Neil Young Drops Previously Unreleased ‘Zuma’-Era Version of ‘Powderfinger’

Ahead of the release of his massive, long-awaited Archives Volume 2: 1972-1976, Neil Young has dropped an unreleased version of “Powderfinger.”

Available on Young’s Archives website, the track clocks in at seven minutes. Of the 10-disc box set, it appears on the disc Dune, recorded in 1975. Young enlisted Crazy Horse for Zuma that year, with Frank “Poncho” Sampedro joining the band after the death of guitarist Danny Whitten three years earlier.

“Powderfinger” wasn’t officially released until 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps; an acoustic version later appeared on 2017’s Hitchhiker, an archival release from 1976. Dune also contains unreleased versions of “Ride my Llama,” “Too Far Gone,” “Pocahontas,” “No One Seems to Know,” and others.

“Powderfinger” is the third track Young has released ahead of Archives Volume 2. He recently dropped 1972’s “Come And Say You Will” — recorded with his band the Stray Gators shortly after Harvest — and “Homefires.“

Archives Volume 2, out November 20th, is already sold out, but Young plans on releasing more versions of it next year. “Reprise Records, my record company for about 50 years, underestimated the demand for Archives Volume 2,” Young wrote on his website. “We were all surprised. It is a beautiful package that I am proud to have made for you. I do feel badly that we did not deliver it to many who were waiting so long for it.”

In addition to Archives Volume 2, Young will release Return to Greendale on November 6th and a 50th-anniversary edition of After the Gold Rush on vinyl in March 2021. Other archival releases in the works include Way Down in the Rust Bucket, Carnegie Hall 1970,  Road of Plenty, and Noise and Flowers.