A World of Constant Strangers: The Neil Young Results Thread

I had this one, good way to start the day. Think it was my only TTN song, but would have to check.

To answer something posted since yesterday, any Dead Man votes were counted separately--voters were very specific about which track. But there were only two or three.

Oops.

I need some moderator help--when I try to re-post with the proper tags, it won't let me. Maybe delete the untagged post? Sorry.

Game delayed on account of fuckin' up.

Cool, I voted for Mellow My Mind and Harvest Moon!

Was holding off on commenting until it was "official", but I woulda though HM would be much higher than this. Then you remember all of the other great songs still to come. Maybe the craziest rollout of any of these polls, should be really interesting.

Harvest Moon kinda annoyed me when I saw it on MTV at the time. It was this rather lame sweet folky ballad, so chances are I wouldn't've wanted it anyway, but the look was so obviously of-the-moment (iirc it even had a Smells Like Teen Spirit janitor) that it seemed more like old man jumping on bandwagon than a king returning to his throne. A typical Neil perverse move might've provoked more respect.

Obviously now all that couldn't matter less.

Yes--right now, #49 is only a rumour, wrapped in some gossip, inside an untagged URL.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil49.jpg

There we go.

Thanks!...I'm indulging myself one family picture: that's my mom and dad in 1956. Not sure where they are.

La Lechera and I both voted for "Mellow My Mind". It's awesome. La Lechera also voted for "Harvest Moon", which I agree is awesome but it was a very late cut for me.

Pretty sure I didn't vote for anything off of "Tonight's the Night." Good record but overrated. May have voted for two off of "Harvest Moon," but neither of the singles.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil48.jpg

I love LA.

I heard "Harest Moon" in a store last week maybe--I was a bit tipsy, but it sounded way more pretty and touching than it ever had before

I wish I'd been there...if you blow the photo up 10,000 times, I think you can spot Rodney Bingenheimer.

Hey, L.A.! My first vote of the day to show

Harvest Moon kinda annoyed me when I saw it on MTV at the time. It was this rather lame sweet folky ballad, so chances are I wouldn't've wanted it anyway, but the look was so obviously of-the-moment (iirc it even had a Smells Like Teen Spirit janitor) that it seemed more like old man jumping on bandwagon than a king returning to his throne. A typical Neil perverse move might've provoked more respect.

Obviously now all that couldn't matter less.

― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:09 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

as a grunge kid watching MTV at the time and just becoming familiar with NY this is a hilarious notion to me -- the "Harvest Moon" video seemed like this anachronistic thing that belonged on a country video countdown, and i wouldn't have dreamed of the guy sweeping a broom as a musical instrument being a nod to "Teen Spirit." of course, within a year he was onstage with Pearl Jam at the VMAs and i was like ok i guess this guy is cool.

I'm trying to remember my first exposure to Neil Young. Obv a lot of it had to do with the big orange book, but I seem to remember it was that I was reading about Dino Jr./J Mascis, without having heard them much if at all, and the constant comparison to Neil's guitar style is what made me steal my stepdad's cassette copy of Everybody Knows. Even then, I was still perplexed, and Harvest (which I hated) didn't help. Things didnt fall into place for me until I bought a copy of Rust, which blew me away immediately...

What is "the big orange book"? Is this some secret Neil document I don't know about?

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil47.jpg

"The Loner" took a while to get going--almost no votes initially, then they started to come in midway. Putting aside Buffalo Springfield for a second, I view it like Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door?: an early indication that this guy was unique and major.

I'd also include it with Husker Du's "Diane" and "Riders on the Storm" as one of the spookiest serial-killer songs, even though Neil only hints that that might be what it's about.

The Loner is great. I kind of wish I had voted for it.

big orange book = this. It's how I got into non-mainstream music for lack of a better term. one of those things that defined my adolescence

surprised that the last two placed so high -- like 'em, didn't think they were favorites. probably prefer the "live rust" loner to the s/t. those twin guitar lines are sweet.

That's funny--being older, for me it's the big red book and the big white book.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil46.jpg

I also had nothing from TTN, but thought I'd be the only one. Of his canonical albums, it's the one I came to last and it has never quite sunk its hooks into me -- probably just need to listen to it more.

xpost: ah, "See the Sky." Love it. Bumped a few Big Classics to sneak it onto the bottom of my ballot.

Nothing to say about this one myself, other than surprise that it finished so high.

yeah today's list has all been "songs off great albums i never would have thought of voting for"

actually can't even say great albums for s/t and harvest moon

I think "The Loner" has outlasted its album, though--still gets played on the radio, at least up here.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil45.jpg

yaaaaay faith restored, though i thought this'd be higher!

read somewhere that rick rubin once had to pull off the road when this song came on to cry, where's their collabo

Another surprise to me, although Gold Rush is so brilliant, it was maybe inevitable that what I consider its weakest song would draw support.

love how this song has such an affirmative/positive title, but the lyrics are anything but

"See The Sky" has one of my favorite electric piano lines in all rock.

I thought about voting for "Loner" for sure, and "LA" is amazing; I think a lot of the prettier melodies on Time Fades Away probably could go toe to toe with stuff on Gold Rush; it's just that that particular live album is like the worst possible context for them--"Love in Mind" and "The Bridge" almost sound like interludes (same with "Sweet Joni" now that I think about it; he seemed to have a real almost fragmentary, or even haiku-like, approach to the ballad at that time) and "L.A." which is probably as good as "Don't Let It Bring You Down" comes off as way more sketchy and abrasive (which actually enhances its gripe-litany lyrics)

"I Believe in You" is my first top ten track to place. Incredible

If I could've brought myself to rank my ballot, "I Believe in You" would've been my #1 I think.

Rick Rubin otm

Wow--just not hearing what the rest of you hear.

"A blissful feeling came over me, and I had to actually pull over my car onto the side of the road because I couldn't drive while experiencing this. Just from the effect the music had on me--it was somehow related to the sensation of dying. It felt like my heart stopped. It wasn't a bad feeling. I don't know if it was going out of my body, but I didn't feel myself leaving my body. I don't how to explain it other than a real feeling of bliss. It was really a great magical feeling. I don't know why I'm somehow relating it to death, but it had some kind of death overtone in it. It was a really positive feeling."

weird, this song dropped out of my itunes library at some point so i forgot about it but totally would have it top 20

a gift:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k--EF7cZmw

she butchers the best hook though imo

Rick Rubin? (xxpost) That's like Greil Marcus pulling over to the side of the road when he heard "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" for the first time.

Songs Famous People Claim To Have Needed To Pull Their Car To The Side Of The Road After Hearing