neil young

really a *million years* cmon man no one is that old

it's called "adding some spice to your social media posts to make them more interesting for the reader," you should try it sometime

i think 'dead man' is a top 5 neil release for me

a million years ago things were actually less spicy than they are now (by 5-10 degrees).

Neil's work on the Dead Man soundtrack is up there with Ry Cooder's on Paris, Texas and they make a good pair of companion records, possibly also with some later Earth records too

Another companion OST: Grizzly Man - Richard Thompson with Jim O'Rourke, Henry Kaiser, et al

Neil Young returning to Spotify is going to be the biggest single day catalog dump of goodness on that service since John Zorn OK'd access to Tzadik. I hope my family will be cool with several days worth of pent up Neil albums playing in the kitchen.

lol the announcement on his site is titled "MY RETURN TO LOW RES SPOTIFY"

Feedback is Back! (in low res)

Don't want my mp3
Don't want my mp3
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
When you hear my song now
You only get five percent
You used to get it all
You used to get it all
Blocking out my anger
Blocking out my thoughts
Blocking out my anger now
Blocking out my thoughts

you know what's wild? Afaict there are like five things on Spotify that feature Neil Young, a drop in the bucket, and those five things, basically five tracks, supposedly get three and a half million listens a month.

Apparently those numbers (or some of them) are because some Buffalo Springfield stuff is additionally credited to him.

The Springfield have 6.6 million monthly listeners.

the neil songs i kept stored in my offlines during this blackout. possibly my alltime goats neil list?:

(into the black)
la
lotta love
powderfinger
prime of life
walk on

... no 'don't be denied' though - fascinating!

I bought an old cassette of On The Beach for $5 yesterday and listened to it on my Walkman - hopefully Neil is cool with this authentically shitty analogue experience

(it actually sounded pretty good to be honest)

Walk On seems underrated maybe?

It doesn’t get enough love, it’s a jam and a half.

I’d say Spotify was a business success if it can make people just wait out listening to any Neil Young on the off chance he comes back around to their platform

lol Neil's stance personally made me want to support him more via investing in some of his vinyl. Waiting it out is a little like not picking up a film widely available on DVD on the off chance it'll show up on Amazon prime streaming for a month.

it should be said because i am aware of the thread i am posting in that all of those -'cept prime of life ofc- were self-made og vinyl->320mp3s. no pirating here, neil.

yes, my rip of 'powderfinger' sounds amazing. i know. thanks.

otm I signed up to test drive Apple Music almost entirely based on how little Neil Young I’d heard in the past couple years. The interface is terrible, the animated album covers are dumb, the navigation sucked, etc etc. I canceled before the free trial was up and resigned myself to streaming his albums on youtube. Never even crossed my mind to join Tidal or whatever.

Honestly, when you've released 100 albums or whatever, 20+ of them must-haves, more if you include boxed sets, live albums, other projects, digital is sadly the best way to navigate, imo.

the archives versions of “Pocahontas” and “ride my llama” with crazy horse are so amazing, it’s absurd he chose to release those dinky solo versions on rust (sorry)

I long to be way down in the rust bucket again

During his Spotify blackout I indeed bought two (used) Neil Young albums.

I really wish he'd release the 2CD Ragged Glory as a standalone. I don't want to buy that box set.

the archives versions of “Pocahontas”...

I read that as "the Archies versions of..."

Lol

Dunno how y'all aren't making the most of sweet sweet tidal hi-fi

Neil never left for me. Austin, that's a mighty fine collection of tracks. LA was the only song I could manage to get a Keith urban obsessed guitar student to be interested in (out of ALL music. Not just neil). That guitar riff is truly too sick to deny

we could have had it all https://t.co/7vq239m3zv pic.twitter.com/f5Ma7jdEbi

— Good Steely Dan Takes (@baddantakes) March 13, 2024

Thanks Neil

Neil missing an opportunity to simply re-record his entire back catalog in super-duper double hi-fi, so that Spotify's would-be low res version is still actually regular hi-fi.

Arc (Neil's Version)

the archives versions of “Pocahontas” and “ride my llama” with crazy horse are so amazing, it’s absurd he chose to release those dinky solo versions on rust (sorry)

sorry but your apology is not accepted. rust pocanhontas is top five neil for me.

the real slander should be directed at tonight's the night's version of "new mama" when compared to the stray gators version!

stray gators "new mama" is one of my very fav neil songs

This time between the announced return and an actual return is perhaps most painful

Heh, just experienced that earlier

the archives versions of “Pocahontas” and “ride my llama” with crazy horse are so amazing, it’s absurd he chose to release those dinky solo versions on _rust_ (sorry)

Zuma versions are awesome, as are the Rust versions.

neil young rules

2012 seems to be the last year I remained aware of new Neil albums (Americana and Psychedelic Pill), even if I didn't hear them. His discography since then (discounting unreleased albums from the 70s) runs thus:

A Letter Home (2014)
Storytone (2014)
The Monsanto Years (2015) (with Promise of the Real)
Peace Trail (2016)
The Visitor (2017) (with Promise of the Real)
Colorado (2019) (with Crazy Horse)
Barn (2021) (with Crazy Horse)
Toast (2022, recorded 2001) (with Crazy Horse)
World Record (2022) (with Crazy Horse)
Before and After (2023)

The Monsanto Years I've heard of, the rest I don't even recognise the titles. Anything worth hearing in there?

the archives versions of “Pocahontas” and “ride my llama” with crazy horse are so amazing, it’s absurd he chose to release those dinky solo versions on rust (sorry)

I prefer the former (maybe Neil's biggest fun guitar sound), but wouldn't say it was an absurd choice.

i was surprised at how fully fleshed out both pocahontas and ride my llama were when the Zuma versions appeared on Archives II — maybe more elaborate arrangements than anything that actually made the album.

Ragged Glory, Sleeps With Angels, and Psychedelic Pill are my favorite NY albums although I haven’t heard them all…I hardly listen to his earlier stuff besides Tonight’s the Night….anything else along these lines I shouldn’t miss?

Rust Never Sleeps? Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere? After the Gold Rush?

Zuma. Big fat guitars, like Ragged Glory.

The Monsanto Years I've heard of, the rest I don't even recognise the titles. Anything worth hearing in there?

― feat. fish as 'the highlander' (Matt #2), Thursday, 14 March 2024 22:22 (one hour ago) link

barn is great - i'd put "they might be lost" in with his best

A Letter Home (2014)
Storytone (2014)
The Monsanto Years (2015) (with Promise of the Real)
Peace Trail (2016)
The Visitor (2017) (with Promise of the Real)
Colorado (2019) (with Crazy Horse)
Barn (2021) (with Crazy Horse)
Toast (2022, recorded 2001) (with Crazy Horse)
World Record (2022) (with Crazy Horse)
Before and After (2023)

The Monsanto Years I've heard of, the rest I don't even recognise the titles. Anything worth hearing in there?

What I ripped to my computer and still listen to once in a while:

"Who's Gonna Stand Up?" (live version with Crazy Horse) is actually not on any of those, but Storytone has different, inferior versions
"Needle of Death" from A Letter Home
The solo versions of "Plastic Flowers," "I Want to Drive My Car" and "Tumbleweed" from Storytone. FYI that's a weird release - Neil made a solo version, another version with orchestral overdubs, and a hybrid version that goes back and forth between those two.
"A New Day for Love," "Wolf Moon," "People Want to Hear About Love," "A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop" from The Monsanto Years
"Peace Trail" from the album of the same name
"Forever" from The Visitor
"I Do" from Colorado
Barn is good
Toast is good - I didn't really care for Are You Passionate? and don't have it anymore, so I was surprised by how much I liked Toast

I haven't given those last two albums a good listen, but I haven't heard much about them.

i put together a playlist of my favorites from the last three Crazy Horse records — it's a solid listen, clocks in at just about LP-length:

1. Welcome Back
2. Heading West
3. Overhead
4. Olden Days
5. They Might Be Lost
6. Green Is Blue
7. Chevrolet
8. I Do