Neil Young's "Ditch Trilogy" Poll

I kinda instinct voted OTB right off, but an hour and one TFA re-listen later I was ready to finally make the switch. LA and title track were killing me.

I voted Tonight. On the Beach is amazing, but most often I just listen to the 2nd side. Tonight I want to hear the whole thing straight through.

LA is incredible.

results are hilarious. Laughable that 'Tonight's the Night' didn't win this. Absolutely laughable. Hipsters are cute but ultimately there for source of ridicule.

This poll means about as much as the shit I took ... anyway, I'm gonna pour myself a glass of wine and work practice the chords on 'Mellow My Mind' and 'Albuquerque' again, good job on "discovering" 'On The Beach', ILX. My mint LP cost me exactly one dollar from the Reckless Records in Lakeview on Broadway in '96, maybe? nobody cared about that record. anyway, you youngsters are cute

i always liked on the beach but man, tonight's the night is like the royal scam gone darker and more country and minus the humor to lighten the mood and with the added grimness of the fact that the dead guys and the drug burnouts are neil young's personal friends.

right on, Omar ... so true, it's kinda like 'On the Beach' is almost a parody of 'Tonight's the Night' when I really think about it. Like, Neil wanted to self-consciously TOP IT's vibe, or something. Anyway, I love both records, but if you actually look at songwriting and so forth, there is no question that 'Tonight's the Night' was a herculean effort. I mean, yeah it's easy to smoke up and put on 'On the Beach', but come on..

but yeah, this is just ILX stuff, i pay it no mind. everybody knows that 'Tonight's The Night' is the classic Neil LP..

anyway, you youngsters are cute ― Stormy Davis

ya talkin to me?

Stormy's always picking on youngsters!

ol reliable

youngster hipsters like me and scott seward prefer on the beach haha

as do/did i. ha.

Well, Stormy, I don't wanna rain on your parade too much, I enjoy a bit of self-rightousness as much as the next folk, but here goes:

Glad I could skew this towards OTB.

I am not young, I had a cassette copy of that record forever (as well as Tonight's the Night) and had a whole lot of trouble finding a copy of OTB for a reasonable price, but I was certainly no record-hound fanatic or pro, just tried stores for a long time before finding a decent copy to buy (this was 90s pre-internet era). I was listening to Tonight's the Night a bunch right before I saw this poll as well, great great album, but ... I would take On the Beach any day of the week. Just what I would rather listen to if forced to choose. Project upon us OTBers all you will, of course, wouldn't be much fun if someone didn't get all ornery in here. Just wish I could force all music discussions for the next 6 months at least to refrain from the hipster-speak. It's lazy and boring.

http://stuffthatmoves.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/andy_rooney.jpg

^^^ i think he voted for Time Fades Away, btw

Try to get back by eight
(or preferably seven so you can catch 60 Minutes)

i am young and maybe a hipster and my favorite neil album is comes a time so fuck you guys <3

See Stormy, blame us over the hill farts! We suck, not the youth.

I'm grizzled and old (at least here) and voted for On The Beach. It's not like the others suck or something; as I said upthread it's my favorite period of Neil by leaps and bounds.

it's cool guys, like EZ Snappin says above, I adore all of these records. just real cognitive dissonance that OTB wins. I dunno. LOVE it. but it's more of a mind spiel record from Neil than the precise, jaw-dropping songwriting from Neil on 'Tonight's the Night' ( I guess I may be the new Geir, I dunno), however drunkenly delivered .. (oh yeah, this is what makes me *not* Geir in that I am so in awe of Neil's chordal choices/songwriting on 'Tonight's the Night" while simultaneously delivering the whole package as this wasted, drunken romp. I dunno. Nothing can match it's vibe. and OTB really does seem a smidgen mannered, after the initial blow of TNT)

Oh please, fuck this stupid "Tonight's the Night is like a darker Royal Scam" bullshit.

I bought Tonight's the Night having read all the reviews about how brilliant and "harrowing" it was. It is -- but not remotely in any way that you'd expect, and as a result, took me forever to appreciate. There probably isn't a single "tune" on it that's up there with his best. You'd have no idea that the title track became what it did live on Live Rust. Songs that begin promising ("Borrowed Tune" starts off like it's about to be the next After the Gold Rush) end up so bleary-eyed and raw they become something else entirely -- not singer-songwriter intimate, but uncomfortably intimate and borderline embarrassing. As the artwork indicates, it really is some stoned dude on stage saying, "I got somethin' to say..." And so he does.

i don't find anything embarassing on tonight's the night. the songs are amazing, stormy otm pretty much. i like on the beach tho.

i am old btw

child please

xpost

I bought Tonight's the Night having read all the reviews about how brilliant and "harrowing" it was. It is -- but not remotely in any way that you'd expect, and as a result, took me forever to appreciate. There probably isn't a single "tune" on it that's up there with his best.

Jesus.

This poll result is soooooooooo ILM.

Just bought TFA at the weekend - the title track and LA are so great.

I'm arguing on *behalf* of TTN, dude, not suggesting TTN isn't all it's cracked up to be. I just mean that its power isn't so much in its craftsmanship (or what we normally think of as craftsmanship -- melodies, etc.) as much as its blown out aesthetic (which suggests its own craftsmanship, of course). I mean, by comparison On the Beach sounds as if it features Tom Scott and Steve Gadd.

OK, I get that.

all three are great records. i'd put time fades away just below tonight's the night for sentimental reasons, and for the sake of objectivity i guess because it was such a personal artistic watershed for neil (no tunes? really?), he followed its reprise-the-opening track gambit on his second overall best album, rust never sleeps, and his comeback album after his bullshit 80s synth drek, freedom. really don't get how anyone could like on the beach even close to as much as the other two, but still it's a great album and a big world out there

Neil Young Recordings

App made by Jack M. Clark using Gift Creator

1. Choose a gift to send:
(click on images to view full size)

Hawks And Doves

sent: 365

Live Rust
sent: 368

Rust Never Sleeps
sent: 860

Comes A Time
sent: 470

Decade
sent: 444

American Stars'n'Bars
sent: 249

Long May You Run
sent: 595

Zuma
sent: 598

Tonight's The Night
sent: 560

On The Beach
sent: 1,069

Time Fades Away
sent: 346

Journey Through The Past
sent: 220

Harvest
sent: 1,357

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
sent: 704

Neil Young
sent: 446

2. Now pick friends to give it to

You can't argue with science

surely those results have more to do with OTB previously being way more UNAVAILABLE than any of those other ones

Not when applied to Facebook apps.

x-post

facebook users harbor pent-up demand for an album that's been widely available for 6 years now

i don't get it! what does this app do?

It makes little replicas of the album appear on the wall of the person you send it to. Just another little gift app that people waste time with.

neil hand delivers copies of the albums to your friends

Unless you ask to send Time Fades Away, which causes him to come to your house and confiscate any vinyl or MP3s of said album in your possession.

that was a bug, it's working now

btw i've been a longtime user of the neil gift app!!! it is good for getting chicks.

chicks are always impressed with facebook gift app prowess iirc ... mix it w/ a healthy knowledge of Neil Young bootlegs and you are good to go.

off topic, but the other facebook gift app that the ladies love is "electroacoustic music gifts."

Totally on topic, as it is the season to give.

How does Zuma fit into this discussion? It rocks a little harder, but still has the same burned out vibe as Tonight's the Night and On the Beach.

Zuma is the I'm-single-and-loving-it album. He's over the malaise.

i love Zuma, and it's patchwork nature, with CSNY harmonies and Crazy Horse jams on the same record. wonder if that bugged crosby.

Zuma is my favourite NY album

was just talking to friend who thought that Zuma should be grouped in with the previous three albums. I think the main difference is in the guitar playing -- Zuma's where we get our first real glimpse of what "Neil Young" guitar playing would be. Not that he hadn't played plenty of lead guitar beforehand, but Zuma's got those big wind-blown solos that would become his trademark.

And those chunk-a-chunk chords.

yeah, totally -- but lyrically, it is as "down" as many of those ditch records ...

He was hardly Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky before that