Official Bootleg Series

Neil Young is taking a page from the Bob Dylan playbook by creating his own version of the "Bootleg Series". He has yet to roll out exact details, but the plan is to take famous concert bootlegs, track down the actual master recordings and release them himself via his website.

“We have ripped off all of the original art from the bootlegs”, he wrote on the Neil Young Archives. “No expense will be spared. The only difference will be the radically better sound from our masters”.

1st up is a solo acoustic show taped February 1st, 1971 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. The bootleg label Rubber Dubber, in flagrant violation of US copyright law, released it on vinyl under the name "I’m So Happy That Y’All Came Down" back in the 70's. Young plans on bootlegging the bootleggers by using artwork from the original release. Frank Zappa did something very similar with his "Beat The Boots!" series in the early 90's.

“We are going full bore with our series right now, so write letters in to me with your favorite bootlegs and we will find them and use the best audio we can locate, either from the NYA vaults or somewhere else”, he wrote. “Watch for this coming soon. We are building it starting today”.