The lost Neil Young album recorded in turmoil
Without the fear of what it would entail, Neil Young might have contributed to the haze of his mid-1970s success with a new album that would continue his seamless blend of raw authenticity and commercial appeal. Homegrown, which Young wrote between 1974 and 1975, after the second “Ditch Trilogy” album On the Beach, took on the darker elements of Harvest as a natural reaction to immense turmoil.
Homegrown was predicted to be a success as vast as Harvest, but focusing on everything Young epitomised at this juncture in his career. Homegrown tackled everything Young was feeling at that specific moment in time, taking his relationship breakdown and the death of close friends and musical partners and channelling them into pure, unfiltered art.
Young’s attempts to fix his relationship with his wife, Carrie Snodgrass, sparked an emotional explosion that gave Homegrown its macabre feel. Tracks like ‘Separate Ways’, ‘Try’, and ‘Star of Bethlehem’ demonstrate his despair well as he attempts to navigate heartbreak, acceptance, grief, confusion, and more, as Young delivers pleading lines like: “We’ve got lots of time to get together if we try.”
Homegrown was set to complete the “Ditch Trilogy”, which made label executives incredibly excited – they felt they had a huge success on their hands akin to Harvest, which came complete with an album cover that was perfectly reflective of Young and his artistry: it would be a farmer nibbling on a piece of corn, tapping into Young’s folk sensibilities with an appropriate level of quirkiness.
However, the night before the release of Homegrown saw Young gathering a group of friends at his residence at the Chateau Marmont with the hopes of getting their opinion on his new album. According to the singer, the Band’s Rick Danko was also there, and they all proceeded to listen to Homegrown, despite being “fucked up, listening to tapes, on the edge.”
After the record stopped playing, another collection began, which was an unreleased album called Tonight’s the Night, which Young had written in the aftermath of the deaths of Crazy Horse collaborator Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry. Young once said he “felt responsible” for Whitten’s death, and both Whitten and Berry occupy a significant amount of space on the album in the title track and songs like ‘Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown’, which includes some of Whitten’s vocals and guitar parts.
The night Young played Homegrown to his friends, Tonight’s the Night shared a reel with an early mix of the album, which meant everybody was able to hear both pieces of material back-to-back. Danko, in particular, bought into the second album, reportedly enthusing to his composer: “If you guys don’t release this fuckin’ album, you’re crazy.”
And that’s exactly what Young did – Tonight’s the Night was released instead of Homegrown, and the original project wouldn’t see the light of day until around 45 years later. Perhaps Danko’s words provided an outlet for Young, who already felt that Homegrown was too vulnerable and personal. Instead of taking the risk, he ushered it to the sidelines, taking a safer option instead. As he said of Homegrown in 1975: “It was a little too personal. It scared me.”
