May You Live in Inneresting Times: The Neil Young Voting Thread (deadline July 8)

listen here, Mirror Ball is more a Neil album than a Pearl Jam album and PJ hatred is kind of irrelevant as far as that album goes? I mean, my PJ love is well documented but i've never thought 'hmm I wanna listen to some Pearl Jam, oooh Mirror Ball"

suck it up and listen to I Am The Ocean, Shakey :)

what does Eddie Vedder do on the record

Anyway I don't know if this song needs help or not but it's one of my favorites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHBikURKkUM

xpost backing vocals mostly, iirc
from Wiki: Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder was not around much for the recording sessions.[4] Vedder explained that he was "in the midst of a pretty intense stalker problem," adding that "leaving the house wasn't the easiest thing to do."[4]

happy now :P

vedder only has one (short) real lead vocal bit on peace and love. frankly i think you could just treat the first half of the record as an EP and be pleased w/ it.

"Eddie rolled the joints, but Bobby Charles did that better."--Neil

I'm not in much of a mood for Neil Young these days but I'm sure I can easily come up with 30 picks.

Or 40.

listen here, Mirror Ball is more a Neil album than a Pearl Jam album and PJ hatred is kind of irrelevant as far as that album goes? I mean, my PJ love is well documented but i've never thought 'hmm I wanna listen to some Pearl Jam, oooh Mirror Ball"

suck it up and listen to I Am The Ocean, Shakey :)

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, June 22, 2012 1:23 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah it's kinda like avoiding various NY albums because you don't like the songs Crazy Horse wrote on their own albums

as an aside, for the record: Sugar Mountain kills me. Growing up kinda sucks, Neil otm

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that
You're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

It's so noisy at the fair
But all your friends are there
And the candy floss you had
And your mother and your dad.

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that
You're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

There's a girl just down the aisle,
Oh, to turn and see her smile.
You can hear the words she wrote
As you read the hidden note.

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that
You're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Now you're underneath the stairs
And you're givin' back some glares
To the people who you met
And it's your first cigarette.

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that
You're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Now you say you're leavin' home
'Cause you want to be alone.
Ain't it funny how you feel
When you're findin' out it's real?

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that
You're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that
You're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

I was reading SongMeanings today and it was posited that Joni's Circle Game was written as a complement to that song! It was also claimed Sugar Mountain was a Toronto club for under 20s; I'll have to ask Dad about that one.

Don't Cry!

^^ this. Definitely going on my ballot (as is just about all of the Eldorado EP).

I'm not in much of a mood for Neil Young these days

Me neither ... or so I thought before racking up 8 (eight) NY albums during my boring work day! Now I'm like 'hm, football tonight, or do I bust out Ragged Glory instead?'

Can confirm that "The Circle Game" is Joni's answer to "Sugar Mountain." A++++++ for her, A+++++++ for him.

Can I justify voting for "T-Bone"?

Are You Passionate about "T-Bone"?

This is gonna be impossible

My ballot ain't got no t-bone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC4C_Gcp_dM

I still have a soft spot for the album Broken Arrow. Maybe it was me seeing Year of the Horse or see they songs live but will always love Slip Away, Big Time and Scattered. I always feel like this album gets overlooked.

neil has really made some inneresting videos

pretty bummed neil spent more time collaborating with julian temple and jonathan demme than tim pope, all his landing on water stuff is nuts

Oh shit is this going to be hard. I have been too busy lately to vote in any of these, but I'm going to hit this one hard.

last time i listened to Landing On Water i really enjoyed it. even enjoyed the production.

I reviewed Landing on Water when it came out; it would have been my first year writing for a local monthly. I still regret the review a little. It was the third or fourth Neil album in a row I didn't like at all ("Wonderin'" excepted). I really thought he was finished, there was lots of other, newer stuff I was obsessing over, so instead of criticizing the album in the context of how much he'd meant to me in the past, I ripped into it in an almost gloating manner. (As I remember it--I don't want to go back and check.) I don't think I was wrong about the album--I've never gone back to it, either, Jamie, so I'm basing that on a 25-year-old memory--but the review I'd like to have back.

Some Neil-related ephemera. Here's "Down by the River" in The Strawberry Statement (dubbed into Italian, I believe):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJGgvB1k4WI

And this is something I took part in, even though all I can do is move a bar chord around: 1600 people in Toronto's Dundas Square three years ago, trying (unsuccessfully) to break a world record by playing "Helpless."

Oops:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfvLc394-Ok

This is my favorite non-Neil "Down By The River"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgUUds0wkU4

Wow, there's a live acoustic version of "Shots."

(or, more accurately, there's a live acoustic version of "Shots"?!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5xTc7T7mZM

I'll mention any minor issues that arise on incoming ballots:

1) votes for "Tonight's the Night"--it's not worth differentiating the version that opens the LP from the one that closes it, is it? The voter didn't...not sure anybody will.
2) "My My, Hey Hey" vs. "Hey Hey, My My" is much more straightforward--I guess just check that you're voting for the one you think you're voting for.

nah I wouldn't differentiate

In fact you might want to lump the "My, My"s with the "Hey Hey"s--to avoid both vote splitting, and to free up a space for some other deserving track if they both make the countdown.

^ sensible approach imo

superfluous 'both'--my bad.

Okay--I'll provisionally count all votes for the "My My"s and the "Hey Hey"s together. If ballots come in where people are making a point of indicating acoustic/electric only, I'll separate them out. (Same with "Sgt. Pepper's" and "Sgt. Pepper's (reprise).")

As far as Landing on Water goes, I'll defend "Hippie Dream" as a good lower-tier NY song; the grotesque drum sound (well-documented in Shakey) almost smothers it htough.

Any side polling for albums or least-favorite track?

There've been two or three album polls already, and you can pretty much guess the Top 10 beforehand (if not the exact order). Plus my own bias is towards songs. If people want to add least-favourite, I could tabulate that. I liked how the Beastie Boys poll did something a little different with video. How about favourite Neil album cover? I think he's had a few great ones.

I don't want to start dumping on Landing on Water all over again, but I gave "Hippie Dream" another listen off YouTube, and I'm just not hearing whatever it is you guys are. I find it very plodding. And I like Neil a lot when he gets really nostalgic for hippiedom--he's almost like Nixon in China, where he's the one guy from that era who can get away with deifying what he knows is a corny simplification of a very flawed moment (which doesn't make his nostalgia any less genuine). Hearing him in 1986 sounding almost self-satisfied that he has seen through that time, and is counselling us to see through it too, is a real drag. Would much rather listen to "Wooden Ships."

I like the album cover idea

It's unanimous then--an invitation to jot down your three favourite Neil album covers at the end of your ballot (ditto Tom, who's already voted). I'd confine this to Neil albums only. This looks like a pretty exhaustive gallery of every kind of vinyl from around the world:

http://991.com/eilcom/gallery/gallery.asp?artistname=Neil-Young

encouraged by clemenza's first post, I voted for some old favorites withour relistening. only 10 songs, with the crazy, orchestrated, patriarchic scream at number one.

lol american stars n bars will be my #1

hmm I don't hear Young getting nostalgic at all on "Hippie Dream"! It capsized in excess -- if you know what I mean. The angry guitars and loud drums throw dirt on the grave.

I'm not sure I could handle this poll for the first ten years of his career, let alone spanning five-odd decades (or five odd decades).

I don't hear Young getting nostalgic at all on "Hippie Dream"!

That's what I mean. I like it when Neil's nostalgic for hippiedom (e.g., "Mirror Ball" and dozens of other songs). On "Hippie Dream," he's a scold.

"Downtown" from Mirror Ball, I mean.

Don't give it a second thought, Josh--just jot down the first 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 songs that come to mind.

This might be helpful:
http://dangerbird.tripod.com/Albumlist/neilsonglist.htm

Very--thanks.

Question: what is ILX's general opinion about "Ohio"? It has a lot of meaning for me personally, but also my dad claims that he saw NY volunteering at the McGovern HQ in '72 (my dad was working on the campaign), a thought that basically makes me want to faint if it's true.

SO MANY SONGS. I may have to choose 30 instead of 20.

"Ohio" is an incredible-sounding song, will be voting for it pretty much apolitically