How about worst five?

Landing on Water
Life
Old Ways
This Note's For You
American Dream (CSNY)

Several years ago I had the brief privilege of working with Al Schmidt, who recorded the three songs on Side 2 of On the Beach. During a break, I felt compelled to tell him how much I loved the performances and the sound of that record (which was still out of print at the time).

He was gracious and told me that what's on the album were the rough mixes he had made at the end of the tracking session. When he later found out Neil was planning to release the roughs, warts and all, Al freaked and pleaded for the chance to do some proper mixes ("my career will be finished if you put this out..." etc.). True to form, Neil wouldn't budge.

Funny, those tracks have always been some of my favorite acoustic recordings, but with the above story in mind, you can kind of hear what Al was worried about (certain elements really jump way out at times, percussion, vocals...). But the roughness perfectly suits the nature of the songs, and Neil was probably right to not want things polished up too much. Not sure if they were ever remixed for the CD release, but I hope not.

Huge regret that I didn't think to ask how he mic'd Neil for those sessions. Fuck.

pissing in the wind,

Steve

P.S. No love around here for Weld or Ragged Glory?

smazur wrote:P.S. No love around here for Weld or Ragged Glory?

Plenty of love here. Both make my top five:

1. Zuma
2. Tonight's the Night
3. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
4. Weld
5. Ragged Glory
5. On the Beach
6. Time Fades Away
7. Harvest
8. Rust Never Sleeps
9. Sleeps With Angels
10. After the Gold Rush

Arc is pretty fucking cool too. I'll make it #11.

Live Rust
Zuma
Everybody
Goldrush
Tonight's

In that order.

I also love On the Beach, but not more than the 5 above. Side two of Harvest is particularly awesome, as well. "Alabama/Needle/Words" fucking fanastic.

And one from his 'later' career:

Broken Arrow, from 1996. Some excellent stuff on that record. The live thing tacked onto the end kinda mars it, but still.

Live Rust has great performances but the crowd noise is irritatingly loud. Just saying.

On The Beach
Zuma
Massey Hall 1971 (does that count?)
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Dead Man soundtrack with all the dialogue cut out (that's right...)

those first two are perfect.

SecondEdition wrote:

Minotaur029 wrote:

SecondEdition wrote:I have always felt that, with the obvious and towering exception of "Cortez The Killer," Zuma is pretty overrated.

No! Try this album again and again. I thought it was overrated at first...now it's a favorite Neil album.

Here's mine:

1) Tonight's the Night
2) On the Beach
3) Zuma
4) Rust Never Sleeps
5) Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

The five spot kinda rotates.

Ehhh...well, okay, but it's not in my immediate priority list. I don't even think "Danger Bird" is that good, and "Through My Sails" and "Stupid Girl" really don't cut the mustard. "Drive Back" is fucking great, though.

(Actually, dammit...now I want to listen to "Danger Bird," because I can't remember how the damn song goes, at all, at this moment. This definitely makes me look a bit like a chumpington.)

Many of the songs on Zuma sound embarrassing at first (does that make sense?). You get over it. Sometimes when Neil Young writes songs like "Stupid Girl", it makes me sort of anxious. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere used to make me anxious too, but I had a girlfriend I was about to break up with when I was listening to it a lot.

With time, you'll discover that only "Through My Sails" does not cut said mustard. Even so, my brother is a pretty big Neil fan and he loves that song...but my brother also likes the Counting Crows, so what can I say? "Through My Sails" is performed with CSNY...which is what makes it so shitty. Just about anything CSNY related is beyond the pale crappy.

Stupid Girl reminds me of a story that country singer Gail Davies related to me.

She had been hired to sing on Old Ways as she was a fairly well known singer and producer in Nashille and sang back-up on a lot of country albums. She was also a pioneering music producer which is rare for women in a male dominated industry and she is deservedly proud of these accomplishments.

Anyway, she shows up at the studio to sing and was familiar with the staff at the studio and the people working on the record, because of her producing work. When she gets there, Neil has someone tell her that she is fired and that Waylon Jennings is going to sing on the track instead. She takes this in stride and as a friend of Waylon's has no problem with it, after all, if you can get Waylon, all bets are off. Because she knows Waylon, Neil and the producer ask her to try and find him which she doesn't mind doing and makes a few phone calls.

Next, Neil and the producer start intercoming her and asking for coffee, cigarettes and sandwiches which she tells them they can find on their own and she splits fairly annoyed at becoming an intern after being demoted from a recording artist.

Old Ways sucks.

On the beach !!

i'm gonna see Neil live for the first time on friday !
i'm pretty excited !
hope it will worth the 46€ and the 2 hours drive !!


too bad i'm pretty sure he won't play a single song from On the beach

did anyone see him recently ? any setlist ?

EDIT :
i got my answer :

08-11-2008, Oslo Spektrum, Oslo, Norway
Neil Young and his Electric Band

Love And Only Love / Hey Hey, My My / Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere / Spirit Road / Cortez The Killer / Cinnamon Girl / Helpless / Mother Earth / The Needle And The Damage Done / Unknown Legend / Heart Of Gold / Old Man / Just Singing A Song Won't Change The World / See Change / Get Back To The Country / Powderfinger / Rockin' In The Free World // A Day In The Life

Yeah, On The Beach.

crevecoeur wrote:did anyone see him recently ? any setlist ?

Well, he did play Ambulance Blues when I saw him recently. It was a fantastic gig by the way.