Neil Young has confirmed details of his long-awaited Archives boxsets. The 10-disc set comes in CD, DVD and Blu-ray versions - with the latter retailing for a massive $299.
Neil Young Archives Volume 1 begins in 1963 with Aurora, the first song Young ever recorded. It was released by his then band The Squires, their only release.
"This is not a boxset, it is a biography," Young's business partner Elliot Roberts said at the SXSW music conference.
"It is his life. You get a look into an artist that you have never seen before."
"This is not a boxset, it is a biography"
The sets feature a wealth of unreleased material, including video footage of the recording of Young's album Harvest and and even Young's private letters to his parents when they were getting a divorce in the 1960s.
30 hours of material on Volume 1
Young has been documenting his life since 1968, and with two Volumes to follow covering subsequent years, Archives might just be the most ambitious 'music' product ever released. Young has been working on the project for 20 years, and Volume 1 lasts for 30 hours.
Archives will be released as a 10 disc Blu-Ray box, a 10 DVD set and an 8 CD/2DVD audio set featuring the unreleased movie Journey Through The Past.
The Blu-ray will retail for $299, the DVD for $199 and the CD box $99. Release date is 2 June 2009.
Rocking, undoubtedly. But not very much in the free world...
Here's a clip:
