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

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

I think "Ohio" is amazing. I always play it for my students on May 4. There was thread a couple of years ago about political songs, and the common complaint was raised that CSNY were just rich-hippie dilettantes out of their element. Don't agree at all--I think it's as spontaneous and as unmediated an expression of outrage as almost any song I can think of. That's great that your dad worked on that campaign...lots of Warren Beatty stories?

Yknow, I have no idea -- I'll ask him!

I totally grilled him for NY stories but all he could tell me was that a hippie walked in and asked to volunteer and no one there at the time knew who he was ;_;

(Dad looks nervously in direction of mom) "Beatty stories? Um, sure...not right now."

Trans - now here's a record that's been unjustly maligned. It's kinda lovely.

Just realized Trans isn't on Spotify! Booo.

It's on mine, but Zuma isn't :(

Some of Trans is on Grooveshark if you've never heard it. I'm sure it's still the most polarizing Neil album. I'm on the humorless-drudge side of that divide.

I don't want to spoiler my ballot too much ahead of time but ON THE WAY HOME, y'all.

Yeah "Ohio"'s about as angry as it gets, I love it

"Ohio" is Political Neil on his game; it says more in three minutes than Living With War did in 40. Definitely going on my ballot.

Landing On Water mostly appeals for novelty value, but I could imagine "Pressure" getting on a Top 40 ballot of mine if I wasn't planning to actively revisit more fertile periods of his career. One thing I love about Neil is that just about every album has a quality that makes it different from anything before or since - very few of his albums I can't imagine a random freak going to bat for.

I have a major soft spot for Comes a Time, for instance.

I like Comes A Time a lot. I just had on Old Ways, which I do not like. Maybe I'm missing something, but on this or Everybody's Rockin' Neil seems completely content to work within the genre constraints, so that I'm wondering why he bothered.

...To piss Geffen off?

on both records?

iirc, he was spending the bulk of his time and energy developing communication systems for his disabled son. Making records -- focused, commercial, or otherwise -- was not really a priority for him at the time.

i've wondered if his archive series has actively been intended to redo albums he's not totally happy with - replacing harvest moon with Dreamin Man '92 and Old Ways with A Promise, the debut with Sugar Mountain, etc.

on both records?

Yeah. Old Ways was initially rejected and someone at the label told him he should "try some rock'n'roll" (or something along those lines), so he cut Everybody's Rockin' as a "So There!" joke in response, but the label sorta flipped at his grab for the then-lucrative Stray Cats market.

I don't want to spoiler my ballot too much ahead of time but ON THE WAY HOME, y'all.

― Biff Wellington (WmC), Saturday, June 23, 2012 1:34 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Such a great song. This is as good a place as any to mention that Richie Furay is such an underappreciated talent....

That's funny xp. I knew Everybody's Rockin' was a response to something, but I presumed it was Trans.

ooh ooh a good excuse to talk about this bizarre 1983 live performance of "do you wanna dance"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDTZLsscFz8

and that weird look on his face

I first realized Neil was a compulsive hoarder/recycler when I heard "Wonderin'" on a boot of a 1970 Cleveland show with Crazy Horse. The only other time I'd heard it was seeing the video for the Shocking Pinks version in 1983. I found it baffling that he thought the latter was the better arrangement.

oh Comes A Time is beautiful

Neil opens the Bridge Benefit with it every year with the Dennis Alley Wisdom Dancers, could not love it more

I mean, cmon

http://bridgeschool.org/galleries/full/1241215454.jpg

Because I like pictures

http://davidmcgough.com/photos/Neil%20Young,%20wife%201983%20LA.jpg

OK, I'm going to give this a shot. Will I be the only one repping for "Safeway Cart?

The Meters did a good mellow buoyant early 70s-type R&B version of "Birds on Cabbage Alley in the early 70s. Good album. Not the orig Trans, but the Trans Band live can be heard here (with lots of other live Neil, lots of other artists too; everything I've listened to sounds good)
http://www.ousterhout.net/music-menu.html

Check it well before July 12, RIAArmageddon-wise

I wish the 'Around The World' middle section was in a better song - it's got that In Through The Out Door/The Visitors feel to it that I'm a sucker for.

Thanks for the bootleg link, Dow; I grabbed the 1970 Cincinnati show. I assumed at the time that Everybody's Rockin' had something to do with the Stray Cats. That's a puzzling journey from Rust Never Sleeps four years earlier. I wish I could dig up this Neil quote from a '79 story/interview in Time or Newsweek--something to do with him and Crazy Horse running into the McCartney and the Wings at an airport. It catches Neil at his most boyishly fan-like. I read this in high school, probably the first Neil bio (I scanned my shelves and don't seem to have it anymore):

http://gd2ltd.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/51fxlcknrpl_ss500_.jpg

Yes! I was wondering just yesterday how it must feel to be a star from the second wave of rock, forever little brother to McCartney or Jagger who just won't ever get off the throne. Neil's been an elder statesman for thirty years, he must feel like Prince Charles.

the Comes a Time poll was one of my faves.

Harvest Moon is a lot better than I remember - I always thought it was hokey as hell, I could never understand it being hailed as his big return to form.

'Natural Beauty' is *so* gorgeous.

A ballot with 12 songs came in, so I had to figure out how to vote if you're between increments of 10:

0-10 songs: 15 per song total (i.e., 7 songs = 105 points to split)
11-20 songs: 150 points + 10 points per song above 10 (i.e., 17 songs = 150 + 70 = 220 to split)
21-30 songs: 250 points + 5 points per song above 20 (i.e., 27 songs = 250 + 35 = 285 to split)

If you're between 30 and 40, you get 5 extra points every two songs; try to vote for an even number to avoid half-points: 32 = 305, 34 = 310, 36 = 315, 38 = 320, 40 = 325.

It's how Neil would have wanted it--he's very math-oriented.

'You and Me' from Harvest Moon is great too. ive got 30 songs but putting them in order is driving me so crazy i might just opt out of this one.

yeah, Natural Beauty will most likely be on my ballot. although, the wording of the first line in the chorus always provokes the facepalm

A natural beauty should be preserved
like a monument...
to nature

aw man neil, c'mon

and then as they hit the chorus one more time at the end and reach that final line, they just let it die off at "like a monument..." because no one's willing to add "...to nature" to that monster one more time

'You and Me' from Harvest Moon is great too. ive got 30 songs but putting them in order is driving me so crazy i might just opt out of this one.

Just give them all the same number of points...no opting out!!! :)

I'm going to concoct a part-ranked ballot I think. Top dozen or so will be ranked, the rest will get some arbitrary total. I'll have about sixty songs in total though - aiui it's a forty-track limit, so there's some serious culling needs doing.