Neil Young with Crazy Horse Early Daze LP

Michael Fremer Rated 9/10 Music, 9/10 Sound!

Early Daze is a collection of rare and unreleased studio recordings by Neil Young with Crazy Horse. The 10 songs were all recorded in 1969 with a Crazy Horse lineup of Danny Whitten (guitar and vocals), Ralph Molina (drums and vocals), Billy Talbot (bass and vocals), Jack Nitzsche (keyboards, tambourine, and vocals). This is the same lineup that played on the Live at the Fillmore East album (recorded March 6 & 7, 1970).

Only one track on the album has been previously released ("Dance Dance Dance") and none of the 10 tracks have been released on LP before.

Pure rock'n'roll, so crisply delivered. A dying art form that's deceptively simple yet requires serious discipline to get right. This set distills Crazy Horse down to its essence. Even if you have a wall of Neil, or especially if you do, this is a good one not to be missed.

Early Daze is one of the entries in the Neil Young archival series that sounds most like a deliberately designed album. The songs are up there with some of Neil's very best, Crazy Horse are hungry and ready to deliver, and the mix of familiar tunes and similarly intoned outliers flows fantastically. It's an absolute must for fans, but also a great starting point for anyone who's a little more than just a casual listener, but not quite ready to venture too deep into the vaults.