neil young

oh shit decade

and #s of boots. sorry gang. read my lips, vote dead man

After The Gold Rush.

but On The Beach too. the title song makes me cry.

I voted Time Fades Away

this was already done.
Best of Neil Young studio records

This one has live albums.

Some of them, anyway. (Unplugged, Year of the Horse, Road Rock vol. 1)

Oh. The studio albums poll had the live albums too. Nevermind then.

I voted Ragged Glory because it needs more love and less rockism. That's a srsly good record, yo.

First person to vote "Old Ways" gets a dollar from me.

I voted for "Old Ways" just for the cash. You want my paypal address?

After The Gold Rush = the good songs are so good they make you forget about the bad ones

On The Beach = pretty much all good

I mean "When You Dance" is kind of endearing as a cornily sincere, b-level hippie artifact, but Cripple Creek Ferry is a real turd of a song, and Birds isn't great either.

I got to get away from this day to day running around

TRANS FTW!

Arc/Weld. The worst/best live albums ever.

Dead Man is actually really really good.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Tonight's The Night

closely followed by Goldrush and On The Beach

TTN is definitely my favourite - it's so fucked, so moving. Tender, ragged and rocking in equal measure.

Baby Mellow My Mind aches so hard - the swell of pedal steel, touch of lonesome barroom piano, and Neil's voice actually breaking up.

Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown rocks. It sounds so triumphant in its hedonism yet the undercurrent is utterly bleak.

Other favourites - Everybody Knows, Rust, Zuma, Time Fades Away, Sleeps With Angels, Live Rust. Hell, there hardly any poor ones. I've not heard the infamous Landing On Water, but Are You Passionate was bloody awful. Trans is ace though.

Ragged Glory is great fun, one of his most satisfying rock records, but I wouldn't quite put it in the top rung of Neil albums.

Harvest - handful of great songs and some dreary stuff too. Overall, it's too slick, too polite. I like Neil a little scuffed around the edges.

Rust Never Sleeps has Powderfinger, for the win.

Anyone else notice how Apatow kept dropping the cover of Landing On Water all over Knocked Up. What's the deal with that? Consensus aropund these parts on that album?

Rust Never Sleeps for "Powderfinger", but also because of the individually peculiar time and place in which I first loved this record. Also, it's an incredibly balanced album in so many ways I can't be bothered to expand on here.

Consensus aropund these parts on that album?

I noticed the curious product placement too, Tal. There's an interesting thread here devoted to Landing on Water.

no "none of the above"????

just snuck in a vote for tonight's the night. right in the nick of time.

emotion of the less contained and calculated variety

me for tonights the night, too. its so close though - there are better songs on zuma and everybody knows, and almost enough to give the nod to one of them, but TTN takes it

Yeah, Tonight's The Night would be my second or third and very close.

Rust Never Sleeps by a hair, for side one and Powderfinger alone (though nearly sunk by Welfare Mothers).

Oh c'mon, Welfare Mothers is great! My favorite Neil Young throwaway.

DIVORCEE

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

a 3-way tie this time then.

Fair result.

Wait. Zuma should've been much higher, though.

c'est vrai

Someone voted for Everybody's Rockin' again.

One vote for "Zuma"! No way!! This poll is corrupt!!!

"On the Beach" - there's an ILM album if ever there was one

Sleeps With Angels is way too high. And Freedom is way too low.

The fact that Zuma ranked below Trans completely invalidates this poll.

So, basically, I'm the only person who voted for "Zuma"? Don't believe it.

I wasn't around when CSN(and sometimes Y) were at their peak, so apologies for the following somewhat naive question:

How much of Neil Young's popularity in the 70s can be attributed to his association with CSN? The thought never really occurred to me until I was checking out CSN(Y)'s Allmusic entry today, which says "it was the only American-based band to approach the overall societal impact of the Beatles".

Personally, I like Neil Young exponentially more than CSN(Y), so my gut feeling is that the majority of Neil Young's fans were there on account of his own talent. But was there a certain contingency of fans who cheered loudest for "Ohio" and "Helpless", contemplating to themselves at the Live Rust concerts that it would be better if CSN were up on stage too? Or was it more like "Why the hell does Neil Young ever play with them? They butchered 'Helpless'..."? Just wondering what the prevalent view was back in the day.

When CSN and sometimes Y reunited for a predictably horrible album in 1988, Neil begged off the obligatory tour, saying, "I dunno man, those guys need some serious practice."

And that Allmusic statement strikes me as comically absurd.

Yeah, I admit it raised my eyebrow as well, but then I go the ILM search function, and the second thing I read on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young C/D S/D thread is "i'm more interested in the fact that CSN(Y) (or whatever) were actually REALLY POPULAR and BIG -- as in springsteen in '85/outkast or britney spears BIG. that's such a radical sea-change in mass public musical taste that deserves some comment, no?"

On The Beach is very good, but would have voted Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, in fact i shall play it now

hi alex, how is the weather in denver? in frankfurt it has been raining most of the day. i would have voted <i>after the goldrush</i>, i think. but <i>on the beach</i> is a decent winner, too.

i will never learn the ilm html tags...

weird

it was the only American-based band to approach the overall societal impact of the Beatles

In their time their American album sales were HUGE. Their cultural cachet was such that their public greeted "Ohio" as a major statement. I'm wary of statements like AllMusic's, but the Shakey bio also makes the same suggestion.

CSNY were huge because the Byrds, the Hollies, and the Buffalo Springfield had all been huge before.

Yes, that makes sense.

There was some wording to the effect that broadcasting too much (or any?) of the set dilutes the live experience.

neil young in being cantankerous shocker

good. hopefully he can actually tour here instead.

The BBC still does a better job of fulfilling its Reithian objectives by broadcasting Glasto than by refraining from doing so. Everyone knows that it is no substitute for being there, but for a large section of the populace you'd have to make it your main holiday for the year to afford to go once you take travel, camping equipment etc into account. I'd far rather watch Glasto on the Beeb than on someone's shonky YouTube footage from their phone.

I know Neil Young is Canadian but I cast doubt on familiar he is with the BBC's Reithian objectives.

Probably not for this thread but the BBC's Glastonbury coverage for the last 28 years has always been crap, shiny fucking Jo Whiley acoustic tent bollocks and only the most Radio 2 stuff from the pyramid stage. Channel 4 did an infinitely better job in 94/95.

Dunno how recently you've seen it, but it's changed a lot in the last ten years. Anyone who has the free iPlayer can see literally every single set from the 5 main stages in full, on there and there's 24 hour streaming, non stop radio, catch-ups galore etc

Channel 4 pretty much just showed a highlights package which was maybe two-or-three hours of scattered footage in 30 minute chunks for each of the three nights.

Yes, watch the iPlayer and you avoid the garbage BBC presenters.

Seen it recently yes, but I want it curated and stuff from other stages, also C4 did a lot of stuff out there in the festival grounds which captured the non-celeb experience.

of course it doesn't help that I have no interest in 90% of the stuff on the pyramid stage

“It’s macaroni and cheese from now on” is right up there with “Eat a peach”

It's sorted, Neil is back on the bill!

lol

“It’s macaroni and cheese from now on” is right up there with “Eat a peach”

Hmm. Wonder why it didn’t mask properly. That’s the Buffalo Springfield thread.

i'm all for hearing newly unearthed demos, alternate recordings, etc., but sometimes it seems neil's interest these days is less in surfacing previously unreleased songs and albums and more in surfacing previously unused tracklists. do i really need a fourth late '70s studio album that features "pocahontas" (which, for what it's worth, may be my favorite neil song)?

https://www.stereogum.com/2291966/neil-young-releasing-another-lost-70s-album-oceanside-countryside/news/

but are they different versions?

here's the official word if you can untangle it:

Please note that while the songs on Oceanside Countryside appear on Archives Vol. III, the versions are not always the same and the track list is the running order for the original Oceanside Countryside album. On this analog original vinyl release, the versions of “Lost in Space,” “Captain Kennedy” and “The Old Homestead” are from Hawks & Doves in 1980. “Sail Away”, “Goin’ Back”, “Human Highway”, “It Might Have Been”, and “Pocahontas” are the same versions as on Archives Vol. III in digital. “Field of Opportunity” and “Dance Dance Dance” are original versions that have Young on backing vocals instead of Nicolette Larson as they appeared on Archives Vol. III.

All the songs on the Oceanside are performed solo by Neil Young. On Countryside Young is joined by a band of his friends: Ben Keith (Steel Guitar), Rufus Thibodeaux (fiddle), Karl T. Himmel (drums), Joe Osborne (bass). On “The Old Homestead” Tim Drummond plays bass and Levon Helm plays drums. “Pocahontas” is Young solo.

the same versions as on Archives Vol. III in digital

lol that's exactly how i categorize everything in my neil collection: by how it compares to the version on archives iii in digital :)

thanks for the tangly info, tyler!

ok yeah that's pretty annoying

i can't tell if this comment on that stereogum article is facetious

I have to commend Neil for releasing this glut of albums before he eventually passes on. This is the proper way to do it - protect your legacy, or end up like the Prince and Bowie estates and have a hodgepodge of releases, in no discernable order.

he is certainly protecting his legacy of being an inscrutable and maddening contrarian, tbf

i mean, i'd rather he put these out during his lifetime than being handled by his estate. it just wouldn't feel true to the spirit of Neil!

Isn't "Hodgepodge" one of his albums anyway?

Not sure why that comment is picking on the Bowie estate which has been putting things out in a consistent, orderly way.

The Prince situation is a hot mess though.

New Song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIKxvzY8sJs

At least Neil is still with us. Good stuff.

Hahah Neil and crew wrote this one in ten minutes, right?

God, that kicks ass.

That brief, incandescent guitar solo in the middle of it, it's so blithely avant, so scoured clean of cliche, so plugged-in and alive. Classic Neil.

Produced by Rick Rubin?

Lou Adler!

lol I love the idea of him and Neil in a room together, each taking turns turning everything up so that they can hear it.

Lou is a good pick becuz imagine he's a sleazy vibe guy, "baby that was beautiful" and not a faux-zen shaman like Rubin, let Neil worry about the space-y guy he needs an earthier, Briggs type worrying about scoring coke before the next take

cool song

hell yeah

he's a sleazy vibe guy

The producer sat back
He said, What we have got here
Is a perfect track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrBQQSEW2Fs

i had no idea there was a cockroach-roomba touring era of NY and crazy horse!

Pursuant to the “all members of this band are dead” thread, it is amazing/wonderful that (apart from founding guitarist Danny Whitten who died at age 29) the main players in Crazy Horse are in their 9th decade and still living. Long life and good health to you, Crazy Horse!

All Hail!

The tour cancellation last summer does not leave me much hope we will ever see them out again ...

i spoke with billy talbot pretty soon after that tour got cut short — he didn't want to go into specifics, but he didn't seem to think that was the end of crazy horse. of course, he's been through so many switch-ups with Neil over the years that he necessarily has a pretty zen attitude about it all. a big tour might not be in the cards for the band again, but I wouldn't be shocked if they did a more small scale residency thing.

Illness was cited, but it may have just been Neil bullshit. His green/eco demands alone are reportedly pretty onerous.

I know someone that interviewed Neil once. He flew out to San Fran and when he got there was told Neil had hurt his back and couldn't do the interview. When they connected some days/weeks later, he asked Neil how his back was feeling, and Neil laughed and said "oh, is that what they told you?"

The more time passes, the more I think NY is one of the top 5 biggest assholes in rock -- never giving of himself to anyone, always taking. Still love a lot of his work, of course.

That reminds me of the time Greg Kot forced Neil Young to give him an interview. He talked about it many years ago on the radio, but it was right after Dylan's big MSG birthday celebration (where Sinéad O'Connor faced a hostile audience) and for whatever reason Neil backed out of a promised interview. At the last minute, Kot angrily went over to his hotel and found I believe Elliot Roberts's room (probably him because it was Neil's management, not Neil himself). When Roberts answered the door, he was wearing just a leather jacket and I'm guessing boxers but nothing else. Kot just blocked that out and said "I can't go back to my paper without an interview. That's why they sent me here." So Roberts acquiesced and Kot rode with Neil to the airport and did the interview in the back seat. Actually worked out for the best because Neil was able to comment on O'Connor and I think he said staying on stage and confronting the audience/taking her lumps was the right thing to do, possibly using Dylan's 1966 tour experience as an example.

How magnanimous.

xpost Greg was the one that told me about the back injury, might have been the same interview!

Neil at the Pasadena convention center a few days ago, where people forced out of their homes by the Eaton fire were staying. Probably the smallest (and most lackadaisical) crowd he's performed in front of for quite a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7EwIGtIimU

Neil dicked around a friend who’d been flown out from the UK to photograph him for a magazine. In the end my friend, a legendary snapper and huge Neil fan, begged him for just one frame, which Neil gave him just before he walked onstage. The photo is amazing.