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

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.

i haven't even started

still thinking!

gonna have a field day with this. only thing is i was on a massive Neil kick a few months ago, so it may take a bit of a kickstart to enter that zone again.

I'm totally not ranking, because there is no way.

I always thought "Natural Beauty" had these clear echoes of "Cortez the Killer," musically if not thematically.

I think I'm putting "Peaceful Valley Boulevard" on my ballot. I think that song is so spooky, and very of a piece with past themes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r-H0rJDQjY

Really getting into Le Noise right now..."Love and War" might make my ballot.

le noise will probably be in my top 3 album covers ballot

i need to listen to the album itself a bit more, though.

just saw this photo. where's the album these dudes recorded?
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m63uyhYCzX1qd418mo1_1280.png

Bay Area MVPs.

I would totally listen to an album by that crew. Even one made now instead of then.

totally!
anyhoo, looking at the big list of neil songs, i'm really not sure whether I'll vote for anything not 60s-70s! i love tons of stuff past that era, but...

yeah I'm kinda there too

with the exception of Harvest Moon.

I kinda wish we could vote for specific versions of songs, like the Weld version of "Farmer John", or the second version of "Tonight's The Night" from the Manchester show in '73, or The Bernstein Tapes version of "Mellow My Mind".

yeah me too, but that'd get a little nuts, wouldn't it?

I was gonna say that if you guys can forsake Harvest Moon, I don't know whether you should start looking for a heart transplant or...?

glad to see you've come to your senses

harvest moon is definitely the top contender for post-70s. maybe that and crime in the city. oh and maybe safeway cart. and country home! (tho i think of that last one as a 70s track).

I know it would be nuts to do it that way, but I can't help but think, " I love this particular version but the studio take is shit."

I don't want to vote for songs where I love a performance over a composition, if that makes sense.

xposts

Okay, I'm in for this. I can see my list hitting triple digits on first pass already. Yikes.

Coincidentally, just got tix to see NY and the Horse in October -- pumped.

Busy day...a ranked/unranked ballot is fine, Ismael; give points to wherever, and I'll split the rest among the remaining songs (if they don't divide evenly, I'll let you know).

I love "Country Home." I walk around humming that all the time.

Crap, almost forgot "Philadelphia." That song is beautiful.

oh yessss, i could vote for philadelphia for sure.
this is one of my fave country homes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_ZEsmpETCY

seems like that song should just be a standard in any of neil's electric sets, but it seems like he rarely plays it.

I kinda wish we could vote for specific versions of songs

I think it'd be insane for polling, but nothing's stopping anybody from tacking on their fave version of a song when they post their ballot after the poll

My first pass was 49 tracks, only 8 that aren't from between 1969-79. Should be able to cut that back to 40.

Incidentally, I have no problem voting for later stuff because I know even fans of Neil's whole career will (and likely should) be leaning to '60s and '70s.

Oh, and speaking of which, I listen to "Freedom," "Ragged Glory," "Harvest Moon" and "Sleeps With Angels" as much as I listen to any prime Neil. That's easily his best run of classics since the '70s.

I think it'd be insane for polling, but nothing's stopping anybody from tacking on their fave version of a song when they post their ballot after the poll

― da croupier, Monday, June 25, 2012 1:38 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark

sometimes people note that stuff when mailing in their ballots and the organizer mentions in the results "x votes for this remix, x votes for that version" etc.

I've been marking the albums as I go along - boring to say so, but After The Gold Rush, Harvest and On The Beach are definitely the top three (unless Time Fades Away is amazing, I haven't got there yet). He's had a lot of decent albums since, but those three are the pick.

Not to say I'll be voting for lots of tracks off those albums, necessarily. A lot of Harvest is relatively weak imo, but it hangs together so well.

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

pistols at dawn, Klata

:)

Oh, and speaking of which, I listen to "Freedom," "Ragged Glory," "Harvest Moon" and "Sleeps With Angels" as much as I listen to any prime Neil
yeah, add in the live albums from this time period and the el dorado ep, and you've got an amazing run.

started going through the albums today. not gonna start putting the ballot together until i reach the end, but if we were doing worst neil tracks I think "Last Trip To Tulsa" and "There's A World" might still be in the top 10 when I wrap this thing up.

last trip is definitely a drag -- i came around in a big way on that self titled debut when the remasters came out, but i still turn it off when we get to Tulsa.

yeah, it's totally enjoyable until then - at least for being such a weird, anomalous curio

as much as i like his early years, the only album of '62-'72 that I'd recommend to a casual fan is Gold Rush - the rest are summed up by Decade fine

I have lots of love for Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, especially in light of the remasters. Totally launches that record into the stratosphere.