50 Great Neil Young Covers

1. Cowboy Junkies "Powderfinger"
2. St. Etienne "Only Love Can Break Your Heart"

not sure there are 50 great ones honestly (the St. Etienne one is probably the best)

3. The Feelies - Sedan Delivery
4. Boney M - Heart Of Gold
5. Devo - Ohio

6. Lady Gaga - Out On The Weekend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIeCrj_Gn6A&feature=player_embedded

stretching the definition of great there but had to get that in

7. Pixies - Winterlong
8. Pixies - I've Been Waiting For You

Nicolette Larson - Lotta Love

10. Sonic Youth "computer age"

11. Dinosaur Jr. - Lotta Love

i mean, the whole Bridge tribute CD is pretty decent, as far as tribute albums go ...

12. Ian Matthews - Tell Me Why

13. Built To Spill - Cortez The Killer

14. The Walkabouts - On the Beach

15. OP8 - round and round

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baz8W1dkPFQ

16. Feelies - Barstool Blues

17. low and dirty three - down by the river

18. Linda Ronstadt - Birds

that GaGa version is terrible she can't even keep the melody together wtf

19. Yung Wu - Powderfinger
20. Wooden Shjips - Vampire Blues

not the one in Rachel Getting Married

21. Phish - Albuquerque

(apparently their 1998 Farm Aid version of "Down By the River" was something to behold too, but I've nev er heard it)

22. Gillian Welch - Pocahontas

xp: There is a youtube of it, but I can't watch right now

I found a used copy of Borrowed Tunes II last week, and a I've got a vinyl copy of Headed for the Ditch: a Michigan Tribute to Neil Young on order. It's something of an obsession: I think I'm up to 350-400 cover versions, approximately 25 hours' worth. Hard to know where to begin, but three of the best (and perhaps most surprising) would be 23. Psychic TV's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," 24. Francoise Hardy's "Till the Morning Comes," and 25. Bongwater's "Mr. Soul."

24. Francoise Hardy's "Till the Morning Comes" -- whoa, never heard this!

26. Byrds - See the Sky About To Rain

Emmylou Harris, "Wrecking Ball"

Francoise Hardy's "Till the Morning Comes"

i was gonna post that!

flaming lips - "after the goldrush"

"Everybody's Rockin" John Lee Hooker

"Mystery Train" Elvis Presley

"Oh Lonesome Me" Don Gibson

"Payola Blues" - ???

^^^ Albert Lee

The Isley Brothers - Ohio
Buddy Miles - Down By the River
Merry Clayton - Southern Man - righteous and mighty where the original is just pissy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4czTIjYwGlc

skullflower 'cortez the killer'

So weird - I was thinking of starting this exact thread yesterday when Walter Clevinger & The Dairy King's great cover of "Burned" came up on shuffle.

So that.

Radiohead did a nice "On the Beach:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQARzXtc2ik

Radiohead has also done "Down by the River" and 'Cinnamon Girl."

I've heard Golden Smog do a great "Revolution Blues" before. Uncle Tupelo did "Cortez."

Wedding Present did an OK "Don't Cry No Tears."

Nick Cave's "Helpless" is really good. So is Roxy Music's OTT Latin-disco-rock "Like a Hurricane."

Sort of a hard act to cover! Are we still counting?

Cowboy Junkies- "Tired Eyes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQAcJzIhSJ8

(From above) I was at this show and fell asleep listening to this.

In a good way.

47. Jack Logan - On The Beach

damn that merry clayton cover is fantastic, thanks dorian

That Merry Clayton cover is indeed fantastic. Anyway, a few more, though not all great by any means...

Neil Young cover versions

48. "Love is a Rose" by Linda Ronstadt

"Love is a nose, but you'd better not pick it..."

Buddy Miles - Down By the River

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LH9eFMvhOw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5KRVtjgMkM

49. The Pooh Sticks: "The Rhythm of Love"

50. Waylon Jennings - "Are You Ready For the Country?"

My favourites

Chromatics - into the black
Tori Amos - Philadelphia
Annie Lennox - don't let it bring you down

Niels: had no problem, thanks again. (Will probably start searching for more Neil covers there...)

I don't think anyone saw this one coming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Ycxql63nY

lol yes! love how he hams it up during the one note solo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBIj2NxdbZE

I guess the original is either in a different key or slightly off key or Neil does smth weird with his voice because both this and the excellent Buddy Miles version has something off about the vocals (not necessarily in a bad way) particularly on the "when you could be taking me for a riiiiiide" line

KD Lang - Helpless
Neko Case - Dreaming man

Ida - Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere

Chris Forsyth - Don't Be Denied

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6dUriWmnh

https://chrisforsyth1.bandcamp.com/track/dont-be-denied

Roxy Music's "Like A Hurricane" is so incredible, it sounds like a Roxy song, even the lyrics ("Once I thought I saw you, in crowded, hazy bar") seem like Roxy lyrics.

That and Killdozer's "Cinnamon Girl", which points for having, some how, and even more inept rhythm section that the Horse

Does CSNY doing Down By The River at Balboa park in 1969 count as a cover? Never sure if the writer is on board.
Anyway 19 minutes of guitar burn including a hypnotically repetitive element from one of the players.
NOt sure if it is available anywhere legally yet but it does circulate on bootleg which is why i've heard it.

think Y is on that one

no what I meant was never sure if it counts as a cover if the writer/original artist is onboard i.e. later band with writer as central player or contemporary alternative band to the main one the artist is known for when artist is a permanent player in both bands.

Intuitive call: I probably wouldn't count that, but I would count Neil joining R.E.M. for their cover of "Ambulance Blues" (some fan-club record put out by R.E.M., with a great lyric change to accommodate Bill Clinton).

Definitely Tori Amos Philadelphia

was never sure if it counts as a cover if the writer/original artist is onboard

omg I got into an epic argument w my bass player years ago about this very subject when he insisted on calling Spiritualized's version of "Lord Can You Hear Me" a cover, because Spiritualized is ostensibly a "different" band than Spacemen 3, even though both feature Jason Pierce and it's his song

i mean, if you wrote a song and you are performing it, it's not a cover, right?

my point exactly

Yeah just never sure if you could cover yourself years later since you're going to be in a different context, chronologically at least and probably mentally. maybe in terms of style too. & playing style with different players in your band is likely to change a bit or at least the surroundings will.
So what word would you use to differentiate between different versions?

With CSN there's a lot more melodic guitar burn. I thought the version that's shown in the Big Sur film was really nice for that and the Balboa park version is much longer.

has the undisputed truth's "down by the river" hit this thread yet?

So what word would you use to differentiate between different versions?

performance

you're going to be in a different context, chronologically at least and probably mentally

this different context is happening continuously, from writing the song, to demoing it, to rehearsing it, to recording it, to touring it, etc. i would even argue there is no "original context" for a song outside the abstracting of an official record release, which is still a document of a single performance.

have we done simply red's 'mellow my mind' yet? i heard it in a hotel lobby while jetlagged out of my mind a few months ago and had something close to a psychotic break in response
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOfWPsFpuHY

really disappointing that mick chooses not to emulate neil's wobbly, off-key delivery of 'railroad traaaaaaaack' tbh

Boz Scaggs - On the Beach

oh nice, just released

very good, thanks

58. the meters - 'birds'

― jlgt, Saturday, January 16, 2010 7:21 AM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just heard this for the first time, way prettier than anything i've heard from the meters. they did down by the river too if you're more into their usual funk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH9-1RV5j7s

i'm going to see eleventh dream day play ZUMA on saturday
can't wait!!!

that meters track sounds real quality. im really into the built 2 spill cortez the killer cover lately. i mean its just basically like 20 minutes of loud guitars whats not to like.

that eleventh dream day thang looks awesome.

in other news
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Ycxql63nY&feature=youtu.be

hmmm
https://youtu.be/77Ycxql63nY

anyone done a Youtube playlist or similar of these? A project for the weekend maybe...

do it

work is p quiet at the moment, I'll have a look tomorrow...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBVkKcQJu5A

nice. one cover the length of 4 tony molina songs

hehe Neil is probably the one note guitar solo king

Meters cover is great - why are there so many good soul covers of Neil? doesn't seem like he was too into that scene?

New ones appear all the time, but I thought I knew pretty much every big-name Neil cover done before The Bridge, at least. Somehow this one slipped by me until I bought the album at a record show today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7fxxJIm-A4

Not very good.

I think I actually prefer it to the original! An entire album of Neil songs in that style would get a bit much though.

Just Like Me, Nowadays Clancy Just Wants To Be (Close To You)

clemenza, have you heard this ?

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3366656313_10.jpg

https://anonymouschoir.com/album/anonymous-choir-sings-neil-youngs-after-the-gold-rush

The original's not a favourite, so that figures in. I actually really like their "Ticket to Ride" cover (same album--it was originally released as Offering, then re-released a few months later as Ticket to Ride when that became a minor hit).

No! Thanks--will order that for sure.

Clancy's such a weird-ass song to have inspired so many period covers (I think like three or four besides the Carpenters one).

Including--I could be wrong--the first Neil cover ever, Fever Tree's version of "Clancy" in 1968.

Clancy fucking sucks wtf

there's also joni mitchell's 1967 radio recording of "sugar mountain" which is cool

featured here, along with many other covers mentioned itt: https://www.mixcloud.com/aquariumdrunkard/hello-mr-soul-neil-young-covers-1967-1978/

67? Wow that’s early. Maybe Neil “gave” it to her?

Maybe Fever Tree's was the first one to make it onto a record. If anyone knows one earlier (March 28, 1968), please post.