neil young

S/T debut continues to get underrated, feel like that narrative that it's not good got out there and it just sticks no matter what

Living With War is way to high, even the stripped down version without the choir

I enjoyed Storytone very much, even the grandiose orchestral bits! The whole thing is certainly worth a stream.
As usual, I concur with much of what is currently being said on this ol' thread, and see that it's time for a Monsanto seed bomb---from my Pazz & Jop ballot comments (yes I Top Tenned it):

Promise of the Neil World
Having cruised the neighborhood of Sun Studios for several days, young Crown Electric driver Elvis Presley finally parked his truck, long enough to enter yon booth, available to the public, no appointments necessary, and make a record he cAN take home to his dear old Mom this very day. A good boy, salt of the earth, keeping history fresh---although a newer meme-theme is that really he was hoping to get noticed by Mr. Phillips, and put on a rocket to stardom----roll over Sputnik, and tell yadda-yadda the news:
yadda-yadda, 60-odd years later, Neil Young enters Jack White's triumphantly restored recording booth in Third Man Records' Nashville storefront, and, doing his version of resting (from the labors of having creating Pono, a format and device ("Where Music Lives," especially Classic Rock, like it did in the days of easily available, affordable, analog vinyl) quickly records[ A Letter Home, an authentically staticky-sounding, antediluvian-amateur-ready-default set of oldies. Neil Young, an ambitious old man, as was said of Ronald Reagan, whom Young briefly endorsed, back when he also proclaimed that there comes a time "when everyone has to stand on his own two feet, or one leg or half a leg or whatever he's got." Which was also when, as Young later confessed, he, buying into California's Human Potential Movement, was desperately trying to will his very young son past or straight through disabilities which seemed like new wrinkles in a variable heritage (Young's own strain of epilepsy, for instance).
Having long outlived such illusions, incl, that of Reagan, who long outlived himself, and in the midst of an anti-nostalgia campaign that may have germinated when he recorded Prairie Wind, right before lying down for a neurological operation from which he might never have truly awakened----though said campaign was definitively underway later, when his doctor glimpsed something in his head that made him actually stop smoking pot, after 50 years, and launch the uniquely Neilian timespace groove jams of his first book, Waging Heavy Peace---Young-in-the-booth also recorded a new letter to his own long-dead Mom, allowing as how she wouldn't believe what in the world they're doing to the globe, like it was a piňata, and one you could keep coming back to, any old time.

Yadda-yadda: with so much done, via the release of songs old and new, or both, in the case of customized Americana; so much still in the works, as a legacy, for posterity---what if there is no posterity, to speak of, or to speak, period? Moms, Dads, Grandpaws, everybody falls into the Great Chain of Being---but what if the Chain falls?
Rust never sleeps, after all, especially when jacked up on The Monsanto Years'
bad, diddled-with, trademarked seeds of time: megacorp-to-corpse grains in the red-eye weather of a world stewing in its own fossil fuel juices, via the release of what may or may not turn out to be the ultimate parody and travesty of liberation. Yet here in this kind of free world, with old comrades having fallen by the wayside, old Young and young sons-of-Willie-led Promise Of The Real keep on seeing and raising scorched-earth economics with the sonic equivalent of EARTH STRIKES BACK! headlines, worthy of the backdrop for a headbanger's midnight matinee, live at your local drive-in, or even more like its afterimage, exhaled way out on the highway, where the suburban sprawl finally gives the day's heat up to the cold, clear desert sky once again, and a few harmonies rise like an invisible rainbow, not too far from a x-times-second wind-tuned "Wolf Moon," taking it in, drinking deep as he and they and we can stand.

I do like his debut also, but Last Trip to Tulsa is a terribly dull closer. It's the last glimpse of that "naive" side.

I've "only" heard 19 out of 45. I like Rust Never Sleeps and Everybody Knows less than most, but I was pleased to see Time Fades Away in the top 10. I couldn't put myself in the mindset that Hitchhiker was a real album, if it had been released at the time it would be different.

A few typos (also messing up tenses) early on while I was tweaking paste, sorry.

Wait, the Guardian list leaves out Bluenote Cafe and A Treasure, both of which have been cited on here (and/or another Neil thread?) as live compensation for disappointing studio albums along the same lines (This Note's For You and Old Ways respectively). BC is still uneven, with some maybe deliberately campy beer commercial/Blues Hammer arrangements on Disc 1, but has some very good performances, especially on Disc 2---and A Treasure, with the International Harvesters, is like it says in the title.
Also think he should have included NYxCH Live At The Fillmore East, despite familiar setlist, also agree that more of these shows would be worth hearing )w legit better sound esp.)

trans too low, wouldn't have had the top 2 in the top 5 personally. don't know enough about later Neil Young to comment on much of the list

Seems like that list didn't include any of the Performance Series live stuff, probably an intentional decision.

I like that Top 10...not quite mine, of course, but I think Everybody Knows is a little overlooked these days, so I love seeing it at #2.

(The Guardian Top 10, I mean.)

Arc is too low

And I'm Trans-phobic, so #29 is fine with me.

i get wanting to take the big album down a peg but Harvest below This Note's For You? Come the fuck on

a letter home one spot over american stars n bars??

Yeah, that's ridiculous (says someone who has purposefully never heard This Note, except for the horrifying title track).

If Harvest was only the title track it would be better!

21. American Stars ’N Bars (1977)
The weakest of Young’s 1970s studio albums, American Stars ’N Bars matched tracks taken from the then-unreleased Homegrown with lo-fi home recordings (the oddly creepy Will to Love), leaden country-rock and one undisputed Crazy Horse classic: Like a Hurricane (although there are better live versions out there).

if you're going down that road then a lot of everybody knows should be dinged for the same reason

or honestly pretty much the studio version any neil/CH electric song probably has a better live version out there somewhere

i get wanting to take the big album down a peg but Harvest below This Note's For You? Come the fuck on

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, November 5, 2020 2:38 PM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was going to complain about Trans until I scrolled down to this exact same spot on the list

American Stars and Bars is a good album, imo

That list reminded me that “hawks & doves” is a great sleeper of a Neil record. “The Old Homestead” could drag another 10 minutes easily on that guitar groove.

yeah I love that track, great deep cut

So I've lost track of Neil's flip-flopping around on whether or not more of these are ever coming out. First there was going to be another limited edition box in a different color, then there wasn't, then a more streamlined version with just the CDs in 2021, but now maybe not?

I would have said the only thing more frustrating than Vol 2 never coming out would be for it to come out, but only as some super expensive limited edition thing that only super rich boomers will be able to afford and well, it seems like that's where we are? I mean, it's not even out yet, but you can reserve your very own for $2,000 on eBay!

my understanding is that there will still be a cheaper physical edition in early 2021. what a bungle, though ...
in other news, my review of archives II is in the upcoming issue of uncut!
https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/blogs/paul-mccartney-and-the-review-of-2020-in-the-new-uncut-128488/

Saw that on twitter, definitely excited to read your review when that hits stands!

i had to write it FAST to meet the deadline, so I don't know how amazing the review is ... but oh well. as dumb as the rollout has been, the music is great. tons of amazing stuff. i have plenty of complaints, but that's to be expected.

i guess i'm glad neil young archives auto-renewed on me, i'm assuming all deluxe box stuff will be on there?

I would assume that's a safe bet. I was surprised to see that three songs from this are already up on Spotify, I'm hoping the rest goes up there as well to tide us over in the meantime.

yeah the whole thing should be on the NYA site Nov. 20.
one of the coolest surprises on vol II is the Stills-Young Band version of "Separate Ways" — it's miles better than *anything* on Long May You Run.

man turns 75 this very thursday (nov 12), HB shakey in case i forget

it's miles better than *anything* on Long May You Run.

sorry, but my chrome heart is still shining in the sun

Anyone spun Return To Greendale? It is good, not that much different then the record, though one of things I really like about the record is that it is just the CH Trio (no Pancho), which adds a bit of weird space to the tunes, live it is a little bit more a "regular" (concept aside) CH album, the nosiy bits at the end of "Sun Green" are tasty though I just wish they really stretched out longer

I like it, you're right not much different but roughed up enough to be preferable to the record imo

I saw them on that tour and I could’ve sworn Pancho played piano on that and only busted out the guitar for the encore of old tunes.

yeah, he just plays electric piano on the greendale stuff. weirdest thing is that sampedro has been CGI-d in the accompanying film.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oU7JC_2ZRRE/X6nO_LfDk7I/AAAAAAAAaxU/Fa4Vs15ZKB4QGnYixGmVRndQ3piWLGSGwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h185/poncho-rtg-cgi4.jpg

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WRdluCeG8a8/X6nO_AEziYI/AAAAAAAAaxM/QHeIibTjDM4jQdfFL-Yrjj9W4DcDf1m9gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h185/poncho-rtg-cgi-3.jpg

lol

O_o

Bernard Shakey makes some odd choices, but he truly is one of the great auteurs of our era.

dang

haha what?

Neil getting his George Lucas on.

Makes sense, as he made sure the Jawas were well taken care for after A New Hope.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DcKSgpDWAAAKCv_.jpg

why does he have so much stuff in his pockets?!

Droid parts

harmonicas tuned to different keys?

little trains

Could it be some sort of early wireless guitar system?

Hide-A-Keys

Pono prototypes

His wallet just in case he needed it ?

The remotes for the shock collars he uses to keep the Jawas in line?