Before Neil made it as an singer songwriter, following the disbanding of the Squires he recorded some demos with his friend Comrie.
The Comrie Smith Tapes (1965)
Personnel:
Neil Young: guitar, harmonica, vocal
Comrie Smith: guitar
Produced by: Neil Young and Comrie Smith
Recorded at 26 Golfdale, Toronto, ON, 15 October 1965
Comrie Smith was a childhood friend of Neil’s. They used to walk to school together and hang out playing the music they loved – ranging from Bo Diddley, Gene Vincent and Link Wray, to The Everly Brothers, Fendermen and Roy Orbison.
In 1965, they made a tape together. A number of tracks from that tape were released on Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 – (1963-72). It seems that a few songs, ‘Betty Ann’, ‘Don’t Tell My Friends’ and ‘My Room Is Dark’, still remain unreleased. These are the ones that were released:
‘Hello Lonely Woman’ (Neil Young)
This is quite a jump lyrically, stylistically and musically. We’ve moved away from the pop songs of The Squires into a stompin’ blues with two synchronised acoustic guitars. It’s only a short space of time, but Neil sounds so much older.
The two strummed guitars set up a real twelve-bar bluesy beat. Neil’s voice is fuller and much more mature. He provides some great blues picking, and, towards the end, breaks into some great bluesy harmonica.
The teenage love of young romance with The Squires has been replaced by a much darker throb of sexual encounters with an older woman here. Neil sounds as if he is now familiar with her kind, too!
Neil Young 1963 to 1970: every album, every song: Goodwin, Opher: 9781789522983: Amazon.com: Books