Neil Young to Release ‘Lost’ 1977 Album ‘Oceanside Countryside’

Neil Young is rolling out another gem from the vault. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame icon announced on Friday (Jan. 3) that one of his great “lost” albums, Oceanside Countryside, will be released on February 14 through Reprise Records.

“This analog original album was recorded in 1977 and unreleased. These songs are the original mixes done at the time of the recordings in the order I planned for the album,” Young said in a statement about the latest release in his Analog Original Series (AOS). The album was originally recorded from May-December 1977, just before the release of his 1978 folk/country album Comes a Time, which featured such beloved songs as the title track, “Lotta Love,” “Human Highway,” “Field of Opportunity” and “Four Strong Winds.”

“I sang the vocals and played the instruments on Oceanside in Florida at Triad studios and Malibu at Indigo studio,” Young aded. “I sang the vocals and recorded with my great band of friends, Ben Keith [steel guitar], Joe Osborn [bass], Karl T. Himmel [drums], and Rufus Thibodeaux [fiddle] at Crazy Mama’s in Nashville on Countryside. I hope you enjoy this treasure of an Analog Original recording, recorded by Tim Mulligan, as much as I do. Listening to it now, I think I should have put it out back then.”

All the songs on Oceanside are performed solo by Young, with a group of friends joining him on Countryside, including Keith, Thibodeaux, Himmel and Osborne, with Tim Drummond on bass for “The Old Homestead,” which also features The Band’s Levon Helm on drums.

In addition to featuring many of the same musicians as Comes a Time, Oceanside Countryside also has a trio of songs (“Goin’ Back,” “Human Highway” and “Field of Opportunity”) that also appear on that album. The vinyl version of Oceanside will include tracks on the CD of the same name from Young’s Archives Vol. III release. Young noted that the tracklist for the upcoming album — which was recorded on tape — reflects how he originally planned to release the LP, which will be available in analog and on vinyl for the first time ever with the original mixes done at the time of the recording.

Though a number of the songs on Oceanside originally appeared on Archives Vol. III, the release noted that the versions are “not always the same.” Specifically, the versions of “Lost in Space,” “Captain Kennedy” and “The Old Homestead” on the analog original vinyl release date from the Hawks & Doves album from 1980. In addition, “Field of Opportunity” and “Dance Dance Dance” are the original versions that have backing vocals from Young instead of Nicolette Larson, whose vocals appeared on Archives Vol. III.

Check out the track listing for Oceanside Countryside below.

Side one: Oceanside

“Sail Away”

“Lost in Space”

“Captain Kennedy”

“Goin’ Back”

“Human Highway”

Side two: Countryside

“Field of Opportunity”

“Dance Dance Dance”

“The Old Homestead”

“It Might Have Been”

“Pocahontas”