A World of Constant Strangers: The Neil Young Results Thread

yeah, doesn't seem to be on youtube! lame-o.
it is crazy that the Rust tour was essentially in support of Comes A Time... surprise!

Try this--again, amazing:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/I+Wonder/2zgZGQ?src=5

ha, there it is, yeah, so nice. awesome that 10 years later he was like, hmm, yeah *that* song.

"Comes a Time" is a great song. I just heard that album for the first time within the last week. That song is my favorite; there's something about the way that chorus ends

Love imagining "Don't Cry No Tears" being played by guys who look like this:

http://www.ucheritagemuseum.com/images/content/the%20shadows%20james%20murphy,%20nicky%20hall%201960s%20new%20albany.jpg

(Not the Squires.)

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil40.jpg

love comes a time (though i may not have voted for it). amazing that 10+ years into his career, neil wrote a song like that, which is like the archetypal neil young song. don't think any of his peers were capable of that.

Checking in late. Love See the Sky - placed it very high. Just after filing my ballot at the weekend I walked into a book shop to get out of the rain and they were playing the Massey Hall album and this track had just started. It was such weird, beautiful timing.

Also love Comes a Time - a friend wanted it at his wedding but his wife vetoed it. Boo.

Re: first becoming aware of NY, another friend said his first encounter was seeing Computer Age on a British TV show and assuming he was "Depeche Mode's grandad or something".

"Out On The Weekend" is such a great opener. Neil did a great job sequencing those 70s albums.

love the bell-like pedal steel from ben keith on this track.

"Think I'll pack it in and buy a pick-up/Take it down to L.A."--love that line.

Had something similar happen on the weekend. The record kiosk at the flea market I always go to had Harvest on. (Almost solicited a list from the clerk.) "Alabama" was playing when I got there, but the power went wonky and the CD re-started from the beginning.

I know I hinted at this yesterday with "Birds", but is anyone else having a really hard time grasping the fact that we are still so low in this countdown and are being actively bombarded with all time classic shit that would be in pretty much any other artist's top 3? Who knows, maybe I just love this dude way too much...

Glad to say we had two Bens and one Bruce vote in this poll. Also one of the Pet Shop Boys.

The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin polls were similar. (xpost)

"Bell-like" is a great description for that sound, it's gorgeous. Didn't vote for anything from Harvest but would've picked this or Are You Ready for the Country.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil39.jpg

Very high on my own ballot, thought it would be higher overall. Such a brilliant song.

Is Neil Young the only act of his vintage who would surprise no one by dropping a total masterpiece next week? (Besides Dylan, that is?)

Both La Lechera and I tipped points toward "Barstool Blues". I can't think of a higher compliment than that it puts me in the mood to listen to it whenever it comes on. Not a lot of songs work that way for me.

For me, Neil might release a masterpiece next week, Dylan can't--not unless he goes back to singing like he did in 1966 (or at least in 1974). But I know hardly anyone agrees, and a separate thread anyway.

nah I agree with you, Dylan's voice is shot.

otoh I consider his Xmas album a masterpiece sooooo

Dylan's voice is shot, but he's released a couple of classic shot-voice records already.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil38.jpg

I'm seeing a movie tonight with a friend--think I may look back on that as a big mistake one day, missing the Trout/Harper All-Star Game.

Ah, here's one I voted for. Let the deluge begin!

Barstool Blues. Another doozy. Norah Jones weighed in on it in Rolling Stone.

3.
"Barstool Blues" | Neil Young, 1975
I remember being with friends at the beach, all singing this at the top of our lungs. We put it on repeat. I don't think I ever had so much fun.

Is that CNE Stadium? (the image)

xxxpost

for the turnstiles is unbelievable, such a great lyric that probably took neil an hour to write.

No, just some random minor-league park.

"For The Turnstiles" is the first of my top 10 to make it. Such a killer.

for the turnstiles - RIP Ben Keith

cool list!

i wonder if "hitchhiker" from le noise isn't going to make it? :(

that was on my list but lots of heavyweights have to be coming up.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil37.jpg

"Barstool" was my #3. Surprised to see it kinda low; thought it'd be a lock for the top 10.

I've never heard Mirror Ball.

I love this so much. My no.2 in the end (and nearly displaced by another Mirror Ball cut).

I like "I'm the Ocean" fine, but one day you'll all agree with me that "Scenery" is Mirror Ball's masterpiece. (Presently, zero people agree with me.)

I'm a firm believer that Mirror Ball has no masterpieces.

I have a lot of fond memories of listening to my vinyl copy of On the Beach over and over while reading Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon, def has that same sort of sad end of the 60s, stoned out vibe

OK like I'm the Ocean is a good song and all but goddamn I cannot believe it just placed higher than a bunch of Zuma and On the Beach big-timers

some dude? did you only vote for one song?

Mirror Ball was the first Neil Young album I ever owned and, yes, it was 100% due to the Pearl Jam thing. But immediately after I raided my dad's vinyl to hear the Neil he had and it was all over from there. Anyway, I'll always have a soft spot for that one.

"I'm The Ocean" is the most moving song he did in the 90s, imo. he's written a ton of epics, but none of them rage that long, seem like the band might plow over Neil if he doesn't keep up

I thought I'm The Ocean would crack the top ten. Or at least be the highest-charting song from his last 20 years.

i gotta feeling this still might be the highest-charting song from his last 20 years (clemenza, keep yo mouth shut either way - no spoilers!)

it's funny that he was dropping lines like "People my age, they don't do the things I do" in 1995 and now there's almost another 20 years on the odometer

I like "Downtown," too--enough hippie nostalgia to appall hippie-haters everywhere.

xxxpost

ragged glory was 1990 dawg

even though 90 isn't like a "real 90s" year

OK like I'm the Ocean is a good song and all but goddamn I cannot believe it just placed higher than a bunch of Zuma and On the Beach big-timers

otm

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil36.jpg

You have to look closely for the little Danger Bird.

at least i'm the ocean didn't place above this

Voted for Barstool & Turnstiles--Turnstiles was my #4. That song, Uncle Tupelo's cover of CCR's Effigy, and the Fall's Disneys Dream Debased were the closing trifecta on every mix CD I made for a long while

Didn't clem say #37 was the highest charting position for post-Rust in the voting thread?

listening to "Revolution Blues" now....I think the Laurel Canyon killing part overshadows the lyrics that come just before

I got the revolution blues,
I see bloody fountains,
And ten million dune buggies
comin' down the mountain

^in bold maybe my single favorite image in the history of american songwriting, outside of "the sadness of a falling star lights up a purple sky" by hank williams