A World of Constant Strangers: The Neil Young Results Thread

Thanks. I initially read that as "Hey, I made a difference: voted in 75, 74, and 73"...I thought you were re-living the Nixon meltdown.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil63.jpg

That's somebody who lives just down the road from Neil's Broken Arrow ranch. I don't know, I've just never been a big fan of this song...very arty.

My very last cut. Surpised it is this low, but I think we'll see more BS to come...

it's kind of hilarious he ended a bunch of shows with "A Day in The Life" when he had this in his bag

Meant in a good way, of course. (xpost)

xp it's pretty? beautiful, heartfelt lyrics that i can only imagine neil young pulling off? the pet shop boys do it?

I'd really love that to have happened. Could imagine that slotting nicely at the end of 'Behaviour'.

i love "Broken Arrow" - def arty as hell but beautiful and the non-song parts move pretty quickly

It really did happen--the PSB have done an excellent cover of "Philadelphia."

xp! the pet shop boys do it, for real

I have no use for Buffalo Springfield. Try and try and try and yuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbamhAYwyJ4

woah way too low! Thought this would be more of a crowd-pleaser...

"Broken Arrow" is my first to place so far. Have always loved the cut-up nature. And its beauty.

xxpost
Why didn't I know about this until now!

Listening to 'Philadelphia' now, never even knew it existed before today (haven't seen the film either). It's lovely.

broken arrow is flawed, has some nice moments, but not the masterpiece it wants to be. funny to think if it had been a big hit or something, and neil had spent the rest of his career doing five minute orchestral song suites.

That PSB version of Phildelphia is excellent.

wow I thought the PSB thing was a joke!

No one's asked, but I meant to mention that I haven't bothered posting first-place votes because so many ballots--half or more, I would guess--were unranked. I'll try to do that at the end, when I post the full list.

Something tells me that no matter what, Neil was always going to NOT spend the rest of his career doing anything with any consistency or regularity, hit or no hit. Into the ditch...

I will say that I like "Broken Arrow" more than Stills' even longer "Bluebird"--it's been a while, but a lot more, I think.

It's funny how Neil juvenalia is full of ornate Sgt. Pepperisms before he heads off to the garage at the ranch to mature

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil62.jpg

If I was going with Ornate Neil, I'd pick about half of the solo debut and "Expecting To Fly" over "Broken Arrow." It's an endearing failure, but I feel like he's done more with those ideas in other songs.

Aaaaaaand I just realized I missed a couple of the most obvious songs. Oh, Lex.

I'm referring to the really long "Bluebird" on the early-'70s anthology--seems the original was just over four minutes.

"Harvest" = my #17.

If I was going with Ornate Neil, I'd pick about half of the solo debut and "Expecting To Fly" over "Broken Arrow." It's an endearing failure, but I feel like he's done more with those ideas in other songs.

yeah i'd agree with this (well maybe not HALF of the solo debut), though everything from the '60s on Decade is gorgeous IMO.

my biggest problem with CSNY and Buffalo is that Decade cherry-picked the Neil stuff so well that the other guys are at a serious disadvantage. decent countryish number followed by GENIUS GODHEAD I'VE KNOWN SINCE MIDDLE SCHOOL followed by some little hippie thing...

La Lechera left me her ballot so I would like to note she voted for "Harvest"

Well, I think the other guys were at a serious disadvantage anyway just by virtue of not being Neil Young, but yeah, that definitely factors in.

Didn't realize Harvest was the biggest-selling LP of '72. I knew it'd be up there, but I would have thought Exile, Paul Simon, a Carpenters LP, Carole King's Music, something else. Like the title song a whole lot.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil61.jpg

From La Lechera:

"Lotta Love (Neil's version, not Nicolette's, this song is perfect)"

Nice! Thought vote splitting would keep that one from making it.

Nicolette Larson's cover did get one vote--something that sounded much better to me years and years after the fact.

my biggest problem with CSNY and Buffalo is that Decade cherry-picked the Neil stuff so well that the other guys are at a serious disadvantage

I do think that Stills' best Springfield stuff is the equal of, and sometimes greater, than Neil's.

Yeah, I still prefer Neil's version, but Nicolette's has grown on me in the last few years. When I was a kid and heard that come on the radio, I practically ran to change the dial.

Sad and surprised to find out that she died many years ago.

Love the images on the last two.

I really like the cover of 'Lotta Love' (I actually think I heard it first) but I stuck with an all-Neil ballot (and voted for the original anyway).

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil60.jpg

Aww, cute kids, but this song has never done much for me. I do think of it every time I mess up my kids' hair though...

You're going to hear me gush and gush on Tuesday and Wednesday, but another one I've always been indifferent to--I like Richie Furay's "A Child's Claim to Fame" so much more.

Third one from my ballot! (others were Expecting to Fly and Words)

yeah i kind of re-evaluated the first album stuff around the time the remasters and archives came out and at the time thought i had underrated it...now i'm coming around to my first view is that that era is not my favorite of his.

was really bummed to have to cut "burned" by BS off archives from my list.

Oh man I hope Burned makes it. That's probably my favorite BS song.

Also love "Sell Out" from around that time. Really fun, great groove.

yeah i cut burned, too, but it's one of my fave neil BS songs. kind of a perfect little 60s pop number.

and I Am A Child has never been a big fave. Nice, but not great.

Had "Lotta Love" and "Harvest", both rhytmically really pleasing for me for some reason, of all things to be into in those songs.