In the Wings gathers unreleased Neil Young recordings from 1976–1978, preserving skeletal arrangements and tape artifacts from his Comes a Time sessions. These unfinished pieces—featuring Ben Keith's pedal steel and Karl T. Himmel's behind-the-beat drumming—reveal Young's songwriting process unvarnished. Rather than definitive versions, they offer alternative perspectives on familiar material. Essential for devoted fans; revelatory for those seeking Young's working methods stripped of studio gloss.
⚡ Quick Answer: In the Wings compiles unreleased Neil Young recordings from 1976-1978, capturing raw, unfinished moments with his Comes a Time-era band. This archival release prioritizes presence over polish, featuring skeletal arrangements and tape hiss that preserve Young's songwriting process. Rather than replacing finished versions, these sessions layer alternative perspectives, celebrating incompleteness as artistic truth.
There is a version of Neil Young that never quite made it to the stage — hushed, unfinished, caught between takes — and In the Wings is where he lives.
Released in 2012 as part of the monumental Neil Young Archives Vol. II box set, this collection draws from sessions scattered across the late 1970s: material recorded at Indigo Studios, Quadrafonic Sound in Nashville, and various California locations between roughly 1976 and 1978. These were the years after Tonight’s the Night, after the rawness had curdled into something more ambiguous. Young was writing constantly, releasing sporadically, and leaving enormous amounts of music in the vault.
What’s Here
The players drift in and out depending on the session — Ben Keith on pedal steel, Karl T. Himmel on drums, Tim Drummond on bass. That rhythm section, Young’s loose confederacy from the Comes a Time era, gives these recordings a particular warmth. Himmel especially has a way of sitting behind the beat that makes everything feel like it’s being played in a room you’re just now entering.
The production — such as it is — bears the fingerprints of Elliot Mazer, who worked with Young through much of this period and understood that the goal was presence, not polish.
Some of these tracks feel like they were abandoned mid-thought. One or two probably were.
The Tape Hiss Is the Point
Young has always been suspicious of completion. His archives project, overseen with characteristic obsessiveness, is in many ways a monument to the idea that the unfinished thing can carry more truth than the finished one. In the Wings sits comfortably in that philosophy.
What you hear here is a man working out ideas in real time. There are songs that would surface later, transformed. There are songs that never went anywhere. There is no hierarchy between them.
The version of “Pocahontas” floating through these sessions — skeletal, with Young’s guitar right up close in the mix — hits differently than the Rust Never Sleeps recording. Both are correct. That’s the strange generosity of the archives: they don’t replace, they layer.
Listening to this late at night, you stop caring about completeness entirely. You’re just glad someone kept the tape running.
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🎵 Key Takeaways
- 📼 In the Wings collects unreleased Neil Young sessions from 1976-1978, captured at Indigo Studios and various California locations with his Comes a Time-era band (Ben Keith, Karl T. Himmel, Tim Drummond).
- 🎚️ Elliot Mazer's production prioritizes presence over polish, leaving tape hiss and skeletal arrangements intact as documentation of Young's songwriting process rather than finished statements.
- 🔄 Alternative versions like the stripped-down 'Pocahontas' don't replace finished recordings—they layer additional perspectives, with some tracks abandoned mid-thought and others eventually appearing elsewhere in Young's catalog.
- ⏱️ Released in 2012 as part of Neil Young Archives Vol. II, this archival philosophy treats incompleteness as artistic truth, celebrating the unfinished as potentially more honest than the polished final product.
What years were these Neil Young sessions recorded and where?
In the Wings spans 1976-1978, drawn from sessions at Indigo Studios, Quadrafonic Sound in Nashville, and various California locations. This was Young's period between Tonight's the Night and his more commercial late-70s work, when he was writing constantly but releasing sporadically.
Who played on these In the Wings recordings?
The core players include Ben Keith on pedal steel, Karl T. Himmel on drums, and Tim Drummond on bass—Young's loose confederacy from the Comes a Time era. The lineup shifted depending on the session, but this rhythm section gives the collection its characteristic warmth.
How does In the Wings compare to the finished versions of these songs?
Many tracks differ significantly from their final releases—the 'Pocahontas' version here is skeletal and intimate compared to Rust Never Sleeps. Rather than replacing finished versions, these recordings layer alternative perspectives, with no hierarchy between abandoned ideas and songs that were eventually completed elsewhere.
Why does the tape hiss and rough production matter on this album?
Producer Elliot Mazer deliberately preserved imperfections as part of Young's archival philosophy: the tape hiss, skeletal arrangements, and presence of the room document Young working out ideas in real time. Young has always been skeptical of completion, treating the unfinished recording as potentially more truthful than the polished final product.
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