Eldergays, get me into Neil Young

Rockin In The Free World. That song tells you why he's considered the Godfather of Grunge.

I love his straight out rock stuff, but I also love his softer songs.

Springsteen's Streets of Philadelphia garnered more attention from the soundtrack, but Neil Young's Philadelphia from the movie of the same name is wonderful.

OP listen to the rest of the album Harvest Moon for more of that feeling you got from the title track. Might be my favorite Neil album

Another track from Harvest Moon

Here's the full Harvest Moon album OP

Here's another slow haunting song in the same vein as the Harvest Moon album

"Birds" holds a special place in my heart . "Unplugged" is really good and Harvest and After the Gold Rush are classics.

imo Bette Midler's version of Birds (from Live at Last) is the best.

You should listen to Pearl Jam's song "I Got ID". It has got a completely otherworldly guitar solo by Neil Young. (It's also an awesome song.)

"Like a Hurricane" is my favorite.

I like some of the longer songs like Down By The River, Cowgirl in the Sand and Cortez The Killer. I also really like Pocahontas from Unplugged.

He's GROSS.

Go listen to "Welfare Mothers," OP, especially live.

Thank you, everyone! Much appreciated. I'm going to add these (and many others) to a Spotify playlist while working from home this weekend. Keep 'em coming. Also, open to any recommendations from any of Neil Young's supergroups.

I'm a bad millennial, until now, literally the only Neil Young songs I'd heard were covers -- Cinnamon Girl by Radiohead in concert and a very different, grungy Heart of Gold by Tori Amos. I was also ignorant about Young's influence on grunge and the sound of 90s/early 2000s rockers, so perhaps he appreciated her very different take on the song...?

Here he is with other singers on the Canadian version of "We Are the World," "Tears Are Not Enough."

Neil Young, Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, DL fave Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams, very young Corey Hart, Burton Cummings, Geddy Lee, and a bunch of people I don't know. I actually prefer it to the American version.

"Expecting to Fly"

"Pocahontas"

"Long May You Run" (a song to his old car)

Maybe The Beach Boys

have got you now

With those waves

singing "Caroline No"

Rollin' down

that empty ocean road

Gettin' to the surf on time.

Long may you run.

Long may you run.

Although these changes have come

With your chrome heart shining in the sun

Long may you run.

The full Decade album is a good place to start.

Comes a Time is one of my favorite Neil Young albums.

"Decade" has been remastered for LP, CD, and digital tracks. Don't know how it sounds.

Zuma is quite probably my favourite Young album.

Neil found some nobodies to sing background on the Harvest Moon record: James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt.

The most gloriously depressing short song ever

Check this one out OP, live acoustic in a back room in Greenwich Village 1970

OP this whole album is required listening, his debut solo album After The Goldrush

"Four dead in Ohio" protesters shot and killed at Ohio State University- protesting Vietnam War. Iconic picture of woman screaming/crying over body of dead student. Please post link someone "Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, were finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming four dead in Ohio gotta get down to it soldiers are cutting us down... what would you do if you found her dead on the ground

Cortez the Killer

Will to Love

Buffalo Springfield - "Mr Soul"

[quote]his debut solo album After The Goldrush

His debut solo album was "Neil Young." Next was "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere." Then "After the Goldrush."

"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere."

Neil Young album facts.

On The Beach

Albuquerque

Tired Eyes

Glad others on this thread appreciate Pocahontas -- such a beautiful, funny, and devastating song.

As has been stated After the Goldrush is a wonderful album. If you like the country-folk sound of Harvest Moon then Comes A Time should also be a pleasure: 'in the field of opportunity it's plowing time again'. And a gorgeous version of Four Strong Winds with Nicolette Larson on harmonies.

Pocahontas is a great song (good cover by Gillian Welch) and one of my favorites is Powderfinger - good covers are the typically languid Cowboy Junkies version and a rollicking one by the Beat Farmers. I'm by no means a Neil Young completist but those are some of what I know and like. Silver and Gold is a pretty good album too. He's prolific so if you keep up with this musical journey OP you'll be travelling for a while.

Glad to see this thread has not degenerated into a group rant about his allegedly sordid private life. (It's happened before.)

"After the Gold Rush" is a masterpiece.

"Cortez the Killer" and "Like a Hurricane" (both already posted) are my two favorites, absolutely stunning songs that take me to a different place every time I listen to them. Especially if I'm smoking, they feel like walking around inside dreamy foreign landscapes.

This one also has a similar effect on me, especially how it's used in Claire Denis's great film Beau Travail.

Cowgirl in the Sand was always a favorite of mine, along with Down by the River. I guess I just have a fondness for the longer jams.

Neil's social activism has continued throughout his life, so he definitely deserves praise for this, also the annual Bridge Street School Benefit Concerts that he sponsored for the school his special needs son attended. Big starts would come and perform for free to raise $$ for the school, which resulted in some awesome performances. A lot of them can be found on YouTube.

Both Harvest and it's 20 plus years later sequel Harvest Moon are classics.

When Neil Young toured with Pearl Jam has to be one of the most memorable pairings in rock history.

*big stars

He screwed over his Buffalo Springfield bandmates by backing out of a scheduled long tour for no good reason.

Unknown Legend.........cam listen to it all day long.

Bumping an old thread because I figure there's no reason to create a new Neil Young thread.

I've been slowly getting into Neil over the summer. He was one of my father's favorite musicians, but I despised his voice for so long. I've been slowly getting into his music, but I find his voice so hit and miss. I enjoy CSNY but I have to skip over "Helpless," it's just too much. But his voice on songs like "Harvest Moon"? Great! I just don't get how his voice can go from annoyingly grating in one song to perfectly listenable in another!

I've managed to get fully acquainted to Bob Dylan's voice over these years, but I just can't fully get into Neil. I'm trying!

Anyway, one of my favorites is "One of These Days" from Harvest Moon.

Didn't Neil have a big affair/quickie marriage/kid/whatever with DL fave Carrie Snodgress? I just watched Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) on YouTube. R.I.P., Carrie!

Minority opinion: it was all downhill after the great Buffalo Springfield years.

Love Neil. One of rock's all time great inscrutable eccentrics, capable of some of the most beautiful melodies and the most glorious cathartic noise. After the Gold Rush, Rust Never Sleeps and Freedom are probably the albums which best represent his range. But On the Beach is a gorgeous, melancholy morning after record (with a song dedicated to Carrie Snodgress).

R44 Reporting back. I'm officially into Neil Young now. I'm disappointed with myself for not "getting" his music earlier. I used to make my dad turn off Neil Young in the car! Harvest and After the Gold Rush are so good. I need to give Zuma and Tonight's the Night a few more listens to fully appreciate them, I think.

I still hate "Helpless," however.

[quote]Eldergays, get me into Neil Young

Sorry, he's never been much of a bottom

"Cortez the Killer" acoustic version.

"Cortez the Killer" electric version

Neil Young can be really great or totally suck. Don't get me wrong I love Mr. Young and I admire him for taking chances. Most of the time it works but sometimes not so much. Anything before 1980 is good, some of his worst albums are Trans, Everybody's Rockin', Landing on Water and this Note's For You.

Good songwriter. Not a great singer, though.

KD Lang's cover of "Helpless" is great

Not sure how I missed this thread first time around. Neil Young is my all-time favorite musician. Like the OP, he was a favorite of my dad's -- but I took to him right away, by the time I was 16 in the late '80s I was obsessed with "Live Rust" and its gorgeous, blazing guitar playing.

I think the album "Trans" is pretty great, r52. Not a classic but a fun/weird genre experiment. Those other three you mention are pretty bad, though.

Anyone who likes Neil should listen to his late '80s comeback, "Freedom." It's a masterpiece.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite of his albums but if pressed I usually go with "Rust Never Sleeps."

A sampling of my favorite Neil songs: Expecting to Fly, I've Been Waiting for You, Cowgirl in the Sand, After the Gold Rush, When You Dance You Can Really Love, Heart of Gold, Revolution Blues, See the Sky About to Rain, Ambulance Blues, Journey Through the Past, Comes a Time, Cortez the Killer, Campaigner, Like a Hurricane, Pocahontas, Thrasher, Powderfinger, Crime in the City, No More, Eldorado, Too Far Gone, You and Me, Dreamin' Man, White Line, Fuckin' Up, Big Green Country, Flags of Freedom, Spirit Road ...

I could go on and on!

Unknown Legend always makes me feel comforted and brings a smile to my face.

R55 I am a longtime Neil Young fan... seen him live probably 50 times. I think few artists have continued to produce quality music for so many decades. Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell finally dried up. Dylan of course is Dylan. But in every decade he's produced something memorable. But Trans is only one I have to say... nah, that was crap.

I am 69, grew up in LA, and his music was the soundtrack of my life. As stated, After the Goldrush is the quintessential folk rock Neil. To me it "ended" the hippie dream.... coming down out of the 60s into a realization that, oh fuck, live just keeps going on. It was a lovely soft landing.

My own favorite is On the Beach.

Still interesting and relevant - his home online concerts when COVID started were sweet. Last week I watched an episode of the HBO Luca Guadagnino series - We Are Who We Are... and as a soldier was shipped out the music over the scene and over the credits was Young's 2006 perky anti-Bush pop hit "Living With War"... where the fuck did that come from in 2020?

Wow! Great thread. It takes me back to my hash-smoking, Neil Young-listening youth.

Perfect music for autumn! I am glad I was able to reassess him. Love "Unknown Legend" now. Can't get enough!!

R15 Expecting To Fly is my favourite. I love Neil Young's sound. Thanks for the Buffalo Springfield link.

Cinnamon Girl and Harvest Moon are my favorites. CG is just...badass.

I cannot count how many times that song has made me cry. Bittersweet tears.

[quote] Minority opinion: it was all downhill after the great Buffalo Springfield years.

Yeah, that’s ridiculous.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is a killer album. Also love After the Gold Rush, and then songs here & there.

Saw him play for free in Central Park several (7? 8?) years ago with Crazy Horse when Psychedelic Pill was new. They opened with an extremely long, brand new song that was dominated by fiery, noisy guitar solos. I thought that was really bold. They were great.

[quote] He screwed over his Buffalo Springfield bandmates by backing out of a scheduled long tour for no good reason.

And yet Stills remains the bigger asshole.

What are the best Buffalo Springfield songs? I only know "For What It's Worth" and "Mr. Soul." I feel like I should get more into them, too.

Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing

Pay the Price

Go and Say Goodbye

Pretty Girl Why

Sit Down I Think I Love You

"On the Way Home", "Down by the River", "Cinnamon Girl", "The Loner"---he could be plaintive, direct and a real rocker and that was just the early stuff.

Neil Young is a musical genius.

I have been a fan for 50 years.

I would suggest these albums: •After The Gold Rush, •Harvest Moon, •Neil Young, • Harvest, • Weld, • Prairie Wind, •Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and •Chrome Dreams 2

This photomontage/slideshow is excellent, and particularly interesting; I love all the Japanese covers. Sugar Mountain is another favourite. (and it doesn't make me cry)

OP & R15 You've really gone and done it now, after listening to Expecting To Fly twice, I've cried again. No worries;I probably needed the catharsis. I honestly don't recall the last time. Cheers.

Neil Young's sound has an ability like a time machine to take me straight back to certain times in my life, and my many past emotions like no other. He has a most magical quality for me.

I've seen the needle and the damage done

A little part of it in everyone

But every junkie's like a settin' sun

I treat opiate/heroin addicts and this so resonates with me.

I forgot one very important album:

•Rust Never Sleeps

Neil Live at the BBC in 1971

Damn! I feel bad for having slept on Neil all these years, such a wealth of music!

R26, Jeffrey Miller, shot at Kent State, was my partners roommate in college at Michigan State. He says Jeffrey transferred because he wanted to study at a smaller state university. The shootings also occurred in my partner’s birthday, May 4.

Another good Buffalo Springfield song by Neil is “Flying On The Ground Is Wrong”—the music and lead melody are great. The lyrics are ridiculous.

(Neil was very young when he was starting out in BS, and his talents as a lyricist were rather undeveloped—that’s one big reason why it’s absurd to say it was all downhill for him after BS.)

I'm glad someone else mentioned his contribution to the Philadelphia soundtrack; it's really lovely. "Heart Of Gold" always gets me a little, too.

I acknowledge its three years late, but great thread OP, if you're still around! Many thanks for all the great posters as well. I hope we've helped you appreciate his genius and rightful and honoured place in Rock N' Roll. I only saw the thread tonight, and I've been here going on four years.

I'm honestly and pleasantly surprised how many other gay people love Neil Young.

There have been, there are, so many Neil Youngs.... gentle folkie, romantic balladeer, garage band rocker, grunge Godfather, protest singer.... and it's all coherent Neil.

On The Beach is underappreciated... druggy and depressed LA Malibu Neil at his most affecting.

Lots of fans on this thread... impressed. If you like the classic period Neil, I wonder if you have this: solo acoustic guitar and the purest heart.... Live at Massey Hall (Toronto) 1971. Many of his classic songs before they made it to records.

Rust Never Sleeps

Freedom

Comes A Time

Homegrown

After The Gold Rush

Live Rust

Prairie Wind

Harvest Moon

Harvest

And American Stars 'n' Bars. Neil and Emmylou doing "Star Of Bethlehem" alone is worth the price of admission. Sigh!

Saw him at Boston Garden, February 1973 with Linda Rondstadt backing him up. Neil Young was the first major concert I'd ever been to.

It's so hard to pick just a few songs as favorites, but my two favorite albums are "Harvest" and "After the Gold Rush" as they were a major part of my rock n' roll repertoire during my coming of age years.

R77 I'm going to look for it now, cheers.

Buffalo Springfield incarnation, circa 1967, For What It's Worth and Mr. Soul medley.

I’m listening to After the Gold Rush now. Just the right album for a lazy autumn afternoon.

Well, thanks to the Eldergays in this thread Neil Young is my most listened to artist of 2020. My newfound appreciation of Neil Young's music is something I never predicted, glad I gave his real music a real chance.

I even ended up purchasing Harvest Moon on... VINYL!!! Yes, I know, it makes me a pretentious hipster snob.

a very sweet a song...I saw the show he did that year but in NY

I listened to Harvest Moon every day after an especially bad breakup. The melancholy and plaintive sadness would have me sobbing. Then I never wanted to hear it again. A prefect catharsis vehicle.

R79...I saw that same show but at the Nassau Colosseum on Long Island....

[quote]What are the best Buffalo Springfield songs?

Retrospective is the album on which I discovered Neil Young. "Expecting to Fly" is its very best song, as well as the best song by Neil. "Mr. Soul" comes next. The whole album is great, though. Undoubtedly you'll recognize "For What It's Worth."

This thread has me listening to Neil nearly every evening now. What a real fucking talent.