Neil Young Kicks Off Bootleg Series with 'Carnegie Hall 1970'

The first instalment of the series now has an official release date

BY Megan LaPierrePublished Aug 20, 2021

After announcing the first instalment of his official bootleg series last September, Neil Young has finally set a release date for his Carnegie Hall 1970 archival live album.

The Official Neil Young Bootleg Series - Carnegie Hall 1970 will be available October 1 on double vinyl, CD and high-resolution digital audio. Young played two back-to-back shows at the venue in 1970 (December 4 and 5), and while the second one has circulated as a bootleg for years, the apparently far-superior first performance remained under wraps. Now, the previously-unheard night one recordings are getting their first official release.

"This one — Carnegie Hall, December 4th, 1970, is very special to me," Young wrote last year on the Neil Young Archives.

He continued:

No one got that first one — the first time I walked onstage at Carnegie Hall, blowing my own 25-year-old mind! We have both show masters. That earliest show, the one no one made a bootleg of (that we can find), is the best one by a lot. Listening to it now, I hear things in my voice I've never heard before, singing these songs before they were recorded. After they are recorded, I seem to follow the recorded arrangement, but these takes are before those recordings.

This Carnegie double-header was the most notable performance of Young's career at that time. Subscribers to the Neil Young Archives will be treated to the recordings a full 48 hours before they're available at large, streaming exclusively on the site.

Five more instalments of the bootleg series are reportedly coming in 2022.

See the full tracklist for Carnegie Hall 1970 below, and listen to "Cowgirl in the Sand" ahead of its release.

Recently, Young backed out of his scheduled Farm Aid performance due to COVID concerns.


The Official Neil Young Bootleg Series - Carnegie Hall 1970:

1. Down by the River
2. Cinnamon Girl
3. I Am a Child
4. Expecting to Fly
5. The Loner
6. Wonderin'
7. Helpless
8. Southern Man
9. Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
10. Sugar Mountain
11. On the Way Home
12. Tell Me Why
13. Only Love Can Break Your Heart
14. Old Man
15. After the Goldrush
16. Flying on the Ground Is Wrong
17. Cowgirl in the Sand
18. Don't Let It Bring You Down
19. Birds
20. Bad Fog off Loneliness
21. Ohio
22. See the Sky About to Rain
23. Dance Dance Dance 

Pre-order The Official Neil Young Bootleg Series - Carnegie Hall 1970.

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