A World of Constant Strangers: The Neil Young Results Thread

i know you guys are all really interested my prairie wind liveblog

but this album is pretty damn slight

it's all a dream is nice

i'll revisit Prairie Wind before Silver & Gold and Are You Passionate but I'm not in a rush

yeah prairie wind has a nice sound, but there's something lacking in the songwriting.

Haven't seen Hawks & Doves mentioned...how is it generally regarded among Neilophiles?

has its fans, but i don't think there's a consensus fave track (if there is I know it's not the one i voted for)

i voted for little wing, almost voted for lost in space.

I like Hawks & Doves quite a bit, - picked it as one of my fave album covers and voted for "Little Wing." "Union Man" is pretty great too. "The gentleman said ... bumper stickers should be issued!"

i've had the theory that had neil taken the first side of hawks n doves and the best tracks from reactor, he'd have a rust-like masterpiece. maybe?

I've been listening to H&D a lot the last few days. "This Old Homestead" is a weird lyric set to "For The Turnstiles"-OTB chords.

*The

that first side is such a hodgepodge, though. said it on the voting thread but I think the album's sort of American Stars'n'Bars II - one side country, one side a '70s grab-bag, just without a "Like A Hurricane." I voted for the title track, as I've got a soft spot for psycho patriot Neil.

I only heard H&D once or twice 20 years ago before listening to it again the other day. The slight songs are kinda fun, but otm re: best of H&D + best of Re Ac Tor = More Rust.

that sorta ploy would probably strike neil as too obvious, but it'd work!

I think around 5/30.

I'm at, I should say.

I always knew Neil from classic rock stations and thought he was alright but the first time I was like "whoah this guy is rad" was in college, when a friend of mine was giving a slide show. he had recently returned from a p legit mountaineering trip to Nepal and played "walk on" as sort of an outro over a series of pictures and it was so different from old man and other MOR ny stuff that it twigged something for me. I was already a huge fan of the built to spill cover of Cortez but had never really put two and two together.

thank you based neil

also kinda tempted to go to cheapo and buy all of the ny vinyl they have, I'm missing so much

and not that anyone cares but my current attending physician (basically my boss) has turned out to be a massive neil fan. we were on the way to d0rothy d4y (for u MNans) and he str8 blasted cinnamon girl the whole time, it was a ~moment~

hutlock must be on diaper duty today.

Has anyone started a Spotify list yet? If so, how are we dealing with TFA songs -- are there any bad covers or live versions elsewhere?

crazy low ranking for danger bird! a man needs a maid beating it out by 11 spots, wtf

cool list so far though. makes me want to really dig into the post-rust stuff that i'm less familiar with.

i made a spotify playlist of my ballot and had to say goodbye to anything from TFA, Trans or LOW

bummed lucky thirteen wasn't on there either

is lucky 13 out of print or something? that's too bad it's not even avail. on spotify. great comp, really made a case for the 80s neil when i was a kid.

My experience with Young and album rock radio matches gbx's. I had no idea of the depth of his fantastic, weird catalog from hearing "Old Man" and "Southern Man" over and over (har). I had to read the SPIN Alternative Guide's essay and dream of the money to find an album that was the aural equivalent of watching on screen a cow entering the water and leaving.

yeah i never got around to getting lucky 13, only song from the era that feels strikingly absent is "Prisoners"

I found Lucky Thirteen used for cheap a couple years ago, it definitely made me more open to the idea of exploring his 80s.

The two Old Ways inclusions did not convince though.

Dunno why it's been hard for Neil to cut straight country records; Comes A Time is closer to a folk-country amalgam, I guess (with a little mellotron thrown in). Like Jagger he can't quite do it without smirking, although I'll take "Dead Flowers" over "Where is the Highway Tonight."

xp yeah those are still pretty dire. the stuff on a treasure is the best place for that era. lucky 13 really is decade II though, just, you know, a different kind of decade.

I voted for this song, with this version specifically in mind, I gather it was supposed to be on Old Ways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65wWCXProCI

I can't exactly endorse the video, ha. What a screenshot.

Not important, but I wanted to follow up on one thing--I do think "Sugar Mountain" and "Emperor's New Clothes" are comparable:

"Ain't it funny how you feel/When you're findin' out it's real?/Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain..."

"How could I possibly know what I want when I was only twenty-one?"

Neil's past 20 and looking back at 19, O'Connor's looking back at 21, and in both cases, there's the implication that they're much older and wiser/world-wearier now. Which is kind of funny, and a small part of what I love in both songs.

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/752606

so i thought maybe i should have heard the turn of phrase "a cow entering the water and leaving" before so i googled it and that's what happened

dunno why Weisbard didn't plan for the possibility of anal drowning.

When was the last time you saw a cow? What about more than one cow?
by AnonymousGirl on April 23rd, 2012 | 4 people like this

9/30 so far.
Voted Captain Kennedy off of Hawks & Doves.
And I guess no one else voted Coupe De Ville :(

Since I don't think it's going to place top-25, here's a 1977 live electric version of "Little Wing" with the Ducks. I like the album version better but this is a nice complement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZAVO4VR-ME

yeah i love that version (though the whispery H&D version is unbeatable). i hope neil deigns to release a Ducks show sometime, a pretty cool band. they also do a neat electric reading of "sail away".

yeah prairie wind has a nice sound, but there's something lacking in the songwriting.

But it's got Goin' Home, one of his great guitar epics. IMHO, just as good as Like A Hurricane.

"Goin' Home" is on Are You Passionate?, the only leftover from the original version of the lp "Toast".

Spotify playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/124420673/playlist/7tIBGOFg0EDXgAz10slAJZ

has any boots/live/tracklist info of toast stuff come out? like goin home so much more than anything else on AYP that I'm dying to hear more

there are two songs he was playing with crazy horse in 2001 that I've heard: Gateway Of Love and Standing In The Light Of Love -- i assumed that these were slated for Toast. Not lost masterpieces iirc, but pretty solid.

In Shakey, a post-Broken Arrow session involving Neil/Crazy Horse & Rick Rubin is mentioned in passing. I guess nothing really came of it, otherwise it'd get talked about more as some "Holy Grail" lost recordings.

"Goin' Home" is on Are You Passionate?

Oh yeah, yer right. I meant the epic guitar workout The Painter.

am I the only who feels that Neil Young is really...tasteless?

he sings terribly (I know every 70's singer/songwriter needs to have a "unique" voice but he's an extreme case even in that company), he doesn't know what his lyrics are about, most of the time he looks awful, he loves schmaltzy arrangements, he writes sappy melodies and he does a lot of guitar soloing.

he's stil a genius but a damn weird one. I would never introduce him to a non-music obsessive and say "this is one of the greats" the way I would with Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Leonard Cohen or even Lou Reed. am I completely wrong here?

*the only one

I think you'll have a hard time on this particular thread getting anyone to agree with you. Elsewhere, he's not universally loved.

great singers Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Leonard Cohen & Lou Reed

lou reed is definitely not tasteless, in any way.

from that list of "greats", i would put Neil Young second to only Bob Dylan. and if it came down to who i enjoy listening to the most, Neil would be at the very front.