neil young

oh shit decade

and #s of boots. sorry gang. read my lips, vote dead man

After The Gold Rush.

but On The Beach too. the title song makes me cry.

I voted Time Fades Away

this was already done.
Best of Neil Young studio records

This one has live albums.

Some of them, anyway. (Unplugged, Year of the Horse, Road Rock vol. 1)

Oh. The studio albums poll had the live albums too. Nevermind then.

I voted Ragged Glory because it needs more love and less rockism. That's a srsly good record, yo.

First person to vote "Old Ways" gets a dollar from me.

I voted for "Old Ways" just for the cash. You want my paypal address?

After The Gold Rush = the good songs are so good they make you forget about the bad ones

On The Beach = pretty much all good

I mean "When You Dance" is kind of endearing as a cornily sincere, b-level hippie artifact, but Cripple Creek Ferry is a real turd of a song, and Birds isn't great either.

I got to get away from this day to day running around

TRANS FTW!

Arc/Weld. The worst/best live albums ever.

Dead Man is actually really really good.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Tonight's The Night

closely followed by Goldrush and On The Beach

TTN is definitely my favourite - it's so fucked, so moving. Tender, ragged and rocking in equal measure.

Baby Mellow My Mind aches so hard - the swell of pedal steel, touch of lonesome barroom piano, and Neil's voice actually breaking up.

Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown rocks. It sounds so triumphant in its hedonism yet the undercurrent is utterly bleak.

Other favourites - Everybody Knows, Rust, Zuma, Time Fades Away, Sleeps With Angels, Live Rust. Hell, there hardly any poor ones. I've not heard the infamous Landing On Water, but Are You Passionate was bloody awful. Trans is ace though.

Ragged Glory is great fun, one of his most satisfying rock records, but I wouldn't quite put it in the top rung of Neil albums.

Harvest - handful of great songs and some dreary stuff too. Overall, it's too slick, too polite. I like Neil a little scuffed around the edges.

Rust Never Sleeps has Powderfinger, for the win.

Anyone else notice how Apatow kept dropping the cover of Landing On Water all over Knocked Up. What's the deal with that? Consensus aropund these parts on that album?

Rust Never Sleeps for "Powderfinger", but also because of the individually peculiar time and place in which I first loved this record. Also, it's an incredibly balanced album in so many ways I can't be bothered to expand on here.

Consensus aropund these parts on that album?

I noticed the curious product placement too, Tal. There's an interesting thread here devoted to Landing on Water.

no "none of the above"????

just snuck in a vote for tonight's the night. right in the nick of time.

emotion of the less contained and calculated variety

me for tonights the night, too. its so close though - there are better songs on zuma and everybody knows, and almost enough to give the nod to one of them, but TTN takes it

Yeah, Tonight's The Night would be my second or third and very close.

Rust Never Sleeps by a hair, for side one and Powderfinger alone (though nearly sunk by Welfare Mothers).

Oh c'mon, Welfare Mothers is great! My favorite Neil Young throwaway.

DIVORCEE

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

a 3-way tie this time then.

Fair result.

Wait. Zuma should've been much higher, though.

c'est vrai

Someone voted for Everybody's Rockin' again.

One vote for "Zuma"! No way!! This poll is corrupt!!!

"On the Beach" - there's an ILM album if ever there was one

Sleeps With Angels is way too high. And Freedom is way too low.

The fact that Zuma ranked below Trans completely invalidates this poll.

So, basically, I'm the only person who voted for "Zuma"? Don't believe it.

I wasn't around when CSN(and sometimes Y) were at their peak, so apologies for the following somewhat naive question:

How much of Neil Young's popularity in the 70s can be attributed to his association with CSN? The thought never really occurred to me until I was checking out CSN(Y)'s Allmusic entry today, which says "it was the only American-based band to approach the overall societal impact of the Beatles".

Personally, I like Neil Young exponentially more than CSN(Y), so my gut feeling is that the majority of Neil Young's fans were there on account of his own talent. But was there a certain contingency of fans who cheered loudest for "Ohio" and "Helpless", contemplating to themselves at the Live Rust concerts that it would be better if CSN were up on stage too? Or was it more like "Why the hell does Neil Young ever play with them? They butchered 'Helpless'..."? Just wondering what the prevalent view was back in the day.

When CSN and sometimes Y reunited for a predictably horrible album in 1988, Neil begged off the obligatory tour, saying, "I dunno man, those guys need some serious practice."

And that Allmusic statement strikes me as comically absurd.

Yeah, I admit it raised my eyebrow as well, but then I go the ILM search function, and the second thing I read on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young C/D S/D thread is "i'm more interested in the fact that CSN(Y) (or whatever) were actually REALLY POPULAR and BIG -- as in springsteen in '85/outkast or britney spears BIG. that's such a radical sea-change in mass public musical taste that deserves some comment, no?"

On The Beach is very good, but would have voted Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, in fact i shall play it now

hi alex, how is the weather in denver? in frankfurt it has been raining most of the day. i would have voted <i>after the goldrush</i>, i think. but <i>on the beach</i> is a decent winner, too.

i will never learn the ilm html tags...

weird

it was the only American-based band to approach the overall societal impact of the Beatles

In their time their American album sales were HUGE. Their cultural cachet was such that their public greeted "Ohio" as a major statement. I'm wary of statements like AllMusic's, but the Shakey bio also makes the same suggestion.

CSNY were huge because the Byrds, the Hollies, and the Buffalo Springfield had all been huge before.

well, that sounds pretty good

so ... this is a rockin' show? i saw him two years ago and while it was interesting to see him do the solo acoustic thing, i definitely would prefer to see a rockin' show this time. (current tour is headed my way)

yeah he's playing long electric jams — "cowgirl in the sand," "fuckin up", "like a hurricane" etc, along with some mellower stuff.

Looks like he debuted a new political song last night. Neil has a pretty erratic track record when it comes to those, from iconic to awkwardly on the nose.

you can hear a soundcheck version of the new song ("BIG CRIME") on the NYA. In the Living With War vein, zero subtlety, just a rant, but hey, maybe we need some rants.

tbh I get the impression his political songs became a lot more on-the-nose out of necessity - ambiguity, even to the smallest degree, made it easier and easier for people to ignore what he was saying or worse misinterpret it, especially at a time when the general populace has grown more willfully ignorant. So he makes these songs blunt and even if doesn't draw converts, it does force people to reveal their true nature when they start foaming at the mouth.

A short clip of the encore last night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B9ATiGpbl8

Glad Marcus tore apart that terrible Trump song in "Real Life" today.

yeah, there's no defending that track. it's parody lib toby keith material.

At least *someone* is keeping the concept of protest songs alive.

this stuff is killer — https://chrisforsyth1.bandcamp.com/album/all-one-song

https://i.postimg.cc/L5pcRz5m/neil.jpg

Holy CanCon Stringman!

that looks excruciatingly bad

the only good NY covers album is The Bridge

Big Crime isn't close to the worst Neil song this year tbh

this stuff is killer — https://chrisforsyth1.bandcamp.com/album/all-one-song

― tylerw, Saturday, September 6, 2025 10:22 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah this is great

There are dozens and dozens of great Neil Young covers; I've collected in the neighborhood of four or five hundred, I bet (and Canadian artists especially tend to take care, so I bet that Massey Hall show is quite good).

in the neighborhood of four or five hundred

A little over 700, actually. I haven't been keeping up for the past four or five years, though--need to see what's been put out recently.

is Neil invited to come watch the tribute show?

I haven't seen or heard anything Joel Plaskett's done in almost 25 years but Clueless Wonder remains one of the greatest songs I've ever heard.

(xpost) I bet at least a few people in the building will be dreaming of an unannounced drop-in.

Lefsetz liked the Los Angeles show and said typical Lefsetz things about Neil and the gig on his website post

Lots of folks on cnn and Bluesky and YouTube as well just discovered Neil’s new Big Crime song as he opened his set at Farm aid with it

still not much of a song, but I'm happy to hear a hearty middle finger to trump played in a packed stadium.

neil and co. were impressively shambolic at farm aid for a band that's been on the road all summer haha.

Came across Farm Aid on CNN during Dylan's set and stayed with it. I always assumed--maybe wrongly--that farmers were largely conservative, so there felt like a bit of a disconnect between those on stage (who again, maybe wrongly, I assume were mostly fiercely anti-Trump) and those watching.

Neil obviously chose his songs for the occasion, and as a comment on present circumstances. The inclusion of "Old Man" was interesting. I think of that song as a blueprint of sorts for "Campaigner" a few years later. I know it was written for a ranch hand, and also, I'm sure (consciously or not) for his father. But thinking about what was explicit in "Campaigner," he may also have subconsciously written "Old Man" to LBJ, and even to Nixon--testing the limits of empathy, how much he was able find some commonality where there was none.

But you can't do that with Trump. You can't sing "I'm a lot like you" and have Trump as the unnamed "you" at the other end. Because no one is, thankfully.

I always assumed--maybe wrongly--that farmers were largely conservative, so there felt like a bit of a disconnect between those on stage (who again, maybe wrongly, I assume were mostly fiercely anti-Trump) and those watching.

It's a gray area at best. I imagine they'll accept help wherever it comes from. You have to remember too that Neil, Willie Nelson, and John Mellencamp (lefties all) started Farm Aid in response to Reagan's disastrous polices.

The official Farm Aid YouTube channel has uploaded clipped up versions of sets from prior events, with many of the earliest ones taken direct from the archived simulcasts by The Nashville Network. These include performances by the Blasters and X, neither of them shying away from protest material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSv5eCVAu6M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3Zm2z-tq90

Everyone I saw from Dylan on was definitely of the left; didn't know if there was a country artist or two earlier who might not have been. Nothing to do with Neil, but I thought Willie Nelson's "Everything Is Bullshit" was great; with a title like that I'd expect something really heavy-handed, but anything but.

Lots of folks on cnn and Bluesky and YouTube as well just discovered Neil’s new Big Crime song as he opened his set at Farm aid with it

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 21 September 2025 14:12 (two days ago)

My father texted me at 6 AM this morning about "Big Crime"

It’s nice to see the next set on Amazon — Harvest Moon, Unplugged, Sleeps With Angels, Mirror Ball. I’ve been holding off on trying to hunt down copies of those in anticipation of this one.

Late-era Neil's biggest fan returns to gush: World Record is so good! I'm listening to it again after a long spell away from Neil, preparing for a first listen to Talkin' to the Trees... I love his raw, chaotic, "WE GOTTA CAPTURE ALL THE MISTAKES" modern style. It's so... gung-ho!

xp oh shit!

https://consequence.net/2025/10/neil-young-pulling-music-amazon-calls-for-boycott/

The "Zoomer" (ugh) station here counts down a Top 10 from some week in the distant past every afternoon; they tend to come up short on the hour, so they'll fill the remaining time with (of course) some Cancon, usually completely unrelated. The other day they only had a couple of minutes left so they squeezed in Neil's "Wonderin'," the regular studio version from Everybody's Rockin'. Not sure if I've posted this before, but I can't think of a Neil Young song I love more from an album I loathe (don't remember how the earlier Archives version goes--could be better). Great video, too.

Just got an email link to "As Time Explodes"...I like it. Generic, I know--and, because I like it, too short--but for me, the absence of lyrics is a big plus. I've found Neil's political lyrics the last few years so clunky. This way, he can string news clips together for a video, make his point, but not ruin the song. The video's really generic, but if you're just listening, doesn't affect the song at all.

Just saw this brilliance posted elsewhere. They're having so much fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovum-GjYWKQ

No one mentioning his 80th birthday here? My FB wall is filled with posts (mine included), and the CBC is doing three hours this afternoon.

neil > dylan

in terms of who conquered the 70s, sure

neil > dylan for all time for me

Happy to see both still active at this point

The recent Uncut cover mount CD of Neil covers is fantastic, well worth tracking down. J Mascis, Phosphorescent, MJ Lenderman, etc. the Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory take on “Helpless” is my standout so far, beautiful.

I've been listening to Neil Young all day in chronological order (post-Buffalo Springfield). I'm going through not just his studio albums but also his physical archival albums. At some point, I figured I was being a completist and leaned into it, accepting what I imagined was redundancy, but paradoxically, that doesn't seem to be the case once you've piled up so many releases. The set lists for each concert may be similar, but you're also seeing Neil evolve as a performer, becoming more serious and more precise with each show. It makes the public response to Harvest seem inevitable and logical, and it's easy to see why it was so highly anticipated. It also makes the turn into the ditch all the more shocking because the fame and success he rebelled against feels less like sheer luck and more like something he was really aiming for and achieved through intense dedication and focus - he worked hard at his career. And now he was chucking away everything that made his shows conventionally appealing, all the things he honed and polished to get to the top.

That's awesome... I explored Neil chronologically from Buffalo through On the Beach, then jumped to Are You Passionate because Homegrown wasn't out yet... all rhyme and reason was abandoned... but that early run, in order, was an incredible trip. Live at Massey Hall is one of my favorite "first listen" memories. Such an exquisite show. I couldn't believe how sweet and pure it sounded -- I'd loved Canterbury House and Riverboat, but Massey Hall was something else -- so cool that, doing this now, you have several extra shows to fill in the blanks.

Booming post, BITW!

Thanks stevie! And I agree TheNuNuNu, it's probably my favorite of the early shows as well. I first read about Massey Hall in Shakey and the timing worked out where just a few months after I finished reading the book, they announced that Massey Hall was going to be released - so my expectations were pretty high, and it did not disappoint.

One thing that's pretty cool about listening to the early '70s shows is hearing "Heart of Gold." CSN&Y aside, there was something like an 18 month gap between Neil Young albums (After the Gold Rush and Harvest), and Cellar Door, Carnegie Hall, Massey Hall, Young Shakespeare, Royce Hall and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion all happened during that gap. It's not until Massey Hall that we hear "Heart of Gold," and it's not even a whole song, it's the tail end of a medley that's mostly "A Man Needs a Maid," all of which is done on piano. He plays it again like that at Shakespeare, and it's not until Royce Hall that we suddenly hear the familiar opening of "Heart of Gold," all by itself, on an acoustic guitar, and it's pretty amazing to hear that greeted with complete silence - which to be clear is no surprise because it wouldn't be released on record for another whole year. I don't know the actual history in detail, but I get the impression of someone slowly but confidently working with a song, tinkering with it yet comfortable enough to air it out as it's still evolving. Pretty great, and it's just the setup for the next chapter - it's arguably THAT song that puts Neil on the map as a commercial superstar (without CS&N), and of course that's what he'll rebel against.

i was also floored by massey and kind of a random assortment of performances from that era that i found online ca 2008, right after having moved to l.a. i remember listening on my studio apt patio and just being swept out to sea, so to speak. that's still my fav era of neil, right before the ditch turn, but rust never sleeps is also perfect.

dylan i'm just starting to be exposed to honestly. some artists take me forever to get around to and possibly fall in love with.

What I love about him is I think his reputation is almost as a natural genius out of whom would flow these works that were very raw and “of the moment” and about what he was going through at the time. There’s an element of truth to all that, but I think it always has underrated how brilliant he is about getting the exact effect he wants from songs. For years, for example, I think the reputation of tonight’s the night was this album arriving from a single dark moment in his life but when you hear something like the Roxy album, you see just how on point that band was, how every note just hit for maximum impact, and how that record was not an accident, but an intentionally rough and bleary eyed document. It makes sense that he has occasionally aspired to be a film director, because so many of his songs are cinematic and composed with every corner of the audio frame in mind. And he’s not someone we consider to the “well produced” whatever that means but he’s one of the best in that respect.

neil at his best for me is a very "present" and sort of .. clear-eyed and tuned-in artist. after the gold rush has such a clarity to everything. his most impressive stuff has an immaculate calibration to everything. when he and the band go off, there's this incredible relationship between subject matter and form. "powderfinger" is a good example of that. there's his intuitive grasp of guitar noise as its own expressive world, injected into the solos. there's a aspiration of hardness to neil, i think, to flying higher so to speak, that draws from and rests on a sort of wide-eyed vulnerability and openness. it turns into a spiritual thing pretty easily. one of the draws of neil for me has always been how he occupied the space of a maverick of masculinity. the quavering voice, the slices of raw emotion, the drive to feel and understand, from his limited viewpoint, his experience as a man, born of dirt, the suffering and the elation two sides of the same coin.

These posts rule.