01 February 2021
Newsdesk
The 75-year-old music legend recorded the tracks at Honolulu's Commercial Recorders studio in Hawaii, during the same sessions for his 1982 LP 'Trans' .
The collection was previously called ‘Island In The Sun’ and some of the songs made at the time, such as ‘Like An Inca’, ‘Hold On To Your Love’, and ‘Little Thing Called Love’, ended up on 'Trans'.
The record will now be released in all its glory via the Neil Young Archives “soon”.
Neil announced on his website for the project: "'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. It’s a beautiful record coming to you soon.”
In December, Neil made his music archive free to listen to on his website for the rest of 2020.
The folk icon gave his fans the gift of his entire career's work online for Christmas to provide some comfort listening amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said at the time: “We are doing well here and feeling good. We hope you are well, too.
“If you are locked down, we are here for you with hours of listening and cruising around through the years in movies. We want you to enjoy what we have to share at NYA … It’s my music and our lives. Peace.”
Among the releases was the ‘Archives Volume II: 1972–1976’ boxset and his 'Fireside Sessions', which included a cover of Bob Dylan‘s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’'.
Meanwhile, Neil recently sold 50 per cent of his music catalogue said to be worth an estimated $150 million (£110 million) to the Hipgnosis Songs Fund.
Half of Neil's music collection amounts to 1,180 songs
