Between 1975 and 1977, Young and producer David Briggs periodically conducted recording sessions at Indigo Ranch on nights of the full moon. These sessions took place during a particularly productive period for Young and yielded such songs as "
Will to Love" and "Stringman". Briggs said of the time, "He'd turn to me and go, 'Guess I'll turn on the tap'—and then out came '
Powderfinger,' '
Pocahontas,' '
Out of the Blue,' 'Ride My Llama.' Two days, a day. I'm not talkin' about sittin' down with a pen and paper, I'm talkin' about pickin' up a guitar, sittin' there and lookin' me in the face and in twenty minutes—'Pocahontas.'" The songs on the album were recorded in a single night. In his memoir
Special Deluxe, Young described the session, "It was a complete piece, although I was pretty stony on it, and you can hear it in my performances... I laid down all the songs in a row, pausing only for weed, beer, or coke. Briggs was in the control room, mixing live on his favorite console." Many of the songs would appear on future Young albums: "Pocahontas" is the same take used on
Rust Never Sleeps sans overdubs; "Captain Kennedy" remains virtually unchanged from
Hawks & Doves; "Campaigner" is presented in its unedited length with an additional verse as it appeared on the test pressings and the first German pressing of
Decade but is otherwise unchanged; whereas the others appeared on ''
American Stars 'n Bars, Comes a Time, Rust Never Sleeps
, and Le Noise, albeit from different sessions and performances. Hitchhiker'' also contains a pair of never-before-released songs: "Hawaii" and "Give Me Strength;" the latter has occasionally been performed live. In an interview with
KOTO FM (which was also posted to his public Facebook page), Young stated that the session was intended to be released as an album not long after it was recorded, but
Reprise executives were unimpressed. The material was considered to be no more than a collection of demos not fit for release, and the label suggested that Young rerecord the songs with a backing band. ==Critical reception==