NEIL YOUNG Trans - the unreleased acetate

With the CD release of "Trans" in 1994, Neil Young's entire
Geffen Records catalog was finally available again, and easy to
find. Um... except for the alternate mix/edit "Mr. Soul" 7" single
(both sides), and the "Sample And Hold" / "Mr. Soul" / "Sample
And Hold" remixes on that 12" EP. And the U.K. "Weight Of
The World" extended remix 12" single. And a few edited &/or
remixed 45rpms. Oh, and an unreleased song from the original
"Trans" acetate.

As with any Neil Young LP, "Trans" was preceeded by all
sorts of delays. At least two different 10-12-song acetates & 3
different test pressing cassettes (plain-looking cassette copies

1982 "Human Highway" Test Pressing cassette J card

dubbed Real-Time directly from the master tape and distributed
strictly within the record company) appeared, then disappeared.
LP titles ("Island In The Sun", "Human Highway") & most songs
("Raining In Paradise", "Big Pearl", "Soul Of A Woman", "Island
In The Sun", "Bad News") would remain unreleased. The record
that was finally issued December 29, 1982 wasn't the soundtrack
for Neil's long-awaited "nuclear comedy" movie, although some
critics compared it to a nuclear meltdown. Nearly everyone who
had been waiting for "a new Neil Young album" didn't anticipate
this eclectic mix of techno F/X grooves behind the indecipherable
vocals piled on top of semi-acoustic Crazy Horse. What some

critics saw as doodling might have been seen differently, had this "first draft" acetate been left intact.

Side one starts off just like the Geffen LP, with "A Little Thing Called Love". The single stalled at #71
on Billboard's Hot 100 charts January 1983, and I still can't figure out why this record didn't do better.
The track is textbook Top 40 stuff: it's fast, it's loud, it's about love and it's got a really great hook.

The second song on side one is probably the most
famous unreleased Neil Young song ever. Everyone
who bought the LP when it came out knows that
"first issue error" back covers list "If You Got Love"
as the second song on side one, but that the song
was deleted at the last minute

Neil has been quoted as saying that "If You Got
Love" was deleted because he decided that the cut
was "too whimpy". With all due respect, I disagree
with the gentleman. The 3:17 toe-tapper certainly is
pleasant enough, but I wouldn't call it whimpy.
The song strikes me as a subdued reworking of
"Little Thing Called Love", and in fact makes for an
easy slide from that song into the computerized song
that follows. As the released album stands, the jump
from the raucous "Little Thing Called Loved" to the

electronic "Computer Age" is too wide a gap of
styles and moods. I can only speculate that the stark
contrast of the first two tracks on the released LP is
just what Neil had in mind to emphasize "Computer
Age", which it certainly does.

"We R In Control", "Transformer Man" and
"Computer Cowboy" fill out side one in a whiz of
electronic gimmickry that leaves the listener sweaty
and worried.

"Hold On To Your Love" starts off side two peace-
fully enough, but with "Sample And Hold" and
and then the revamped "Mr. Soul", the listener once
again whisked to that faraway digital place that Neil
has created. A moment of between-cut silence and
all at once the mood and the pace and the whole feel
of the program changes as guitars and drums pound

out the rhythm of "Like An Inca". Like a riptide, the groove of the song draws the listener into a hypnotic
swirl of wawa-ing-guitar churning behind lyric-paintings & conga drums that rolls on & on for nearly 10:00.

"Like An Inca" is arguably the highlight of the acetate, but with the inclusion of "If You Got Love", this
version of the album has a entirely different, user-friendly flow to it than the released LP does. Luckily, like
so many other acetates that've turned up over the years, this one's been circulating amongst tape collectors
since it's discovery. And like most titles in the "album acetates on tape" series, this one is an ESSENTIAL
addition to any Neil Young collection --and the perfect opportunity to re-examine this over-looked classic
from a slightly different point of view.

12/01/06

footnotes___________________________________________________________________
1. Corrected second printing back covers didn't appear until months after the LP peaked at #19on

theBillboard charts; in fact it's the corrected covers that are rare, NOT the mis-printed originals!
2. The version of "Like An Inca" that appears on the released LP runs 8:08; the acetate version is

9:49, and includes an extra"build a strong foundation"verse & an extended insturumental fade.

Both versions are the same take; the original LP version simply fades out "early". With the 1993

German(and 1995 Japanese)"Trans" CD release, buyers were surprised to find the 8:01 alternate

version of "Sample And Hold" (rather than the original 5:09 LP version). Unfortunately, this is

the same (previously unreleased) version of the cut that first appeared on the "LuckyThirteen"

album, released just a few months earlier --so the 5:09 take is gone (except for original Geffen

LPs and tapes). Even more surprising was the inclusion of the 9:49 acetate version of "Like An

Inca"at the end of the little silver disc! Still no "If You Got Love", though.

1982 Geffen Records
©1994, 1999, 2004 jef michael piehler ©1999, 2004 sidestreet publishing company
Originally published in BrokenArrowmagazine#55May1994,

revised December1999 & August 2004
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