Neil Young has announced the release of his once “lost” album from 1982, Johnny’s Island.
The record, initially dubbed Island in the Sun, was recorded alongside the team that worked with Young on his 12th studio album, 1982’s Trans. It was recorded at the Commercial Recorders studio in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1982.
“‘Johnny’s Island’ a complete album now being prepared for release at NYA, includes a majority of unreleased tracks including ‘Big Pearl,’ ‘Island In The Sun,’ and ‘Love Hotel,’ plus others you may have heard before,” Neil Young detailed on his archives website. “It’s a beautiful record coming to you soon.”
A number of tracks penned for Johnny’s Island were ultimately released on Trans, including ‘Like An Inca,’ ‘Hold On To Your Love,’ and ‘Little Thing Called Love.’ Though most of the album consists of unreleased material.
Check out ‘Little Thing Called Love’ by Neil Young:
“It was a tropical thing all about sailing, ancient civilisations, islands and water,” Neil Young said of the record in a 1995 interview via Stereogum.
The past year has seen Neil Young undertake a thorough dig though the lost material in his archives. On January 16th, Young announced a brand new live album and concert film, Way Down In The Rust Bucket.
The footage was drawn from a 1990 show he played with Crazy Horse in Santa Cruz, California shortly after the release of his 18th studio album Ragged Glory.
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2020 also saw the release of his long-lost and yearned for album, Homegrown. The album was recorded across 1974 and 1975, but was shelved as Young deemed it too “personal.”
Thankfully, he had a change of heart. “I apologize. This album Homegrown should have been there for you a couple of years after Harvest,” Young admitted in a statement at the time. “It’s the sad side of a love affair. The damage done. The heartache. I just couldn’t listen to it. I wanted to move on. So I kept it to myself, hidden away in the vault, on the shelf, in the back of my mind… but I should have shared it. It’s actually beautiful. That’s why I made it in the first place. Sometimes life hurts. You know what I mean. This is the one that got away.”
