This is a reasonably well-compiled bootleg, concentrating mostly on Neil's incredibly prolific period between 1974 and 1977 — when, as well as the albums he did release, he recorded two further albums Chrome Dreams and Homegrown, which we may see reconstructed when he finally releases his Archive set. (I've been waiting for that since it was first scheduled as 'Decade II' in 1987!)
In 1994 at the Neil Young Appreciation Society convention, I had a chance to buy the Rock and Roll Cowboy 4 CD set, but decided not to on the grounds of (a) cost and (b) the chances of it being made redundant by the official Archives. Fool!
Nevertheless, if you get this CD, and the Hard to Find collection, you'll have most of Neil's unreleased songs from the 1970s with only a couple of overlaps.
The tracks are from a variety of sources. I could probably figure out where some of them are from if I could be bothered. My bet is that Pardon my Heart is from the Bottom Line concert in 1974, and I know I've got the concert from which It Might Have Been is taken on cassette somewhere. Some of the versions are the best I've heard: both Traces and Stringman sound like studio recordings, and the latter is particularly good — better than the version on Unplugged or the 1976 Hammersmith concert.
Despite the thought that has gone into the bootleg, there remains one of the classic typos typical of bootlegs: Pushed It Over The End has become Rushed It Over The End, a mistake that Gracenote faithfully reproduces. Musicbrainz doesn't because I wrote the entry.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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