Gonna Take a Lotta POLL - Neil Young's "Comes a Time"

so weird! i wanted to start this poll today.
this album is great, i put it on last night thinking it would be good background music for dinner, but me and my gf were both kinda transfixed by it.

i'm thinking Look out for My Love

Human Highway because the movie of the same name staring ol' Neil is just so awesome.

Wait I thought I replied to this. Anyway, I will have to brood over "Comes a Time" vs. "Lotta Love."

This album is overlooked b/c it's sandwiched between the weirdness of Zuma-ASAB and Rust Never Sleeps, but I love its effrontery: it's an El Lay studio rock masterpiece with a million overdubs disguised as a quickie folk-country release.

there weren't any overdubs at first, the label asked for them

Sure, but that's how it sounds.

No snark intended btw -- just that the album sounds almost hysterically overarranged even without knowing its recording history.

I mean -- Mellotron AND live strings on "Goin' Back"!

I'd never noticed "Four Strong Winds" (a cover) until maybe if it was on that Ryman video. It's one of my favorite songs now. "Comes a Time" would have been my pick prior to that.

Love "Four Strong Winds" too, voted it.

which one is it that has the random, distorted guitar overdubbed onto it but its mixed really low...? Look Out for My Love? that one.

4 Strong Winds.

Breaks my heart everytime.

Voted "Comes A Time." When I first got this album after rounding up a lot of the first tier Neil material I was shocked how excellent it is. Every track's a winner and it's one of my most played Neil records.

this album literally saved my life once by getting me through a severe bout of depression. sadly, it has never sounded the same since.

"Peace of Mind"

which one is it that has the random, distorted guitar overdubbed onto it but its mixed really low...? Look Out for My Love? that one.

Yup. YOU OWN IT...YOU OWN IT NOW.

"Comes a Time" vs. "Lotta Love."

^ went with "Comes a Time"

"Human Highway" for the "how could people get so unkind" melody/harmonies. Next, "Comes a Time" and "Look Out for My Love".

The real bomb on here is "Already One", which recycles the melody from "Long May You Run", but more sluggishly and self-congradulatorily.

Strangely, this is the only one of Neil's 70's albums I've never heard, I only know a couple of tracks from live registrations.

I have actually never heard this album either as far as I know.

so what's the connection/ chronology between the song Human Highway, the movie, and the aborted CSNY album?

Look Out For My Love has always been my favorite here.

this is a great great record and i'm not sure how i'll vote. leaning towards the title track.

so what's the connection/ chronology between the song Human Highway, the movie, and the aborted CSNY album?
i think neil wrote it for the never-completed second CSNY album in 73-74. he introduced it way back on the tonights the night tour, I think. on the joel bernstein tapes he talks about how every time he tried to record it, "someone came along and ... stopped it." i don't really know how it links into the movie -- is it even *in* the movie?

but i agree this record is great. kind of easy to forget about, but whenever i play it I love it. except for motorcycle mama maybe.

great songs on here...will go with goin' back

so if he wrote before those sessions, then the "how can people be so unkind" line doesn't refer to CS&N during the recording

Agree that this album is too often overlooked, some of Neil's best melodies on here. Absolutely love the first four tracks but I'd go with 'Lotta Love' - the Nicolette Larson cover of it is maybe even better.

i think i've read that "lotta love" was inspired by Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.

i think i've read that "lotta love" was inspired by Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.

Yeah, that's mentioned in 'Shakey' - apparently his road crew were playing it a lot at the time.

yeah, that must be where i read that.
did neil's "lotta love" come out before or after the nicolette version?

Due to a delay in release Comes a Time was released on the same day in September 1978 as was Nicolette; the release of a single off the Nicolette album was held off until November when it was clear Young's version would not have a single release as an A-side (although Young's "Lotta Love" was released as the B-side of a non-charting "Comes a Time" single).

although elsewhere on wiki it says comes a time was released in October

Neil's was first - she found a tape of the album in his car and liked the song (that's from Shakey too... love that book).

(Xpost)

Is this Neil's most dinner-party-friendly album? Some very culturally conservative Mormon friends put this album on at a dinner at their place many years ago. I was shocked they knew any pop music at all! This album has sold twice as many copies as Zuma both in the USA & worldwide, if the data I'm using is accurate; it's only behind the early album, Decade, Rust Never Sleeps + Live Rust, & Harvest Moon, as far as I can tell.

she found a tape of the album in his car and liked the song
oh, i thought she found a tape of the demo or something ...

anyhoo, yeah, this album just sounds so effortless most of the time. like the title track -- instantly memorable, totally breezy, feels like it's always existed.

Yeah, this was his best seller between Harvest and RNS.

and deservedly so.

will be interesting to hear the original solo version of this record, as recently announced as part of the archives project ...

she found a tape of the album in his car and liked the song

oh, i thought she found a tape of the demo or something ...

yeah, i mean, she sings backup on the album...hmmm

Yeah, this was his best seller between Harvest and RNS.

i had no idea this sold so well. it does seem like his most straight-ahead, accessible record, though...even more so than Harvest

wiki sez (re: lotta love) While being driven by Young in his car one day Larson played a cassette which was the demo of "Lotta Love" and Young told her the song was hers if she wanted it. Young did in fact cut a version of "Lotta Love" himself for his Comes a Time album; Larson provided background vocals for the album but did not sing on its "Lotta Love" track, a spare version which emphasized the song's melancholy.
(i don't have the album in front of me, but the lotta love on comes a time has crazy horse on it, right?)

yes, look out for my love and lotta love have crazy horse

I uncritically loved everything Neil put out in the late '70s, and I loved this. Thinking about it now, I'd have to say it's overrated--about half the songs I've forgotten. Putting out an acoustic album on the heels of his Time Fades Away--Stars 'N Bars block of work was a great idea, and I think critically it probably benefited from that context. Anway, the title song stands tall.

This album >>>>>>>> Harvest

Gotta disagree there. I think because of its massive commercial popularity, Harvest tends to be underrated--even (especially) by Neil himself.

The real bomb on here is "Already One", which recycles the melody from "Long May You Run", but more sluggishly and self-congradulatorily.

Totally agree -- I just relistened to the album.

the nicolette version is excellent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXfROqR_p1A

I love 70's MOR, but i think that version is too breezy. the arrangement, her vocals, the entire production aren't really compatible w/the vulnerable place that the lyrics are coming from

I used to love it too, but when I listened to about three-quarters of it at the grocery store (!) the other day it sounded baroque. Her voice is colorless too -- the usual problem with backup singers taking a lead.

I came full circle on the Nicolette Larson version in the other direction. Wherever my head was at in 1978, I hated it--absolutely hated it. (Didn't much care for the original, either.) I never gave it any thought after that--it never turns up on whatever radio I listen to--but I had to track it down for a piece of writing I was doing a few years ago. I was surprised by how much I liked it; surprised too that Nicolette Larson had died, finding out about which may have factored in.

This album >>>>>>>> Harvest

― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, August 13, 2010 5:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Totally agree.

Though the fact that "Lotta Love" won't SWEEP this boggles the mind. One of Neil's masterpieces.

Well, I didn't vote for it. I ultimately went for "Field of Opportunity" because the chorus is hilarious, just slightly over "Goin' Back."

I'm not fond of "Four Strong Winds." First side >>>> second side. But when the album is playing it's impossible to skip numbers I don't like -- it's all of a piece.

ok this one is throwing me for a loop, gotta actually listen to the whole album

conclusion reached: already one

"Goin' Back", partly because I love how it figures in what I vaguely remember as a planned-but-never-released concept album Young talked about, comprised entirely of original songs titled after other people's classics. The ones I recall seeing the light of day: Goin' Back, Little Wing, Sail Away. The album would be like Bowie's Pin-Ups or something, but in a perverse Neil Young sort of way -- a covers album with no covers. (If this rumored album is discussed somewhere else, please point the way.)

That said, Comes a Time is magnificent all the way through. Runner-up for me would be Four Strong Winds.

This was one of the first NY albums I got and I listened to it a lot back then. But for some reason I tend to overlook it these days when choosing NY albums to put on. Anyway, it's spinning as I type (very crackly vinyl!). Instinctively, I'd go for Look out for my love, as that's the song that has stuck most in my head.

I wasn't aware of the story behind this album -- that the label demanded overdubs etc. (Must read Shakey!)

But for some reason I tend to overlook it these days when choosing NY albums to put on.

yup

that covers album is a cool idea!

reminds me of paddy mcaloon's idea to do an album of songs named after artists. the only ones released were donna summer and faron young.

You know, I was just listening to "Lotta Love" and "Comes a Time" earlier today and both songs are a lot slower than I remember them being. Maybe I'm just in the wrong mood, but they're both a bit to draggy for me at the moment. The "Comes a Time" in my head is based on the Live Aid (or was it Farm Aid?) version (but I haven't heard that lately either).

i think i'm going to go with "goin' back," just for the mellotron.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

As stated above, I don't like this album as much as everyone else. We do agree on the worst song, though.

4. "Lotta Love" – 2:38 7
8. "Field of Opportunity" – 3:08 1

Madness.

those strums in "Goin' Back."

So cool to read abt that "cover" album idea, calling a song Little Wing always seemed v perverse even for Neil

As stated above, I don't like this album as much as everyone else. We do agree on the worst song, though.

― clemenza, Friday, August 20, 2010 4:22 PM

late as hell on this cosign, but yeah. for an album that's supposed to be from an unimpeachable period, i just flat out dislike it. by comparison to albums around it, there's nothing memorable.

title track
going back
lotta love
look out for my love

These are the ones that really stick out. They mean a lot to me, though. You know what album is pretty good? The one before this, American Stars n’ Bars. Just never got around to hearing it until last year.

this is very nearly my favorite neil young record

but what i really wanna ask is if alfred has already made a poll for re·ac·tor and, if he hasn't, should i

lol

why me

Look out for my love is a really pretty song, except for that clunky YOU OWN IT! bit, which always rubs me the wrong way (as a sentiment & in terms of how it sounds).

idk you were the most likely suspect xp

Look out for my love is a really pretty song, except for that clunky YOU OWN IT! bit, which always rubs me the wrong way (as a sentiment & in terms of how it sounds).

― charlie rex, Thursday, March 25, 2021

that bit keeps me coming back

hi Brad

Surfer POLL and Moe the Sleaze: Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Re·ac·tor

I think this is the only Neil Young album up till "Everybody's Rockin'" I've never owned or even heard, which is kinda weird.

"Goin' Back" is a nice song, the title track does nothing for me though.

prefer the Live Rust version

I would have already picked "Goin' Back" before seeing the Human Highway film, but the quasi-dream sequence that uses that song as a soundtrack (and has nothing to do with the rest of the film) is one of the most obscurely moving film-and-music combinations I've even seen.
Pedantry requires me to note that the song uses a string synth rather than a Mellotron, though.

prefer the _Live Rust_ version

Only 2 votes for "Goin' Back"? WTF?

Last year you said it was just a "nice song", what made it rise in your estimation?

I was just listening to the album and it stands out a mile. A nice song is a compliment in my book.

Now you have to watch Human Highway!

Takes a worried man

Other than knowing it's not the King-Goffin "Goin' Back"--one of Neil's borrowed titles--I can't remember at all how that goes.

It's the one with a G chord.

Now you have to watch Human Highway!

― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, April 13, 2022 2:02 PM

Read this in a menacing tone. As if it was a punishment.

(I mean Human Highway isn't very good, but that's part of the fun of course.)

I always read this as another “Neil gets clean and sober for a year and begins again” record

ah yes, clean and sober

During this time, one song we recorded at the ranch was called “Look Out for My Love.” We were having a lot of trouble getting it right and time was dragging on. It was four or five in the morning and we were still going at it. Probably cocaine was keeping us going when we should have given up.