Lots of anticipation around the new Jack White album, plus lots of controversy thanks to White’s interview in Rolling Stone.
Lazaretto, is streaming a week ahead of its June 10 release date at iTunes Radio
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Earlier today Neil Young officially released the “Needle of Death” video that has appeared sporadically on YouTube since it was shown at a the Celebration of Bert Jansch at The Royal Festival Hall on December 3, 2013.
“Needle of Death,” a Jansch composition that influenced Young when he wrote “The Needle and the Damage Done,” appears on Young’s new album, A Letter Home.
The video shows Young recording the song at Jack White’s Third Man Records in the 1947 Voice-o-Graph booth. Jack White co-produced A Letter Home with Young, or as it says on the album’s back cover, “reproduced.”
When he finishes singing the song, Young steos out of the Voice-o-Graph booth and White says to him, “Sounded good,” to which Young replies, “It’s a heavy song, very heavy song.”
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
We get a preview of Jack White’s upcoming solo album, Lazaretto, with this studio recording of the title track.
This is a good one.
Plus watch White make history recording “Lazaretto” on Record Store Day.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –
I first reported in mid-January of this year that Neil Young’s next album would consist of all covers and that he was “collaborating” with Jack White.
I speculated that songs on the album would likely include Phil Ochs’ “Changes,” Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby” and Tim Hardin’s “Reason To Believe.”
Today the album, A Letter Home, was released with none of the usual pre-release hoopla, and it includes all of those songs, plus Bob Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country,” Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown,” a second song by Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Only Read My Mind,” plus songs by the Everly Brothers and Willie Nelson.
Jack White not only recorded the album on his 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl record recording booth at Third Man Records in Nashville, but he’s released the album on Third Man Records, is credited along with Young as the album’s co-producer (actually it says on the back cover “Reproduced by Jack White and Neil Young) and plays on two tracks.
“[It’s] a phone booth,” Young told Spin. “It’s all acoustic with a harmonica inside a closed space, with one mic to vinyl … It’s a funky old machine, it sounds like Jimmy Rogers or something.”
For Record Store Day tomorrow, the album will be available on vinyl in limited quantities at select record stores around the country.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Changes” (Phil Ochs)
02 “Girl From The North Country” (Bob Dylan)
03 “Needle of Death” (Bert Jansch)
04 “Early Morning Rain” (Gordon Lightfoot)
05 “Reason To Believe” (Tim Hardin)
06 “On The Road Again” (Willie Nelson)
07 “If You Could Only Read My Mind” (Gordon Lightfoot)
08 “Since I Met You Baby” (Ivory Joe Hunter)
09 “My Hometown” (Bruce Springsteen)
10 “I Wonder If I Care As Much” (Everly Brothers)
Here are live performances of some of the songs.
“Reason To Believe” at Farm Aid 2013:
“Changes” at Carnegie Hall 2014:
“Early Morning Rain” at Farm Aid 2013:
“Since I Met You Baby” at Farm Aid 2013:
“Needle of Death” at Carnegie Hall 2014:
“If You Could Read My Mind” at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, 2014:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Weezer record “Susanne” at Jack White’s Third Man Records vintage recording booth.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –
Last year Neil Young went down to Nashville and recorded the Bert Jansch song “Needle of Death” at Jack White’s Third Man Records in the 1947 Voice-o-Graph machine.
Apparently Young recorded the song for the Celebration of Bert Jansch at The Royal Festival Hall on December 3, 2013. The video of Young cutting the track was shown at the event.
The video was online briefly, then pulled.
Now it’s back. Watch it while you can.
And here’s a version of the song from Jan. 6, 2014, Carnegie Hall:
“Needle of Death,” Jan. 7, 2014, Carnegie Hall:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –
Neil Young recorded his entire upcoming album, A Letter Home, in Jack White’s 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl record recording booth at Third Man Records in Nashville.
Young calls the the album “retro-tech,” and says the album “sounds like Jimmie Rogers or something.”
“Well, A Letter Home is going to be very confusing to people because it is retro-tech,” Young told Spin’s Garrett Kemps. “Retro-tech means recorded in a 1940s recording booth. A phone booth. It’s all acoustic with a harmonica inside a closed space, with one mic to vinyl. Directly to vinyl.”
Young told Rolling Stone the album is now “likely” to be released in the spring.
“It’s an amazing time capsule. From nothing, to nowhere,” Young told Rolling Stone’s Gavin Edwards. “No one knows why. It’s a good piece, a real nice piece. I look forward to people getting it, especially in light of what I’m doing now. It’s coming out pretty soon.”
Young said that Jack White plays on two of the tracks. The album is being released on White’s Third Man Records.
In December 2013, the Neil Young website Thrasher’s Wheat had these quotes from a source: “It is an album of covers. In it, as anticipated, he pays tribute to other renowned singer-songwriters. There are 12 tracks on it. There are no Neil Young originals…”
I’ve speculated that the album will include “Needle of Death,” as well as Phil Ochs “Changes” Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby” and Tim Hardin’s “Reason To Believe,” songs that Young played at the 2013 Farm Aid concert.
On Neil Young’s and Third Man’s websites the album was described as “An unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever……”
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post –
The next Neil Young album, A Letter Home, will feature “rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology,” according to posts that appeared today on both the “Coming Soon From Third Man Records” area of Jack White’s Third Man Records website and the Neil Young website.
Here’s the text from both sites:
A LETTER HOME
January 22, 2014
Third Man Records unearths Neil Young’s “A Letter Home.”
An unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever…… Homer Grosvenor
Young spoke briefly to Rolling Stone last night about recording the album, saying, “it’s one of the lowest-tech experiences I’ve ever had.”
When Young spoke at the 56th GRAMMY Awards Producers & Engineers Wing the night of January 21, 2014, he said something that would appear to relate to A Letter Home: “There’s something that happens with one mic. When everyone sings into one mic, when everybody plays into the same mic: I’ve just never been able to do that, with some rare instances like when I record in a recording booth from a 1940s state fair. I got that sound by closing myself into a telephone booth. And I notice, it sounds just like an old record. And I like the sound of old records! I’ve always loved that.”
The album is set for a March release according to Rolling Stone.
This info now officially confirms the news I broke about the album last week.
–– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Jack White and Revenant Records’ founder Dean Blackwood on Charlie Rose discussing Paramount, the blues, and the Paramount box set, The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records, that White and Revenant recently released.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-