Neil Young was always critical of big reissues of original albums, sticking to keep the demos and unissued tracks as separate releases. For the 50th anniversary reissue of After The Gold Rush (an all-time rock classic and one of the albums considered as a progenitor of what is now dubbed as Americana music) he almost stuck to his concept. Almost, because the original album will include two versions of “Wonderin’’ one of his B-sides. The release is slated for later in 2020.
Since the original album was already remastered in 2009, besides the inclusion of the single, the anniversary reissue of After The Gold Rush will concentrate more on what some have dubbed as “commemorative packaging.”
Young’s announcement says that “the deluxe vinyl box set edition comes with special artwork, a litho print of its cover, and a 7-inch picture sleeve of both versions of ‘Wonderin.’ The first was recorded in 1970 and originally released in The Archives Vol. 1: 1963-1972, while the other is a previously-unreleased iteration that was recorded in 1969. There’s a CD version of this reissue, too, featuring those two ‘Wonderin’ tracks and the artwork.”
There are different release dates for the CD/digital and vinyl reissues. The former will be released on December 11, 2020, while the latter on March 19, 2021. Part of the reason for this might lay in the fact that Young is a staunch supporter of high-quality sound for all of his releases.
