neil young

oh shit decade

and #s of boots. sorry gang. read my lips, vote dead man

After The Gold Rush.

but On The Beach too. the title song makes me cry.

I voted Time Fades Away

this was already done.
Best of Neil Young studio records

This one has live albums.

Some of them, anyway. (Unplugged, Year of the Horse, Road Rock vol. 1)

Oh. The studio albums poll had the live albums too. Nevermind then.

I voted Ragged Glory because it needs more love and less rockism. That's a srsly good record, yo.

First person to vote "Old Ways" gets a dollar from me.

I voted for "Old Ways" just for the cash. You want my paypal address?

After The Gold Rush = the good songs are so good they make you forget about the bad ones

On The Beach = pretty much all good

I mean "When You Dance" is kind of endearing as a cornily sincere, b-level hippie artifact, but Cripple Creek Ferry is a real turd of a song, and Birds isn't great either.

I got to get away from this day to day running around

TRANS FTW!

Arc/Weld. The worst/best live albums ever.

Dead Man is actually really really good.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Tonight's The Night

closely followed by Goldrush and On The Beach

TTN is definitely my favourite - it's so fucked, so moving. Tender, ragged and rocking in equal measure.

Baby Mellow My Mind aches so hard - the swell of pedal steel, touch of lonesome barroom piano, and Neil's voice actually breaking up.

Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown rocks. It sounds so triumphant in its hedonism yet the undercurrent is utterly bleak.

Other favourites - Everybody Knows, Rust, Zuma, Time Fades Away, Sleeps With Angels, Live Rust. Hell, there hardly any poor ones. I've not heard the infamous Landing On Water, but Are You Passionate was bloody awful. Trans is ace though.

Ragged Glory is great fun, one of his most satisfying rock records, but I wouldn't quite put it in the top rung of Neil albums.

Harvest - handful of great songs and some dreary stuff too. Overall, it's too slick, too polite. I like Neil a little scuffed around the edges.

Rust Never Sleeps has Powderfinger, for the win.

Anyone else notice how Apatow kept dropping the cover of Landing On Water all over Knocked Up. What's the deal with that? Consensus aropund these parts on that album?

Rust Never Sleeps for "Powderfinger", but also because of the individually peculiar time and place in which I first loved this record. Also, it's an incredibly balanced album in so many ways I can't be bothered to expand on here.

Consensus aropund these parts on that album?

I noticed the curious product placement too, Tal. There's an interesting thread here devoted to Landing on Water.

no "none of the above"????

just snuck in a vote for tonight's the night. right in the nick of time.

emotion of the less contained and calculated variety

me for tonights the night, too. its so close though - there are better songs on zuma and everybody knows, and almost enough to give the nod to one of them, but TTN takes it

Yeah, Tonight's The Night would be my second or third and very close.

Rust Never Sleeps by a hair, for side one and Powderfinger alone (though nearly sunk by Welfare Mothers).

Oh c'mon, Welfare Mothers is great! My favorite Neil Young throwaway.

DIVORCEE

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

a 3-way tie this time then.

Fair result.

Wait. Zuma should've been much higher, though.

c'est vrai

Someone voted for Everybody's Rockin' again.

One vote for "Zuma"! No way!! This poll is corrupt!!!

"On the Beach" - there's an ILM album if ever there was one

Sleeps With Angels is way too high. And Freedom is way too low.

The fact that Zuma ranked below Trans completely invalidates this poll.

So, basically, I'm the only person who voted for "Zuma"? Don't believe it.

I wasn't around when CSN(and sometimes Y) were at their peak, so apologies for the following somewhat naive question:

How much of Neil Young's popularity in the 70s can be attributed to his association with CSN? The thought never really occurred to me until I was checking out CSN(Y)'s Allmusic entry today, which says "it was the only American-based band to approach the overall societal impact of the Beatles".

Personally, I like Neil Young exponentially more than CSN(Y), so my gut feeling is that the majority of Neil Young's fans were there on account of his own talent. But was there a certain contingency of fans who cheered loudest for "Ohio" and "Helpless", contemplating to themselves at the Live Rust concerts that it would be better if CSN were up on stage too? Or was it more like "Why the hell does Neil Young ever play with them? They butchered 'Helpless'..."? Just wondering what the prevalent view was back in the day.

When CSN and sometimes Y reunited for a predictably horrible album in 1988, Neil begged off the obligatory tour, saying, "I dunno man, those guys need some serious practice."

And that Allmusic statement strikes me as comically absurd.

Yeah, I admit it raised my eyebrow as well, but then I go the ILM search function, and the second thing I read on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young C/D S/D thread is "i'm more interested in the fact that CSN(Y) (or whatever) were actually REALLY POPULAR and BIG -- as in springsteen in '85/outkast or britney spears BIG. that's such a radical sea-change in mass public musical taste that deserves some comment, no?"

On The Beach is very good, but would have voted Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, in fact i shall play it now

hi alex, how is the weather in denver? in frankfurt it has been raining most of the day. i would have voted <i>after the goldrush</i>, i think. but <i>on the beach</i> is a decent winner, too.

i will never learn the ilm html tags...

weird

it was the only American-based band to approach the overall societal impact of the Beatles

In their time their American album sales were HUGE. Their cultural cachet was such that their public greeted "Ohio" as a major statement. I'm wary of statements like AllMusic's, but the Shakey bio also makes the same suggestion.

CSNY were huge because the Byrds, the Hollies, and the Buffalo Springfield had all been huge before.

^^Link Wray: "Genocide"

whoa

Thanks for the Link! Always!

Thanks for mentioning Lou Reed. I was going to mention, "Didn't he praise 'Danger Bird' at one point?"

He said it was the best guitar playing he'd ever heard... or words to that effect.

"It makes me cry, it is the best I have heard in my life. The guy is a spectacular guitarist, those melodies are so marvelous, so calculated, constructed note to note… he must have killed to get those notes. It puts my hairs on end!"

wow

lou otm

When he's right he's right.

the year of the horse version is pretty killer too

"It's so slow and great. Isn't it slow?"

yet another Neil live album, just released, this time from his tour last year. I was at the Hyde Park show!
https://neilyoung.warnerrecords.com/en-gb/products/as-time-explodes-the-live-album-cd

also performing at that show: Van Morrison, singing from under his own on-stage tent/gazebo. He wandered off and let his (very competent) backing singers and band do the last 8mins or so of "Gloria".

What a promotional blurb too:

Plus Songs That Have Rarely Been Featured On Recent Neil Young Live Albums, Including [true rarities actually, contrary to what the sentence structure would lead you to expect]

featuring Neil on Pump Organ, the sound all the kids want to hear!

(raises hand)

haha for sure

Is that what he played on Unplugged “Like A Hurricane?” Because that rules.

yep!

listening to this album now and there is an excellent, epic version of Cortez on it, much enhanced by the organ playing, which may be Neil or Spooner Oldham, my ear is not good enough to distinguish between the pump organ and the organ played by Spooner

I could never get along with the contrived nature of those Unplugged things, all the over-enthusiastic audience whooping by what looked like employees of the record label. I think I only ever played Neil Unplugged once as the whole setup irritated me so much. Maybe I should grit my teeth and give it another go.

featuring Neil on Pump Organ, the sound all the kids want to hear!

― Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Wednesday, June 3, 2026 8:25 AM (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

people went wild for like a hurricane on pump organ last time i saw him acoustic

Unplugged is honestly great

For more Neil Young pump organ awesomeness, please turn to World Record.

...and my favourite song on Mirror Ball, "What Happened Yesterday".

Yes indeed! Mirror Ball being the pump organ ur-text.

I think Unplugged was the first time he did it?

now, as a parent, am i going to first introduce my kids to NY during a long car drive to "trans"? absolutely.

― My homies buttthole surfers' record sounds like a f (Western® with Bacon Flavor), Monday, 1 June 2026 06:19 (two days ago)

this is actually pretty close to my experience, the Lucky Thirteen Geffen years comp was one of the first CDs my dad owned and he absolutely rinsed it around the house that year, in my young mind I assumed that "Sample & Hold" and "Transformer Man" were big hits (especially since he also did "Transformer" on Unplugged.)

Unplugged is honestly great

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, June 3, 2026 9:55 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i may be the biggest Trans fan on this thread so it will go without saying that the cut version of "Sample and Hold" from that Unplugged recording is an eerie essential.

this is actually pretty close to my experience, the Lucky Thirteen Geffen years comp was one of the first CDs my dad owned and he absolutely rinsed it around the house that year, in my young mind I assumed that "Sample & Hold" and "Transformer Man" were big hits (especially since he also did "Transformer" on Unplugged.)

― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Wednesday, June 3, 2026 10:02 AM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

in a way, that Lucky 13 comp really made me a true Neil head, there's no way I would be a cultured "Doghouse" appreciator without it

OMG speaking of "Doghouse" I was listening to Ragged Glory the other day and is "Fuckin' Up" part two of the DOGHOUSE CINEMATIC UNIVERSE???

obviously yes

Unplugged was the first time I hears “Like A Hurricane” and it was the only version I knew for a while. I put it on mix tapes for friends. When I finally heard the real version it was striking. The guitars sound like a hurricane, while a wheezy organ does not.

The Unplugged series is worth a shot if you happen to like the artist already, and if you check the audio first, minus worshipful faces---Dylan's Unplugged is good too.

listening to this album now and there is an excellent, epic version of Cortez on it, much enhanced by the organ playing, which may be Neil or Spooner Oldham, my ear is not good enough to distinguish between the pump organ and the organ played by Spooner

neil is playing lead guitar of course, the organ is from oldham

Unplugged is wonderful: pump organ "Like a Hurricane," yeah, but also most people's intro to "Stringman."

i may be the biggest Trans fan on this thread

*cough*

the only song on as time explodes where he's playing pump organ is "name of love" i think

Trans was a big gateway record for me, Kraftwerk do boogie rock and I'm glad all his fans hated it. There's an alternate reality where he really dug into the electronic thing and instigated a techno/rock crossover years before anyone else, sadly he followed it up with Everybody's Rockin' instead.

i wish he'd done more like "transformer man", synth neil just feels like a bit of a missed opportunity where he got close to something but never consistently figured out

he finally put out the synth version of "Razor Love" out on the last Archived box, it's really gorgeous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HV2IY9yF8k

fuck I didn't know there was an Archives III, in all seriousness if someone can YSI that my ilxmail still works

I was literally thinking about it earlier today

listening to this album now and there is an excellent, epic version of Cortez on it, much enhanced by the organ playing, which may be Neil or Spooner Oldham, my ear is not good enough to distinguish between the pump organ and the organ played by Spooner

neil is playing lead guitar of course, the organ is from oldham

― ufo, Wednesday, June 3, 2026 11:00 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Indeed, thanks!

Jimmy McDonough is big on the electronic "Razor Love."

"razor love" and the other synth tracks alongside it on archives iii are lovely, it's a shame he never did this particular sound for an album - trans and landing on water both gesture in that direction but these tracks are better than most of those albums

the other real missed opportunity from that period is the story about how he wanted to make an album with r.e.m. as his backing band and geffen wouldn't let him? i hope geffen enjoyed getting landing on water instead

?!?

the other real missed opportunity from that period is the story about how he wanted to make an album with r.e.m. as his backing band and geffen wouldn't let him? i hope geffen enjoyed getting landing on water instead

if that would have prevented warren zevon from making an album with rem as his backing band, then i'm glad the neil thing never happened. but if we could have had both, i wouldn't mind hearing that. it's the end of the world as we know it (and i'm rockin' in the free world).

this is supposed to have been earlier than that, i think roughly it'd have to be in the 83-85 range?

didn't even get in the studio together because geffen threatened to sue if that happened, sadly

at least there's the bridge school benefit show where together they did "ambulance blues" and the very best version of "country feedback" with neil soloing all over it

Imagine Neil and Stipe chillin, shooting the shit.