Search and destroy: Neil Young

i think i know what dylan means there, but at the same time, "heart of gold" doesn't seem like a total dylan copycat.

Young's a much better singer than Dylan

also songwriter and guitarist but i suppose that's debatable

Isn't there a story about Dylan kind of stalking Neil around that time? "Heart of Gold" doesn't sound like Bob all that much but something about it really punched his buttons.

yeah i remember that quote and honestly I don't really get it, unless Dylan just in his head lays claims to the entire swatch of US folk rock (which, you know, he COULD in a way), but neil's chord voicings, that real heavy half palm muted downstrokes on the one-and + kenny buttry's boom-bap drums, and sort of dreamy half-coherent lyrical approach are so unique to neil

neil's basic acoustic rhythm playing is SOOOO good, it's nothing fancy or super complex fingerpicking or thrilling like his full-flight crazy horse jamming but that's why he's so great on the harvest style/goldrush/etc material, he has a "heavy" right hand and conveys a certain heaviness and rock solid rhythmic drive to stuff that nobody else from that era, like whoever you want james taylor etc, had

yeah i mean, maybe the closest thing is john wesley harding (which buttrey played on as well) but that's not really dylan's signature "sound"...
don't know about stalking... dylan showed up unannounced during the zuma sessions in 75.

Dylan: "Wait a minute, it sounds like he's wearing my harmonica holder!"

I feel like basically all classic rock stars were constantly drunk and coked up from 72-76 and all running into each other in the larger LA area

def the time and place I'd go to if able

a huge mistake perhaps

just like fuckin beach house disaster areas with like rick danko and keith moon playing bongos and nilsson passed out in the living room and dennis wilson and joni mitchell out smoking on the deck and clapton and lennon and crosby doing lines in the kitchen

lol otm on both points xp

just like fuckin beach house disaster areas with like rick danko and keith moon playing bongos and nilsson passed out in the living room and dennis wilson and joni mitchell out smoking on the deck and clapton and lennon and crosby doing lines in the kitchen

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, March 20, 2015 4:42 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

feelin this

need this to be a huge mural somewhere...maybe my bedroom

You left out fleetwood mac they should be there too. And the Eagles.

go back a lil earlier and we can squeeze Manson in there

i wonder if dylan's sentiments re heart of gold were influenced by the period - it hit #1 in early 72 during the long gap between new morning and the pat garrett soundtrack.

the quote:

"The only time it bothered me that someone sounded like me was when I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, in about '72 and the big song at the time was "Heart of Gold." I used to hate it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to "Heart of Gold." I think it was up at number one for a long time, and I'd say, "Shit, that's me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me."

I needed to lay back for awhile, forget about things, myself included, and I'd get so far away and turn on the radio and there I am. But it's not me. It seemed to me somebody else had taken my thing and had run away with it and, you know, I never got over it."

so while it's not quite some weiland-vedder shit, he was still in a place to go "jesus, i turn away for one second and some asshole takes my shtick to the bank"

just like fuckin beach house disaster areas with like rick danko and keith moon playing bongos and nilsson passed out in the living room and dennis wilson and joni mitchell out smoking on the deck and clapton and lennon and crosby doing lines in the kitchen

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, March 20, 2015 12:42 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's footage of Danko and Moon from around that time that was supposed to be in The Kids Are Alright, but it got cut at the last minute.

ha, i just put them together in my mind because those two would seem to be two chaotic, drug gobbling peas in a pod

that's one of the funny things about the Band in general, is just their sort of dour frontiersman imagery esp in their photos juxtaposed with the fact they were all such good old boy party animals (except maybe garth)

like in that levon helm documentary about his last years, he talks about partying with procol harum and how they were some awesome dudes and how he was dropping acid

Neil doing Dylan-y stuff is by no means my favourite Neil ('Heart of Gold' is not Dylan-y, wtf's Bob on about?)

why was he living in phoenix?

Ashtabula got too hectic

my apologies if anyone here is their age, but i think most of us are also dealing with a hindsight awareness of neil's whole vibe. let's not forget "sugar mountain" was a b-side until the late '70s.

obv it's not even gaye-estate level actionable, but if i put myself in dylan's shoes it's not unbelievable he'd get a case of the green eyed monster

xp was it "Live Rust" that rehabilitated that song into the Neil canon?

I always liked Stealers Wheel, but it bothered me every time I listened to "Stuck in the Middle with You."

Neil should've responded with "yeah well the next #1 was A Horse With No Name...I hadn't even left and they'd replaced me"

(xpost) Yeah--with "Stuck in the Middle with You" and Mott's "I Wish I Was Your Mother" and Cockney Rebel's "Make Me Smile" and many more, there were a lot of spot-on Dylan imitations around that time. "Heart of Gold" really wasn't one of them. (Mott and Harley come a little later.)

xxxp "sugar mountain" was a live set mainstay for most of the 70s http://www.sugarmtn.org/song.php?song=550

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Z3pW0zimc

haha hasn't Neil explicitly named "A Horse With No Name" as a ripoff of him

the Dylan quote is interesting to me because was Dylan trying to write something like "Heart of Gold"? if nothing else I hear e.g. "You Angel You" a little differently now

i know that a lot went into the album/songs, the divorce etc but to me there's always been an element to how focused and hungry and just overall great blood on the tracks is that seemed to be dylan wanting to be a little bit "alright kids, the king's back"

or maybe "Nobody 'Cept You" xp to myself lol

but yeah the rep of Blood on the Tracks as an emo classic misses the directness and leanness of its songs, after the relative bigness of the Band tracks he'd been up to for a couple of years

No sonic similarity between Heart of Gold and anything Dylan to me either, though hearing that beautiful Old Man cover opens it up a bit - but wow Dylan's band is rocking!

has a lot more drive than the Stray Gators had and I like it, would be fun to hear more Dylan versions of Neil.

a huge mistake perhaps

― Team Foxcatcherwatcher (Sufjan Grafton),

the hangover:

They Will Not Go Quietly: The Official ILM Track-By-Track DON 'n' GLENN Listening Thread

haha hasn't Neil explicitly named "A Horse With No Name" as a ripoff of him

― Οὖτις, Friday, March 20, 2015 1:37 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea, there is a part in mcdonough's shakey when they talk about it:

Ironically, "Heart of Gold" would be bumped from the charts by a clone---America's moronic "Horse with No Name". Young even received a congratulatory phone call from his father, who heard the record on the radio and assumed it was his son. Amazingly, Elliot Roberts immediately signed the band to a management contract, a bit of information that both Nitzsche and Mazzeo would use to wind up Neil. "I remember him callin' Elliot, yellin' and screamin'---'Waddya spendin' time with this copy band when you've got the original right here, Elliot?'"

Jeannie Field recalls Young showing up for dinner one night aroudn this time. "I was really surprised. He didn't usually hang out with us--it was so unusual. Well, I found out later that Elliot had brought America up to meet him, and Neil was so pissed off there was no way he was going to meet them. He was just hiding out."

haha

maybe now that the whole "blurred lines" precedent is in place, neil should go and sue america for "horse with no name."

i actually kind of enjoy that song but the first two things that pop into my head when i hear it are:

1) wow, this is a really brazen rip of harvest-era neil young

2) christ, these lyrics are dumb

when i first heard "horse with no name" it was in that breaking bad episode and i did genuinely think it was some early neil song like something cut from the s/t album or a buffalo springfield lost tune

I sometimes think Dylan hears his own music differently than others do. As in, literally. Would explain a lot, really.

xxp the heat was hot! what more can a guy say to describe heat?

Big Neil Young rip here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kldHXD2z4jA

it's funny how hard "horse" hits the CSNY vibe compared to all their other hits

i mean ween couldn't write a better neil parody

I forget who the comedian was, but I remember some bit about "'Horse with No Name'? It's your horse! You're supposed to name it!"

^^Dave Barry, iirc

I went through the desert on a mystery horse
if it was raining, it'd surely be worse