Song of the Day 6/28: Neil Young, “White Line”
Neil Young’s deep vault of unreleased material is legendary, but one important tranche is unreleased no longer: This week Young finally released his 1975 LP “Homegrown” in its entirety. Several of its songs appeared on Young’s later releases — “White Line” surfaced in 1990 on the “Ragged Glory” album, “Love Is a Rose” on “Decade” — but the set of songs in its entirety, recorded in December 1974 and January 1975, was shelved at the last minute in favor of “Tonight’s the Night” because, when the two albums played back-to-back at a Chateau Marmont debauch, the Band’s Rick Danko preferred the latter.
To commemorate the album’s release, Young recorded a live version of the title track, already well-known from its performance at various Farm Aid concerts. This time he does it solo for an actual barnyard audience.
I like what I’ve heard from ‘Homegrown’.
Gotta say, though, debauched or not, Rick Danko was right. ‘Tonight’s The Night’ remains an essential album.
BTW, Al, the guitar on White Line sure sounds a lot like Robbie Robertson. Was that him?
Sure is. Good catch.
His style is readily identifiable.