Neil Young (Official Thread)

[R. Evans]

Re: The Official Neil Young Thread

^^ Trans?

 

[snakes&ladders]

Re: The Official Neil Young Thread

^^ Trans?

I thk so....anyway, it was AWFUL

 

[AboutAGirl]

Re: The Official Neil Young Thread

I love Trans. But it's not half as good as Landing on Water... my single favorite record Neil did in the 80s. Truth be known I wouldn't put any of his 80s albums above more than a couple records he did in the 60s, 70s, or 90s. But I would put just about any of his 80s albums above all but one or two of the records he did since the 90s.

A family friend recently gave me one of the coolest shirts I've ever seen. It's a shirt from that Roe V Wade anniversery show that featured Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Pearl Jam and L7! Damn good line-up. O.O

Anybody here listen to Rust Radio? It's only around on the weekends but they play the most jaw-dropping Neil Young shows you can ever hear. Oh man I just can't get over how incredible the shit they play is. I mean it'***** or miss, depending on which Neil records and periods and tours you dig and which ones you don't dig as much. But they play just about everything so there's something for everybody if you keep an eye on it.

One thing I noticed is that Neil's 80s stuff sounds a lot better live than it did in the studio. For example This Note's For You... I can barely stand the record. But the live stuff... oh my freaking god. It's incredible. If he had released a live album instead, like with Rust Never Sleeps or Time Fades Away, it would be counted among his all-time greatest. I believe it would, anyway.

 

[R. Evans]

Re: The Official Neil Young Thread

Snake- Probably why it's almost impossible to get nowadays. Although Amazon is listing a few copies. I don't have it but from what I remember about it, it's better than Neil Young and the Shocking Pinks- Everybodys Rockin'. It was his attempt at rockabilly. Totally misguided. In fact these two were released back to back. A low point in Neil's career. I put it to the fact that he was on Geffen Records and hated every minute of it. I think he released crap on Geffen just to stick to David Geffen for interfering with Neil's recording process. Look at his releases after he returned to Reprise Records. This Note's For You, Eldorado EP, Freedom and Ragged Glory just to name the first 4 and these are among the strongest albums of his career. In fact, for me anyway, Ragged Glory is a masterpiece. Probably my favorite from Neil and CH. Crazy Horse never sounded better and it shows. They rock on this album.

So we'll put down Trans, Everybody's Rockin', Old Ways, Landing On Water, and Life as Neil pounding sand up Geffen's arse and trying to get released from his contract. Although Life isn't horrible, the others probably occupy 4 of the bottom 5 albums of his career.

Either that or it was Neil just being Neil.

 

[Soot and Stars]

Re: The Official Neil Young Thread

Just tried out:

Everybody Knows this is Nowhere

This is a rockier album than the s/t debut and in some ways I like that because I'm more familiar with it but in other ways I miss some elements of that since the debut was closer to Harvest which I really like and the debut had some soul and Gospel elements I really liked that are missing here. This album as a whole is better I think regardless. It had more country as well as rock. It made me realize two things single wise. One, I really don't like Cinnamon Girl as much as most do. It's not a stellar Neil Young track to me. Two, I just realized how great of a track this is:

Down By The River
(great chorus, great guitar, reminds me of CCR)


I also like the duet with Robin Lane:

Round and Round
(what a great country twanger with great harmonies)


The best part of the album is a track that can easily move it's way up to my top songs by Neil:

Running Dry
(this is an epic, dark track, great use of violin I LOVE it)




This album, particularly "Running Dry" ,akes me want to keep exploring more Neil!

 

[AboutAGirl]

Re: The Official Neil Young Thread

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere is probably my favorite album of all-time.

Well, it along with Echo by Petty and The Final Cut by Floyd.

 

[Soot and Stars]

Re: The Official Neil Young Thread

Awesome! Having said that do you think that I still have plenty of albums to listen to that can come close to that album?

 

[AboutAGirl]

Re: The Official Neil Young Thread

Awesome! Having said that do you think that I still have plenty of albums to listen to that can come close to that album?

Oh god yes. That and more.

I'm not a purist or a completist in the least. I have absolutely no interest in buying something just to own it or in hearing a record just for the sake of having heard it. I only go after the things I think I'll like. My attention is really hard to keep, I'm into one thing for a while and then I'm off in a copmpletely different direction.

The moral of this boring little story is... I own almost every album Neil Young made. That's like 45 albums. The 2 I don't have are ones I know I like but I'm saving for later. Now, Neil's my fave artist, I wouldn't expect just anyone to go after everything he ever did. But one thing's for certain, Neil has a whole lot of ground to explore. Just when you think you've heard everything fresh and exciting he has to offer, he comes out of left field and knocks you over the head with something amazing.

If I read your posts right, you don't even have After the Gold Rush yet. Or Tonight's the Night. Or On The Beach. Or Ragged Glory. Or Weld, Zuma, Comes a Time, Harvest Moon, Live Rust, American Stars N Bars, Broken Arrow... Each one arguably his greatest work. Neil's sort of like The Beatles in that there's no consensus at all on what his best record is. I'm not even sure which one is the best half the time. You've got a whole lot to disover even if you were to end up only being a casual fan, don't worry!

And the best part is, Neil's STILL putting great new stuff out, both original material and material from the vaults. In the next year or two we'll be getting Archives 2, with new 70s records like Homegrown. Plus with things like the mid-70s Crazy Horse tours, the Tonight's The Night tour, and the Blue Notes tour, we're eventually getting live albums that put to shame the classic live albums that are already out!

 

[Soot and Stars]

Re: The Official Neil Young Thread

Awesome dude! This is what makes me want to go in these threads. From what I can see you are bar none the biggest Neil fan in the forum and the enthusiasm just makes me want to hear more of Neil's work especially since next on the list is "After The Gold Rush" which seems to be highly praised! Two questions since you are qualified man! One, why do you think people like "Cinnamon Girl"? It sounds pretty basic for A Neil tune and doesn't really stick out to me. What sticks out to you? Two, where do you think the mutual respect between Neil and Pearl Jam came from? From what I've read Neil didn't do things to sell out so their must have been some legit comradery there!

So anyway onto the album and here we go:

After The Gold Rush


Well this is the most somber affair I've heard of the three albums thus far. Not a bad thing! Also it sounds like his most sparse stylistically. None of the flourishes of the last two. There is a lot of beauty on this album of starkness though. Particularly, After The Gold Rush the title track which is a highlight for me:
I believe if you hate Neil's voice you are guaranteed to hate this track but I love it! The piano and horns are gorgeous in this beautifully understated song. The biggest gem on the album for me is Birds It's a short but tender track! OI never knew Neil incorporated so much piano in his music! This track sounds so spiritual in it's harmonies! Gorgeous! Overall I'm not sure I can say that I like this better than the last two albums but it's got great moments!

So what are the highlights of this album for you AAG? What do you hold dear about it?

 

[AboutAGirl]

Re: The Official Neil Young Thread

Great review! And oh my, thank you so much for giving me an excuse to discuss Neil! You're in no way obligated to ever read over this massive block of text if you have better things to do.

After the Gold Rush was a record I took a long time to get fully into, I would say. I always loved it, mind you, but it wasn't until several years of Neil listening that I came to regard it as one of his best. In fact I think it was around the time I started getting really into pop music that Gold Rush shot up to near the top of my Neil list. The songs are full of boyish naiveté and lovelorn longing, like most good pop music (allowing for the occasional substitution of "boyish" with "girlish," of course).

But it's actually the rockish aspects that appeal to me about Gold Rush... or, at least, what I consider to be rockish about it. My view of what defines "rock" has never relied on loud guitars. It's more about the organic approach and the raw abandon of the recordings. The sparsity of the instrumentations, just like you said, that's what I love about it. There's a billion and ten acoustic rock albums out there, and I'd put Gold Rush above almost all of them, mostly because of its rock n roll heart. One can put out a smooth, pristine acoustic record, but for my money it's the live honesty that counts most in acoustic music. Gold Rush sounds like a small group of friends getting together in a snowy mountain cabin to run through a few pretty tunes, and that's what I love about it even more than any of the songs.

That being said, even before I came to fully appreciate the album, I still would have said that 'Tell Me Why' is perhaps the single finest folk and/or pop song that Neil Young has ever written. It's just so perfect, equal measures cute and wise, and endearing while simultaneously being a bit pompous or selfish. Also Southern Man is home to one of my all-time favorite guitar solos, filled with all the simple ingenuity that characterizes Neil's best stuff.

re: Cinnamon Girl, this is actually one of my favorite songs of Neil's. I concur with you that it is a basic song. One thing that I think works in its favor is the recording and mix are impeccable -- you won't see me rocking out to live versions that much. I honestly can't really say why I like it so much, other than probably my favorite thing about it, which is the bridge. "Pa send me money now, I'm gonna make it some how, I need another chance. You see, your baby loves to dance! dance! dance! Yeah!" right into the killer one-note solo.

It's such a euphoric, ecstatic moment, almost like a musical orgasm. And those lyrics, they're simple almost to the point of being silly, but they encapsulate what is, for me, the 'feel' of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. This was when Neil was still a young buck, a guy who hadn't forged his legacy yet. These are days where they're still crashing on friends couches and trying to make it as stars, still experimenting, everything is still fresh and young and up in the air, and they're just out there having the time of their life. It's an idyllic vision of youth, an expression of the kind of thing big famous bands always say they miss the most 30 years down the road.

re: Pearl Jam. On Neil's end, he saw bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana as being the real deal. He saw their raw abandon, passion, and darkness, and he aligned it with people he had understood well like Danny Whitten. Neil and PJ never came up with the idea sitting in their living room "Oh we should record with Neil," it just happened naturally. They were on the same bill and they just started talking and eventually it formed out of the ether, going with the flow, same way Neil does everything.

When it comes to Pearl Jam, I think part of it is that they were a very receptive band that was ready and eager to absorb mentorship from every craftsman they came across -- seems like at least Eddie (if not the rest of them) has sung a song or two with every venerable rocker he can get his hands on. 'Course, Pearl Jam didn't go so far as to record an album behind just anybody. Neil's ethos struck a chord throughout the alternative rock movement, with his emphasis of emotion over technical skill, his rugged individualism, his penchant for experimentation, and his exploration of raw, dark themes in the mid 70s (Time Fades Away, Tonight's The Night and On The Beach).

And I think you hit on one of the biggest reasons already. Though Neil's individualism has been legendary (or infamous) since he first toyed with Buffalo Springfield's plans in the 60s, in 1988 Neil made his biggest splash with his anti-corporate stance on the record This Note's For You, where he lambasted corporate sponsorship and embarked on a "Sponsored By Nobody" tour. It was accompanied by an anti-MTV music video for the title track, which was initially banned but ended up winning MTV's video of the year award. Seeing as how Pearl Jam is the band that went to war against Ticketmaster, it makes sense Neil's ideology would garner extra respect from them.

If there was anybody who was going to hook up with a "grunge" band, it had to be Neil. I'm actually really surprised that Neil never recorded anything with punk guru Steve Albini (especially considering Page & Plant, of all people, have). Grunge was, to a certain extent, a case of the cultural vogue happening upon some of the same ideas and concepts Neil had been using since the 1960s. But the thing that just blows me away is how Neil was able to tap into this flow of energy almost instantaneously.

Eldorado, Freedom, Ragged Glory and Weld all came out before Nevermind was even released (let alone became popular). Which means that Neil wasn't trying to be popular or modern, he was just doing whatever he felt like, same as always. And before the rest of the world caught on to grunge, Neil was already playing this fierce, distorted, feedback-ridden, angry disillusioned music. It wasn't necessarily straight-up grunge, but then Neil rarely plays any particular style down to a T. In 1991, Steve Albini called Ragged Glory the only major label album that was as sick and twisted as any underground release.

I mean, it's not like you could ever put a Neil record on and mistake it for The Melvins. But for a guy who grew up in a world where Roy Orbison was edgy and hip, the fact that he was almost as relevant and on-point as any trend-setting band in 1990 is startling.