Great to finally have this on CD! Most of the songs have a real ‘bar band’ kind of feel, albeit a bar band with backing vocals by Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. A pleasant groove to be in, and “Like A Hurricane” is a striking Crazy Horse rocker with a tenderness hidden in the lyrics; Neil’s version on “Unplugged” I feel is the definitive one. Another highlight is “Star of Bethlehem,” an introspective shuffler about the loneliness of memories past that just dares to be taken as a bona fide Christmas song.

However, the genuine overlooked masterpiece on the album is the moody, haunting “Will To Love.” Neil recorded a demo version on a casette deck one night in front of the fireplace with his guitar, and then bumped it up to multi-track where he overdubbed instruments and vocals for several hours until he was finished. The result is an amazing bit of narcotic psychedelia that predates both the low-fi glitch folk of the Microphones (you can still hear the crackling fireplace on the track) and the surreal imagery of the Flaming Lips. This amazing track alone would be reason enough to buy this CD, but as a bonus the rest of the songs on here are great too!

Please check out “On The Beach” if you haven’t already.