neil young

The 1997 article persuaded me to give Young another go after recoiling from ATGR -- one of his best period essays.

Yeah, he was more reliable then, still has his moments.

Back then I admired the self-knowledge of two lines: “Though my problems are meaningless that don’t make them go away” (from the whiny “On the Beach”) and “It’s hard to say the meaning of this song” (from the wacked-out “Ambulance Blues”). Now I’m impressed that even in his despondency Young never lost his grip, because On the Beach lets us empathize with the depths he’d sunk to, with clear and specific attention to his fame.

boooooooooo to that first sentence, just completely wrong

on the beach is one of his finest songs, period. whiny? imagine writing and recording that song and someone calling it whiny. you can see why in that same album, same songs (ambulance blues) young was lashing out at critics like christgau who were just not getting it at all

someone needs to protect neil, he doesn't have enough defenders

Haven't read the piece yet--just posted it because I thought it would be of interest.

Two things I've said many times: 1) "Ambulance Blues" is right at the top of the heap--my favourite Neil song back in high school, still one of my ten favourite; 2) I think--as with Vertigo--there's a tendency to overrate On the Beach because of it's long-time unavailability on CD. I don't direct that at anyone in particular, but in the aggregate, I think it developed a mystique disproportionate to how good it is. It's good. Side two is near-great. Side one has "Walk On" and "See the Sky About to Rain," and if those songs lead and close a side, that's not good.

I don't have a problem with calling the album whiny. Whininess was endemic to the '70s. There's a lot of good '70s music that's whiny.

clem, am I reading you correctly? "Walk On" and "See the Sky About to Rain" are inferior to Side Two offerings?

Side one has "Walk On" and "See the Sky About to Rain," and if those songs lead and close a side, that's not good.

possibly the wrongest you've ever been on this board, which is really saying something

hahaha

neil! we will defend you

but seriously clemenza, that hurts

Nice Bananarama reference--I missed your soft touch, sleeve.

Yes, that's what I'm saying about those two songs. Thought so in 1975, think the same in 2022.

"See the Sky About to Rain" is one of the few Neil Young songs that gets stuck on my head, certainly my favorite of his piano parts, and the skittering rhythm of "Walk On" redeems any accusations of drip.

And, my god, "Revolution Blues"! David Crosby redeems himself with that electric rhythm part.

I love "Revolution Blues" and "For the Turnstiles"...don't think I singled those out.

I know. I'm defending OTB, which to my ears, based on these songs and Side Two, is his best album since Everyone Knows....

"Walk On" sounds exactly what I'd expect a revenge song directed at Crosby, Stills, and Nash to sound like--it's a little tepid.

I think I'd have to paraphrase your own incredulity there, Alfred: Am I reading you correctly? After the Gold Rush is inferior to On the Beach?

To my ears, yeah. Several classics, some meh stuff, but it's his vocal choices that put me off more than the songwriting.

So I may join you in obloquy here.

all Neil Young records are special

Hang on while I look up "obloquy."

(45 seconds later.) You may, yes. I count one mediocrity ("I Believe in You"), one song overplayed-into-nullity ("Southern Man"), and the rest perfection, and sometimes better than perfection (the rest of side one), even though better than perfection is theoretically not possible.

"Birds" man...."Birds"

“Birds” is almost too much after everything else on that album. Heart wrenching.

If we're playing Crazy Opinions, I think "I Believe in You" is the best song on After the Gold Rush, and certainly All Time Top-20 Neil.
It's so strange to me that people can agree that an artist is great and each have upside down evaluations of what's good. First time that really struck me was Chris O'Leary's Bowie blog, where he said his favourite Bowie song is "Queen Bitch", which I'd call maybe seventh-best song on Hunky Dory alone.

Always liked the Meters' version of "Birds," and the 1972 album it's from, Cabbage Alley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8o0_qug_mE

I think that probably is an unusual choice, Halfway. But that's fine--I think "Ocean Girl" and "Country Girl" are two of his 10 greatest, and I don't think I've ever come across anyone who agrees with me on either.

I count one mediocrity ("I Believe in You")

How could you.

“Birds” is almost too much after everything else on that album. Heart wrenching.

It's over. It's o-o-o-ver.

That Meters cover is great stuff

Yeah, thanks. New to me.

As much as I'd hate to be without "Ambulance Blues," I'd also take Harvest over On the Beach if I could only have one. I think Harvest is underrated to about the same degree that On the Beach is overrated--in part because of Neil's own putdown of the album in Decade's liner notes.

I waded through Christgau's thing...mind wandered, but I agree with him about how good Time Fades Away is.

I'm supplying in a kindergarten class today--I'll ask them what they think about On the Beach, bring some closure to this.

I entered junior kindergarten in 1976, when Mrs. Grasser put on side two of On the Beach it always meant naptime.

Only kindergarten class that ever had "dune buggy" as one of their 'd' words in their alphabet books.

start 'em Young

I'm always astonished to hear people bag on "See the Sky About to Rain", Jimmy McDonough even circles back to it more than once in Shakey to dismiss it, one of Neil's perfect songs imo. Especially when the only & obvious clunker on that record is sitting there in plain sight at the end of side 1:

https://i.imgur.com/j8cDEP0.jpg

His only experiment with 12-bar blues, right? Meh.

vampire is my least favorite on the album as well. it's not bad by any means, and i do like the "good times are coming, i hear it everywhere i go, but they sure are coming" refrain - i missed living in the 70s (so that I could instead focus more time on living through this hell-saga), but that line instantly brings me to the mood of post-60s hippy dream dead recession oil crisis

"good times are coming, i hear it everywhere i go, but they sure are coming

...slow."

This Note's for You must have some 12-bar blues on it? And "Cry, Cry, Cry" from Everybody's Rockin'?

...and "We Don't Smoke It No More"?

"birds" and all of after the gold rush really are such a great example of how sharp neil used to be as a lyricist. for such a loud rock kind of guy he was so insightful when it came to love and relationships. a little bit of chauvinism lurking around the corners, more as a fact of things and less as an aggressive stance, but you can't have it all.

Young strikes me as a songwriter for whom the self comes first. He keeps an eye on his moods, cultivating a state of interiority that has made him just generous enough to accept women without aggression ("Stupid Girl" an exception, and the same album has "Lookin' for a Love," which suggests the former as a bro's drunken frustration gotten out of his system).

"stupid girl" is a little tricky but ultimately i think it's more generous than it seems to be because it's calling someone out for their behavior and the gender is descriptive. whether or not that behavior is an accurate read, maybe there's something a little deeper going on and less "relating to me, neil, and how i feel about women and relationships" is another question.

i think there's some truth to him being self-centered. at his best though he gestures toward what's mysterious and unknowable about love and life. like, for all of his inability to see past himself, he knows what love is, or at least used to. as the decades wore on he lost that impulse i think. now it's all just nostalgia and second-hand political boomer cliches afaict.

maybe ultimately he just transferred all his love to guitars since that's the only convincing thing going on in his recent work from my pov lol

at least his love for guitars is of the platonic kind, rather than what roger taylor does to the car of "i'm in love with my car"

Roger Taylor didn't write a whole album about his car, though.

he gestures toward what's mysterious and unknowable about love and life.

i generally cringe at the whole "i'm just channelling these songs from the cosmos" stuff about songwriting, but there's a quality to neil's best songs that i do wonder if he even knows what they are about

"It's all the same song!"

I love the line “I saw you at Mercedes Benz practicing self defense” for some reason

like where does...cortez the killer come from? who sits down and writes that? dylan you can always see his mind at work, neil comes up with this imagery that is very dreamlike

Or those careening narratives on RNS?

XP Neil's claimed it came from eating too many hamburgers one night in high school.

“They came dancing across the water” is straight up bone chilling