‘A living document’
Neil Young plans archival website on his career, sets release of ‘Hitchhiker’
Neil Young is putting the finishing touches on a massive archival website focused on his storied music career.
The Toronto-born rocker teased fans on Friday with a message outlining plans for the Neil Young Archive, “a living document’’ that he says will provide an interactive timeline of his entire discography.
Starting with his first single in 1963 and running through to his most recent recordings, Young says the website will cover “every single, recorded track or albums I have produced’’ along with a collection of “credits, memorabilia, films or videos, press and photographs.’’
“The musical information found here is a work in progress, always growing and adapting to new information as we find it,’’ he wrote.
While the musician didn’t say when the website would launch, he timed it with another big reveal — news that his 1976 acoustic album “Hitchhiker’’ would finally be made public on Sept. 8 after more than four decades in the vaults.
Recorded at a Malibu studio in a single day, “Hitchhiker’’ is one of several elusive “lost albums’’ in Young’s repertoire, and the musician hinted that other unreleased albums will appear in his archive “once they are completed.’’
“Hitchhiker’’ features two
never-released tracks, “Hawaii’’ and “Give Me Strength,’’ and early versions of songs like “Pocahontas’’ and “Powderfinger,’’ which later appeared on his 1979 album “Rust Never Sleeps.’’
The album’s title track
arrived on streaming music services and in digital stores on Friday.
Young plans to launch the archival website using his new high-fidelity streaming music service Xstream, which he says gives listeners music at the highest
quality their network allows.
The musician has been an enthusiastic supporter of high-quality audio in an era that’s favoured the convenience of muddy-sounding MP3S and low bit rate streaming audio files.