Neil Young Announces the First-Ever Vinyl Release of Long-Lost Live Album, ‘Odeon Budokan’

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Neil Young and Crazy Horse are going vinyl. The “Heart of Gold” singer has announced that he will be releasing Odeon Budokan on vinyl for the first time on September 1. Odeon Budakan is a rare live album that was recorded in 1976 in London and Tokyo.

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The vinyl features 10 live tracks across two sides with songs recorded with Crazy Horse during Young‘s live shows at Hammersmith Odeon in London and Nippon Budokan Hall In Tokyo.

RELATED: Neil Young to Perform at The Roxy’s 50th Anniversary Celebration

The only other format where Odeon Budakan was released was a compact disc in 2020, as part of Young’s Archives Volume II box set. The album features classic Neil Young tunes “Cowgirl In the Sand,” “Cortez the Killer,” “Lotta Love,” and “Stringman.”

Produced by David Briggs shortly after the Tokyo and London shows in 1976, the live album ended up being put on hold indefinitely due to the production of other albums by Young. The vinyl release will be available for purchase through Greedy Hand Store, where fans will receive free hi-res digital audio downloads of all the tracks via Xstream Store, at Neil Young Archives.

Young once opened up about how the idea of launching the Neil Young Archives website and how it came to be. “I tried to do it on Blu-ray, years ago [in 2007],” he recalled in a 2019 Rolling Stone interview. “Blu-ray was the only way that I could get the sound quality that I wanted and it made it possible to do some other stuff, like show the artwork and other information. At the time, you couldn’t have music on a website since it sounded like crap.

“I didn’t want my music to be preserved like that. And so we decided to develop a music service that could do hi-res and we ended up with the first streaming service in hi-res, which is pretty cool,” Young continued. “It’s on equal playing field with Spotify and Apple, whatever all the other ones are. You listen to it through your phone, it’s the same as that, and people automatically are just saying, ‘Hey, wow! This is a lot better!’”

Check out the official track listing for Odeon Budokan below:

Side 1:

1.    The Old Laughing Lady

2.    After The Gold Rush

3.    Too Far Gone

4.    Old Man

5.    Stringman

Side 2:

1.    Don’t Cry No Tears

2.    Cowgirl In The Sand

3.    Lotta Love

4.    Drive Back

5.    Cortez The Killer

Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns

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