seven songs.

(Photos from Midnight’s release)

It became her 11th album in a row to debut at #1 on the Billboard chart.  Spotify reported that Midnights broke the record for most streams by an album in a single day (on October 21st, 2022).

But what about sales?  In just one day, Midnights sold more physical & digital copies than any other album had sold in all of 2022.  The one-week numbers are staggering.  Swift sold 575,000 vinyl copies, which is more than three-times the previous one-week sales record (vinyl records began being counted again in 1991).  Add in CD’s, downloads, and streaming, and the total equivalent albums is 1,578,000 units…the largest number in seven years.  Despite thousands of albums being available on vinyl, one out of every fifteen albums sold in 2023 were albums by Taylor Swift.  That’s amazing!

And…Taylor Swift is the first artist to have all of the Top 10 Billboard singles at the same time.

Fun fact, Taylor Swift & The Beatles were #1 & #2 on the November 4th, 2022 U.K. album chart with Midnights and the Revolver remix.  Midnights stayed at #1 for two weeks in the U.S., and then added non-consecutive third, fourth, fifth & sixth weeks at the top.   The album topped the sales chart for 12 consecutive weeks, which is the most since 1998.  “Anti-Hero” topped the singles chart for eight weeks.

There’s also Swift’s Eras stadium tour, with 151 concerts through most of 2024.  Amazingly, Swift is selling out stadiums as many as 6 times in some cities.  After the shows in 2023 the tour is the first in history to break 1-billion-dollars, and may break 2-Billion after the international dates in 2024.

Update (July, 2023):  The re-recorded Speak Now was released on July 7th, 2023 (Ringo’s birthday!).  The album has six previously unreleased songs, for a total of 22..  It’s her 12th #1 album.

Fearless, Red, Speak Now, & 1989 are the four “Taylor’s Version” albums released so far.  That leaves two re-recorded albums to be released, Reputation & Taylor Swift. 

1989 Taylor’s Version is her 13th album in a row to debut at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart.  Amazingly, a “new” Beatles single, “Now And Then” replaced a Taylor Swift song at #1 on the U.K. singles chart!  Then when the new U.K. Album chart came out, it was 1989 (Taylor’s Version) #1, The Beatles (Remixed) Blue Album #2, The Beatles (Remixed) Red Album #3.

And as 2023 drew to a close, there was this…

Taylor Swift is the only entertainer to be named Time’s Person of the Year.

And a new Taylor Swift album…April 19th, 2024…tuns out to be a double album anthology with 31 songs.

Taylor Swift won the Album Of The Year Grammy for Midnights.  She now has the record with four wins for Album Of The Year.

Couldn’t resist adding that Paul McCartney visited Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl.  McCartney shakes hands with Jason Kelce, and you can see Swift’s fangirl expression.

And Paul met Travis & Jason’s dad, Ed.  Taylor’s boyfriend’s team, the Chiefs, won the game 25-22 when the Chiefs scored a touchdown on the 13th play of the winning drive.  It was also the 13th time Swift attended a Chiefs’ game.  Looks like 13 really is Taylor’s lucky number.

Tom Petty’s estate has released the Finding Wildflowers album as a stand alone purchase (1 CD or 2 LP’s).  Prior to this, it was only available as the 5th disc in the Super Deluxe box set for an extra $100.  The single CD was just $15 on Amazon.  I appreciate being able to get the 16 tracks for $85 less.

(The single disc Finding Wildflowers next to my well-worth-it $50 4-disc set  Wildflowers & All The Rest.  There’s a review of the set on this site.)

These songs are mostly alternate earlier versions of the ones on the Wildflowers album.  As you would expect, the final recordings that were chosen for the original album are the best versions, but there are some good things happening with these tracks too.

Let’s look at some of these versions individually.

The disc starts with “A Higher Place”, because it’s well done.  However, it misses the vocal harmony that helps the song soar.  This certainly could have been the final version if the harmony part had been added.  You can even hear Tom Petty say “Real good” after the take ends.

”Cabin Down Below” is the version on this CD that most obviously is as good as the one on the original album.  It’s slightly looser, and features more of Benmont Tench’s piano and Mike Campbell’s guitar work.  There’s about 40-seconds extra of cool guitar instrumental at the end.  This track has all of the Heartbreakers, including drummer Stan Lynch and bassist Howie Epstein.

An acoustic version of “Cabin Down Below” is also on this CD, and would be a nice addition to any Tom Petty collection.

”Crawling Back To You” is a really good Heartbreakers’ version (they’re all on it).  The impressive piano playing by Benmont Tench stands out.  The only slight negative is that the vocal isn’t as upfront as the final version, but even so, some people might prefer this one.

”Only A Broken Heart” features the piano a little more too.  It’s good, but Tom Petty nailed the vocal better on the original release.

”You Wreck Me” doesn’t rock quite as much as on the original album.  In the booklet, Benmont Tench mentions that you can hear his piano on this version.  He says… “on some of the rock songs on Wildflowers, although I was playing, you don’t hear me.”  One of the best reasons for owning these alternate versions is that Benmont’s playing is more clearly featured, and he’s so good!

”It’s Good To Be King” is a slower version, and although enjoyable, it seems like a work in progress.  Now that we know how fantastic the song is with the brilliant orchestration on the original, it’s missed here.

”Wildflowers” is a good less-produced version, and certainly would have been acceptable, but it’s not the perfection of the final version on the original album.  This one has Ringo Starr on drums.  At the beginning Tom says “Count it off Ringo”.  Pretty cool for a Beatles fan to be able to say that.

”Don’t Fade On Me” can’t quite match the original, but it’s a good version with a cool bluesy guitar and effective harmony vocals toward the end.

”Wake Up Time” is a reasonable attempt, but Tom Petty’s vocal wasn’t as good a take, and his voice sounds pinched at times.

“Drivin’ Down To Georgia” is the studio version, and a welcome addition.

“You Saw Me Comin’” is an unreleased song, and I think there’s a good reason for that.  As my wife, Jeannette, and I were listening to it for the first time, I said to her that the melody is familiar from another song.  She thought about it for awhile, and then nailed it.  She said it sounds like Joni Mitchell’s “Urge For Goin’”.  We first heard the song by Tom Rush, who recorded it in 1968 (even before Joni recorded it).  Someone had to have told Tom Petty about the similarity, so that’s probably why “You Saw Me Comin’” remained hidden until now.

Finding Wildflowers definitely has enough good recordings to make it a very welcome addition to my collection.  The more I listen to the tracks, the more I appreciate them.  They help complete the picture of how the masterwork, Wildflowers, was created by Tom Petty, producer Rick Rubin, and some great musicians.

The booklet includes good descriptions & comments on all the alternate tracks, and the lists of the musicians on each recording.  This disc shows us the link in the process between those impressive home demos Tom made, and the completed songs on the album.

Update:  As of November 11th, 2021, a documentary about the making of Wildflowers is available on YouTube (moved to Prime Video Oct., 2023).  It’s called Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free.

Extra:  Here’s the link to an article about Tom Petty’s album Angel Dream:

https://ontherecords.net/2021/06/tom-petty-angel-dream-album/

Crosby Stills Nash & Young had a huge hit with their album Deja Vu in 1970.  They split to do solo albums, and didn’t get back together (except to tour) until a CSN reunion in 1977.  But what if they had continued making group albums after Deja Vu?  By combining their talents and best songs, the band’s albums would have been even more popular than their solo efforts, and their songs more widely known.  CSN&Y’s place as one of the greatest rock bands would be completely solidified.

As fans know, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young didn’t always release songs in the order they were written and recorded.  Neil Young recently released some great recordings he made 45 years ago!  So, at a pace of one album per year (and using some chronological flexibility), here are CSN&Y fantasy albums.  Those of you familiar with the songs will be aware of the effort to place them in an order for musical flow and often with lyrical associations.  A few of the recordings are included (the audio is right on this site).

1971…After The Gold Rush

Neil Young’s title fit perfectly after the group’s initial rush of popularity, so it’s the title of CSN&Y’s follow-up album.  Here are the songs.

Side One:

1. Love The One You’re With (Stills)
2. Tell Me Why (Young)
3. Laughing (Crosby)
4. Ohio (CSNY)
5. Find The Cost Of Freedom (CSNY)
6. Chicago (Nash)

Side Two:

1. Sugar Babe (Stills)
2. Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Young)
3. Simple Man (Nash)
4. Southern Man (Young)
5. Do For The Others (Stills)
6. After The Gold Rush (Young)

This album would have been a worthy next album for CSN&Y.  The album starts with “Love The One You’re With”, which has all three of CSN on it.  Since the band was now providing new albums to their record company, there would have been no need for the So Far hits collection.  “Ohio” and “Find The Cost Of Freedom” would have been on this album.  Most of the other songs are from the first solo albums by the group members.   In the early 70s both Stills and Young were very prolific songwriters, so they have a strong showing throughout these six albums.  Here’s Stephen Stills’ “Do For The Others”:

1972…Change Partners

Side One:

1. Change Partners (Stills)
2. Don’t Let It Bring You Down (Young)
3. Traction In The Rain (Crosby)
4. Nothing To Do But Today (Stills)
5. Out On The Weekend (Young)
6. Sleep Song (Nash)

Side two:

1. Don’t Look At My Shadow (Stills)
2. Alabama (Young)
3. I Used To Be A King (Nash)
4. The Lee Shore (CSNY)
5. Know You Got To Run (Stills)
6. Birds (It’s Over) [Young & Nash]

This album mostly has songs from the first and second solo albums the artists recorded after Deja Vu.  It would have kept the momentum going for this super group.  The song “Change Partners” has all of CSN on it.  Graham Nash says it’s CSN&Y’s theme song, since they were always changing alliances within the group.  There’s a cool stripped-down version of “Birds” that’s included with the Deja Vu box set.  The song has Graham Nash harmonizing with Neil Young.  It would be a good closer for this album, with the song’s last words being…”It’s over”.  Here it is:

1973…Heart Of Gold

Side One:

1. It Doesn’t Matter (Stills)
2. Heart Of Gold (Young)
3. Immigration Man (Crosby & Nash)
4. The Wall Song (Crosby & Nash)
5. The Needle & The Damage Done (Young)
6. Blues Man (Stills)

Side Two:

1. So Begins The Task (Stills)
2. Harvest (Young)
3. Right Now (Stills)
4. Games (Crosby & Nash)
5. Southbound Train (Crosby & Nash)
6. Journey Through The Past (Young)

Heart Of Gold is named for the #1 hit, and it would have been an amazingly popular album with this killer collection of songs.  They’re some of the very best cuts from three solo albums that all made the top five on Billboard’s album chart.  “Journey Through The Past” is the studio version from the Harvest sessions.  It was on Neil Young Archives I.  This album almost certainly would have had multiple weeks at #1.  Here”s that version of “Journey Through The Past”:

1974…The Bridge          (Cover photo by Jeannette Bausch)

Side One:

1. Johnny’s Garden (Stills)
2. Old Man (Young)
3. Page 43 (Crosby & Nash)
4. Do You Remember The Americans (Stills)
5. Prison Song (Nash, CSNY version)
6. The Bridge (Young)

Side Two:

1. Song Of Love (Stills)
2. Love Is A Rose (Young)
3. Where Will I Be (Crosby & Nash)
4. Colorado (Stills)
5. Another Sleep Song (Nash)
6. A Man Needs A Maid (Young)

The Bridge completes the use of songs from the Manassas and Harvest albums.   Some of the tracks that make this strong are “Johnny’s Garden”, “Old Man”, “Prison Song”, and “Love Is A Rose”, but they’re all good.  “The Bridge” is the studio version (minus the studio chatter) from Neil Young Archives II.  Here it is:

1975…Down The Road

Side One:

1. Walk On (Young)
2. Down The Road (Stills)
3. Homeward Through The Haze (CSNY)
4. See The Sky About To Rain (Young)
5. Shuffle Just As Bad (Stills)
6. And So It Goes (Crosby Nash & Young)

Side Two:

1. Love/Art Blues (CSNY)
2. As I Come Of Age (CSN)
3. Tonight’s The Night (Young)
4. Witching Hour (Stills)
5. Through My Sails (CSNY)
6. Critical Mass/Wind On The Water (Crosby & Nash)

“Love/Art Blues” sounds almost studio-quality on their CSNY 1974 live album, and could have been used for this album.  Here’s the song:

“Witching Hour” is a song Stills did in the early 70s with Manassas.  It was released decades later on the Pieces album.  Down The Road is a really good collection, with five songs that were intended for the Human Highway album.

(This photo was going to be the Human Highway cover.)

1976…Human Highway

Side One:

1. See The Changes…Crosby Stills Nash & Young (CSN Box Set)
2. Human Highway…Crosby Stills Nash & Young (Archives II)
3. Taken At All…Crosby Stills Nash & Young (CSN Box Set)
4. Long May You Run…Crosby Stills Nash & Young (Decade)
5. Stateline Blues…Stephen Stills (Illegal Stills)
6. Out Of The Darkness…Crosby & Nash (Whistling Down The Wire)

Side Two:

1. Treetop Flyer…Stephen Stills (1976 CSNY sessions)
2. Time After Time…Crosby & Nash (Whistling Down The Wire)
3. Midnight On The Bay…Crosby Stills Nash & Young (Archives II)
4. Black Coral…Crosby Stills Nash & Young (Stills Box Set)
5. Little Blind Fish…Crosby Stills Nash & Young (1976 CSNY sessions)
6. Hawaiian Sunrise…Crosby Stills Nash & Young (CSNY 1974)

Human Highway was the “lost” album that was supposed to be the follow-up to Deja Vu.  This version only uses songs still available to them in 1976.  Other songs originally meant for Human Highway were used on earlier albums.  Still’s “Treetop Flyer” and Crosby’s  “Little Blind Fish” were recorded during the 1976 sessions for this album, and probably would have been finalized.  Here’s what “Treetop Flyer” sounded like in 1976 (live):

CSN got back together for real in 1977.  Their CSN album was solid, and only included one song, that was originally recorded for Human Highway, “See The Changes”, but it’s a different version.

For the complete Human Highway article (now with audio), here’s the link:

https://ontherecords.net/2018/06/csny-human-highway-the-lost-album/

This “What if” article is for pretty hardcore Crosby Stills Nash & Young fans.  Hope you enjoyed it, and maybe you’ll try these playlists, or make your own CSN&Y fantasy albums.  Mixing the artists and songs this way creates a refreshing musical variety that’s impossible on solo albums.