A World of Constant Strangers: The Neil Young Results Thread

Oh, man...the Road Eyes danced to "Cinnamon Girl" at that '78 show I saw. Neil wore exactly the same outfit, too.

man you guys REALLY overrate side 2 of OTB

Who are you, Al Schmitt?

"Ambulance Blues" was my number two!

I have no idea who that is, so probably not

xp

impossible to overrate side 2 of on the beach imo

"Ambulance Blues" is my pick of the Beach blues cuts.

My #2. Astounding song. His voice is unusually beautiful here and the whole thing makes me think of Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye for some reason.

And there ain't nothin' like a friend
Who can tell you you're just pissin' in the wind

I knew the riff long before the song itself, then when I finally found out the title I mistakenly thought it was "Cinema Girl" for awhile xxxpost

Had Ambulance Blues at #3. Saw him do it solo acoustic in 99 from the fourth row. Just about blew my mind. SO SO SO amazing.

Oh, man...the Road Eyes danced to "Cinnamon Girl" at that '78 show I saw. Neil wore exactly the same outfit, too.

Did Pancho wear that Canadians jersey too?

Al produced the Airplane, too. Yeah, Marlowe thinking about Terry Lennox--nice connection.

I have no idea who that is, so probably not

He was the producer of side 2, who quit when Neil insisted on using his rough mixes of the songs (prepared for party) on the album.

"Ambulance" is perfect for first six minutes or so. The interplay between Rusty's fiddle and what Neil's doing is beautiful. Then it kind of stumbles a bit? Or wears out its welcome anyway. Last two verses are relatively weak IMHO, esp. the couplet that DL quotes! Love the 'clonk' near the end though.

hmm has Cortez not appeared yet...? Would be okay with that beating pretty much everything in the top 10 so far tbh

"Expecting to Fly" is the only surprise I'm surprised to see this high, besides all the "TTN" stuff. Beginning to think lots of my stuff won't make it, particularly late period stuff. I blame the ditch.

Okay I was wrong, Ambulance Blues is lovely

At this point, I am feeling rather certain that my #2 did not chart. No one else loves "Love Art Blues"?!

Last two verses are relatively weak IMHO
i dunno, the "never knew a man who told so many lies" line is pretty powerful to me.

The final verse is probably my single favourite topical reportage ever--that, or "Trouble Comin' Every Day." It required great restraint not to go for a third Nixon image.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil4.jpg

She was originally my waitress for "Country Girl"'s inevitable Top 10 finish. I moved her over to "Hurricane" instead.

I love the fake strings on this. String generator. Same device used on P-Funk's "Flashlight," among others, I believe.

My #23. Used to like this more before I heard Adam Sandler do it. And the Mission.

haha wow okay I didn't know that! strings have always sounded weird to me on this

xp

I used to like this song more before Neil did it nine million times on tour. It's still pretty amazing tho, it's a very durable song

So it looks like Guitar Neil takes the top 4.

xpost--Top 3. Best version of Like A Hurricane is on Live Rust

I'm looking over my ballot and those that haven't yet placed either are unlikely to or seem unlikely to be top 3... not sure what i'm missing

Seeing Roxy Music doing Hurricane was something else.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rScBRKlTdoE/TH3DKyhbPcI/AAAAAAABdsA/QVCQqvk26Cs/s1600/IMG_0129.jpg
i think this is the synth they used -- the stringman!

"Like A Hurricane"-Pancho on Stringman xpost

There are some pretty mediocre covers of "Hurricane" out there.

i like the roxy music version, kinda tropical stormy. didn't vote for LAH, but i love it (how many times can i say that?)

I was thinking of the Arp Solina.

How do you rate the Unplugged pipe organ version?

^^^very highly

it's almost creepy in its etherealness

it's guaranteed to irritate my wife

[but i love it]

The Unplugged version was the first Neil Young song I ever consciously listened to. It began there.

Not a fan personally. Like A Hurricane needs guitar

"Like A Hurricane" is the epic where I think the album cut is routinely bested live....

Unplugged take is my go-to at this point.

Isn't the album cut a live recording anyway?

I think Neil's guitar tone on "Hurricane" is one of music's perfect sounds. (Love the Roxy cover, too.)

it took forEVER for me to hear the original version of Like A Hurricane - it showed up on pretty much every Neil live album/bootleg, but for some reason American Stars n Bars was kind of hard to track down in the 90s.

don't think it's live on American Stars n Bars

so am I right in expecting that "Cowgirl" vs. "Down by The River" is pretty much a Veronica/Betty thing?......my girl lost!

I guess that makes me Archie, because I couldn't really make up my mind -- they were both top 5 for me.

Isn't the album cut a live recording anyway?

Backing track cut live in studio, vocal overdubbed later.

Love the live versions of "Cinnamon Girl," but the handclaps on the studio version make that shit lift off the ground.

there's a scene in Coming Home which uses Expecting To Fly and it's just about my favourite pop song/cinema sync of ALL TIME

up there with Taxi Driver/Late For The Sky