Neil Young - Mediterranean (1974)

Neil Young released his sixth studio album, On the Beach, in July 1974. The third chapter of the so-called Ditch Period, it was released right before Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's 1974 Reunion Tour, which reunited Young with his estranged bandmates for the first time in four years. During this period of his career, his now-infamous relationship issues with his partner Carrie Snodgress were beginning to show, with these issues becoming a strong source of inspiration for him, and the main focus of the latter period Ditch albums's songwriting. This can be clearly seen by the fact that, despite him having just finished recording a full studio album mere months ago, he spent the rehearsals for the tour (held at his own Broken Arrow Studios, no less!) writing and recording some new songs. The seven sparsely-arranged songs he recorded during these sessions divided themselves into happier songs, with lighter themes, and moodier, more depressed about his failing marriage and infidelity. The tour itself saw the live debut of three of those songs, and the writing and incorporation into CSNY's live set of a couple other tour-written songs as well. By the tour's end in August, he had about enough material for a good studio album in the can, but had no plans of recording in the near future. Instead, ahead of CSNY's planned London concert at Wembley Stadium, he traveled to Amsterdam with a couple of friends and a Dutch journalist named Constant Meijers, who documented the whole trip for a piece he would be writing on Neil,  where he got a closer look into Neil's creative process than anyone ever before. 

A new writing spree in September gave birth to some brand new songs, with most of them having two things in common: their aquatic theme and sad, brokenhearted nature, due to the state of his relationship with Snodgress. He claimed to have already written fourteen songs based on this theme and to have 37 new songs in total, with nine of those being discussed by them, with some of them already recorded before the tour started and others in the can and ready to be recorded. The common themes of those new songs made it so that Young decided to put them all together in an LP, to be titled Mediterranean. Those nine songs were its' prime contenders, and the album would be recorded on an island (it seems that Neil wanted to record it in Ibiza, Italy), and produced by Elliot Mazer. Of course, as we all know the rather volatile nature of Mr. Bernard Shakey, "technical problems prevented such sessions from ever happening. By the first few days of October 1974, he was already back home, and by November, was already recording a wholly different batch of songs, which obviously went on to become Homegrown. These new songs abandoned the slightly more positive water-themed aspects of the Mediterranean material in favor of diving face-first into his separation, with some of the most personal writing of his career. When he didn't release Homegrown either, it became a much more famous Lost Album than its immediate predecessor, which besides a passing mention in Johnny Rogan's Sixty to Zero book, is still pretty much unknown. But what if Neil Young had released Mediterranean?

This is an update to my reconstruction of the unreleased Mediterranean album, from the middle of the pandemic in November 2020. This time, we will try to create the most faithful version of the album we possibly can, no matter the overlap with Homegrown or any other issues it could present to us. That way, we are able to present as closely as possible Neil's state of mind during his ill-fated trip to Europe following the end of CSNY's 1974 tour. The songs we know to be a part of the Mediterranean or water album concept album are "Star of Bethlehem", "Mediterranean", "Vacancy", "Daughters", "Love/Art Blues", "Hawaiian Sunrise", "Frozen Man", "Deep Forbidden Lake" and "Through My Sails", will make for the core of the album, which will feature at least a couple of other songs as well. Neil has issued nine-song (or less!) albums before, so that would be fine. However, the real issue is that together, those nine songs amount to a paltry 28 minutes, pretty far from your average 1970s NY album. These new additions need to have some kind of connection to the album's concept or songs themselves, and they must fit in well period-wise and musically with the main nine in order to create a cohesive whole. Also, nothing written after September 1974 will be considered, as that's the main cut-off date to when Young abandoned the album's concept, making our selection period from May 1974 to September 1974. Four months sound like very little time, but considering the creative streak he was on during this part of his career, we'll have more than enough songs to consider. Here's what the album looks like:

Star of Bethlehem (Archives Vol. II)

Mediterranean (Archives Vol. II)

Vacancy (Archives Vol. II)

Daughters (Archives Vol. II)

Barefoot Floors (NYA Outtake)

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Love/Art Blues (Archives Vol. II)

Hawaiian Sunrise (Archives Vol. II)

Frozen Man (Archives Vol. II)

Deep Forbidden Lake (Archives Vol. II)

Bad News Comes to Town (Archives Vol. II)

Through My Sails (Archives Vol. II)

Download link:
Neil Young - Mediterranean (1974)

Neil performing with CSNY at Wembley Stadium, September 14th, 1974.

When looking through the May to September 1974 period for inclusion-worthy songs, I decided on including "Bad News Comes to Town" and "Barefoot Floors" as our two new additions. Bottom Line debuts "Long May You Run" and "Pushed it Over the End" aren't considered as there aren't any period-accurate studio versions of both available to us. That's a shame, as "Pushed it Over the End", with its mentions of ocean floors and whatnot, would actually fit in pretty well within the water concept of the album. "Pardon My Heart", "Homefires", and "The Old Homestead" are other songs from the June 1974 solo sessions that were considered, but that were excluded since they didn't fit the concept of the album too well and would sound shoehorned. Included instead of all of those, the gorgeous "Barefoot Floors" is finally given a home, as it is a very similar song to "Hawaiian Sunrise" in its themes of maternity and raising a child, fitting in like a glove concept-wise and sonically. Also included is "Bad News Comes to Town", which thanks to the photos folder of the Neil Young Archives we know to have been written in the same manuscript of the original "Star of Bethlehem" lyrics, the two of them sharing the same piece of paper. That means it can be included as well, being from the same timeframe as the Mediterranean concept, and I personally find it to be a great fit both in sound and theme. We have two additions that don't mess with the concept too much, and are good enough songs to enhance what already was an impressive collection of songs, all while managing to give a great unreleased song an album. Not bad!

Our album begins with the closest the nine-song list has to a strong album opener, "Star of Bethlehem". Since a studio version of it with the "The answer is no one in this room" bridge, as it was performed in the CSNY 1974 Tour, doesn't exist, we will have to settle for the regular studio version, as I believe the former is the way it would be featured in this album. Ironically enough, the title track "Mediterranean" was only recorded in the studio two years after the project was shelved, but its importance to the album's concept and being part of the original nine-song list means it stays on the album regardless, slotted in as track two on side one. Taking a cue from Homegrown, "Vacancy" is next, featured in its acoustic version from November 1974, slotting in much better as the solo, paranoid song it began as rather than the aggressive, electric version it would become further on up the road. "Daughters" is its regular studio version in the lack of a solo acoustic take, and "Barefoot Floors" is the gorgeous solo outtake released as an NYA exclusive a while back. "Love/Art Blues" is also featured in a late 1974 version, the middle ground between the solo version from June 1974 and the highly inebriated version from the following January, serving as a good opener for side two. "Hawaiian Sunrise" is the June 1974 take with the outro chatter edited out, and "Frozen Man", "Deep Forbidden Lake" and "Bad News Comes to Town" are their regular studio versions. Finally, we end on a similar note to Zuma, with the alternate version of "Through My Sails", as found on the Archives box set.

A 35-minute album with roughly similar sides, Mediterranean is a nearly full-on acoustic album with very little in the way of band tracks, a departure from the more diverse albums Neil would put out at the time, and maybe even a predecessor to Hitchhiker in scope and general mood. Eleven songs is an odd number, but it surely works for our purposes. And hey, After the Gold Rush is a short eleven-song album too, so we're in good company in that department. There really aren't any potential singles to be found on the album, with maybe "Star of Bethlehem" coming closest. We're firmly in Ditch territory, this is an uncompromising, uncommercial album concerned with his failing relationship, fatherhood, and the pressures of fame. When sequencing this, I took some cues from the albums some of these songs were actually released on, such as "Vacancy" in the middle of the side or "Through My Sails" as the closer, but for the rest of them, I simply worked out where they fit best and put them there. As an album, it fits in pretty comfortably within Neil's 70s discography, being as good and consistent as something like the original Homegrown, all while being different enough to stand up on its own. The album cover is my creation, a picture of him with his vintage Rolls Royce in Amsterdam, in September 1974 during the trip that inspired the Mediterranean concept itself, with some nice typography added on top. The 1970s saw the height of Neil Young's talent and some of the most complicated times he'd ever faced, with the combination of those two quite evident here, in his self-imposed holiday from fame.

Sources:

- Neil Young - Archives Vol. II (1972-1976)

- The Lost Pair: Mediterranean & Homegrown