Search and destroy: Neil Young

306. Gone Dead Train

^^woah that's a deep cut

403. Gypsy Wedding

is a Mosley jam from the Grape's 20 Granite Creek

http://youtu.be/QphAfZq_HUI?t=27s

pretty fun sidetrip for neil overall, don't know exactly how into it was, but he seems to be having a good time being a guitar player in a band.
i guess he was into it enough to have pants made though
http://www.sugarmtn.org/extras/197708220p003.jpg

"Jimmy Page has dragon pants? Big deal! I've got Duck pants!"

Until he breaks out some PONO pants I'm not taking that endeavor seriously.

new song. kinda sounds like zz top.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pLVpVtstNw

what? performing in a small club?! when!? why?! who?!

the lady there is his wife -- he usually plays with her if he's not on tour, i think...
that's johnny d's in beautiful somerville, ma.

yeah
Pegi Young & The Survivors

A friend of mine was there. He's the Fenway Park organist and a huge Spooner Oldham fan, and was pretty pleasantly surprised to see Neil show up. Posted about 20 fb updates with many exclamation points.

haha, awesome, yeah thought that was spooner there. i would post lots of exclamation points if i was seeing neil young play guitar at a club that size. johnny d's is probably , what, 300 capacity? when i lived out there, i saw richard buckner play there, if that gives any indication.

It was funny, all the fb comments were "Neil played in a club?! How did I not know about this?!"

I can't even fathom how mindblowing that would be to see Neil just pop out of the shadows like that.

Oof that song is pretty bad

I like it

in a dumb-boogie-about-cars way

it's better than "hole in the sky" the other new song he's been playing this year, that's for sure.

Neil takes a journey through the past:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ufauKwn28E#t=51

Full transcript:

"This is good."
"I like this one."
"This is a good one."

George Harrison wasn't a fan (at 14:00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xYUglwhHpuw

that's pretty funny

anyone going to these carnegie hall shows in January? i'm assuming it'll be on the folkier spectrum of things, but who knows?

neil totally missed his chance to celebrate the 30th anniversary of everybody's rockin

George complaining about Neil's voice is pretty rich

haha yeah. though it is interesting to hear classic rock dudes talk a little shit -- you get the impression everyone's buddy buddy sometimes. obviously neil was the best thing about that bobfest tribute (w/ a little competition from lou).

who's the other half of that conversation - sounds Scottish...? Is that Dave Stewart?

but yeah this kind of candid convo seems pretty rare, nice to see George just hanging out talking shit

George didn't hide his opinions.

It's Bob Geldof, for some reason.

xp

George probably just hated Neil because McCartney dug him:

Neil,
Linda and I have been listening to Live Rust over and over, side four kicks ass.
Lotta Love,
Paul

in fairness i think i did hear george say "he sings even worse than me" or something like that

is this why neil wasn't asked to be a traveling wilbury!? hold on, i'm going to pitch an investigative piece to mojo magazine.

I can totally get why Harrison and Clapton would be mystified at Neil's guitar technique - Neil doesn't worship at the same blues/R&B altars they do, his style comes from a different place

naturally clean soloists like Clapton and Harrison would hate Young.

"He's the one person I thought who sings worse than me!"

"He just stands and hits that one string and goes ERRREWEERRRERR."

also, they are all revered classic rock icons but there's just a touch of a mini-generational thing i think going on too...neil came up just a bit behind them, didn't really peak until harvest commercially and was more associated with that LA movement, so i could see some distance between dudes like clapton and harrison (like proper 1960s UK guys) and this weird canadian loner

but <3 this weird canadian loner

over gross old clapton, who may as well have been an eagle.

heard everybody knows this is nowhere played in three different places over the past two weeks -- is there any other record that sounds as good in every context imaginable?

also neil didn't throw his kid out the window xp

the last recent neil young album i listened to and loved was "sleeps with angels" which is 20 years old now. i keep going back to the old stuff. whats a good neil young album since 1994?

Prairie Wind is ok. (rehashing old country ideas, of course, which he had already rehashed in Harvest Moon)

anyway...

Silver & Gold is better than Prairie Wind in the folkie Neil vein, thought Harvest Moon isn't really a country album anyway and I don't really think
Neil Young writing Neil Young songs constitutes "rehashing" stuff.

Anyway...I'm a Mirror Ball guy (Pearl Jam as his backing band) but opinions vary...
Living With War was pretty divisive but I think people should at least check out the later version where the children's choir was scrubbed from the record...

obviously, Psychedelic Pill would probably be most ppl's choice, there's some pretty vintage Crazy Horse on that and a couple of tunes that I put in the company of all time Neil jams

Le Noise is a really cool sounding record, solo electric, swamped in weird Lanois reverb etc...so maybe that might appeal to you if you like the kinda weird throbbing vibe of Sleeps With Angels...it's definitely like nothing else he's done...also features the first proper recording of Hitchhiker, a 70s song that's up there among his best

Greendale is a weird, low key concept/story album that some ppl love, i'm not super huge on it...

Chrome Dreams II is assembled from tracks from the 00s and I think maybe some 80 stuff, not bad...

Broken Arrow is pretty solid stuff

Are You Passionate and Fork in the Road I would avoid

also assuming that you've dived into the Archives material because if not you're basically missing some of the best music of his career that's ever been released

Broken Arrow is great; I'd put it just a slight notch below Ragged Glory (and largely for the weirdly desultory Jimmy Reed cover that closes the record). UMS OTM re: Le Noise. And A Treasure (live mid-80s stuff) is shockingly good, and arguably better than any of his pre-Freedom 80s stuff.

thanks john. ive heard some of mirror ball, i remember thinking it was pretty good atm. no i havent heard the archives stuff either!

Are You Passionate and Fork in the Road I would avoid

imo :)

Also Americana is worth hearing at least once.

oh yeah americana and the new covers album stuff i've heard as well sounds cool

i don't mind fork in the road but i was sort of assuming that the asker of the question was not as far gone as me personally so like it's not exactly the first one i would point anyone to

are you passionate does have one REALLY good song, a crazy horse raver stuck in the middle for no reason

I agree, Fork in the Road is probably like my 4th/5th favorite from the era in question, whereas Are You Passionate is my least favorite thing he's ever done. But yeah it has "Goin' Home" and I think "She's a Healer" is OK, too.

i'm actually super pumped for a letter home based on the song i heard on the radio

"Ordinary People" - 18:13 - on Chrome Dreams II is worth a listen.

The anecdotes about/responses to "Ordinary People" in "Shakey" are pretty funny ("Neil doesn't fucking know any ordinary people!")

i think the solo live recordings of neil playing/explaining Greendale are generally more successful than the album itself.