AMERICAN STARS 'N BARS - Neil Young

released 5-27-1977

Recorded partly in the White House at Broken Arrow, and partly in different places during the previous 18 months, it is more of a report than an album concept of something.

Five songs with Crazy Horse, Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette Larson were cut over a few days on the green board in the White House by Briggs and Mulligan. Violinist Carole Mayedo was there. That was side A.

Side B spanned the two and a half previous years. ‘Like Hurricane’ is the second earliest track, cut at the ranch many months before the White House sessions. There, because I was on Dr.’s orders to not speak or sing, I did not sing on the original tracking with the horse at Modern Recorders. I sang all the harmony parts later, doing a “sketch” of the vocal arrangement with Ben Keith at the desk in LA’s Village studios. In the end, we used the sketch.

‘Will to Love’ was cut on the floor in front of my home fireplace on a cassette, then transported to Indigo in Malibu for a night to remember. . . . finishing it with Briggs.

On this album, ‘Homegrown’ is the Crazy Horse version, not the original 1974 version (with Karl Himmel, Ben Keith, and Tim Drummond) from ‘Homegrown,’ the studio album. (released in 2020).

In ‘Star of Bethlehem,’ Ben sang with Emmylou at her house in LA, the track (with my live vocal) already recorded in Nashville for the ‘Homegrown’ album in 1974.

Lyndon Johnson bared his scars . . . American Stars ’n Bars.
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