Homegrown (album)

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Homegrown
Studio album by Neil Young
Released Not released
Recorded Quadrafonic Studios, Unknown, November 1974-1975
Genre Country Rock, Folk-Rock, Rock
Label Reprise
Producer Neil Young, David Briggs, Elliot Mazer, Unknown
Professional reviews
Neil Young chronology
On the Beach
(1974)		 Homegrown
(1975)		 Tonight's the Night
(1975)

Homegrown is an unreleased country-rock album by Neil Young.[1] It was so near to being released that a cover had been created. At the last moment however, Neil Young chose to drop Homegrown and release Tonight's the Night instead. Young stated that he had a playback party for Homegrown and Tonight's the Night happened to be on the same reel. He decided to release Tonight's the Night after that listening because of "its overall strength in performance and feeling" and because Homegrown "was just a very down album."[1]

The album was largely acoustic, with many of the songs being solo performances of Young on guitar and harmonica. It was also quite personal, and revealed much of Young's feelings on his failing relationship at the time with actress Carrie Snodgress. Young has said that "Homegrown is the missing link between Harvest, Comes a Time, Old Ways and Harvest Moon."[citation needed]

Over the next few years many of the songs would be released on subsequent albums; "Pardon My Heart" on Zuma, "Star of Bethlehem" on American Stars 'N Bars, "Love Is a Rose" and "Deep Forbidden Lake" on Decade and "Little Wing" and "The Old Homestead" on Hawks & Doves.[citation needed]} "Homegrown" was re-recorded with Crazy Horse on American Stars 'N Bars, as was "White Line" for Ragged Glory.[citation needed]} "Separate Ways" would be performed on the 1993 tour with Booker T. & the M.G.'s.[citation needed]} Other songs performed by Young in concert over the years include "Kansas", "Love/Art Blues", "Homefires", and "Give Me Strength."[citation needed]} Also, the lyrics of "Florida" were superimposed over the credits for On the Beach on the insert that accompanied the original vinyl release of Tonight's the Night.[citation needed]} The song "Barefoot Floors" was covered by Nicolette Larson on her album Sleep, Baby, Sleep.[citation needed]} Young also began to play "Try" and "Mexico" at random on the Chrome Dreams II tour in 2007, neither of which had been previously performed live.[original research?]

[edit] Song Information

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  • "Frozen Man"

In early November 1974, Young went to Quadrafonic, Elliot Mazer's studio in Nashville, to begin the sessions for what was to be his next album, Homegrown. The song's bleak title set the tone for much of what was to come.

  • "Separate Ways"

The song begins in the middle of a doomy chord; Tim Mulligan lunged for the record button just as Young and the band dove into the song. Levon Helm rattles out a slow counterpoint as Ben Keith spins up a stark, bird-on-the-wire steel solo that has to be one of the lonesomest sounds ever recorded. "I won't apologize/The light shone in from your eyes/It isn't gone/And it will soon come back again," sings Young, sounding dead. This was powerful, painfully sad stuff, and it was goodbye.

  • "Love Is a Rose"
  • "Love/Art Blues"
  • "Homefires"

Throughout December and January, Young recorded both in Nashville and at the ranch, and the songs rolled out hard and fast. Some were stark acoustic performances - "Love Is a Rose," "Love/Art Blues," "Homefires."

  • "The Old Homestead"

Others were cut with a band: "The Old Homestead," a weird allegorical tale with allusions to the Horse.

  • "Homegrown"

"Homegrown," a goofy tribute to hemp recorded in a much higher version by the Horse.

  • "We Don't Smoke It"

"We Don't Smoke It," an inebriated blues vamp that would've sounded right at home on Tonight's the Night.

  • "Vacancy"

And a killer "Vacancy," featuring Young mangling guitar and harmonica simultaneously.

  • "Try"

In "Try," a faint ray of optimism that perversely followed "Separate Ways" in one running order for the album, Young paid tribute to Carolyn Snodgress by adapting bits of her lingo into verse: "I'd like to take a chance," yelps Young over a rollicking piano, "but shit, Mary, I can't dance."

  • "Give Me Strength"

On December 16, Young recorded the totem song of the period, "Give Me Strength." The lyrics catch him struggling to make the final break from Carrie's web. The bittersweet chorus is Young at his best: "The happier you fly, the sadder you crawl/The laughter in your eye is never all." Nonsinger Ellen Talbot yowled along on harmony, providing a crazy edge more than suitable for one of the last Carrie songs. The sound is almost mystical. Guitar and harmonica, plus luminous overdubs of a tinkling piano and a finger tapping a paper cup, add glimmers of color that come and go. An impressionistic sound, precisely constructed without losing any of its spontaneous feel.

  • "Kansas"
  • "Mexico"
  • "Florida"

Towards the end of January 1975, Young and Ben Keith headed to Village Recorders in Los Angeles for the final Homegrown sessions, and the results were way, way out. "Kansas" and "Mexico" were solo Young performances - short, fragmentary and hallucinogenic. "Mexico" was reminiscent of Brian Wilson at his ethereal best. "Florida" was some cockamamie spoken-word dream (printed out, for reasons no one can remember, in the booklet for Tonight's the Night), set to the shrieking accompaniment of either Young or Keith drawing a wet finger around the rim of a glass.

  • "White Line"

A bittersweet song that Young had recorded as an acoustic duet with The Band's Robbie Robertson in England a few days before CSNY's Wembley show.

  • "Star of Bethlehem"
  • "Little Wing""
  • "Pardon My Heart"
  • "Deep Forbidden Lake"
  • "Daughters"
  • "Barefoot Floors"
  • "Bad News"

Both "Try" and "Star of Bethlehem" would benefit greatly from the overdubbed harmonies of Emmylou Harris, who recalls a few details of the blurry session: "It was me, Ben Keith, Neil and a bottle of tequila."

-All quotes come from Jimmy McDonough's book Shakey.

[edit] Personnel

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Elliot Mazer produced the sessions. Musicians on the album included Tim Drummond, Karl T. Himmel, Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Emmylou Harris, Ben Scribner, Ben Keith.