neil young

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.

Dead Man = Neil's best electric work?

look at the bill for this thing
http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-information/cultural-festivals-and-events/event-listings/hal-willner's-neil-young-project-_70660zv.html

I'm assuming thats a different Chris Brown, otherwise o_O

yeah, probably?
a mix of eh, cool! and whaaaa?
Sam Beam of Iron & Wine
Chris Brown
Vashti Bunyan
Robert Burger
Brendan Canning
Fred Cash
Jason Collett
Julie Doiron
Kevin Drew
Sam Goldberg
Shahzad Ismaily
Eric Mingus
Sun Kil Moon
Jenni Muldaur
Ambrosia Parsley
Justin Peroff
Ben Perowsky
Joan as Policewoman
Elizabeth Powell
Bill Priddle
Lou Reed
Alasdair Roberts
Ron Sexsmith
Teddy Thompson
James Blood Ulmer
Andrew Whiteman
Doug Wieselman

hoping for a mingus/blood ulmer/reed jam on down by the river

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j//msnbc/Components/Video/071107/tdy_chrisbrown_song3_071107.vmodv4.jpg

A MAAAAAAAAAID

Yeah, some good names on there and some wtf ones as well. I scanned it quickly the first time and saw "Bill Priddle" as "Mark Prindle".

http://celeb.wohoo.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/chris-brown.jpg
can i get a heart of gooooold?

IT'S THE WOMAN IN YOU THAT MAKES YOU WANNA PLAY THIS GAAAAAME!

TAKE IT, ULMER!

haha

wish they would substitute teddy thompson for richard thompson

Neil Young and Bert Jansch, May 24 at DAR Constitution Hall ($83.50-$193.50)

Don't think I want to spend that much to see him on this solo tour.

great bill tho

man i would love to see bert jansch

Neil has always been at the vanguard of steep ticket prices.

geez that is a ridiculous ticket price

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8nveweVvh0

there is a single $248 seat available at the worcester mass show

thank god I have plans that night

i didn't go see neil the last time he was in town because tix were $100 bucks ... i had just bought the archives so I had blown my neil budget for the year, really.

I missed this poll. I realize that there's no accounting for personal taste, but I do find it unsettling that somebody counts Everybody's Rockin' as his/her favourite Neil Young album.

The cheap seats here in Houston are $69 w/service charge. The big problem though is it's a frontgate event and they don't have outlets in town, so you have to either go to the venue (Jones Hall) or purchase online. According to the seating chart, I've got a nice balcony seat.

Not that I'd have voted for it but shocked that Freedom pulled a zero on this one too, esp with Trans pulling in two votes.

ha, didn't even look at these results ... they are a little ridiculous, but what the heck. (Only 1 vote for Zuma?)

Yeah, those too. Everybody's Rockin'-1 and Old Ways-3, and, at the other end, Zuma-1 and Freedom-0--these are all very puzzling. Everything else, even albums I dislike (Trans) or consider overrated (On the Beach), more or less makes sense.

only one vote for harvest 'makes sense'?!

I would say so, yes. I think most people who are going to take the time to vote in a Neil Young poll would choose something else as their favourite. If, on the other hand, you surveyed 100 random music fans, undoubtedly it finishes first.

yeah, i wouldn't vote for harvest as my fave neil young album ... not sure what i'd vote.

You'd think with an environment as committed to scientific results and objectivity as ILM that the poll results would make SOME KIND of SENSE!!

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.