A World of Constant Strangers: The Neil Young Results Thread

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil9.jpg

"Ohio" is a tremendous-sounding song imo, my #2

tin soldiers and Shakey's coming

guys let me interrupt this poll to bring you this crazy horse version of let it shine, which i had never heard before. they make it into a Zuma song!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oPZZP0f3FY
[i'm guessing let it shine won't be #1]

Crosby's interjections in "Ohio" are A+

Unrelated factoid: I was at the Texas Theatre and I sat in the seat in that Oswald was arrested in the other night.

From La Lechera: #5 "Expecting to Fly" -- baroque! Ended with a sigh.

"Expecting to Fly"! This was my other #1 ("When You Dance I Can Really Love" was the first). The chorus melody is the saddest sound I've ever heard.

This is the one genuine surprise I'll concede (my too-high quibbles notwithstanding). Highest average, easily--it got fewer votes than songs all the way down to "Pocahontas" at #25. The equivalent from my own ballot would be "Out of My Mind," which didn't do nearly as well.

Expecting To Fly, Unexpectedly High

expecting to fly -- one of the great 60s orchestral pop numbers. so beautiful. think it was mentioned on the voting thread, but the instrumental from the same session (i think), "slowly burning," which emerged on the archives, is equally lovely.

here it is! listen up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycKnAo8llyI

I sat in the seat in that Oswald was arrested in the other night--wild.

I voted for "Slowly Burning."

Product placement: pay up, Sprite.

Ain't pollin' for Sprite!

i actually just felt genuine disappointment with myself that i forgot to vote for "this note's for you"

as it stands "rapid transit" is prob the funniest song on my ballot

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil9b.jpg

Excuse the insanity--somehow the image got lopped off at the bottom.

no wait n/m i DID vote for "note" (xpost)

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil8.jpg

haha! is that checkers?

wow I REALLY don't give a shit about Expecting to Fly - have a hard time with most of the Springfield stuff tbh, it always strikes me as tentative and half-formed

kinda disappointed with this run of songs tbrr

Looks to be early '70s, so surely Checkers was long gone.

i actually just felt genuine disappointment with myself that i forgot to vote for "this note's for you"

I voted for it! Bummed it didn't make it :(

I think RN's doing the Twist, though.

missing from pic: metal detector

Checkers II?

on the beach is so great, such a leaden song. guitar solo is incredible, the way it kinda falls off at the end.

Please hide me from this world where "This Note's for You" is superior to Buffalo Springfield.

i think it only recently occurred to me that t-bone and this note's for you are basically the same song.

wow I REALLY don't give a shit about Expecting to Fly - have a hard time with most of the Springfield stuff tbh, it always strikes me as tentative and half-formed

Wow, I disagree with this completely!

you say tentative and half-formed, i say youthful and experimental

Not meant as an attack, SMC, there's just no comparison for me.

expecting to fly is barely a buffalo springfield song, too -- no one else from the band plays on it, and i think it was originally planned as a neil young solo single.

i love that the period where neil hadn't yet found his sound was also the period where everyone was exploring the studio

Catching up, sorry:

Had On The Beach at 22
Had Expecting to Fly at 46 (so I don't think it counted, as only my first 40 were registered for the poll...)
Had Ohio at 43 (ditto -- also, as mentioned upthread, I have been to Kent State a zillion times, walked on THAT hill, etc. Gives you CHILLS, seriously)
Had Rev Blues at 10

my first exposure to "On The Beach" was a cover by the very underrated (and very NY-influenced) singer/songwriter Chris Lee, but i'm not a big fan of the song. perhaps a kneejerk reaction to the idea of the title track of a guy's first album released after becoming really famous featuring morose talk of radio interviews.

I love how unabashedly beautiful Expecting to Fly is - after Buffalo Springfield NY never really went full-tilt for gorgeous again. It's such a young man's song.

yeah, "Expecting to Fly" wouldn't make my top 100, very dull half-realized track imo....and right above "Revolution Blues" makes it worse....

I do feel that On the Beach's longtime unavailability plays a part in its present stature--if it had been Zuma you couldn't buy on CD instead, I wonder if the situation would be different.

reading the rhapsodic descriptions of the song's production and it's "groundbreaking" construction in "Shakey" just made me wonder if I was listening to a different song

(re: Expecting to Fly)

Wow, much lower than I expected. As much as I love "After the Gold Rush," I always found the cheers when Neil sings "And I felt like gettin' high" on the (otherwise great) Live Rust version to be a stadium rock nadir.

― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, July 11, 2012 10:17 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ no way, you're thinking of the rasta jive blackface routine during Cortez

Never cared much for ohio or expecting to fly....ohio has a good riff

I honestly could have put about all of tonights the night on, but those were the three I had

albuquerques opening line is one of those classic neil lines that really affects me and I couldn't say why:

And they say
That Santa Fe
Is less than 90 miles away

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil7.jpg

I dunno if I would say "This Note's For You" is better per se (I wouldn't put it in the top 10 Neil songs or anything) but it's certainly more fun to listen to than "Expecting to Fly", at least in my case

albuquerques opening line is one of those classic neil lines that really affects me and I couldn't say why:

And they say
That Santa Fe
Is less than 90 miles away

the legendary and mysterious land of Santa Fe... Neil should maybe look at a map sometime lol

but yeah I love it too, great song

He was fumbling around for his car keys when he wrote that.

i'm not a big fan of the song. perhaps a kneejerk reaction to the idea of the title track of a guy's first album released after becoming really famous featuring morose talk of radio interviews.

The thing is, Neil was bitching about being famous BEFORE he was famous (See: Buffalo Springfield, "Out of My Mind")