neil young

yeah, true, and it's interesting how neil could've been more of a cult-type artist along the lines of Gene Clark. Kind of similar trajectories in their early days -- Neil just had some hits (and CSNY of course) that turned him into a superstar.

rumored to be playing the bell house in brooklyn tonight w/peggy & bert jansch.

never thought much of the s/t, but the raves itt (esp the gene clark comparison) have convinced me to buy the remaster soon. only 8.99 on amazon!

Let me say a word for "The Emperor of Wyoming," one of my three favorite rarely-talked-about Neil songs (other two: "Country Girl" and "Ocean Girl"). On the downside, "The Last Trip to Tulsa" is interminable, and almost as silly as the Doors at their silliest.

yeah "last trip" is a misstep for sure. though the version with (i think) the santa monica flyers from the 70s is awesome. a lot shorter too.

Making this pretty funny.

"I've been waiting for you" is one my favorite Neil back catalog surprises.

if anything "last trip to tulsa" is a dylan rip

it's slight but he gets some good lines in

It is more Dylan than Doors, you're right.

haaa, that promo is hilarious

The best part is the implication that Neil somehow got separated from his guitar during his Buffalo Springfield days...Had he switched over to cello or something during that time?

add another missing album to the pile -- just read this, never heard of it before:
I woke up in the middle of the night because I’ve been listening to this – it’s a bit of a tangent here, but I’ve been listening to this album called Treasure, which I have in the can that was done in 1985. I’ve been listening to it because I plan on releasing it someday, and it’s a great record. But all of the people – the key people – are all gone. I have this history of these people that are playing the greatest music of our lives, playing unbelievably great, and now they’re gone, and I didn’t continue playing with them. At some point I had to say, “I’ll see you guys later. I gotta go do this. I’m gonna go play with Crazy Horse now. I’m gonna do this or I’m gonna do that.” In that way I am ruthless, but I’m ruthless for the music. What is ruth? I don’t know what ruth is. If I don’t have any of it, you know, I’m okay.”

He's the one artist that *has* to have a "A NEW ALBUM FROM" sticker on his, um, new albums.

"Cinnamon Girl" - double drop D, no? Got to be relatively unusual, though I think he used the same tuning for "Ohio." Perhaps accounts for their striking-ness.

there's a clip from the archives where neil shows a fan how to play it, and yeah, i think it's double drop d.

he did play with peggi last night in brooklyn. looking pretty old

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/music/pegiyoungneilyoung/bellhouse/40.jpg

according to the cinnamon girl wiki page:
The song was written in Double Drop D tuning (DADGBD). This tuning is used in several of his most famous songs, such as "Cortez the Killer", "Fuckin' Up", "The Loner", "Ohio", "Inca Queen", "The Old Laughing Lady", "Ride My Llama", "When You Dance I Can Really Love."

it is a cool tuning!

Pity John Entwistle didn't use it on his version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-avGFz3uzlE

Somewhere on Archives, there's an old clip of Neil explaining to some guy in a park how to play "Cinnamon Girl."

This is not that clip, but:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6sg5OMZ7uM

just wanted to chime in some more about the s/t remaster, been listening to it a bunch lately:

- Last Trip to Tulsa is possibly the worst song in his entire catalog. aimless, formless, terrible lyrics, terrible delivery. practically everything about it is wrong
- the only other track that irks me is Here We Are in the Years, just for the clumsy lyrical sentiment

there's a great (much shorter & electric) version of "last trip" that was the b-side to the time fades away single. and yeah "here we are in the years" is definitely not the best set of lyrics, but it is pretty!

http://www.bigozine1a.com/TRKSD/NYrarities/NYrarities13.mp3 here ya go

haha omg that is SO MUCH BETTER. sloppy groove and a sneer is def the way that song should be

loving the unhinged-ness of this - feels of a piece with Yonder Stands the Sinner

yeah, the song is pretty funny/nasty in that version

This song is atrocious.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/88621/canadian-rappers-sample-brutalize-neil-youngs-old-man/

I listened to A Treasure on the way in this morning and I have to say, I think this is finally going to provide a way for me to get into the 80s country era of Neil's career. That's always been a blind spot for me, both because 80s Neil was the last in general I came around to and also because country can be the hardest genre for me to really invest time in. I'd long heard and read about the legendary International Harvesters tours, but the few bootlegs I heard were of questionable enough quality that I couldn't fully commit. This sounds great and, while it may not represent any kind of peak for Neil, I'm really thankful to have it in my collection.

A nice little sign of the times, the crowd reaction to the "there's already too many Toyotas on the road" line in "Motor City".

80s Neil was the last in general I came around to

Trans!!!! It's all about that album

Trans is amazing

Trans was the first (and only) 80s Neil I had for the longest time. Its the less regarded 80s album I took forever to get into.

news from the toronto film festival:
Neil has just completed his first book, a 105,000-word epic tentatively titled Cars I Have Known.

"Underrated Cars I Have Owned"

gonna assume the book is about neil's experiences with Ric Ocasek, Benjamin Orr, Elliot Easton and David Robinson?

It's all about his quest to copy their drum sound in the 80s.

May you live in inneresting times--happy 66th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBOQfr2Lrno

happy b-day!
clemenza, you might be innnerested in this. it kind of works!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Z3Ikwj1xk

Thanks--I like it. With something like "Harvest Moon," which for me is kind of ordinary, I think you've got to do something with it besides a straight cover. Into the folder it goes. Found a picture of them:

http://www.themusicninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Poolside.jpg

cool bros. yeah, i know nothing about them except for this...sort of like that the singer is kind of terrible, it helps!

was just thinking i'd prefer it more if neil was singing over their track tbh

Happy bday neil!

Also the high placement of sleeps with angels on this poll is weird!

That is weird. There are for sure 5-7 albums that could easily jump ahead of it. The most important thing is that it is above the 39 or whatever that could not.

Over zuma, everybody knows, and live rust is crazy

finally got around to buying A Treasure today in honor of Neil's b-day. Here's wising him many more.

Also the high placement of sleeps with angels on this poll is weird!

Troll vote coalition was pretty strong on AIM about 4 years ago.

1 vote for Harvest is some contrarian shite.

or else it's just ILM Loves the 90s

oh shit i didn't even notice harvest...

has harvest somehow become neil young's most underrated album?

hee hee, one vote for Zuma! wacky. i don't think i voted in this poll.

depending on the day i could probably vote for any of neil's first dozen or so records...

these are the NY albums that showed up on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time list in 2003, for a decent idea of the canonical view of his catalog:

71. After The Gold Rush NEIL YOUNG
79. Harvest NEIL YOUNG
147. Deja Vu CROSBY, STILLS , NASH AND YOUNG
206. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere NEIL YOUNG with CRAZY
327. Tonight's The Night NEIL YOUNG
346. Rust Never Sleeps NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE