This Note's For You: Neil Young Readies "Bluenote Café" For November Release

This Note’s For You: Neil Young Readies “Bluenote Café” For November Release

The ever-prolific Neil Young is following up his latest studio album The Monsanto Years with another dip into his fabled Archives. Bluenote Café is the title of his Archives Performance Series Volume 11, due in 2-CD and 4-LP editions from Reprise Records on November 13.

Bluenote Café takes its name from the horn-powered band which backed Neil on his 1987-1988 tour before and after the April ’88 release of the studio album This Note’s for You (originally credited to Neil Young and the Bluenotes, to the ire of soul great Harold Melvin). Familiar Young collaborators and Crazy Horse veterans filled the band, with the lineup consisting of Rick Rosas (bass), Chad Cromwell (drums), Frank Sampedro (keyboards), Steve Lawrence (lead tenor saxophone), Ben Keith (alto saxophone), Larry Cragg (baritone saxophone), Claude Cailliet (trombone), Tom Bray (trumpet), John Fumo (trumpet), Billy Talbot (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums).

This Archives volume has been sequenced in the manner of a complete show, drawn from numerous tour stops including Toronto, San Francisco, Hollywood, New York and Cleveland. It features three songs previously unreleased by Young on record – “Bad News Comes to Town,” “Crime of the Heart” and “Doghouse,” plus live renditions of other rarities like the B-side “I’m Goin’,” “Ain’t It the Truth” (first heard on compilation Lucky Thirteen), “Fool for Your Love” (resurrected in a 2000 performance for Road Rock Vol. 1) and an epic, almost-20-minute-long take on “Tonight’s the Night.” Another lesser-known song, “Soul of a Woman,” first appeared on Archives Vol. 9, A Treasure, in a country-flecked version with the International Harvesters. (Note that Archives Vol. 10, along with Vols. 4-8, has yet to be revealed or released.) Bluenote Café stretches as far back as Young’s Buffalo Springfield days with “On the Way Home.”

The eleventh volume of Neil Young’s Archives Performance Series, Bluenote Café is due from Reprise on CD, vinyl and DD (including on Pono, of course) on November 13!

Neil Young, Archives Performance Series Vol. 11: Bluenote Café (Reprise, 2015)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

CD 1

Welcome to the Big Room
Don’t Take Your Love Away From Me
This Note’s For You
Ten Men Workin’
Life In The City
Hello Lonely Woman
Soul of a Woman
Married Man
Bad News Comes to Town
Ain’t It the Truth
One Thing
Twilight

CD 2:

I’m Goin’
Ordinary People
Crime In The City
Crime Of The Heart
Welcome Rap
Doghouse
Fool For Your Love
Encore Rap
On The Way Home
Sunny Inside
Tonight’s The Night

All tracks previously unreleased.

CD 1, Track 1 from Mt. View Theater, Mt. View, CA – 11/7/87
CD 1, Track 2 from The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA – 11/12/87
CD 1, Track 3 from The Palace, Hollywood, CA – 4/13/88
CD 1, Tracks 4-7 from The World, New York, NY – 4/18/88
CD 1, Track 8 from The World, NY, NY – 4/21/88
CD 1, Tracks 9-12 from Agoura Ballroom, Cleveland, OH – 4/23/88
CD 2, Track 1 from CNE, Toronto, Canada – 8/18/88
CD 2, Track 2 from Lake Compounce, Bristol, CT – 8/23/88
CD 2, Track 3 from Jones Beach Theatre, Wantagh, NY – 8/27/88
CD 2, Track 4-8, 10-11 from Pier 84, NY, NY – 8/30/88
CD 2, Track 9 from Poplar Creek Music Theatre, Hoffman Estates, IL – 8/16/88

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

3 thoughts on “This Note’s For You: Neil Young Readies “Bluenote Café” For November Release”

William Keats
October 12, 2015 at 11:27 am

Glad to see that this covers the entire history of the band, not just the 1988 group that toured widely. The 1987 shows featured Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina as the rhythm section, so the Blue Notes were actually Crazy Horse plus horns, although they played no Crazy Horse material. A bit of the Blue Notes repertoire had premiered at summer 1987 Crazy Horse shows with a much smaller horn section of just Ben Keith. The 1987 version of the band played only small venues for the most part, including a number of clubs throughout the Bay Area. The 1988 group played bigger venues especially after the album was released; by that time they were billed as “10 Men Working” due to Harold Melvin’s Bluenotes complaint.

It should also be added that at least two of the Blue Notes have passed away: Steve Lawrence and Ben Keith

Also, happy to see there’s a track from a Blue Notes show I attended, although “Mt. View” is actually Mountain View. It was at the Mountain View Theater on Castro, which is now a bar or restaurant of some sort. Weirdly, although the show was a single admission rather than Early / Late seatings, it consisted of two nearly identical sets, which would be the case for a number of Blue Notes show from that period.

Reply
Mark I.
October 13, 2015 at 12:34 pm

Mr. Young likes furthering his musical history but unfortunately has little respect for those of us who haven’t shelled out for his Pono device. I don’t expect to see this album streaming or available for MP3 download.

Reply
1. Joe Marchese
  October 13, 2015 at 12:38 pm
  
  “Bluenote Cafe” is already available for pre-order on Amazon MP3 and I believe on iTunes, as well.
  
  Reply