Neil Young Drops Previously Unreleased 1978 Live Cut of ‘Thrasher’

Days away from the release of Archives Vol. III, Neil Young has shared an unreleased live version of “Thrasher,” exclusively with Rolling Stone.

The track was cut during the first of two shows at the Boarding House in San Francisco on May 27, 1978; Young performed 10 shows across five nights there from May 24 through the 28. Unlike the official version off Rust Never Sleeps, the song isn’t kicked off by a sharp harmonica. Instead, we get a simple strum of Young’s acoustic just before he wades into the first verse: “They were hiding behind hay bales/They were planting in the full moon/They had given all they had for something new.”

“Thrasher” is one of Young’s greatest songs, a highlight from Rust Never Sleeps that documents Young grappling with the incessant need to get back on the road. In a later verse, he famously takes a shot at his CSNY bandmates: “So I got bored and left them there/They were just dead weight to me/Better down the road without that load.”

“Parts of it were. Just dead weight,” he said in a 1985 interview with Bill Flanagan. “Well, at that point, I felt like it was kind of dead weight for me. Not for them. For me. I could go somewhere, and they couldn’t go there. I wasn’t going to pull them along, they were doing fine without me. It might have come off a little more harsh than I meant it, but once I write, I can’t say, ‘Oh, I’m going to hurt someone’s feelings.’ Poetically and on feeling, it made good sense to me, and it came right out. I think I’d be doing a disservice to change it based on what I think a reaction would be. I try not to do that.”

“Thrasher” follows “Bright Sunny Day,” a previously unreleased track off the 10th disc Sedan Delivery (1978): Neil Young with Crazy Horse. “Bright Sunny Day” is one of the 15 tracks unreleased in any capacity until Archives III. Overall, the anthology boasts 28 hours of 198 tracks over 22 discs.

Next month, Young will perform at Farm Aid, which will take place this year at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he serves on the board. The appearance marks his return to the stage since canceling all concert dates due to an unspecific illness. Check out our tribute essay to 1974’s On the Beach, which turned 50 in July.