ordinary people or sixty to zero take your pick...

Those are my 2 picks for best songs ever. They each have
1) dylan/springsteen level political lyrics
2) tell stories(my fav type of lyrics)
3)SAXAPHONE SOLOS
4)great tune in general
5)nice and long.

Springsteen, being my favorite artist, has made me a sucker for the saxaphone.

Ordinary people troubled me for a bit when i thought he said "i got faith in the reagen mind", but thank god punkdavid showed me it was "i got faith in the regular kind" and i had the ability to listen to the song completely again

outside of those 2. Pushed it over the end hits me right in the heart just like stringman does...so that would be the third.

I was just looking at my Neil songs database, and I count 64 known and circulating unreleased songs. That number doesn't count promo only songs and rare out of print vinyl only stuff, like Pushed It Over The End, which is a fantastic song.

I think in an old thread I listen my top ten favorite unreleased Neil songs, but I'll do it again with a list in front of me.

In no particular order...

Boxcar - The one song from Times Square that didn't make it on to either Eldorado or Freedom. Its sound reminds me a lot of the Theme From Dead Man music.

Traces - One of the sad 70's songs. Sounded great with CSNY in 74, but even better with the Santa Monica Flyers in the studio.

Everybody's Alone - Very rarely performed track, there's a great recording from the KQED studios in 1970. This was supposed to be on the second Crazy Horse album that never happened.

Give Me Strength - At times I could have easily said this was my favorite unreleased song but there are so many others. Played a lot in 1976 during the solo sets.

Separate Ways - A song from the Homegrown era (1974-75) that was never performed until the Booker T tour in 1993, but it was played at nearly every show of that tour.

Soul Of A Woman - Not the greatest song, but what I love is that he played it with all of his different 80's bands, all in different styles, and it worked from the Trans Band to the Pinks to the Harvesters to the Bluenotes (the best version IMO). Neil's most performed unreleased song.

Gateway Of Love - Played during the 2001 Crazy Horse tour of Europe at every show, but it never made an album.

Grey Riders - Awesome rolling, rocking, kick-ass song that Neil used to close most of the Harvesters shows in 1985.

Ordinary People - No list like this would be complete without the Bluenotes masterpiece. I feel like this song was too good to ever try to bottle in the studio. As good as Neil comes.

Hitchhiker - For the last one, I'll pull out the dark horse. This is a very cool song of unknown vintage that made it's first appearance on the 1992 solo tour, but seemed clearly much older. The performance from 2003 in Germany is the definitive recording however.

if there is a better Neil CD than After the Goldrush.....i think i might implode, this CD is kicking my ass

a lot of people think its his best. I honestly only thought it was average the first time i listened to it, but i sat down again and it blew me away. I love it, but i still don't think its his best.

Try "everybody know's this is nowhere" and "rust never sleeps", those 2 are his definitive albums in my mind.

But as for mellow neil...you might like tonights the night and on the beach. Those are mellow but in a stark kinda dark way, and to me better than goldrush. You'll probably like harvest actually, but i don't think thats as good as goldrush, his most overrated cd in my mind. But its still a gem. Harvest moon is really underappreciated, but not goldrush good. Try getting his unplugged album, that is a piece of beauty. I like silver and gold a lot, he touches on some really personal topics and what some people might call corny topics, but he sings them in his own artful way and its such a nice cd. It makes you feel good, but not goldrush good.

i have a friend who thinks goldrush is neil's best album, but also really likes his CSNY era, but not much else from neil. So maybe you'll like 4way street?

punkdavid, those are some interesting picks.

Everybody's alone, there is a high high high quality gem of a song. "pearl jam is good" if you liked goldrush, this song will blow you away.

Southern Man

After the Goldrush has been kicking my ass alot lately as well

To anyone who has seen Year of the Horse, does anyone know the name of the song that plays while the credits role?

ATGR is probably Neil's best representative album of his varied styles. Because it was recorded and released while he was still in his ascent to fame, he hadn't yet settled on a style, or the theme throughout his career of varying styles from album to album. So you get some heavy electric stuff like Southern Man and When You Dance, some acoustic folky stuff like Tell Me Why and Don't Let It Bring You Down, and some country flavored stuff like Cripple Creek Ferry and Oh, Lonesome Me.

It's an excellent first Neil album to get or recommend. It's my wife's favorite Neil album for example. It's still in my top ten.

music arcade it is the song that closes on the year of the horse.
beautiful lyrics.

tell me what you think


Neil young broke into the music scene in 1966 with Buffalo Springfield. A band mostly considered a "hippie" band filled with idealism and hope. Neil Young would go on to run into various disputes with steven stills the other egomaniac of the band. This would eventually tear the band apart after only 2 albums, these 2 consecutive albums would be the only 2 consecutive albums in which Neil would play with the same band in his
entire career thus far.

The next group collaboration Neil would venture would be that of Crosby, stills, nash and young. At one point of time considered the band which would challenge and be the "american beatles". Similar to the beatles due to the 4 different and distinct personalties that melted together to become one perfect harmony. Led by the hippie dream and hopeful idealism that was the 60's, CSNY seemed geared for success. However with the fall out of the hippie dream CSNY, or at least CSN, desparately tried to keep this dream together. This era of the radical dream falling out would mark a pivotal time in the career, political beliefs, and life of Neil young.

Neil Young was considered among the leaders of the hippie revolution for the majority of his musical career up to this point. However, like many of that generation, when the 60's ended rather than a continual sense of optomism. A stark sense of failure was felt. Phil Ochs, considered Bob Dylan minus, hung himself due to his devotion to the cause, only to give up in the thought that he failed to bring a change, or rather enough. Bob Dylan became quite the cynic. He was eventually proppelled to write the song "like a rolling stone" a cynical look at the hippies as a group of people who "said they'd never compromise", but now they found themselves doing just that and asking "do you want to make a deal?" Jackson Brown's "the pretender" was another cynical look at the same subject as "like a rolling stone". These were just some of the reactions to the "failed" hippie movement. However, none of those that remained living were more drastically changed than Neil Young.

Becoming cynical was far from where it ended with neil young. The begining of his "cynical turn around" began with the album "time fades away". While it may not portray his feelings as blatantly as dylan and jackson brown did. At the moment it was the begining of what would be named the "doom trilogy". A pivotal album showing the begining of a change in the post harvest era, harvest being a happier and more hopeful album in contrast to the next three. Next came tonights the night. A response to the death of his guitar roadie bruce berry and former crazy horse guitarist dany whitten. Both dying of heroin overdoses. Neil obviously devastated didn't seem to quite know how to react, he was even quoted as saying "...i felt responsible." He eventually responded the only way he knew how, by making music. This twisted album, portrayed the pain he felt in his own "neil" way. His tour left fans speechless, not from joy, but from a simple lack of knowing what was going on. He would many times go off on random piano tangets then back to the guitar, and play the same song 4 times a night. And proceed to throw ridiculous props on his stage like platform boots and a native american indian statue playing guitar. In retrospect, after being thrashed for his performance at the time. People now consider tonights the night to be among his best of all time, some even consider it his best. Neil himself, along with many fans, now consider the tour itself to be the best of all time as well, ironically enough.

The finale of the "doom trilogy" was "on the beach". Despite starting with a rather upbeat tune in "walk on", which seemed rather hopeful. A song about moving on despite what people may be saying. This was in stark contrast to the rest of the album. Aside from revolution blues, the rest of the album was slow spoken singing with dragged out odd off beat drumming and guitar strumming. Despite all of the oddness, the result was spectacular. The sound that came out was incredible. In hindsight the lyrics would paint an intersting potrait into what was to come in the 80's. Ambulance blues, on the beach, and motion pictures made up the second side of the album. It painted the picture of a cynic who couldn't depend on others as he "ended up alone at the microphone". This drastic change once again shocked fans at the time. Yet, once again in retrospect this album is considered among his best, and a personal top three favorite.

Neil young would go on to release rust never sleeps, zuma, and a few other albums along the way to finish off the decade. What was coming next in the 80's suprised everyone. While dylan and others reacted to the falling out of the hippie dream rather quickley, it was in the 80's that Neil young would reveal his true new feelings regarding the fallen hippie dream. Rather than continue to make anything acoustic or rock n roll he would sign on with the geffen record label company and release some of the most confusing albums ever. Coupled with his son's cerebral palsy and his overall frustration neil young went into a decade long spin out. This would involve the release of the album "trans", a mostly techno-esque album where neil would mask his voice with synthesizers and vocoders. An album made for his son, to demonstrate the frustration Neil felt in being incapable of communicating with his son. Which was much more important than anybody would ever realize at the time. During this time, neil somehow or another became sucked into the idea of the "computer age". He would release another album that in the 80's. "landing on water". Rather than a full band. Neil would use a drum machine and mask his music with even more synthesizers. More importantly he would release on this album a pivotal song "hippie dream". Finally having a true solitary song criticizing the hippie era. He would sing how it was now the computer age and the idea of the old hippie dream was killing this new idealism of moving on and becoming better, through technology.

This spin out and drastic change from a leader of the hippie movement to its greatest critic was held at the root of his "soft spot" for ronald reagan. Throughout most of the 80's he would support ronald reagan. This support spurred by Neil's enourmous belief in individualism. As much as neil gave off the aura of being a lazy slacker. When it came to work there was no one who demanded harder work from his peers. This seeped into his political beliefs in a more radical way then ever before, during this time period. He followed reagan's belief in pure individualism and no hand outs. Calling homeless people slackers and thusly becoming the dreaded self absorbed millionaire star he'd been scared of becoming ever since he sang "mr. soul" back in 1966 with buffalo springfield, without even realizing it.

However, despite this deep-rooted hypocrisy he himself failed to even realize was the true left wing leader deep down inside. Neil has lost many fans, to this day, for his support of reagan. But in the late 1980's, mainly 88 and 89, he penned the album freedom along with other unreleased political tracks, these songs hardly potrayed a man who would support reagan in any stretch of imagination. The song "ordinary people" was a blazing criticism of the 80's and the treatment and condition of the working force and the "ordinary people". Describing in a marathon long 9 verses and typically over 12 minutes in length. Neil told a different story in each verse of the pain endured by the common man in this song. Hardly sympathizing with reagan and boasting his hypocritical tone of arrogance he demonstrated just a few years before, he now sang a blazing criticism upon those that unjustly treated the common man. As opposed to his previous judgement he now "had faith in the regular kind, hard working people, patch of ground people". Other songs on freedom, the most well known being "keep on rocking in the free world", demonstrated this theme of firey and passionte examanations of the troubled time of the 80's.

Neil Young had come full circle. While never formally renouncing his support of reagan, latter albums of the 90's such as "mirrorball" and "greendale" and his blazing criticsm of the gulf war and both bush administrations, would clearly demonstrate he was hardly still siding with reagan's policies. While Neil still holds his criticism of the hippie movement, as an enourmous failure in his eyes. His songs demonstrate his belief in the hope of finding and fighting for something better for the real "ordinary" people, but all the while still siding with this new "computer age". This has marked neil as somewhat of a "new age hippie".

Who is your audience? Is this for a paper for school, or for a fan webpage, or for wikipedia, or what? That's important in determining which edits should be made and where the emphahses should be. Mostly it's good.

I'm a big fan of the "Harvest Moon" album. I was just in Maine for a few days relaxing by the lake and listened to it quite a few times. It's such a great chill out summer album.

honestly i just wrote it off hand, it was like 4 or something AM and i couldn't fall asleep and i got bored and i wrote that. it took me till like 6 AM or something...i was really bored. So i don't know if i really have an aimed audience. I guess it was just recreational.

Straight from the horses mouth:


hi folks.... my greatest hits vinyl is out now and i'm really proud of
it....it actually sounds better than the original
pressings!......priarie wind is coming in a cd/dvd september 20... the
dvd shows us recording the whole record, every note you hear you
see!.....hope you enjoy that one........... archives volume 1 will
follow....thanks for your letters and words.....ny.........

Go to http://www.neilyoung.com if you don't believe me it is scrolling at the bottom of the page. I am sorry if this has been posted i'm way too excited to do a search. A new cd release date is fantastic enough but Archives Vol 1 is enough to make me bounce off walls if this is really going to be released holy shit!

Cool!

I hear the Archives are going to be released in July.

awesome. This next year is going to be great for us Neil fans.

my first reaction was to celebrate like crazy. my second thought creeped into the back of my head "wait what if he pulls another "chrome dreams" or "homegrown"" and decides he doesn't "feel" like releasing it.......

of 2056

Seriously, though, I'm really excited for this new album and especially archives vol. 1, which I've been anxiously awaiting for what seems like an eternity. But as us neil fans have learned, we shouldn't be giving our hopes up just yet.

whygodeep

this is extremely good news.

bump, I hate tosee this thread anywhere but the first page.

anyway.

I put Weld on order at the local record store and it came in today. I cant wait to pick it up.