A World of Constant Strangers: The Neil Young Results Thread

it's guaranteed to irritate my wife

[but i love it]

The Unplugged version was the first Neil Young song I ever consciously listened to. It began there.

Not a fan personally. Like A Hurricane needs guitar

"Like A Hurricane" is the epic where I think the album cut is routinely bested live....

Unplugged take is my go-to at this point.

Isn't the album cut a live recording anyway?

I think Neil's guitar tone on "Hurricane" is one of music's perfect sounds. (Love the Roxy cover, too.)

it took forEVER for me to hear the original version of Like A Hurricane - it showed up on pretty much every Neil live album/bootleg, but for some reason American Stars n Bars was kind of hard to track down in the 90s.

don't think it's live on American Stars n Bars

so am I right in expecting that "Cowgirl" vs. "Down by The River" is pretty much a Veronica/Betty thing?......my girl lost!

I guess that makes me Archie, because I couldn't really make up my mind -- they were both top 5 for me.

Isn't the album cut a live recording anyway?

Backing track cut live in studio, vocal overdubbed later.

Love the live versions of "Cinnamon Girl," but the handclaps on the studio version make that shit lift off the ground.

there's a scene in Coming Home which uses Expecting To Fly and it's just about my favourite pop song/cinema sync of ALL TIME

up there with Taxi Driver/Late For The Sky

"Expecting To Fly" works pretty well in Fear & Loathing... too.

I'd forgotten about that...Is "Mr. Soul" maybe in the big party scene at the end?

I didn't have a #1 as such but gave most points to "Hurricane". Love both the original and the Unplugged and Weld versions. Also, possibly the only bearable use of the Stringman ever.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/neil3.jpg

Man, work is really getting in the way of this countdown. "Ambulance Blues" my #4 too. Ditched like a Hurrican for other guitar epics. Decided to limit them and I really didn't dig the feel of LAH for a long time.

This was a surprise to me--a welcome one, but a surprise. I was expecting it to finish at least 10-15 spots lower than "Cowgirl."

But I did vote for that one!

for me Cowgirl makes Down By The River feel really minor, so I didn't give it any

The way the guitars circle each other on "Down By The River" is all time for me (my #1 by the way). Blew my 14 year-old mind and still does today.

"Down By The River" almost became a new song to me with the remaster. I thought I was tired of it but really I'd never heard it.

I voted for both, but the repeated note in "River" put it ahead of "Cowgirl" for me.

i was predicting this image for down by the river
http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/SNL_5862ec_492467.jpg

"Mr. Soul" is in the party scene in Shampoo, IIRC soundtracking Beatty chasing after Goldie at said party.

Guitar Neil definitely holds a lot of sway with me.

My #1, too. For me the ultimate Neil guitar song (tho like I said, just a few inches above "Cowgirl").

yeah, one of my all time favorites. the opening guitar is up there with "marquee moon" in terms of pure musical bliss.

"This much madness/is too much sorrow"--don't know if there's a better summation of the late '60s, likely without even consciously trying.

I can never listen to Down by the River without thinking about the time I heard it in a coffee shop in college and an irate middle-aged woman complained to the coffee-jerk about having to listen to such a violent/mysogynistic song and demanded that it be turned off

#2 is gonna surprise some people, I suspect!

That's what I meant, getting my Ashbys crossed...no big party scene in Coming Home.

Legendary BluesMan, Guitar Neil:

http://www.geetarz.org/reviews/neilyoung/1988-08-27-jones-beach.jpg

The thing is, Neil was bitching about being famous BEFORE he was famous (See: Buffalo Springfield, "Out of My Mind")

― Don't Feel Like Santana, But Oye Como Va To Them (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, July 11, 2012 12:23 PM (37 minutes ago)

Late responding, but the sheer chutzpah of this got "Out of My Mind" a high rank and lots of points on my ballot.

Put me down for Team River. All you Team Cowgirl people can suck it!

Belatedly realizing that one of my top 5 never placed. I guess I'm the only one who thinks "Burned" is his best Springfield song.

coincidentally, i've been counting down down by the river videos from 1969-2010 over here. http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/

that buzzing, repeated note at the beginning of the first solo in down by the river is so transcendent and amazing

"Burned" did well--7 votes, #79.

As mentioned above, had this at 32, Cowgirl at 34.

xp I also ranked "Burned" as my highest Springfield cut, at #25. Sad to see it missed.

"An ambulance can only go so fast" is the most devastating line I've ever heard.

All's I'll say about those two ax epics is that possibly my not owning the remasters has smothered their appeal.

otmfm (xpost re that line)

So it's just down to Cripple Creek Ferry and Last Dance. Which will win?

t-boooone!!!

"Change Your Mind" ftw

Both Cowgirl... and ...River narrowly missed out on my ballot, I think I prefer the former these days for the harmonies in the chorus.

(Someone tell Alfred the coast is not quite clear.)