A World of Constant Strangers: The Neil Young Results Thread

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.

yeah, solo Reed is a walking monument of tastelessness (I had VU on mind but didn't specify)

Newman and Reed are not great singers but they don't have as "challenging" voices as Young.

Somedays I would argue Dylan and Cohen actually are great singers (with Dylan being perhaps only slightly less "challenging" than Young)

the aesthetic of those guys seems much less controversial. putting Dylan/VU/Newman on at a party will feel natural while things easily get awkward with Young.

anyway, I'm just digging myself deeper into a hole I'm not even sure I belong to. haven't listened to Young in ages so it's quite posible I don't agree with any of my "points" anymore.

sorry for this, just ignore me and enjoy the countdown. great work clemenza!

Young's actually the only one of the artists you mentioned who inspires near-universal affection. I know more than a few people who detest Dylan but adore several Young songs.

yeah that's true, any party of just old white dudes will be jamming to Randy

Neil is also the only Guitar God on that list, which makes him interesting in other ways. Apart from Hendrix, the only visionary songwriter who's also a visionary improv musician?

Neil's weird alright, but he's no more an unconventional singer than all the acts you mentioned, each of whom is a ... singular voice.

I was trying to pinpoint how I would describe Young's talent. I don't know that I would call him a genius, per se, or even clever, or a good craftsman, unlike many songwriters people consider great, or genius. He's more of a force of nature, which puts him in a different category.

He is a visionary guitarist, though.

When I first read someone calling Neil tasteless, I thought someone was bringing up his indigenous peoples fetish

By "tasteless" I thought he meant Neil Young's disinclination to self-edit. His catalogue is full of loose threads, first drafts and impulsive gestures, which may read to some as sloppy or self-indulgent, but to me the gold and the dreck all flow from the same place. The joy of even his greatest songs is that they don't sound overly worked on. A friend of mine says that what he likes best about NY is that he's unusually wise and insightful but never makes a big deal out of it - it's just like "Oh, here's something that occurred to me and maybe you'll find it useful too." You really hear that when he sings about politics - it's all first-thought-best-thought, for better or worse. It doesn't make much sense to compare that approach to patient craftsmen like Randy Newman or Leonard Cohen because it's something else entirely.

and Young's the only one of the lot to score a #1 hit that most people can hum.

As referred to upthread: Missed yesterday, but the list has been great. "Winterlong" was my #1, sad to see it so low -- I sort of suspected it had an outside chance at #1, add as that sounds. I'm sure that is colored by my love for it.

Yeah, I had a moment last night where I thought "hmm, 20 of my 30 votes haven't placed yet. that means that 20 of the top 25 tomorrow will come from my ballot! i am the hivemind!" until i realized that it might be possible that other people don't like the same songs that i do.

He's more of a force of nature, which puts him in a different category

That's a really good way of putting it! I'd say Dylan is one too. They're rare creatures though, I can't think of many others at all with that kind of relentlessness and drive. Maybe Prince.

I think when it comes to music, some people reach a level of genius for periods of time--a few years, a couple, three minutes. I'd call Dylan a genius in '65 and '66, and you can stretch that a year in two in either direction if you want. Peter Townshend was a genius from '65 to '67, etc. For me, what Neil did in 1969 and 1970 reached the level of genius, and then he was possessed of a very peculiar kind of genius from '73 to '75 (or to '79, if you'd prefer). The rest of his career, he's written and recorded a bunch of amazing songs, with lots of bumps along the way.

I wouldn't be looking for many surprises today. Someone yesterday said he figured out 20 sure things--if you think about what hasn't shown up so far, I'd push that even higher.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil25.jpg

My pick for his funniest song ever (the punchline, anyway); I'm sure more people would go with "Welfare Mothers."

Wow,.low.

I thought Top 25 was pretty good for "Pocahontas." Twenty-six votes from 66 people...almost 40%.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil24.jpg

That picture is great.

Very tired of this one. I liked it when it came out, though not as much as "Hey Hey, My My"--some of the lyrics seemed clunky. Now it gets played to death on the classic-rock station here.

Thanks, I love that picture. A lot of the images I found just by googling the song title.

I never hear "Rockin'" anymore, but it was overplayed for a long, long time. The SNL performance is still transcendent.

i've always liked "pocahontas", but mainly in a breezy, passive-smile kind of way. it never quite got under my skin like so many of his other songs have.

I'll have to look up the SNL, which I think I did see at the time.

lyrics to 'rockin in the free world' are a bit clunky but it was the first neil track i ever heard (video shown on a sunday morning music show, whats up with neil's hair in that video btw?) and a school band i was in attempted to cover it (badly i might add). so sentimental fave and all that.

Did not specify on my ballot, but it's the Unplugged Pocahontas for me.

I always assume Rockin' In The Free World gets misinterpreted, Born In The USA style.

It totally does.

the SNL clip:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5lwon_neil-young-keep-on-rockin-in-the-fr_music

Doing a sarcastic patriots' anthem looks like a pretty good career move, tbh.

I'm sure a lot of its staying power is that people do focus on the title/catch-phrase; it's actually the song's irony I find a little heavy-handed.