About 9 or 10 years ago I saw him play with Crazy Horse, and the first note he played blew my god damned mind to bits. It was (and remains) the hugest, warmest, and intensely all encompassing sound I have ever heard. There is no possible way I could ever explain it, and none of the many live recordings I've listened to even come close to capturing it. Additionally, I would pit the slow-motion, stretched out feedback finale notes they dropped at the end of each song against any Sunn 0)) gig in a contest of sublime amplifer worship. The shit was massive indeed, and over-joyed to hear he's still doing it. This is why the fellow remains relevant, or at least the only living purveyor of 'Neil Young's guitar sound' - which is something you must hear live, not on a live album, in your lifetime.
Search -
Buffalo Springfield - Mr. Soul, Expecting to Fly, Broken Arrow, Nowadays Clancy...Neil Young - The Loner, Emporer Of Wyoming, The Old Laughing Lady - every beautiful note of-Everybody Knows This is NowhereAfter the Goldrush HarvestTonight's the Night On the BeachRust Never Sleeps (although I'm not as into this one as everyone else in the world)
Once you're in deep I'd recommend appreciating some of his weirder shit -
Trans - where Neil Young combines his own bad self, some synths he had his roadies steal from Rush, and Bruce Haack's futuristic prairie soul into an unparrelled mess of weird and wonderful.Freedom - his most linear 'story telling' with some harsh 80's bad vibes.
and the song 'Touch the Night' from Landing on Water.
Once you've read Shakey you can appreciate '...and the Shocking Pinks'
On Film - Rust Never Sleeps 'A Concert Fantasy'
Destroy -
Most of his shit in the last 15 or so years. It's really 'law of diminishing returns' at this point, but if you really dig there's a few quality songs.
― greypejooze (Ryanssssss), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 12:47 (seventeen years ago) link
i don't particularly care for harvest moon or zuma. even some of harvest is worthless.
― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 12:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 13:00 (seventeen years ago) link
Yes. I'm The Ocean is the best Neil Young song in probably 20 years. It's a towering achievement and should be searched. Also search Fallen Angel from the same record, which is I'm The Ocean's coda.
Other great, somewhat obscure Neil songs: Big Time and Music Arcade from Broken Arrow.
Don't Be Denied & Last Dance from Time Fades Away
― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 13:05 (seventeen years ago) link
also Yonder Stands the Sinner!!!
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 14:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 15:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 08:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― A Radio Picture (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 09:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 09:34 (seventeen years ago) link
I heard a live version of "Hello Cowgirl in the Sand" yesterday when I was shopping in an Italian gourmet food store, and I thought: this is really a depressing song, and no wonder I don't listen to Neil Young more, as good as he is. And I thought they really shouldn't be playing that song. I was tired and my allergies were bothering me, which was making me extremely emotionally hyper-sensitive. Let's all think about loss and disappointment and raw pain while we are trying to find something nice to carry home and eat.
― Rockist Scientist, Sunday, 1 July 2007 01:00 (sixteen years ago) link
I need someone to defend Landing on Water.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 1 July 2007 01:32 (sixteen years ago) link
I've heard a total of 5 Neil Young records, over and over: Everyone knows this is nowhere, After the Goldrush, Harvest, On the Beach, Zuma, and Trans.
Out of those, I would say Harvest and On the Beach are mindblowingly good. Zuma I've only had for a few weeks, but I love. I've listened to Cortez the Killer over and over, never gets old. Tonight's the Night, I feel it overrated, at least at this point of my life. Maybe I haven't been shitfaced enough. It seems like a record that's more interesting if you know the backstory of the artist.
― Z S, Thursday, 26 July 2007 05:06 (sixteen years ago) link
hmmm 'tonight's the night' is one headfuck of a phenomenon. somehow just so consistently good, despite the lurking threat that the whole thing's about to collapse any second under the weight of its own shaky, volatile foundations. sloppy, flippant at times, and infinitely better for it. then again, maybe it's just a fantastic set of songs, regardless of the delivery, level of tangible emotion, and drunkenness of it all!
― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 29 November 2007 14:33 (sixteen years ago) link
and i'm sorry, what the hell is 'a man needs a maid' about? sure it alludes to loneliness, but where does the maid thing factor in?
― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 29 November 2007 14:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Neil Young does a shitty job of keeping his house clean.
― da croupier, Thursday, 29 November 2007 14:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Is 'Man Needs a Maid' ridiculous?
― Stormy Davis, Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Live at Massey Hall is what you want. Relaxed, in great form, playing the best songs he ever wrote.
― ecuador_with_a_c, Thursday, 29 November 2007 16:34 (sixteen years ago) link
hahah ilm. a thread for every purpose! cheers, stormy
― Charlie Howard, Friday, 30 November 2007 02:26 (sixteen years ago) link
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v136/primrosehill/lolsobadatyoutube.jpg
― roxymuzak, Sunday, 30 December 2007 19:46 (sixteen years ago) link
they love music
― Sparkle Motion, Sunday, 30 December 2007 19:48 (sixteen years ago) link
I think Stars & Bars gets a bad rap. there's some crapola (like all of Neil's records) but on balance I would def say 'search'
― will, Sunday, 30 December 2007 20:33 (sixteen years ago) link
dumbfucks! AMERICA did "No Rain."
― da croupier, Sunday, 30 December 2007 21:17 (sixteen years ago) link
anybody who has the reservoir dogs soundtrack knows that.
― da croupier, Sunday, 30 December 2007 21:18 (sixteen years ago) link
Can anyone recommend a couple of artists that made/makes music that sounds similar to Cowgirl in the sand, Down by the River and Like a Hurricane?
Also, were there artists that before Neil Young made that kind of duelling guitar thing that's going in these songs? A few years back I thought Television were the first ones to do that!
― Lovelace, Saturday, 5 April 2008 21:04 (sixteen years ago) link
...
― Lovelace, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 16:10 (sixteen years ago) link
duelling guitar solos wasn't really common pre-late 60s
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link
You should check out Captain Beefheart's Mirror Man LP.
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 00:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Search mainly what he did up to and including "Harvest". Destroy his 80s output in particular, but also some of the stuff from 1995 onwards.
― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 01:35 (sixteen years ago) link
search: arboretum, black mountain, stephen malkmus, sun kil moon, songs:ohia, uncle tupelo
― kamerad, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 03:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Don't destroy re-act-or, coz it's the crankinest, and don't destroy Trans, if you are at all interested in music that sounds like nothing else you've ever heard. Don't destroy Living With War.
Do destroy Broken Arrow, do destroy Chrome Dreams II. Destroy Landing On Water
― SecondBassman, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 17:01 (sixteen years ago) link
x-post
The first Help Yourself LP
― QuantumNoise, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 18:30 (sixteen years ago) link
The entire alt.country scene to thread then.
― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 18:30 (sixteen years ago) link
uh, thin lizzy? or like, the grateful dead?
― ian, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 21:02 (sixteen years ago) link
The Dead didn't really have a duelling lead guitar thing like Whitten and Young. Garcia handled the vast majority of the leads, if not all of them.
Lizzy's a great call, especially the Gorham/Robertson duo. God were those guys good.
― Bill Magill, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 21:06 (sixteen years ago) link
eh, not really.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 21:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Duane and Dicky
― QuantumNoise, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 21:39 (sixteen years ago) link
some early floyd, too, like "fat old sun" off atom heart mother. at the end dave could pass for neil
― kamerad, Thursday, 10 April 2008 17:54 (sixteen years ago) link
oh, and dueling guitars -- one of the best early dual solos is at the end of "starship trooper"
― kamerad, Thursday, 10 April 2008 17:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Plus, any live recordings featuring both Stills and Young. In fact, after the Whitten/Young tandem, that's what I would search out. They were really awesome together.
― QuantumNoise, Thursday, 10 April 2008 18:19 (sixteen years ago) link
UNDER-APPRECIATED:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/Neil_Young_%28album%29.jpg
― kid mush, Saturday, 5 July 2008 03:47 (fifteen years ago) link
On The Beach deserves all the praise it gets. Young practically hemorrhages emotion on some of these songs, especially See The Sky About To Rain, which also has one of the loveliest, druggy-sounding, West Coast-ish melodies you'll hear.
― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 5 July 2008 05:46 (fifteen years ago) link
you're preaching to the choir friend.
i'm gonna listen to 'rust never sleeps' after this awesome faces album is done. the 'dead man' soundtrack is some of the best guitar work young has done for my money. i still haven't heard 'trans,' but i'd like to. 'chrome dreams II' was pretty great. i'm also in complete love with two bootlegs, 'lonely weekend' and 'chrome dreams' (thx ian and leo thread).
― strgn, Saturday, 5 July 2008 06:23 (fifteen years ago) link
so many good songs on rust never sleeps. where the eagle glides ascending there's an ancient river bending
― kamerad, Saturday, 5 July 2008 06:29 (fifteen years ago) link
yes!! i was ehh about the lyrics until it occurred to me that i was the problem. 12-string never sounded so good.
― strgn, Saturday, 5 July 2008 06:39 (fifteen years ago) link
and fuck me but as heavy and head-caving as the last half is, i still dig the first half more
― strgn, Saturday, 5 July 2008 06:41 (fifteen years ago) link
total 4th music too, this is about as patriotic as i get
― strgn, Saturday, 5 July 2008 06:42 (fifteen years ago) link
'ride my llama' and 'pocohantas' are the shit.
― strgn, Saturday, 5 July 2008 06:52 (fifteen years ago) link
-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 1 July 2007 01:32 (1 year ago)
There are some great songs on this LP. "pressure", "I gotta problem"
― chad, Saturday, 5 July 2008 07:50 (fifteen years ago) link
well they say that santa fe is less than 90 miles (per gallon) away. . . .http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-young/perfect-storm-for-innovat_b_155148.html
― kamerad, Monday, 5 January 2009 18:04 (fifteen years ago) link
<quote>This board continually surprises me (guess that's why I'm here.) I was worried Elvis would get a right old slagging, but no, on the whole all v. respectful, whereas I thought pretty much everybody liked at least one alb by N. Young and would be rushing in to sing his praises, esp. as his vocal style has inspired loads of other whining indie boys (Mascis, Malkmus, Mercury Rev, etc.) But how wrong I was! Anyway, James, if you like 'Harvest' you'll probably dig the following just as much: Search: 'On the Beach', 'Tonight's the Night', 'Zuma', 'After the Gold Rush', 'Rust Never Sleeps', 'Decade' (one of the best 'Greatest Hits' sets ever released, imho.) Destroy: Anything with a 'tribute' to K. Cobain on it; CSNY.</quote>
Never underestimate the contrarian impulse of the modern lamebrain hipster...
― EdVonBlue, Monday, 5 January 2009 21:21 (fifteen years ago) link