Fifty years after the original performance, Neil Young announces Young Shakespeare, an as-yet unreleased 1971 live recording and concert film which contains the earliest known live performance footage of Young known to exist. The 1971 Stratford, CT show captures the artists stripped down to the bare essentials—acoustic guitar, piano, and harmonica.
Available for pre-order today and out on March 26, 2021, Young Shakespeare features early recordings of “Old Man,” “The Needle and the Damage Done,” “A Man Needs a Maid,” and “Heart Of Gold” which were then over a year away from being released on Young’s classic 1972 record Harvest. Available for pre-order now, the album will be available on vinyl, CD via The Greedy Hand Storeat Neil Young Archives (NYA) and music retailers everywhere. A stand-alone DVD of the concert will be available exclusively through The Greedy Hand Store at NYA. Check out the video of “Tell Me Why” live and the album’s trailer..
A Deluxe Box Set Edition is also available and will include vinyl, CD, and the DVD and will be available through the NYA Greedy Hand Store and all retailers. Those who purchase the CD, LP or Box set from the NYA Greedy Hand Store will also receive free hi-res digital audio downloads from the Xstream Store © at NYA. Order today and receive an instant download of “Tell Me Why.”
Just two months after the release of Young’s seminal After the Gold Rush, he sat down for a performance at The Shakespeare Theater on January 22, 1971. The concert was recorded for presentation on German TV later that year but was not publicly available until now. The original 50 year-old analog tapes have been lovingly restored, making available early acoustic recordings of two After the Gold Rush songs, early Harvest tunes, and beloved favorites such as “Ohio,” “Cowgirl in the Sand,” “Helpless,” “Down by the River,” and “Sugar Mountain.”
Young wrote on NYA that Young Shakespeare is, “a more calm performance, without the celebratory atmosphere of Massey Hall, captured live on 16mm. Young Shakespeare is a very special event. To my fans, I say this is the best ever…one of the most pure-sounding acoustic performances we have in the Archive.”
