Neil Young is releasing another gem from the vault. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame icon announced on Friday (Jan. 3) that one of his great “lost” albums, “Oceanside Countryside“, will be released on February 14 through Reprise Records.
Neil Young has announced the release of the previously unissued album “Oceanside Countryside”, recorded between May and December 1977. part of Young’s Analogue Originals series. The 10 songs share themes with the record that replaced “Oceanside Countryside” release in 1978, “Comes a Time”. Three songs – “Goin’ Back,” “Human Highway” and “Field of Opportunity” appeared on Neil Young’s ninth album when it was released in October of that year.
“This analogue original album was recorded in 1977 and unreleased,” Young notes in a statement accompanying the announcement. “These songs are the original mixes done at the time of the recordings in the order I planned for the album. I sang the vocals and played the instruments on “Oceanside” in Florida at Triad studios and Malibu at Indigo studio. I sang the vocals and recorded with my great band of friends, Ben Keith, Joe Osborn, Karl T. Himmel, and Rufus Thibodeaux at Crazy Mama’s in Nashville on Countryside.
“I hope you enjoy this treasure of an Analogue Original recording, recorded by Tim Mulligan, as much as I do. Listening to it now, I think I should have put it out back then.” The vinyl version of “Oceanside” will include tracks on the CD of the same name from Young’s Archives Vol. III release. Young noted that the track-list for the upcoming album – which was recorded on tape – reflects how he originally planned to release the LP, which will be available in analogue and on vinyl for the first time ever with the original mixes done at the time of the recording.
The album’s first side features Young performing solo; Side Two includes assistance from steel guitarist Ben Keith, fiddle player Rufus Thibodeaux, drummers Karl T. Himmel and The Band’s Levon Helm, and bassists Joe Osborne and Tim Drummond.
The release noted that the versions are “not always the same.” Specifically, the versions of “Lost in Space,” “Captain Kennedy” and “The Old Homestead” on the analogue original vinyl release date from the “Hawks & Doves” album from 1980. In addition, “Field of Opportunity” and “Dance Dance Dance” are the original versions that have backing vocals from Young instead of Nicolette Larson, whose vocals appeared on “Archives Vol. III”.
While these songs have appeared on other Young albums over the years, and “Oceanside Countryside” tracks were issued as part of 2024’s “Archives Vol. III (1976-1987)”, the upcoming release marks the debut of several previously unreleased versions and the first time the track listing reflects the album’s original planned running order.
track listing: for “Oceanside Countryside“.
Side One: Oceanside
1 Sail Away
2 Lost In Space
3 Captain Kennedy
4 Goin’ Back
5 Human Highway
Side Two: Countryside
1 Field Of Opportunity
2 Dance Dance Dance
3 The Old Homestead
4 It Might Have Been
5 Pocahontas
Release on February 14th,
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