neil young

this place has Archives II pre-orders for $50 off

https://www.popmarket.com/neil-young-archives-vol-ii-1972-1976/093624926214

great stuff on that mix tyler. one of my fondest DJing memories is playing that mr soul version once and actually witnessing humans dance to it

ha! that's great.

Young wrote on NYA that Young Shakespeare is, “a more calm performance, without the celebratory atmosphere of Massey Hall, captured live on 16mm. Young Shakespeare is a very special event. To my fans, I say this is the best ever…one of the most pure-sounding acoustic performances we have in the Archive.”

This beautiful concert is being released on LP, DVD and CD, plus a numbered deluxe boxed edition that includes all 3 formats – LP, CD and DVD.
---from this (seems to be a trailer or some kind of vid linked in here)
http://view.e.warnerrecords.com/?qs=8fa041e93a7d32bbe6cd346dc10837e7be109a786966be7fc031d8d66b69b3502ea5afabfa3336128c98f9d21336bb39afd5efa7fe5864f283c471a2ac92d4f8aa05837cde321dcb

If they still have the film elements (and it sounds like he does), I really wish they'd put out a Blu-ray disc. He makes a big deal about audio quality, but I get the impression sometimes that he doesn't give two shits about picture quality. The Rust Never Sleeps film on Blu-Ray is a terrible transfer - nothing to do with the film itself, it's all in the authoring, with digital compression artifacts everywhere and what looks like poor grain management - frankly it looks like it could've been a good-for-SD video transfer up-res'd to HD.

If they still have the film elements (and it sounds like he does), I really wish they'd put out a Blu-ray disc. He makes a big deal about audio quality, but I get the impression sometimes that he doesn't give two shits about picture quality. The _Rust Never Sleeps_ film on Blu-Ray is a terrible transfer - nothing to do with the film itself, it's all in the authoring, with digital compression artifacts everywhere and what looks like poor grain management - frankly it looks like it could've been a good-for-SD video transfer up-res'd to HD.

The old DVD wasn't even anamorphic.

Greendale was actually the first brand-new album that was released after I became a fan - bought it the week it came out and was pleasantly surprised by a bonus DVD that said Live at Vicar St. Thank god for it too, because I don't think I would've liked Neil's song cycle without it.

I noticed last week that an audio-only version of the Vicar St. disc was streaming everywhere: Neil's site, Apple Music, Spotify, Neil's own YouTube channel, etc. I tried the studio album first, and except for "Bandit" (by far my favorite track), the whole thing kind of laid there. It was especially disappointing as a Crazy Horse recording, but Pancho was more or less relegated to keyboards, so perhaps that may have been part of the problem. I tried the Vicar St. album today and even without picture, it was still a night and day difference - a rare instance where a solo acoustic performance is far more powerful than the Crazy Horse rendition.

In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Springsteen on Broadway. That idea sounded dubious when I first heard about it, but then the reviews came in and I got curious. Before I saw it, I knew it was Bruce doing solo renditions of old songs (a few with Patti) and telling stories that were already covered in his memoir - I could see how it might be good, but it was far better than I could have expected. The reasons why it were better are kind of applicable with the Vicar St. album. In either case, if they only played the songs, it might have been underwhelming. If it was just the spoken word bits, it wouldn't have been enough to sustain an entire show or even half a show. You really need both elements to play off of each other. In Springsteen's case, it created a context that gave a new life and a different perspective of each song - you were supposed to process them through the lens of the preceding words. The same effect happens with Vicar St., and it really helps with a narrative-heavy project like this because as the show moves along, Neil fleshes them out with more and more details, and it's especially engaging to hear how Neil views his own characters - it gives them more weight and makes the project feel much more personal. The performances themselves are especially good - Neil knows it's going to be a challenge getting this across, especially when he's never done anything like this before. He's more engaged with the audience himself, and he's more invested and focused when he performs each number on his own.

What did you think of the Greendale film itself? That's the only way I've experienced the songs, and I've never felt like listening to the album, or live versions.

I have a friend that saw him on the "Greendale" tour, and he said there was a guy in the row in front of him that just kept chanting "nooooormal concert ... noooooormal concert ... ! "

His concert docs are great. Rust Never Sleeps, Heart of Gold directed by Jonathan Demme...they're essential. But as narrative filmmaker, Neil's consistently terrible, and it never sounded like the Greendale movie was any different, so I've never felt compelled to see it. The fly-on-the-wall in-studio documentary accompanied the second pressing of the Greendale album, replacing Vicar St. - IIRC it's distinguishable by the negative cover art. That may be worth seeing, though I was under the impression that the music duplicates what you hear on the album.

I remember Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis both reporting that a lot of fans were upset that the Greendale shows were mostly Greendale songs. They both agreed that it was asinine for longtime fans to complain because they should know better - i.e. Neil has consistently done this before, even when the album in question hasn't been released yet (as seen by the steady trickle of archival live albums that are straight up live versions of previously released studio albums).

It never ceases to amaze me how little the average person seems to know about what they're about to see, especially considering how set, er, setlists are for most major acts.

We're talking boomers here tho.

I'm talking generally, not just Neil Young. I saw Sufjan Stevens behind "Age of Adz" and Bon Iver behind his second album, and no way was the crowd prepared for an evening of Not The Hits.

I also saw Neil solo some years back where he made a big deal of wandering over to his array of instruments (pipe organ, a particular guitar, a piano, etc), which got everyone's hopes up that it would be this song or that song, but then just playing whatever was on his mostly-set setlist anyway. I think that may be because it was being filmed for one of those Demme docs. Trunk Show?

I saw him on The Twisted Road tour (right before Le Noise) and it was like that.

i saw him in 2019 solo acoustic and he did the same thing haha

neil has a lot of old school fans that basically like harvest, after the gold rush and that's about it

I had just gotten pretty turned on to NY and I was more than a bit confused when the first time I saw him live was during the Greendale tour.

Could be worse. I saw one of Grant Hart's last shows and he asked, "what do you want to hear?" A hail of Hüsker Dü requests was greeted with "I ain't playing that old shit." A little later, someone in the front requested a solo song, and Hart told him "I ain't playing that either...it's a good song, but I ain't playing it." Poor guy just stood there and replied, "...but I love that song..."

Heh. I saw Alex Chilton once, and when someone requested a specific Big Star song he played "Rock with You" by Michael Jackson ... twice, iirc.

Could be worse. I saw one of Grant Hart's last shows and he asked, "what do you want to hear?" A hail of Hüsker Dü requests was greeted with "I ain't playing that old shit." A little later, someone in the front requested a solo song, and Hart told him "I ain't playing that either...it's a good song, but I ain't playing it." Poor guy just stood there and replied, "...but I love that song..."

― birdistheword, Tuesday, 16 February 2021 18:30 (one hour ago) link

My fave Grant bit would be you call out a song

"Flexible Flyer!"

Grant plays the opening chords. Stops plays another song. Then another. Then plays the "Flexible Flyer" opening chord again and stops. Plays yet another song.

You yell out again

"Flexible Flyer!"

Grant: "I already played that! Oh did you want to hear the whole thing?" and sometimes he would play it and sometimes not.

Grant Hart solo shows were a psychological experience

Were you at the show where he kept playing the first chord and singing "Bar-ba-ra" over and over? kinda the same deal.

Some of the most tense moments when he was in a mood I've ever seen at a show.

Grant shows weren't really about hearing someone play songs as much as being trapped in a room with a person & having them flood the room with orgone particles and then experiencing that, whatever it might be, like singing the words to "Battle of New Orleans" to the tune of "2541" or yeah doing to the "Barbara" bit

Way Down In the Rust Bucket hasn't been postponed yet has it?

god i remember one time he had this whole rap about misogyny and how he wasn't a misogynist and then went right into "diane" like ummmmmmmm

i don't think he was a misogynist because he wrote a creepy song.

I A little later, someone in the front requested a solo song, and Hart told him "I ain't playing that either...it's a good song, but I ain't playing it." Poor guy just stood there and replied, "...but I love that song..."

― birdistheword, Tuesday, February 16, 2021 12:30 PM (one hour ago)

this happened to me only i was the guy and the song was "all of my senses"

When I saw the Kinks, a guy behind me kept shouting, "All of the day! All of the day!" They played "All Day And All Of The Night." "All of the day! All of the day!" They played "Till The End Of The Day." "All of the day! All of the day!" They played "Days." "All of the day! All of the day!" I'm pretty sure they played every song with "the" in the title by this point. After the last encore, just before the house lights came up: "All of the day! All of the day!"

i don't think he was a misogynist because he wrote a creepy song.

i don't think he is too, but, like he was making it uncomfortable with the whole misogyny rap on purpose as was his wont. then "diane" as a kinda sorta punchline, i don't know, i saw him so many times and the vibe can be hard to put in words

he really enjoyed making it uncomfortable

but then one time i saw it and me and my friend requested "the main" and he literally moved the mic stand to the corner of the stage by us and sang and amazing version of it, just depending what grant you were gonna get that night

i can appreciate the joy of making people uncomfortable about misogyny at least
i miss him!

I've definitely been to more than one concert where a guy kept requesting a song after it had already been played, and the act got pretty annoyed.

(Full digression: only band I've ever seen actually play "Freebird" was Built to Spill, and it was great. "Freebird" requests seemed to be fading, anyway, but I always thought a great way to kill it would be to play the song literally every time someone requested it, even if it meant multiple times in a row. I did have a friend in school who once played an acoustic set that culminated in a cover of "Freebird." He got to the "oh, Lord, I can't change" part and kept doing it for 20 minutes until everyone and the sound guy realized what he was up to and turned the mic off.)

this happened to me only i was the guy and the song was "all of my senses"

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Tuesday, February 16, 2021 1:58 PM (forty-two minutes ago)

LOL, maybe we were at the same show - Brooklyn Bowl in 2017?

but then one time i saw it and me and my friend requested "the main" and he literally moved the mic stand to the corner of the stage by us and sang and amazing version of it, just depending what grant you were gonna get that night

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, February 16, 2021 2:19 PM (twenty-two minutes ago)

My biggest regret is missing his 2009 show at Cake Shop. It was supposedly an amazing show, heavy on Hüsker Dü and he was incredibly friendly, taking every request. (YouTube has/had a lot of video with very poor audio from that show.) He did another show at Bell House on the same tour - might've been just as good.

Nope -- not me!

I’ve seen Neil a few times at the Bridge Benefit shows but my favorite time was at Berkeley High around 2000/2001. He alternated between pump organ, guitar, and had various harmonicas submergd in jars. It was great.

Just revisited his Centerstage taping from November 17, 1992. THIS was a fucking show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED-VCe2CbMU

BETTER than the Unplugged performance that came later.

He released Dreamin' Man recently, which was basically a live Harvest Moon album. ("Natural Beauty" was even taken from this show.) But the entire 2-hour Centerstage show should be seen and heard, it's beautiful. I've never been a huge fan of Harvest Moon, it had some great stuff but it dragged in places and felt pretty tepid overall. Hearing Neil perform it in this context really does wonders - every song gets across better, and he gives them a context where they really gain a whole lot of resonance (like "One of These Days" which follows a stunning "Tonight's the Night"). I really wish this was on a DVD, the YouTube link looks like shit when you blow it up, but I don't think Neil's ever going to do it, especially now that he's sampled it for Dreamin' Man and moved on.

UGG boot/grunge pioneer in that clip.

is there a less mangled version of the unplugged performance of "sample and hold" that exists? the backing vocals on that rendition are legitimately eerie.

I'll have to watch that later. I have to say Harvest Moon was never one of my go-to Neil albums but i listened to Dreamin' Man a lot last year when my mom passed away. There's something about the vibe of Neil performing them solo that makes those songs much more poignant.

I think that's part of it too - I took a quick listen of Harvest Moon (and Dreamin' Man for that matter), and he really sweetened up the studio recordings. Not egregiously, it's more or less tasteful, but stripping away backing vocals, steel guitars, drums et al does bring out Neil's vocals. It really is more engaging to listen and watch him sing without any additional instrumentation to draw away your focus.

FWIW, Dreamin' Man seems to have more echo mixed in, probably to match all the theater recordings used for the album. I came across Greg Kot's review of the Chicago Theater show on that tour, and he preferred the Soundstage taping (which happened a day before) noting that the TV studio was much more quiet and intimate, so much that Neil dropped a few songs because he didn't think they'd translate well in the bigger venue.

Sorry about your mom, my condolences.

mildly disagree w/ yr take on Harvest Moon, I really like the instrumentation and the pedal steel in particular.

there's something that gets to me with harvest moon, there's almost a creepy quality to it, something hovering just outside the frame. the sterile production adds to it, in the same way it does for late period steely dan.

i can't really articulate it very well

ugh that show is hitting me hard after taking a break from ny for a few years.

i'm sure i've heard the organ like a hurricane before but whew

he did a version on mtv unplugged like that

yeah it's so good

he did it at the 2019 show i saw, so hopefully will be on timeless orpheum

i watched that show over the last two days wfh and haven't cried like that in months. 'powderfinger' trips me tf up every time. it's so good, he was so good (is he still good? honestly not sure). i identify with the crazed dudes at the end shouting out "happy birthday neil!"

wow, glad you liked it man - that type of catharsis can be really welcome

He's still good depending on what you mean. I think his virtual pandemic shows were good, and he's still really good performing solo, but his records have gotten so spotty. "Peace Trail," "Forever" and "I Do" were the only memorable tracks from his last three albums (one apiece) - those albums may be forgettable, but I really like those three cuts.

lyrically he's(for the most part) really lost it

lyrically he's(for the most part) really lost it

You can make a solid compilation where it seems like he hasn't, but it really feels that way if you listen to his albums from start-to-finish, where he's more about protesting in the most didactic and unambiguous way. I'm with him on a lot of his stances, some of the protest songs are pretty good, but most of them really need better lyrics.

there's a few here and there, peace trail is probably the best overall lyrically, it's got some genuine odd moments

psychedelic pill as well

milky way off colorado but yeah he's not exactly writing "ohio" anymore protest song-wise