In Which Doctor Casino Listens to Classic Rock Classics for the First Time

you did NOT just call Mike Campbell "petty's guitar player"!!!

Mike Campbell is so so great, super nice guy as well.

should be noted, for the historical record, that the right shoulder sling is not mike campbell's normal style. also, all claims to his greatness otm.

no need for genre excursus here. back to the '70s and back to classic rock with a capital c and capital r. (well, they would be capital if i could find my shift key.) this was the first of two neil young songs that would inspire lynyrd skynyrd's riposte "sweet home alabama," thus launching the most friendly geographical feud in music history, as of course he loved them and they loved him, even if they did feel the need to let him know a southern man don't need him round anyhow.

SONG #23: NEIL YOUNG "SOUTHERN MAN"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVRxdPWV3RM

from wikipedia's "sweet home alabama" page:

There is a semi-hidden vocal line in the second verse after the "Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her" line. In the left channel, you can hear the phrase "Southern Man" being sung lightly (at approximately 0:55). This was producer Al Kooper doing a Neil Young impression and was just another incident of the band members messing around in the studio while being recorded. According to Leon Wilkeson, it was Kooper's idea to continue and echo the lines from "Southern Man" after each of Van Zant's lines. "Better...keep your head"..."Don't forget what your / good book says", etc. But Van Zant insisted that Kooper remove it, not wanting to plagiarize or upset Young. Kooper left the one line barely audible in the left channel.

Also, Doctor Casino, your posts are not tl at all, the attention to detail is what makes them so great, but you make me cry by calling any part of American Girl silly.

seconded

thirded. they are tl like a neil young gtr solo, which is to say, not tl at all.

never heard this song before; I don't think it gets played here. good tune though!

fact checking cuz, that is one awesome fact!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WHI2rSW1LFo/S6wOFqHlbWI/AAAAAAAADmo/XjqIIBvpdsE/s1600/ronnie-vanzant-neil.jpg

Some of us learned a ton of interesting stuff about that song during the great What Key Is It In? debate -every music borad has to have one- and then some not so interesting stuff.

<3 ronnie

recommended companion listening for 'Southern Man'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMQ8LMJEOy0

Thanks, y'all! Sorry for the break... been tooling around in Atlantic City and going-out-of-business video store sales. I was figuring on a proper hiatus while some dude rolls out his results, but let me knock out this last one first. CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL: THE RESULTS

Southern Man: Well, this isn't what I was expecting, the piano and stuff. Good sound, good shaking-head sadface groove. Okay, now that there's singing it sounds like CSNY, sounds like "Ohio." Kinda filling some time between the verses. I'm fine by Young's disapproval but that scratchy telephone/megaphone sound on the voice is terrrrible. This quick part is cool, even if the guitar seems kinda noodley and improvised. Wonder if it's just the stereo mix that makes it seem really pasted in on top of everything. Empty though it is, I like the break without guitar better - although this new skronkier part is fine.

Kinda surprised what a 'guitar' song this is, was expecting more of a long Dylanesque ramble about a particular Southern Man character with a lot of damning details or something. Doesn't help that I can't really make out what he's saying a lot of the time. I'm still happy to ride along mainly because of the piano-and-drums rhythm section but, wow, another big solo section? I gotta say, much as I hate "Sweet Home Alabama," Skynyrd seem to kinda be winning this one on craft and tactics - no one's going to be won over by this. And it's over.

Huh. Man, this just wasn't what I was expecting at all. I should try and judge it on its own merits though. Went for a second listen, paying closer attention to the words. But... ehhh, I dunno. I really do dig the outrage, and I think "when will you pay them back?" is fair enough, insists that these old injustices don't just get grandfathered out of existence, makes clearer that this is a present-day protest. But I think a closer look at present-day details would have really strengthened that. It's fine that he's just passing through as an outside observer, but he stops at having seen the shacks and the mansions - Easy Rider gives a better model of rock and rollers from way out of town witnessing poverty, injustice and violence. Hell, I think Travels With Charley does a better job of this. Dylan's "Hurricane," whatever its faults, puts emphasis at a few key points to lay out the story and the wrongs, pouring on the energy for "Don't forget that you are white!" to get the audience's blood boiling, but soberly declaring, as in a summary judgement, "Rubin Carter was falsely tried." Or, hell, "Ohio," which is slightly underwritten (essential to its up-to-the-minute broadcast feel) but still knows which theme to hammer: Four dead in Ohio is fucked-up and crazy and deserves to not be passed over as yesterday's headline.

I dunno, this seems just a little too much wall-to-wall I Am Angry At This Outrage, a good Facebook share but not the best use of anybody's talents towards changing anything. Of course, when you're fighting the good fight, sometimes you need songs that just remind you you're not alone, etc. Kind of a "New Kicks" for old SDCC people losing steam or losing track, a reminder to not drop out entirely when there's still work to be done. I can't really hate on that. And if I treat it just as some song that I'm not paying attention to, I guess it's fine - but I'd be a bit bugged at the length. Tree and a half minute song, padded out two minutes by excessive and not very interesting soloing. Note that I'm really unfamiliar with Young's body of work as a whole; I know people love him, and this album in particular - is there more for me to discover or is this representative?

Try listening to "Powederfinger"

If you don't like Young's soloing, maybe steer clear of most of his Crazy Horse records. And his live records. And his electric live shows. And don't see Dead Man.

(I love it myself, but I can see how it might grate on some)

Try listening to "Powederfinger"

My favourite

Somebody in my high school had as his yearbook quote

It don't look like they're here to deliver the mail - Neil Young

I don't like "Southern Man" much either; the groove seems half-assed.

B-b-but the solo came to the guy in a dream!

Had to think: "Powderfinger" may be second favorite after "Like A Hurricane," Live Rust version.

Roxy Music cover is good too.

OK now I imagined Bryan Ferry singing "Southern Man."

Interesting

"powderfinger" -- which young initially gave to lynyrd skynyrd and they apparently had planned to record -- is great. and it, too, has a couple big solo sections. that's one of the things he likes to do, for sure.

i love love love neil, and i pretty much agree with everything in your review, doctor. (i'm not a big fan of his other southern-man song, "alabama," either, and i'm a huge fan of "sweet home alabama," for whatever that's worth.) "southern man" is typical of one particular side of neil young: big, blustery electric rock with lyrics that are equally evocative and evasive and leave plenty of room for seemingly improvised guitar breaks. it is not, however, especially typical of the album on which it appears, after the gold rush, which is a fairly quiet, folk-rocky affair, and which is absolutely great. "southern man" is a weak link on it for me. i like but don't love the album's one other big rock number, "when you dance i can really love," but everything else is gold. his best electric sides tend to be tighter and punchier than "southern man" except when they're not, and he's capable of being a lot wordier in a way that paints all sorts of color and detail and still leave you wondering what exactly is he saying. a great example of a long, open-ended, guitar-solo-filled ny epic is "cortez the killer."

his two 1975 albums, tonight's the night and zuma, together are a pretty great summation of what he did at his best.

i've always thought of him as a bit of an outlier in the classic rock world, even if he has a handful of songs that hit the classic rock nail on the head.

and yeah, this is a great time for a hiatus, dr. c.

but don't go away, 'cause we'll be back, after a few hundred thousand words from our sponsors at CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL: THE RESULTS, with music by elp, elo, reo and lots more.

I love "Southern Man." In the Neil Young poll, it got a certain amount of criticism for being too blunt/simplistic, but I think tipsy mothra nailed it with this:

In defense of "Southern Man," I would just like to say that I had every intention of leaving it off my ballot -- for most of the thematic reasons noted above -- until I actually listened to the thing again and remembered what a jam it is. It could be called "Fryin' Pan" or "Cowboy Stan" and it still would've made my ballot.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Monday, 9 July 2012 20:50 (2 years ago) Permalink

Favorite part of southern man is the quick stop-big cymbal crash part.

Also one of the quintessential "one note repeated" Neil Young solo. And the switches in tempo are great too. Just love this song.

CSNY version of "Southern Man" is too long but kind of worth it for Neil vs. Stills guitar fite

Also some Nels Lofgren was told to play piano and he'd never played professionally before -- he says the piano part is based on some dimly remembered accordion licks from his childhood (which admittedly was not long before he started working with Neil).

Great info, fcc, maybe I'll finally check out that record! A solid folk-rock record is right up my alley. I did buy a dollar copy of Night Moves as a result of this thread, but have only listened to side one so far, to avoid spoilers.

Surely, though, it's: ''elp, elo, reo, etc.''

there are no spoilers left on night moves, not on this thread anyway! all remaining seger is from later albums.

Wow, dunno what happened but obv that should be ''SCLC'' up there in my review. Must have been crosswiring them with the SDS for a second.

Yeah lol for me SDCC only means San Diego Comic Con (which is still how I refer to it rather than Comicon, being a veteran of its early nineties era.)

Also some Nels Lofgren was told to play piano and he'd never played professionally before -- he says the piano part is based on some dimly remembered accordion licks from his childhood (which admittedly was not long before he started working with Neil).

Nils is a man of many talents:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Wu3maOs44

Oh man, if only Neil had written a scathing anthem about the decline and commercialization of comic conventions.

^^Don't rule that out for the next Crazy Horse album.

"5 Day Pass"

"I used to dig Jack Kirby...hey now hey now now"

Beyonderfinger

"It's better to flame on
Than to fade away"

Hmm, maybe at the end of the some dude countdown we should update here with anything I don't know that placed in the results, even if it wasn't in the original tailgate list? I figure if they're big enough to show up in the poll results they're big enough that I "should" know them. So far (as of #61), it'd be "Walk Away," and "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," plus "Midnight Rider" which I must have passed over when I made my list.

Nils is a man of many talents:

you ain't seen nothin til you've seen him do interpretive jazz dancing on the Trans tour

(xp) yes, totally. those three are now on the master list, and happy to add more. (but you're from atlanta, right? kinda surprised about the allmans!)

I'm calling he's heard it but always thought it was called "one more silver dollar"

It is possible! But at the moment, I'm drawing a blank, silver dollars or no. TBH it's also possible there are even more embarrassing omissions that I never put down in writing... might have self-censored a bit when I was making my list to avoid seeming too pathetic to the cool kids of ILM.

when did we start letting in cool kids?

welcome back, my friends, to the thread that never ends.

SONG #24: EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER "KARN EVIL 9 (1st IMPRESSION, PT. 2)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwSTe9uit48

"karn evil 9 (1st impression, pt. 2)" is the radio-friendly piece of elp's four-part, half-hour long "karn evil" suite. it was originally released on the album brain salad surgery, with the four parts spread across one and a half album sides in such a way that "1st impression, pt. 2" conveniently wound up as the lead track on side 2. it did not place in the top 500 on ilm's classic rock poll. brain salad surgery took its title from a lyric in dr. john's "right place wrong time," which was released earlier the same year, and which came in at #487 in ilm.