Released August 12, 1985 Artist Neil Young Label Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab | Length 36:43 Release date 12 August 1985 Genre Country music | |
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Recorded January 1983 - April 1985 Studio House Of David, Nashville; The Castle, Franklin TN; Pedernales Recording Studio, Spicewood, TX and live at The Opry, Austin TX Producer Neil Young, David Briggs, Ben Keith, Elliot Mazer Old Ways
(1985) Landing on Water
(1986) Similar Neil Young albums, Country music albums | ||
Old Ways is the fourteenth studio album by Canadian musician and singer-songwriter Neil Young, released on August 12, 1985 on Geffen Records.
Contents
Background
Young has referred to this album in interviews as Old Ways II, as he had originally planned to release a country album titled Old Ways in 1983. Young's record label, Geffen, objected to this, asking Young for a "rock 'n roll" album, which Young would give them in the form of Everybody's Rockin'.
After a lawsuit with Geffen ended in the courts ruling in favor of Young, he proceeded to complete the unfinished Old Ways by writing a few additional songs to fill it out. Old Ways I would have contained many still-unreleased songs, one of which, "Depression Blues," appeared on Young's Geffen-era compilation Lucky Thirteen.
The title track and "Get Back to the Country" were released as singles with accompanying music videos, but like with his previous videos, MTV largely ignored them. The album was a near-total commercial and critical failure, and remains one of Young's smallest-selling albums to date. Despite the poor reception, he nonetheless toured Old Ways and played material from it live along with some of his old concert staples. Young received far more attention during this time for his reunion with David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash at Live Aid for the first performance of the quartet together in a decade.
Track listing
All tracks composed by Neil Young, except where indicated.
Recording personnel
Songs
1The Wayward Wind3:13
2Get Back to the Country2:51
3Are There Any More Real Cowboys?3:04