Search and destroy: Neil Young

Can anyone recommend a couple of artists that made/makes music that sounds similar to Cowgirl in the sand, Down by the River and Like a Hurricane?

The entire alt.country scene to thread then.

uh, thin lizzy?
or like, the grateful dead?

The Dead didn't really have a duelling lead guitar thing like Whitten and Young. Garcia handled the vast majority of the leads, if not all of them.

Lizzy's a great call, especially the Gorham/Robertson duo. God were those guys good.

The entire alt.country scene to thread then.

eh, not really.

Duane and Dicky

some early floyd, too, like "fat old sun" off atom heart mother. at the end dave could pass for neil

oh, and dueling guitars -- one of the best early dual solos is at the end of "starship trooper"

Plus, any live recordings featuring both Stills and Young. In fact, after the Whitten/Young tandem, that's what I would search out. They were really awesome together.

UNDER-APPRECIATED:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/Neil_Young_%28album%29.jpg

On The Beach deserves all the praise it gets. Young practically hemorrhages emotion on some of these songs, especially See The Sky About To Rain, which also has one of the loveliest, druggy-sounding, West Coast-ish melodies you'll hear.

you're preaching to the choir friend.

i'm gonna listen to 'rust never sleeps' after this awesome faces album is done. the 'dead man' soundtrack is some of the best guitar work young has done for my money. i still haven't heard 'trans,' but i'd like to. 'chrome dreams II' was pretty great. i'm also in complete love with two bootlegs, 'lonely weekend' and 'chrome dreams' (thx ian and leo thread).

so many good songs on rust never sleeps. where the eagle glides ascending there's an ancient river bending

yes!! i was ehh about the lyrics until it occurred to me that i was the problem. 12-string never sounded so good.

and fuck me but as heavy and head-caving as the last half is, i still dig the first half more

total 4th music too, this is about as patriotic as i get

'ride my llama' and 'pocohantas' are the shit.

I need someone to defend Landing on Water.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 1 July 2007 01:32 (1 year ago)

There are some great songs on this LP. "pressure",
"I gotta problem"

well they say that santa fe is less than 90 miles (per gallon) away. . . .
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-young/perfect-storm-for-innovat_b_155148.html

<quote>This board continually surprises me (guess that's why I'm here.) I was worried Elvis would get a right old slagging, but no, on the whole all v. respectful, whereas I thought pretty much everybody liked at least one alb by N. Young and would be rushing in to sing his praises, esp. as his vocal style has inspired loads of other whining indie boys (Mascis, Malkmus, Mercury Rev, etc.) But how wrong I was! Anyway, James, if you like 'Harvest' you'll probably dig the following just as much: Search: 'On the Beach', 'Tonight's the Night', 'Zuma', 'After the Gold Rush', 'Rust Never Sleeps', 'Decade' (one of the best 'Greatest Hits' sets ever released, imho.) Destroy: Anything with a 'tribute' to K. Cobain on it; CSNY.</quote>

Never underestimate the contrarian impulse of the modern lamebrain hipster...

This Fork in the Road sounds like it might be okay:

http://www.myspace.com/neilyoung

THIS is freaking great. especially because i knew so little of the 'story': http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00f815m/Neil_Young_Dont_Be_Denied/

you basically don't want to listen to early ilm on this thread imo, everything is worth something up to the early '80s i think. there are some more dud than classic albums in there but they're still worth hearing. so yeah, search buffalo springfield, csny, all the solo shit up to and including trans.

i know this doesn't really make sense, but i wouldn't destroy anything that neil's done, i would only search it...like for some reason with him more than anyone else i think the bad albums make who he is for me as much as the great ones.....(or almost so)

like "t-bone" off re-ac-tor must be the laziest dumbest song ever "written" but i'm glad it exists.

you know what I would destroy? "Homegrown." Not the proposed album or bootleg, the song. And I say this loving both "T-Bone" and Landing On Water. Fuck "Homegrown."

Since "star of bethelem" and "hurricane" are on decade I'd say destroy American Stars'n'Bars entirely if it wasn't for the seven minute song about being a fish. Gotta search that.

"homegrown" brings up some good points about pot

I rocked out to Year of the Horse yesterday for the first time since I bought it, and LOVED it (even, maybe especially, the Broken Arrow songs). I'm as into Neil now as I've been since high school, probably. So yeah, search it all---though maybe I'll change my mind when I put on Are You Passionate? a little later today.

maybe to be a little more precise: search the performance of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" on the Dylan 30th anniversary show.

"like "t-bone" off re-ac-tor must be the laziest dumbest song ever "written" but i'm glad it exists"

I LOVE T-Bone (and Homegrown too!)

T-Bone is great! It's so dumb it's genius.

Harvest is not a big favourite of mine. It has one great song (Out On The Weekend), a few nice ones, but also some dull ones, like Heart of Gold and Words, and some out and out stinkers (Man Needs A Maid). Harvest Moon is better. The title track is one of Neil's sweetest, most touching songs, and Dreaming Man is a sweet sigh.

Search (top rank) Everybody Knows, Tonight's The Night, On The Beach, Zuma, Rust Never Sleeps
Also great: Ragged Glory, Time Fades Away, Goldrush, Sleeps With Angels, Trans!

Disappointed to see so much hate for Sleeps With Angels. It's one of his boldest records, with all that spooky stuff like Safeway Cart (there's nothing else like this in his ouvre), some heavy (emotionally as well as in terms of density) sludge, the beautiful tack piano ballads, and weird songs like the title track. He pushes Crazy Horse to be subtle throughout much of this album, resulting in some slightly clumsy, and all the more effective and characterful, arrangements and moods. Best out of tune flute solo ever from Neil on Change Your Mind. I think it's a brilliant album.
Year Of The Horse live album deserves more love. It's sludgy as hell, but if you're a fan of The Melvins or Harvey Milk then that's a positive. The version of Danger Bird is so heavy on here, the lumbering chord changes verge on doom metal territory. Some incredible leads from Neil too. Also, a couple of slightly underwhelming songs from Broken Arrow are gloriously realised.

Sorry, flute solo is on Proof Of Life. Both great songs, with the Horse playing almost jazzy chords, like a grizzly bear trying to do melancholy.

For what's worth, I totally love Sleeps With Angels too: it may be flawed, but most of it has the harrowing tone of some of his best stuff.
Safeway Cart and Trans Am are top notch depressed Neil and I also quite like the eerie blues of Blue Eden.

The BBC doc. was pretty interesting, thanks for the link.

Since "star of bethelem" and "hurricane" are on decade I'd say destroy American Stars'n'Bars entirely if it wasn't for the seven minute song about being a fish. Gotta search that.

'will to love' is killer though.

I dunno if you read my post as being sarcastic or if you don't realize "will to love" is the seven minute song about being a fish, but that's exactly what I said.

i did not realise it was about a fish!

Are You Passionate? is pretty great! I'm not sure I'd listened all the way through before, but I really dig the kinda spare groove throughout, almost Aja-like; and there's a nice separation of instruments, very clear sounding. I'm not sure if it's Neil on guitar on "She's a Healer", but the tone is really distinctive for a Neil album. And it starts very strongly: "Mr. Disappointment" and "Differently" are highlights, I think. I thought it let up a little on the second half, but probably I'll hear more goodness there as I listen more.

Anyway, this is a good reason for me not to get caught up in hype or backlash of new albums from old artists that I like, and just to wait a few years when I can hear it clearly. I remember the reviews being harsh for this one, but in 2009 that doesn't matter at all.

Will To Love is one of Neil's best songs of the 70s, and yeah, it is about being a fish, among other things:
And now my fins are in the air
And my belly's scraping on the rocks
I still think someone really cares
And I'll keep swimming till I stop.
I'm with M@tt in that I wouldn't destroy a thing, even the crap! Still haven't spent a lot of time with the newest one, though. Too busy with the Archives!
But I'd agree that Are You Passionate is a bit underrated -- I think it got attention for the weird 9/11 song, but the rest of the album isn't really like that, it's more of a slow-burning soul album, or at least Neil's version of a slow-burning soul album. I think at some point I need to go back and give all the 00s albums a good listen ...

Tyler, I just listened to your Bad News I mp3 comp from your blog; I think I need to give the 80s albums a good listen again b/c those are great songs. "Interstate", "Boxcar", the early "Eldorado". I hope he makes it long enough to compile the archives for that era.

guitar playing below par

LOLs from 2001

Cool, Euler, glad you're enjoying that comp -- I think it just shows that Neil was pretty confused during that era, but still capable of incredible music.

i'd avoided the Hawks & Doves album until someone sent me "Lost In Space" last week. Fucking great. There's actually a lot of worthwhile material on the album too.

I just recently picked up Harvest Moon, which is the first Neil thing I've owned post-Live Rust. So I pretty much have skipped the 1980s. And I really like it a lot - more than Stars n' Bars or Comes a Time, both of which I enjoy quite a bit.

hawks and doves is amazing, especially the 1st side -- even though the 2nd side has a cantankerous charm, too ...

listened to the new live release today, all the songs from harvest moon, and it sounds pretty great, better than you would think he would sound in the 90s.

Yeah, Dreamin' Man Live has me appreciating some of the lesser Harvest Moon songs, and everything sounds great stripped down and solo.

Plus he gets big points from me for changing up the sequencing. Makes it a new experience.

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Damn, I screwed that up big time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2WfUzNYPwo

homegrown's alright with me