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

i left them all in! could not cut them, wouldn't even if i could.

HoG and Cinnamon were both ones i thought of late and added on. even though i've heard both a million times, they're both so completely classic...

Yeah, "Heart of Gold" and "Helpless" were both near-cuts for me, but in the end I couldn't leave them off. (Never thought about excluding "Cinnamon Girl" -- that riff!)

Just a general statement: beyond the inevitable "too low!" quibbles, I don't think anyone would feel that anything really famous is getting shafted right now. The only song that to me seems criminally low--my vote and no one else's--is what I always thought was Neil's obvious post-Rust masterpiece. Apparently not!

Aw no, I never even thought of including Heart Of Gold. It's so classic :(

No worries clemenza, the obvious post-Rust masterpiece is going to get hellapoints from yours truly

How many ballots so far?

y'all are talking about kinda fonda wanda right

I've tallied 24, and there are another three where I've requested some scoring clarification. Should clear 30 easily, which is what I was hoping for.

Will probably send mine tomorrow or Thursday.

30? That's it? I live in a world where everyone has at least 10 favorite Neil Young songs.

I'm not a cheerleader, but if you like even 10 Neil Young songs, why not type them out and email them as part of this poll. It's not hard. Just think of the songs, type their names in whatever order you think of them, and send that email. Boom, you have voted.

It's not hard. Try it. 5 minutes, max. Time yourself if you have to.

you know it's quite possible that "Heart of Gold" won't be anywhere near my ballot.

It's a pretty song and I'm glad he got a #1 -- it made the indulgences of the seventies possible -- but if you weren't there at the time I suspect it won't place in a top ten.

heart of coal

I love Heart of Gold, and it made my top ten for sure! Well, tied for it, at least. I did sort of a tiered vote with 3 #1s, 2 #2s, 11 #3s and 14 #4s

alfred, i applaud your conviction even if i think you have a heart of skoal

heart of lol

didn't even occur to me to vote for it. always seemed like some weird fluke to me that that's his biggest song. it seems pretty unremarkable in his catalog, it seems like such a right place/right time kind of thing

heart of troll

heart of http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0b1dwAeQP1qg2l6no5_400.jpg

My hart of gold is a statue of a deer.

Wouldn't have touched my ballot if I had gone to 60 songs.

while there are plenty of compilation-approved classics on my list, there are a lot that would have made my 41-75 or 41-100 or whatever. In the same sense, my 3 favorite albums are only represented by 4 tracks on my ballot, where as if i had the chance to vote for 100 songs, the majority of tracks from those albums would be on it.

You guys have hearts of cold.

and your zings are gettin' bold

http://www.makems.com/graphic/heart-of-gold.jpg

oh man, i never listened to classic rock radio as a kid, so i never think of heart of gold as some sort of massive hit. it's a perfect song, so awesome. if it was a long lost track that somehow ended up on the Japanese tour edition of Chrome Dreamz IV or something everyone would be shitting their pants to it

Ha! I've spotified my ballot and as you'd expect it sounds terrific - until you get to the Trans deep cuts, which sound utterly, utterly ridiculous in this context. I liked it when I heard it in isolation, but now I think I understand why it's got the reputation it does.

i like the whole idea of trans, except for how the songs actually sound

But the weakest tracks are the ones included because he lost his nerve.

"Little Thing Called Love" was the single? in 1982? He could have released "Sample & Hold," kept the skinny tie, and boogied with Rod on MTV.

xps Trans is awesome though.

just sent in my ballot. could have mulled over it forever, but decided to keep myself from HAVING to listen to nothing but neil for another week. 40 songs, ranked, top 5 getting 10 points, bottom 5 getting 7, middle 30 getting 8. 19 of the 40 are post-Rust. three are noted as LIVE VERSIONS even though I'd be surprised if that distinction is even relevant.

I was trying to think up a clever simile to capture their ridiculousness xps ('like a rocket flying through a flock of geese', 'like a monorail running in the Kentucky Derby') but tbh 'like some Trans songs in a Neil Young playlist' captures it better than anything.

I didn't vote for "Heart of Gold," but I retain a lot of nostalgic attachment to it. It's one of those songs that just instantaneously conjures up 1972 for me.

didn't even occur to me to vote for it. always seemed like some weird fluke to me that that's his biggest song. it seems pretty unremarkable in his catalog, it seems like such a right place/right time kind of thing

^ this. Never liked "Heart of Gold" or "Old Man."

But the weakest tracks are the ones included because he lost his nerve.

OTM

The "Heart of Gold/A Man Needs A Maid" combo on Massey Hall is epic.

Putting a call out to Tarfumes and Dave G.: I e-mailed you both about some scoring issues yesterday.

Another suggestion on how to score a 40-song ballot, courtesy of croupier: 10 for your first five, 7 for your bottom five, and 8 for the other thirty.

Where are the lurking Shocking Pinks fans?

― Electro-Shock Rory (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, July 2, 2012 9:20 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I love Everybody's Rockin' - it's FUN.
KFW made the lower reaches of my ballot.

xp Not sure why my reply didn't go thru...anyway, I choose Model Number One.

Passed the 200 mark for songs that have gotten votes (kind of silly--Neil's pool of songs is considerably larger--but hoping to exceed 212). Very close at the top; the same two songs have changed places five or six times now. Five albums have received votes in their entirety, two are within one song.

Person who voted for "New Mama" I'mma calling you out

"I thought about removing Cripple Creek Ferry from my list of the 40 best Neil songs, but it was a mighty tight...SQUEEZE!"

If only--but I'm going to give you till the morning comes to change your mind.

Oi, what's wrong with New Mama?

Does anyone have just a plain text list of NY song titles without any other embellishment, info, context or anything else?

Can't find anything, not even on the Thrasher's Wheat site. This is almost funny: http://www.whosdatedwho.com/tpx_5638/neil-young/songs. Separate entries for "Cripple Creek Ferry" (1991) and "Crippled Creek Ferry" (1970).

Oi, what's wrong with New Mama?

what's wrong with new mama being one of neil's 40 best songs you mean?

Am I the only one who finds "Such a Woman" not sappy but totally gorgeous?

I voted for "Such a Woman"! I think it gains a lot from how it stands out (reverse "Trans effect"?) and that I'm more willing to trust NY to go to potentially cheesy places than I would a lesser artist, but yeah it's gorgeous.