Search and destroy: Neil Young

I like "There's a World", despite the orchestra it's the last sign of child-like Neil before the mid-70s darkness changed his outlook forever. "Captain Kennedy" isn't quite a good song, but as a character vignette, it's vivid and has a reason to exist.
My worst-of would mostly be crude electric throwaways:

We Don't Smoke It No More
Stupid Girl
Homegrown
Motorcycle Mama
Welfare Mothers
Piece of Crap

yeah stupid girl is a standout pick for worst neil songs of the first half of his career

homegrown was album of the year on the 420 thread

if you are actually talking about *actual worst* not just *worst that i am aware of* every song would be culled from the last 15 or so years

I was using Alfred's 1968 - 2003 limits, and there are several albums even from that era that I haven't heard. The bad later stuff I've heard hasn't stuck in my head at all.

Neil's released enough new (not archival) material since Americana to make a really good single-disc compilation, but you have to sift through at least six albums and some one-offs to get it.

Cripple Creek Ferry is very fun to sing.

I've enjoyed most of the new songs he's released in this century, though read and heard enough meh re Colorado and Barn, especially the former, that I may never get to those.

I've defended "Stupid Girl" on here before--love the sound of it...Also love "Through My Sails"; if I step back and try to be objective, I can maybe see someone else finding it too CSN or something (tautological: they're all on it). "Cripple Creek Ferry" (and "Till the Morning Comes") are the most perfect distillation in miniature of Gold Rush's melodic genius.

The harmonies on Till The Morning Comes are fantastic

Through My Sails??!!!!?

I’ve never been keen on Rust Never Sleeps (but love Love Rust) because the production is so dull after the preceding records. The only Neil records that actively annoy me are Change Your Mind (destroys the flow on an otherwise great record) and I’m the Ocean (it’s grating). There’s a lot of generic Neil stuff but it doesn’t like *bother* me.

I don’t even mind let’s roll

Interesting, there was a Rolling Stone reader's poll for the best post-70s Neil Young songs where both "Change Your Mind" and "I'm The Ocean" were in the top 10 (and the only songs from their respective albums). The former is my favourite extended Crazy Horse song.

I'm the Ocean is massive

Change Your Mind

From "Sleeps with Angels"? I *love* "Change Your Mind" and love its place on the record.

Love Rust--Neil's long-lost album of Barry White covers.

The only Neil records that actively annoy me are Change Your Mind (destroys the flow on an otherwise great record) and I’m the Ocean (it’s grating).

Wah? Two of my favourite 90s Neil jams!

Yeah, me as well, especially "I'm the Ocean" which could be his greatest '90s release, IMHO. "Change Your Mind" isn't on the same level, but it's the centerpiece of Sleeps with Angels which is a really good album, maybe even a great one. I never got into Mirror Ball overall, there's only a few keepers like "I'm the Ocean" but Sleeps with Angels is the only studio album from the '90s besides Ragged Glory that I really like as a whole.

I guess I can understand "I'm the Ocean" dribbling on, but dribbling on's what he does best, or among the things he does well, so if you prefer other Young james we're cool.

Sleeps with Angels continually surprises me with its spookiness: "Driveby," "Safeway Cart," the title rack, "Prime of Life."

Yeah, the rest of that LP is stunning start-to-finish.

I re-listened to both those records, and I still think Ocean is a unexceptional stomper with cloying lyrics and a repetitive melody (even by Young standards, speaking as someone who likes the mashed potatoes song on Reactor).

Change Your Mind has wonderful atmospherics when he’s not singing, and I enjoy the verse melody, but I always dread the arrival (and re-arrival and re-arrival) of the chorus, so I can’t lost in it like, e.g. Ordinary People or Cortez

'barn' is sounding pretty good on first listen!

I'm stunned by Christgau's "A." I also think he vastly overrated Fork in the Road but he was more or less right about Americana (which would be an A album in my book had Neil dropped "Get a Job" and maybe "Wayfarin' Stranger"), so I'll give it another try.

(*it* being Barn)

digging the noisier songs, especially

There's a piece on the new Neil Young album on the AV Club, and it contains this clunker:

There are likely two main reasons why Young hasn’t seemed to engender the kind of latter-day renaissance that some of his contemporaries have enjoyed, like Joni Mitchell or Jackson Browne.

Wtf is he talking about? Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne? They had latter-day career comebacks? Or is he talking about just a general re-appreciation? 'Cause Joni hasn't put out a record in maybe 15 years, but it doesn't matter, because she's been more or less worshipped for her entire career. And Jackson Browne? Who gives a shit about Jackson Browne? Maybe there was some belated "Late for the Sky" love, but that album seems like one of those "I don't like Jackson Browne except for ... " situations.

And of course Neil famously *did* "engender" a "a latter-day renaissance." It's just been that much more "latter" *since* then.

I think there's been a greater appreciation of Joni in recent year, not that she wasn't well regarded, but it seems like you hear more about her and she's now where she should be in the canon

no idea what he's talking about with Jackson Browne

also Neil is just Neil now, as you say after the 90s comeback I feel like he's in that zone of permanent respect

Huh, I always thought at the very least several of her primo '70s albums ("Blue" et al.) were totally canon. For sure, afaict nothing she released after the '70s got much traction, but I'm not sure much of it really deserves reassessment as lost masterpieces or anything.

Anyway, "Barn" is already more memorable than "Colorado," which I always forget even exists.

Phoebe Bridgers recently put out a new version of "Kyoto" featuring Browne, and she appeared in his most recent music video. So he's a little hip right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_gWWzLph24

re the xpost topical: there's this thing that can happen, esp. as you get older, when you look away from what RIP Dave Hickey called misty mountain bullshit, and accept that you're an organism, with a sell-by date, circle o' life. But you can't accept no more life to carry on, maybe especially if you have kids, grandkids, and see the planet with its own accelerating sell-by date. Hence, in the midst of a massive wave of legacy product, music old and new, we got The Monsanto Years, which I also dig the sound of, so P&J'd it (I've liked most of the all-new albums he's released this century, but only TMY and Americana made my Top 10s--albums sure don't have to be perfect to do that, but they have to satisfy in ways that nothing else quite does during year of release)

(See also Harry Dean Stanton re mortality, thinking etc., over on his thread.)

I thought Americana a fun minor diversion like Reactor; did not understand Christgau-ian hosannas. They're Crazy Horsed versions of folk songs I don't play willingly.

I love "Americana." With "Le Noise" and "Psychedelic Pill," it helps complete another great mini comeback streak.

It's the way he sings them, in that sequence, that makes them make sense worth hearing to me. Also speaking of topical, I like grunting along with the good-humored "Lock 'im up" on Peace Train, which is quite a refreshing sidetrip, for the most part.

er Peace Trail

Peace Trail easily the best of his recent work

This is the first Young album I listen to since 2013. Anything changed?

Wtf is he talking about? Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne? They had latter-day career comebacks? Or is he talking about just a general re-appreciation? 'Cause Joni hasn't put out a record in maybe 15 years, but it doesn't matter, because she's been more or less worshipped for her entire career. And Jackson Browne? Who gives a shit about Jackson Browne?

He doesn't know what he's talking about. Jackson Browne's new work has only gotten less attention, a situation that hasn't changed since he took part in this joke on The Simpsons:

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S14E20/1129420.jpg
https://frinkiac.com/meme/S14E20/1131297.jpg

And he hasn't grown in the public discourse - "These Days" has to an extent, but more for Nico's cover. And I actually love Jackson Browne, I think his achievements as a great singer/songwriter will never go away, but the kind of resurgence they're alluding to feels more like whatever's "fashionable" and that hasn't happened with Browne.

But appreciation for Joni definitely has grown. She's never been forgotten or overlooked, but now she's been put in rarefied air - where Neil was in the '90s, that's where Joni is now, someone who's talked and worshipped to an enormous degree across all generations (i.e. you see the influence and appreciation to an enormous degree among the youngest generation). She's also benefitted from the recent push to bring more women into the spotlight (think NPR's greatest albums by women list, which she topped, or Rolling Stone's rebooted 500 list that launched the same album into the top 5 or 10), as well as her not-insignificant health problems. I honestly was afraid she'd leave us by now, or at least be silenced for the remainder of her years, but she's thankfully made a great recovery. And in all fairness, despite her accolades and achievements, it kind of felt like she could be overlooked even 15 or 20 years ago - I was shocked that it took this long to get her a Kennedy Center honor when they've bestowed it on Don Henley and Glenn Frey a long time ago. (Being Canadian doesn't mean anything - just look at McCartney, the Who and Led Zeppelin, all honorees, which reminds me, when's Neil going to get his?)

Damn meme generator!

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S14E20/1129420.jpg?b64lines=IEknbSBoZXJlIHRvIHNlcmVuYWRlIHlvdQogd2l0aCBhIHNvbmcuCihhbGwgY2hlZXJpbmcpCkZyb20gbXkgbGF0ZXN0CiBhbGJ1bS4=]

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S14E20/1131297.jpg?b64lines=KGFsbCBncm9hbmluZyk=

Hope that works.

Actually saying she "benefitted" from her health problems is awful - I should say it made people more appreciative because there was the very real possibility they were going to lose her, and as Joni already said it best 50+ years ago, sometimes you don't know what you've 'til it's gone.

oh no you di'int

Jackson Browne is also in the Velvet Underground documentary fwiw.

Pft. Forget Jackson Browne or "latter-day renaissance," John Cale was *in* the VU, and his entire subsequent solo career has been more or less ignored by anything more than a cult audience.

Did Jackson Browne beat you with a switch when you were younger?

A lot of his stuff does make me switch it off.

Josh isn't a woman so I'm guessing no

From the free Xmas Xgau Consumer Guide, here's an approval ov Barn (although, since I strongly disagree with his dismissal of the past 12 years, I might not agree with this either, if I ever hear the album all the way through):
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Barn (Reprise) In case you haven’t been keeping track, I have. It’s been a full dozen years since the once inexhaustible Young released an album of new songs worth hearing: Fork in the Road, his eco-car statement back when his passion was a revamped Continental that got 100 miles per gallon on “domestic green fuel” and Crazy Horse could thud along like it was old times. Here Crazy Horse is quieter and gentler as the green consciousness their boss embraced as of 2003’s Greendale turns ever more militant and also, unfortunately but fittingly, much darker: “Canerican” is defiantly bipatriotic, “Change Ain’t Never Gonna” takes direct aim at the yahoo yokels whose side he’s always tried to see, and “Today’s People” blames those people for killing the planet and “the children of the fires and floods” who’ll go out with it. There’s relief in the credible romantic passion of “Tumblin’ Through the Years” and “Don’t Forget Love.” But the full-bore astonishment is the penultimate 8:28 “Welcome Back”: “Gonna sing an old song to you right now/One that you heard before/Might be a window to your soul I can open slowly/I’ve been singing this way for so long,” it goes, and that’s just the vocal. What convinces you he means it is the guitar, so quiet and caring it feels like love. A

OK OK, I'll listen!

It’s been a full dozen years since the once inexhaustible Young released an album of new songs worth hearing

what is this inexcusable slander w/r/t Le Noise and Psychedelic Pill