Before deleting it mere hours later, Neil Young, the Canadian rock icon, released the entirety of a previously-unreleased 1991 concert with Crazy Horse, his longtime backing band, on Tuesday.
The unedited footage surfaced on the Neil Young Archives website (NYA) on the morning of April 7, along with a short message from the 74-year-old artist.
“This is raw, untouched sound,” he wrote.
“We normally would have fixed some things, and we will get to it, but we are sharing this with all of you just as it is ‘in all its Ragged Glory,’” Young added, referencing his own 1990 album.
The show was recorded at the Buffalo’s War Memorial on Feb. 16, 1991 during the critically acclaimed ‘Smell the Horse’ tour, which promoted Ragged Glory — the sixth overall Young/Crazy Horse record.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse perform live on stage for ATP Iceland Festival 2014 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Matthew Eisman/Redferns via Getty Images
Following in the footsteps of his recent “Fireside Sessions” — which have been recorded by Young’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah — the Crazy Horse gig seemingly came as a gift to fans during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are not waiting [to release this],” said the Heart of Gold singer, later re-iterating that it would be re-released with a proper mix and mastering job within the year.
“We can’t get into the archive vault to retrieve the master for a remix,” wrote Young, referring to the novel coronavirus, “but it’s debatable whether one is needed at this moment,” he added.
The historical show includes Young classics Welfare Mothers, Cortez the Killer, F**kin’ Up and Love to Burn, among many others.
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It was also one of the only gigs on the ‘Smell the Horse; tour to feature a performance of 1976’s Campaigner.
Though the show was previously unreleased, Young used the Buffalo recordings of Like a Hurricane and a cover of Bob Dylan’s 1963 hit Blowin in the Wind on Crazy Horse’s 1991 live album, Weld.
As of this writing, the full concert has been taken down from the NYA, with the exception of the opening track Country Home — which is a track from Ragged Glory.
It’s currently unclear whether Young will post the entirety of the concert again to the NYA before officially releasing it.
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