"Give To The Wind" Artwork

A reader of Thrasher's Wheat who goes by the handle Cosmo tipped us off to an interesting item on eBay. It appears to be genuine artwork for Neil Young's "GIVE TO THE WIND" album, which eventually became Comes A Time.

Thrasher doesn't normally plug eBay stuff, but this has some intriguing background info. From the bid item:

"In 1978 Neil Young released the seminal LP: 'Comes a Time'.For a while prior to its release this album was known as 'Give to the wind'.

The story behind this LP, title & running order changes is one of Neil Young legend.

It is believed the album was finished by December 1977, however nothing was heard until test pressings of the 'Give to the Wind' LP were distributed to Warner Bros executives in March 78. The record was greeted enthusiastically by everyone except Neil, who identified an audio flaw (that no one else could hear!)

A second test pressing of 'Give to the Wind' was subsequently issued - some with normal stock copy labels (as opposed to plain white with a photocpy A4 sheet).

Soon after another batch of test pressings were issued with the name changed to 'Comes a time'. The story of this records release doesn't end there at all, it goes on to include Neil putting a .22 caliber bullet through each box of the initial pressing & more test pressings & a change in running order - but this is another story for another day.

The point is that 'Give to the Wind' was never issued in its original form. Some test pressings have shown up & some with stock copy labels.

However what is not largely known is that at some point Warner Bros artwork dept prepared a provisional cover design for this LP which was never to be released."

This would have been another cover with a bird.

More on the album "Comes A Time".

Thanks for the tip Cosmo!