i totally grant that "horse" is insubstantial hippie poseur fluff but i still enjoy hearing it and it is so amusing and enjoyable on many levels
― marcos, Friday, 20 March 2015 20:59 (nine years ago) link
i mean crosby's "MUSIC IS LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHVVE" from "if could only remember my name" is also insubstantial hippie (not poseur to be sure though) fluff too you know and i also love that
― marcos, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:00 (nine years ago) link
DC otm.
Yes I prefer David Crosby if we're talking 70s caveman stoner folk rock.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:04 (nine years ago) link
Aside from the lyrics "Horse With No Name" does not rock. It sounds like muzak.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:05 (nine years ago) link
What is the other America stuff like? I'd imagine lots of folk blueshammer.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:06 (nine years ago) link
Oh wow I am listening to "I Need You" it is like Harry Nilsson watered down and spun off into a successful 80s soft rock career. Nice arrangements and singing tho!
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:09 (nine years ago) link
they worked a lot with George Martin. they have a pretty good song about the wizard of oz. i like america.
― mizzell, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:12 (nine years ago) link
ugh u wanna talk bad lyrics
― i blow goat farts, aka garts for a living (waterface), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:12 (nine years ago) link
and oz didn't give nothin 2 the tin man
that he didn't
didn't allllllready have
― i blow goat farts, aka garts for a living (waterface), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:13 (nine years ago) link
"There were plants and birds and rocks and things" is in its way a hilariously great lyric
― totally unachievable goals and no incentive to compromise (Sparkle Motion),
oh like Neil's above this shit
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:13 (nine years ago) link
This is why Neil Young was a revolutionary and America was corporate rock.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau),
is "Adam Bruneau" a pseudonym for "Jann Wenner"?
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:14 (nine years ago) link
oh like Neil's above this shithey now
― tylerw, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:15 (nine years ago) link
the Y in the biggest corporate rock band of the early and mid seventies wrote six dozen great better than "A Horse With No Name," so America should feel grateful that Neil Young finally wrote something at their level.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:17 (nine years ago) link
ok lol @ neil young as revolutionary
― marcos, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:23 (nine years ago) link
I'm sure there were bigger corporate rock bands at the time (I know how to measure "bigger," not as sure how to determine "corporate"). Chicago, for one, comes to mind.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:30 (nine years ago) link
if we're talking size and GDP and per capita income Europe and Asia were bigger.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:32 (nine years ago) link
hey now now now
― totally unachievable goals and no incentive to compromise (Sparkle Motion), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:33 (nine years ago) link
"heart of gold" is graceful coherent songwriting with a good balance b/w float and weight. "horse with no name" is 100% awkward self-regarding plod, its only redeeming factor apparently being one-note hippie camp. p sure there are much clearer documents of fucked up youth from that era than a dumb hit song, archival truth factor minimal, rejected as evidence. and alfred where is a n.y. lyric as artless as "I was looking at a river bed and the story it told of a river that flowed made me sad to think it was dead". agree neil isn't above that level of inane faux-profundity but at least he always manages to get the picture across in half the words w/ a much richer profile.
― mattresslessness, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:47 (nine years ago) link
really they're both self-regarding but only "heart of gold" earns it.
― mattresslessness, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:54 (nine years ago) link
neil is obv a champ and a better songwriter and a hero and a patriot etc etc but man that line about the riverbed is awesome.
― da croupier, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:54 (nine years ago) link
kind of reminds me of the meat puppets
― da croupier, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:55 (nine years ago) link
lol. i have to admit just typing that out it grew on me a little bit.
xp good point
― mattresslessness, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:56 (nine years ago) link
in their case though the songs are a lot faster.
neil is obv a champ and a better songwriter and a hero and a patriot etc etc but man that line about the riverbed is awesome.― da croupier, Friday, March 20, 2015 5:54 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― da croupier, Friday, March 20, 2015 5:54 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yes it is kind of cool. Like when GTA: Vice City glitches out and you fall through the beach.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:57 (nine years ago) link
But I think "sky of blue/sea of green" is a similar idea only more evocative.
pretty sure we're all convincing ourselves that america > neil young
― tylerw, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:58 (nine years ago) link
Neil would write "I was lookin' at the river/It flowed/She was dead/So the story goes"
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 March 2015 21:58 (nine years ago) link
haha
― mattresslessness, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:59 (nine years ago) link
Donovan wrote that line iirc
― Οὖτις, Friday, 20 March 2015 21:59 (nine years ago) link
Didn't Donovan do a wandering-in-the-desert-on-mushrooms record in the 70s?
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 20 March 2015 22:00 (nine years ago) link
Alfred that rules!
don't mind me i haven't listened to neil young in months, it's friday, and hating on something harmless sounded appealing.
― mattresslessness, Friday, 20 March 2015 22:05 (nine years ago) link
speaking of inanity
― mattresslessness, Friday, 20 March 2015 22:06 (nine years ago) link
what you mean this one?http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/Donovan-Cosmic_Wheels.jpg
― Οὖτις, Friday, 20 March 2015 22:08 (nine years ago) link
And now we're back to Bob Dylan imitators LOL.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 20 March 2015 22:33 (nine years ago) link
Donovan also living in the southwest around when Dylan was living in Phoenix iirc
― Οὖτις, Friday, 20 March 2015 22:49 (nine years ago) link
"Heart of Gold" in acoustic set (but electric brings onslaught)
http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2012/09/24/neil-young-crazy-horse-fukuoka-japan-march-8-1976/
"Welcome to Miami Beach, ladies and gentlemen." Yes, tonight's the night:http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2013/03/19/neil-young-the-santa-monica-flyers-manchester-england-1973/
Thanks Tyler!
― dow, Friday, 20 March 2015 23:25 (nine years ago) link
Had to do something drastic, since we're drifting into post-sell-by-date Leitch.
― dow, Friday, 20 March 2015 23:26 (nine years ago) link
speaking of ny inanities I always liked the 'tell me why / is it hard to make arrangements with yourself / when you're old enough to repay but young enough to sell" line but iirc it's often been lambasted for its faux profundity. Beautiful melody though and the lyric is evocative enough without actually meaning anything coherent
― marcos, Saturday, 21 March 2015 00:35 (nine years ago) link
― mizzell, Friday, March 20, 2015 9:12 PMI like America too, but I'm not so sure that Tin Man is about the Wizard of Oz. It could equally be about the Tropic of Sir Galahad. I'm not sure, in fact, if any America song is about anything.
― Bloody Snail, Saturday, 21 March 2015 01:04 (nine years ago) link
Nah, man, Chicago were the real revolutionaries. The inscription on the inside gatefold of Chicago II reads as follows:
"With this album, we dedicate ourselves, our futures and our energies to the people of the revolution. And the revolution in all of its forms."
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 21 March 2015 01:07 (nine years ago) link
And from there it was but one small step to celebrating a man selling ice cream (in all of its flavors), singing Italian songs.
― clemenza, Saturday, 21 March 2015 01:20 (nine years ago) link
funny you should say that, since the hot dog place closest to me when i was growing up was owned by chicago's manager and had all their gold records on the wall, so the band chicago is inextricably linked in my mind to hot dogs, fries, and soft-serve ice cream.
anyway, this thread has gotten pretty entertaining!
please don't go dragging down "one toke over the line" with your "horse with no name," though. "one toke over the line" is a great pop song. also, this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8tdmaEhMHE
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Saturday, 21 March 2015 03:32 (nine years ago) link
i mean, at least "one toke over the line" is genuinely weird! "horse with no name" is not weird, although it wants to be.
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Saturday, 21 March 2015 03:33 (nine years ago) link
A horse is pretty great. The "la la la" part is spooky as hell. Who cares about the lyrics, yall hate on Toto - Africa as well?
― brimstead, Saturday, 21 March 2015 03:43 (nine years ago) link
no it's pretty great. the chorus part is melodic as hell.
― mattresslessness, Saturday, 21 March 2015 03:47 (nine years ago) link
super melodious.
― mattresslessness, Saturday, 21 March 2015 03:48 (nine years ago) link
No I like AfricaI guess I like America ok too
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 21 March 2015 03:50 (nine years ago) link