A World of Constant Strangers: The Neil Young Results Thread

1.) Don't Be Denied - 24
2.) Tell Me Why - 20
3.) Keep On Rockin in the Free World - 15
4.) For the Turnstiles - 14
5.) Powderfinger - 14

12 points:
Down by the River
Thrasher
Winterlong
Albuquerque

10 points:
Pardon My Heart
I Believe in You
Sedan Delivery
On the Beach
Birds
Sleeps with Angels

7 points:
Revolution Blues
Cinnamon Girl
World on a String
Hangin on a Limb
Slip Away
Time Fades Away
Like a Hurricane
Pocahontas
The Old Homestead
Barstool Blues

5 points:

Walk On
LA
Don't Let it Bring You Down
Fuckin Up
Heart of Gold
Ambulance Blues
Driveby
Crime in the City
Hitchhiker
Yonder Stands the Sinner

2 points:

Lookout Joe
Welfare Mothers
Safeway Cart
Comes a Time
Harvest

0 points ;_;

Coupe de Ville
Words Between the Lines of Age
Change Your Mind

I don't think complex readings of "Cortez" are wrong, exactly, but they also don't really obviate the problems with the noble savage imagery and all that. Even as allegory, it's pretty dicey. (And "Desolation Row" is a good analog, in that the last verse recontextualizes the song, but that's a particular trick that I think Dylan does a whole lot better.)

Anyway, I listened to "Powderfinger" in the car on the way home tonight, with the windows down, and it really seemed like a perfect song. It wasn't my number 1, but I'm happy it landed there. It's about so much -- war and loyalty, the confusion of being young, the drastic consequences of not knowing what you're doing. It's a Vietnam song dressed up as "Deliverance," but it's also about growing up and finding out that everything you've learned won't help, nothing will really protect you, you're on your own.

I was out last night so missed the finale but thanks clemenza, this was a total delight from start to finish. I had Powderfinger as my #1 and Cortez at #3.

Songs from the bottom third of my ballot that didn't make it:

Everybody's Alone
Journey Through the Past
Love and War
War Song
Bad Fog of Loneliness
Burned

My ballot (unranked):

Cowgirl In The Sand
Don't Let It Bring You Down
Ohio
Cinnamon Girl
Down By The River
Oh, Lonesome Me
Heart Of Gold
Old Man
The Needle And The Damage Done
Walk On
See The Sky About To Rain
For The Turnstiles
Tonight's The Night
Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown
Tell Me Why
Tired Eyes
Like A Hurricane
Spirit Road
No Hidden Path
The Loner
After The Goldrush
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Till The Morning Comes
Birds
When You Dance I Can Really Love
I Believe In You
Cripple Creek Ferry
Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
Rockin' In The Free World
Burned

was I the only voter for No Hidden Path and Spirit Road? Guess I rate Chrome Dreams II more highly than most.

Did you see the Chrome Dreams II tour? Great show but I remember resenting No Hidden Path for gibbling up 15-20 minutes of prime setlist real estate.

i'm sorry cripple creek ferry didn't make it, always thought it would've been a perfect song for him to perform w/ the muppets (NOT a diss!)

Gobbling. I don't know what gibbling is but I'm sure I'd have resented that too.

yes saw that tour, no resentment! found the 15-minute NHP pretty transcendent actually... also kind of enjoyed the fact that he was prepared to do that, it seemed a very "Neil Young" move.

"Dirty Old Man" is a good 'un.

xp Yeah, it's true. It would be weird to go to a Neil Young concert and not have a few quixotic moments. It was still a tremendous set. Looking at other setlists from the 90s and 00s, that show had more of my favourites than any other - six songs out of this poll's Top 10 in fact. This whole process has made me desperate to see him again.

I have tickets to see him in Philadelphia in November. Ridiculously excited even though I'm afraid half the set will be Americana and new unreleased stuff.

And "Philadelphia," I'm guessing.

holy shit i just read (ok, skimmed) through most of this and while there are things i would like to respond to, here are the highlights for ease of digestion:

1) sorry i missed this, i had more interesting things to say than the tiny little craplets i wrote to EZ, but thank you for posting (and possibly reading) my craplets
2) Yeah this song doesn't do anything for me. "I love Ohio (the place) even if it is super duper fucked up" kind of a weird reason for voting it #1?

― boxall, Wednesday, July 11, 2012 11:55 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

I can explain. First, I'm from Northeast Ohio. Not just from there, but have a complicated and many-tentacled relationship with the politics of the place. This poll happened to coincide with (as I have mentioned elsewhere) my sorting and scanning of a huge box of old photos. When I realized that a bunch of them were related to politics, I made a tumblr for them. Most of them are 70s, but I threw the 80s on the url in case I found more. http://campaigners70sand80s.tumblr.com/

In sum, NEOH is super duper fucked up but I love it in spite of that, which is one of my ways of loving things. I feel like Neil Young understands how poignant and painful this kind of love is. Not that "Ohio" the song exemplifies it, but I know he understands. This may or may not explain my reasoning, but my reasoning may or may not make sense and that alone is emblematic of the feelings (lol feelings) I have about NEOH.

Thank you clemenza and ilxors for the opportunity to yap about my favorite NY songs -- I'm not sure any one person would have been able to handle this conversation alone because it would have been very very boring.

This button, an overstuffed suitcase with "JAR" on the tag referred to James A Rhodes, the governor at the time of the Kent State shootings.

From wiki

During a press conference at the Kent firehouse, an emotional Governor Rhodes pounded on the desk[17] and called the student protesters un-American, referring to them as revolutionaries set on destroying higher education in Ohio. "We've seen here at the city of Kent especially, probably the most vicious form of campus oriented violence yet perpetrated by dissident groups. They make definite plans of burning, destroying, and throwing rocks at police, and at the National Guard and the Highway Patrol. This is when we're going to use every part of the law enforcement agency of Ohio to drive them out of Kent. We are going to eradicate the problem. We're not going to treat the symptoms. And these people just move from one campus to the other and terrorize the community. They're worse than the brown shirts and the communist element and also the night riders and the vigilantes", Rhodes said. "They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. Now I want to say this. They are not going to take over [the] campus. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America."[18] Rhodes can be heard in the recording of his speech yelling and pounding his fists on the desk.[19][20]

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6ab8dtCxJ1rzge1ho1_500.jpg

love the photos (and their rudimentary captions)

thanks!

'they're worse than the brown shirts' - what does this mean?

nazis

classy guy, huh? the pin was a reference to the frequent call for Rhodes to "pack [your] bags"

Fantastic photos, La Lechera--and yes, the man-sits-in-chair captions. Are these family photos, or did you come by them some other way?

Assuming that there's very little cross-pollination between googlers interested in Ohio politics and this thread, the former. There's more to say but I don't really want to put it here. I kind of like to keep it "here are some fun and happy political people from Ohio in the 70s" neutral.

Not to worry--even Liza Minnelli made an appearance in this thread. (Oh wait, that was my doing...)

Welcome back La Lechera! I didn't post your ballot if you want it on here for posterity.

Here it is if anyone cares/for posterity

1 Ohio
2 Helpless
3 Lotta Love (Neil's version, not Nicolette's)
4 Cowgirl in the Sand
5 Expecting to Fly
6 Don't Cry No Tears
7 Danger Bird
8 Cortez the Killer
9 Powderfinger
10 Albuquerque

11 Running Dry
12 Harvest Moon
13 Tired Eyes
14 Old Man
15 Heart of Gold
16 Like a Hurricane
17 Rockin in the Free World
18 Wrecking Ball
19 Harvest
20 Bad Fog of Loneliness

21 When Your Lonely Heart Breaks
22 Mellow My Mind
23 Barstool Blues
24 Slip Away
25 Revolution Blues
26 Pocahontas
27 On the Beach
28 Down by the River
29 Don't Let it Bring You Down
30 When You Dance I Can Really Love

31 Razor Love
32 A Man Needs a Maid
33 Pardon My Heart
34 See the Sky About to Rain
35 Loose Change
36 Prisoners of Rock and Roll

Emperor of Wyoming dope choice buzza

That is a very cool set of photos and explanation, not that you owed me/us one - thanks. xps

xposting I'd be shocked if "Americana" played much of a part of the upcoming Crazy Horse tour. But maybe the unreleased (maybe never to be released?) other album will. Per Young, " [the tour] is going to be [songs from] the past, the present and the future."

I wouldn't mind a few songs from Americana but if he busts out the unreleased 20+ minute jam and it doesn't deliver I'm gonna be bummed!

Pretty obsessed with Jesus' Chariot on Americana. I wish this was the version of She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain that comes out of my daughter's toy 20 times a day.

Here's my ballot:

Mr. Soul (Mono) - Archives Vol. 1
Everbody Knows This Is Nowhere - Everybody's Knows this Is Nowwhere
Down by the River - LIve at the Fillmore
Cowgirl in the Sand - LIve at the Filmore
On the Way Home - Live at Massey Hall
I'm the Ocean - Mirror Ball
Dreamin' Man - Harvest Moon
Rockin' the Free World - Freedom
Too Far Gone - Chrome Dreams version (unreleased)
Comes a Time - Comes a Time
Will to Love - American Stars n Bars/Chrome Dreams
Winterlong - Decade
Tonights' the Night - Tonight's the Night
Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown - Tonight's the Night
Albuquerque - Tonight's the Night
Mellow My Mind - Tonight's the NIght
Tired Eyes - Tonight's the Night
Don't Cry No Tears - Zuma
Barstool Blues - Zuma
Cortez the Killer - Zuma
Revolution Blues - On the Beach
For the Turnstiles - On the Beach
Out on the Weekend - Harvest
Heart of Gold - Harvest
Old Man - Harvest
Mansion on the Hill - Ragged Glory
My My Hey Hey - Into the Black - Rust Never Sleeps
Thrasher - Rust Never Sleeps
Pocohontas - Rust Never Sleeps
Powderfinger - Rust Never Sleeps
Sedan Delivery - Rust Never Sleeps
Pushed it Over the End - Citizen Kane Junior Blues
Hippie Dream - Landing on Water
Transformer Man - Trans
Time Fades Away - Time Fades Away
Helpless - Decade
Like a Hurricane - American Stars n Bars
I've Loved Her So Long - Archives
Shots - Re Ac Tor
World on A String - Tonights't the Night

Yeah "Jesus' Chariot" is the best song on that record

xpost

glad to see too far gone showing up on some ballots. kind of a perfect song imo. otm about the chrome dreams version being superior. the 76 live renditions are great too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ9AV7C7EX8

I would have voted for Clementine from Americana if I knew about it. That is absolutely killer.

^^My last cut.

really did not expect quite so much Thrasher love but i've always been into that one. In 1981 i spent tenth grade in Israel on a kibbutz and a few classmates were Canadians and Neil was our classes' go-to fave for singalongs and late night listening. I useda listen to RNS all the time for awhile there and Thrasher in particular always meant a lot on account of the fact that the lyrics, while kinda obtuse or impenetrable maybe, def seemed Zionistic considering our circumstances. i'm no Zionist these days but Neil still rules....

Who knew?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to9C_S7v0zU

I had to check, but I have that (called it an "ordeal" in the covers piece). Something I'd forgotten: Neil and Manson share a birthday (Nov. 12, eleven years apart).

This interview with Neil's longtime guitar tech is pretty cool

I duly acquired Trans and listened to it for the first time over the weekend. Love it. I can stop saying it's NY's best album just to be contrary now (<-- jk).

I heard "Old Man" last night at a Sunflower market, and immediately regretted that I never submitted a ballot for this.

Effexts this thread has on your life: watching Hell's Kitchen and the red team has a pulled pork punishment which involves them checking it hourly through the night. An alarm sounds which they cancel by pressing a "big red button at the side of the grill". So naturally I started singing that to the tune of "Don't Let It Bring You Down".

instant earworm, great

Big red button at the side of the grill
With the pulled pork piled high
Madman chef on everybody’s case
Makes a grown man want to cry

Cold wind ripping through the kitchen at dawn
As the cameras start to roll
Madman chef still frothing at the mouth
Makes a grown man lose his soul

Don't let it bring you down
It's only pulled pork grilling
Find someone who's chilling
And you will come around

(No excuse for that sort of thing, I know.)

Has this been posted here yet? Acoustic Albuquerque?
Maybe I'm just in a sappy mood today (I mean obvious I totally am) but this sounds like the most poignant thing on earth atm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNu8Ti1RhKg&feature=related

i was gonna put this in the "last movies you watched" thread, but it fits better here I think.

Last week I screened Dusty & Sweets McGee, Floyd Mutrux's faux-documentary on heroin addicts in '70-'71 LA, and was wondering if any Neil fans here had seen it? Even though you don't actually hear any of his music in the film (and there's a bunch of music in it), it's like Time Fades Away/Tonight's The Night: The Movie! I kept expecting to see Danny Whitten or Bruce Berry pop up in the background.

Here's the only clip I could find on youtube, which has a short monologue from the dealer character, a Texan who tools around in a '70 Boss 302 Mustang. I can't help seeing him as the guy from "Tired Eyes". (discussion in clip NSFW)

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

How did you get hold of that (or were you streaming it)? Pretty sure I remember a big Sunset Strip billboard for Time Fades Away in Mutrux's Aloha Bobby and Rose.

Warner Archive MOD

Great--I've got to find somewhere that'll ship reasonably to Canada. I recently bought Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues, which is a year later and the same terrain.

Would watch!