In 1968, Neil Young, fresh off of the breakup of his band the Buffalo Springfield, started playing shows with the Rockets, a Los Angeles rock band. At first, he simply played guitar in an already-established group, but then he brought in members of the Rockets to work on his 1969 album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and to tour with him. Before anyone knew what was happening, the Rockets were Crazy Horse, one of the most legendary backing bands in rock history.

Right now, Neil Young and Crazy Horse are on tour together for the first time since 2019, and I’ve been seeing rapturous reports from their shows. Today, Young has announced plans to release an album of recordings, many of them previously unreleased, from 1969. The forthcoming LP Early Daze will feature songs that Young recorded with longtime Crazy Horse members Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot, both of whom are still in the band today, as well as guitarist Danny Whitten, who died in 1972, and legendary producer Jack Nitzsche, who played piano for the band for about a year. Whitten wrote a few of the songs included on the LP.

Early Daze features versions of truly iconic Crazy Horse songs like “Cinnamon Girl” and “Down By The River.” Some of these versions of these songs appeared on previous Neil Young archival recordings, but six of the ten tracks have never been released at all. Check out the tracklist below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Dance Dance Dance” (included on Archives Vol. I)
02 “Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown” (unreleased version)
03 “Winterlong” (unreleased version)
04 “Everybody’s Alone (different mix included on Archives Vol. I)
05 “Wonderin'” (unreleased version)
06 “Cinnamon Girl” (original 7″ Mono mix, includes guitar outro not on LP version.)
07 “Look At All The Things” (unreleased version)
08 “Helpless” (unreleased version)
09 “Birds” (unreleased stereo mix, mono mix was released as B-side to “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”)
10 “Down By The River” (unreleased version with alternate vocals)

Here’s the mix of “Everybody’s Alone” that’ll appear on the LP:

Early Daze is out 6/28 on Reprise.