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

Crap! I knew I forgot something!

"Fuckin' Up" is better than I remember. Too bad he cut the "Big success, shot full of holes" line.

I've tallied 40 ballots now, with one more waiting for a scoring confirmation--may be able to reach 50. Still a great three-way race at the top (one of the three came out of nowhere midway). 226 different songs/covers have drawn votes.

Quick Question: how would I vote for the Massey "A Man Needs.../Heart of Gold" suite? Do I just vote for it as one whole, or two seperate pieces with a note of preference, or just for "A Man..." w/the note?

separately, I'd tink.

I'm very tempted to vote for the new "Comin' Round the Mountain."

still gonna vote but it's tough to find time so look out for my love soon

C. Grissom: yes, separately--all live versions (about which only a couple of people have been specific anyway) have been combined with studio originals.

Ok, thanks. Onward to Sleeps With Angels (which I'm pretty sure I haven't listened to in 13 or so years.)

It's really, really good.

I was just listening to "American Stars n Bars," and it really struck me how nice it is sometimes just to listen to Neil Young. Like, it doesn't really matter the album, or the songs, just that he's such a distinctive writer and particularly a singer that it's nice just to hear his voice some mornings. That really clicked with me the last time I saw him live. Hot or not so hot, he's the only Neil Young we've got, and man, is he a good one.

Bout to send my ballot, because likewise there are no wrong answers.

Going to try to get mine in today as well! Some last minute listening, then a lot of trimming. Trying not to have 50 or 60 not wrong answers.

Famous LBJ quote: "I'm the only president you've got."

Sent!

As I wrote, that felt like ripping off 30 Bandaids.

I mean, gosh, in its face "Homegrown" is not a good song. It's short, stupid and simple, but not in a special sort of way. And yet it's so much fun to listen to Neil and gang slop through it.

it's nice just to hear his voice some mornings
tooootally

i'll be mellowing my mind on vacation next week when the results roll out and i don't think i'll have internet access where i'm going BUT i expect you all to rejoice properly when danger bird wins this thing.

I'm very tempted to vote for the new "Comin' Round the Mountain."

I was tempted to listen to Americana a bunch of times to settle on a highlight, but since there's no way of it affecting the actual poll I decided to put it down and finally listen to something other than Neil. Though it was remarkably easy to listen to nothing but Neil for a week or so.

I just noticed something interesting when I was looking up "Life" on wiki: I guess he projected clips of a couple of "Life"-era Horse performances of "Mideast Vacation" and "Long Walk Home" on the "Living with War" tour. When the tour film showed up on DVD, those 1986 performances were listed as being "from Neil Young Archives Volume 3."

Neil Young, always playing the long game.

La Lechera - before you go let me know on your behalf what tracks I should harumph and pshaw, and which I should cheer with impish glee.

xpost:
speaking of mellow my mind - heard the song many times but the last time i listened to it noticed there's a thing he does to change his vocals that comes after the second verse (i believe), and what he does is freaking incredible and one of my absolute fave moments of Neil.

ME TOO! My favorite part is the "ain't got NOTHIN"

EZ -- will do! Don't think I'm joking because I am not. There will be more glee than pshaw. You guys are going to miss me when no one is there to talk about how CUTE Neil Young was or lament what he did to his teeth though.

Maybe it's been masked by the constant roar of the A/C, but so far my wife has not commented on the fact that Neil Young has been playing in the house for about three days non-stop now.

When the tour film showed up on DVD, those 1986 performances were listed as being "from Neil Young Archives Volume 3."
funny, because i think the first time i heard of the "Neil Young Archives" was in the liners for Lucky 13. That comp is basically the template for the Archives.

and yes MELLOW MY MIND! Surprisingly intense song, considering its title. i voted for it.

Anyone else think "Lotta Love" could probably make a good smooth soul song? It makes me think of "I'll Be Around" by the Spinners.

you've heard the nicolette larson version, i presume?

Lotta Love is Neil tossing off a "perfect pop song" because guys on his boat wouldn't stop playing Rumours, or something like that, so its relatively amenable to multiple top 40 formats

yeah that's what it says in Shakey re: Rumours, but Neil was playing Lotta Love live way before Rumours came out -- maybe he meant the first buckingham/nicks FM album? factchecking!

wondered about that myself - i'd like to think neil just used "rumors" has short hand for that 70s proto-adult contemporary radio vibe

man i hope someone has shown him 'yacht rock' bet he'd love it

Lotta Love is such a great song. I don't care if it's tossed off or not. If Neil Young can sleepwrite something that pretty and heartfelt, more power to him.
In my top 5! There should be a subpoll of NY slowdance songs.

oh yeah, i definitely don't mean "tossed off" as a slam, esp with Neil. Lotta Love's great.

in his later years neil was very casual about the specifics of the modern music that influenced him - love when Shakey's author gets butthurt about him praising Flock Of Seagulls re: Trans - who knows if he ever actually put on a Nirvana album himself, i wonder how long he's just been picking up vibes rather than earnestly manning the stereo himself

Dylan and Lennon were the same way--they'd say stuff about somebody out there, and I'd sometimes wonder if they had actually listened to the person in question. There was a Rolling Stone interview with Dylan were he got defensive about one of the late '70s albums being called disco, and countered with something like "I'm not disco--the Village People are disco." Had he been carefully listening to the Village People at home, or did he hear them once in his manager's office?

yeah, i've been listening to a fair amount of late 70s grateful dead and there's a lot of disco-y vibes happening. the dead probably were not, you know, going out and really absorbing disco, but there are some things that are just "in the air" and maybe sort of unavoidable?

Neil being one of the few really prominent artists of the day whose music seemed oblivious to disco. (Not a loaded observation; I like a lot of disco.) If there's anything remotely disco-like that he put out between 1976 and 1980, I've forgotten what it was.

yeah, that Larson cover is the closest (which he obviously didn't play on). probably had to do w/ his choice of musicians? there might be a few things on stills/young bootlegs that veer close to disco. more yacht rock, i suppose.

I was expecting to find some smooth music on digging around the late 70s stuff but no, Neil seems bloody-minded about all trends. Which makes Trans both exceptional and bloody typical I suppose.

still funny to me that trans is treated as this once-in-a-lifetime belch of synth when the guy went right back to it after the international harvesters

You guys haven't heard the club remix album he did with The Residents? Discomes A Time is classic.

hahaha

And then to follow it up with Mirror Ball

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

there's a muddy clip of "Sample And Hold" from 1986 on youtube too

funny, because i think the first time i heard of the "Neil Young Archives" was in the liners for Lucky 13. That comp is basically the template for the Archives.

I remember first reading about it in a 1990 Chicago Tribune piece on Neil's comeback. He next his "next" project was a 10-CD archival box. I thought, ooh, better start saving up!

Shakey's a lot like Clinton Heylin's essential Dylan biography in that the author's opinions about their subject's music are to me almost worthless. McDonough in particular is beholden to a certain white he-man ideal of "rocking."

Just out of curiosity, I googled "Neil Young + disco." Mostly you get discography-related sites, but this turned up: "Disco music wasn't meant to appeal to the Neil Young crowd. It wasn't meant to convey a political or moral statement. It was meant to be played at a dance club at 2 o'clock in the morning to an audience hopped up on cocaine looking to uninhibited recreational sex...Neil Young can kiss it." Lots of cocaine in Neil's music; not much uninhibited recreational sex (I don't think--maybe there's lots metaphorically).

It wasn't meant to convey a political or moral statement

really

it makes me wish Neil had done more burning to the ships of the hippie dream

Thought exactly the same thing. "You either haven't heard 'Good Times,' or haven't thought about it."

I'd better go engage with the world for a while--just need a handful more ballots to cross 50.

Kinda wish I'd revisited Greendale before putting together my ballot, because "Bandit" is one of the most beautiful things he's done.

It's okay, I got it for you