Neil Young.

Timans

A living legend of music, yes.

Inspired my favourite bands, yes.

Timans has listened to him multiple times, no.

:eek:

Where do I start? He's got so many albums it's ridiculous, I know I'll love him so just show me where to start and I'll be away.

Looking forward to delving into his discography and hopefully catch him in concert this year.

Fobia

Harvest is probably his most famous album I think?

I'm not sure as I'm young and so wasn't around for all of it, but am a big fan and personally my favourite albums would be Harvest and Silver and Gold, followed by Zuma and Prairie Wind.

You'll notice a big difference between his older stuff and his newer stuff, some prefer the more folky stuff some prefer the more rocky stuff, it's all pretty damn great though

Lunar Junkie

You can't go wrong with the mid 70s rockers - On The Beach, Tonight's The Night, Zuma..

RE*AC*TOR

On The Beach is his best album IMO.

Good albums to start with might be After the Goldrush / Harvest / Rust Never Sleeps

Also worth a mention are Deja Vu and Four Way Street (with CSNY)

But there are so many great Neil Young albums, only stuff really to be avoided are some of his more recent albums (Are You Passionate / Living With War).

theprizelamb

Neil Young's music is brilliant, I started listening to him 3 yeards ago more through curiosity more than anything, and he is now without doubt one of my favorate artists going.

I started off with his greatest hits - I know he has a few but the most recent is the one I got. Its super - every song a cracker. its a really good way to get a scope of his music as it spans his whole career (bar his last two albums). I then got After the Gold Rush and Harvest which are established classics and are gems. I also have Rust Never Sleeps which is brilliant also.

As you said he has so many records, but the albums above are a good way to scratch the surface. Perhaps get the greatest hits and then get the albums of the songs you enjoy most - but you cant go wrong!

gally

The DVD of "The Last Waltz" which is probably the finest music documentary(Martin Scorsese) has Neil Young performing Helpless.Its worth buying/renting for this alone.

deaddonkey

you need to start with: Harvest, After the Goldrush, On The Beach, Tonight's The Night. Then get Comes a Time and Greendale, and Silver and Gold.

Fobia

I'd have to disagree with theprizelamb above - I don't think greatest hits cds are the best way to get a feel of an artist, especially one from that era. Most albums back then were made to be listened to as albums, they all have the same feel - even putting 2 or more Neil Young albums into the same playlist feels wrong to me..

homosapien

What broke me into Neil young was "Decade" its an eclectic collection of songs "handpicked" by Young himself, or perhaps his producer Dave briggs,.. covering the early days with Buffulo Springfield through to the "Homegrown" days when he was really delving the depths of his artistry. i never looked back upon hearing the collection of music spanning a couple of his seminal albums on that record alone..

glad someone put together a neil young thread..any one got word on his rumoured show this summer?? He's touring Europe at the moment and I saw his sets are amazing..he is playing a broad catalogue of his material not just the new ones..

loyatemu

"Decade" is definitely the place to start - huge amount of tracks from his most productive period.

chris d

lordgoat

chris d wrote: »

Excellent choice mon amie.

I shall let you know about pizza exploits tomorrow, thurs is a possibility!

Declan A Walsh

It just so happens that I have currently got a CD of Neil Young's in the car - Harvest Moon. This is an excellent easy-listening effort from Neil. This was reputed to be his proper follow-up to Harvest.

markesmith

Any of the following three albums:

1. Rust Never Sleeps: my own personal fave. Side 1 is acoustic, side 2 electric. It's got "Hey Hey My My" on it, such a powerful song. Album was recorded live, with the audience track taken away. It really is a great listen. Powderfinger, The Thrasher, Pocahontas and Sedan Delivery are all on this album. Probably his last truly great album.

2. After the Goldrush: probably his best. "Tell Me Why", the title song, "Birds", "Don't Let It Bring You Down", etc. So many great great songs on it, and so melodic.

3. Harvest: his best known, I'd say. I thought it was a bit commercial at first, but "Out on the Weekend", "Harvest" and a few others are just class. "Heart of Gold" is on it too.

Then after that, you should check out Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, then the more 'depressing' albums like Tonight's the Night and On The Beach.

I don't really care for his stuff after 1980. Check his late 60s/70s stuff. And I agree with those who say his Greatest Hits isn't the place to start. Too much of that Buffalo Springfield cr*p on it.

Also, if you're discussing Neil Young with a muso, don't do what I did and quote 'Horse With No Name' as your favourite song of his.

blackbox

As a rule I don't go for compilations, but Decade has to be the best compilation ever - and you can buy it cheap.

I rate "After the Gold Rush" as his best, followed by "Harvest". His electronic albums are a bit (i.e very) hard to get into.

"Live at Massey Hall" is not to be missed, especially if you are familiar with his earlier stuff. New album "Chrome Dreams II" pretty good. I didn't like "Greendale" much.

Heard on the Last Word tonight that Neil is playing in Ireland this summer - has anyone got any details?

PiE

blackbox wrote: »

"Live at Massey Hall" is not to be missed

The best live album I've ever heard. By anybody. Ever.

TelePaul

The thing about Neil is that you kinda have to buy every one of his albums to appreciate the depth of his creative process. Because he can go from one extreme to another in the drop of a hat. Here's some of the albums I quite like. Albums you need to buy right now:

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
Zuma
Deja Vu (CSNY)
Ragged Glory
Tonight's the Night
Rust Never Sleeps
Journey Through The Past

TelePaul

markesmith wrote: »

I don't really care for his stuff after 1980. Check his late 60s/70s stuff. And I agree with those who say his Greatest Hits isn't the place to start. Too much of that Buffalo Springfield cr*p on it.

I dunno man. Freedom was 1989, has some beautiful tunes on it. Ragged Glory is fantastic too, as is Sleeps with Angels, though for very different reasons.

Closing Doors

gally wrote: »

The DVD of "The Last Waltz" which is probably the finest music documentary(Martin Scorsese) has Neil Young performing Helpless.Its worth buying/renting for this alone.

Whatever about Helpless it's worth it for the performance of I Shall Be Released.

blackbox

PiE wrote: »

The best live album I've ever heard. By anybody. Ever.

+1



...but its not the place to start. I wouldn't like anyone to think he was limited to acoustic - awesome electric guitar on most of his albums.

It's a shame that other artists don't have such good live recordings - one that springs to mind is Van Morrison - his live performances were way better than the albums.

TelePaul

Wait a sec, why is Neil Young in Alternative and Indie?

John

I posted this on another website a little while ago:

John wrote:

The classic stuff:
Harvest
After the Goldrush

This is the Neil Young that most people would be familiar with. Even though they're often lumped in with soft rock like The Eagles, these albums are flawless examples of songwriting at its best.

The rockier era:
On the Beach
Tonight's the Night
Zuma

Neil was a bit angry about all sorts of things around this time and the music reflects that. On the Beach is probably one of the best rock albums of all time. No hyperbole. It is just ****ing awesome. I'm going to listen to it now.

Live albums:
Live at Massey Hall
Rust Never Sleeps
Weld/Arc

Massey Hall was recorded between After the Gold Rush and Harvest. Some of the songs are better than on the studio albums. Rust is a mixture of acoustic and electric Neil, it features two versions of "Hey Hey, My My" which you'd probably recognise instantly. Weld is my favourite Neil Young album. It is rock music at its purest. Definitely should be one of your first purchases.

The Nineties:
Harvest Moon
Mirrorball

Harvest Moon is a return to a country-ish style similar to its near namesake of the 70s. The video for the title track features Dale from the Melvins playing a young Neil Young. Mirrorball sees Pearl Jam joining Young as his backing band and they perform surprisingly great. "I'm the Ocean" from this album is killer.

Newer albums:
Greendale
Prairie Wind
Chrome Dreams II

Greendale is a story set to music, a big mixture of old style rock'n roll, country and grittier rock. It was also made into a book and a movie. This is my favourite of recent Young. Prairie Wind is another country album, very personal album as Young's dad died around this time and he himself had an aneurysm. He recorded the album in the week he was waiting to have his operation. What a trooper! Chrome Dreams II is his current album and some of it is a bit naff but overall it's a great album.

That's just the surface scratched. I haven't covered the Geffen years (which I haven't really explored myself) or indeed most of his albums. There's another world to explore in the forms of Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Really you're on the edge of a huge musical adventure!

blackbox

TelePaul wrote: »

Wait a sec, why is Neil Young in Alternative and Indie?

Your're right.

He's a god - should be on a religion forum.

voxpop

Go for Harvest and After the Goldrush. Best albums to get into Neil Young if you ask me. On the beach takes a bit of appreciation, but is well worth the effort and is one of my favs. Massy Hall is just class, but maybe better because Im familiar with his early stuff. Never liked greendale or prairie wind

Timans

TelePaul wrote: »

Wait a sec, why is Neil Young in Alternative and Indie?

I saw him mentioned in here before and in no other forums.

To be honest, I hate the seperate genre forums, I hate genre's in general. It would make people check out a lot more music if there just a 'Music' forum. People are put off by music just because of it's 'genre'.

ogy

Just as Harvest and After the Goldrush are great places to start for the acoustic folk stuff, before diving into on the beach and tonights the night i'd recommend everybody knows this is nowhere, really great album!

jonniebgood1

It is hard to pick a starting point for Neil young- I started with decade which is a good mix as it has both electric and acoustic on it. A more concise intro would be Rust never sleeps as it has a good mix also. There is a thread running regarding the possibility of irish concert this summer http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=55264615#post55264615

MoominPapa

Timans wrote: »

I saw him mentioned in here before and in no other forums.

To be honest, I hate the seperate genre forums, I hate genre's in general. It would make people check out a lot more music if there just a 'Music' forum. People are put off by music just because of it's 'genre'.

I mention him quite a bit in Rock & Metal, most recently in the Guitar Heros Thread, but I'm a lonely voice crying in a barren wilderness of indifference:(

Anyhoo, On the Beach is my favourite, See the sky about to rain is best-least recognised song

jonniebgood1

MoominPapa wrote: »

Anyhoo, On the Beach is my favourite, See the sky about to rain is best-least recognised song

Best-least recognised song- 'come on baby lets go downtown'

navin.r.johnson

For a non purist approach, start with Decade. It's not full of 'hits' like you would expect from a greatest collection (it was compiled in 1977) but chasing up the albums from the songs opens up his Buffalo Springfield/CSNY/Crazy Horse stuff. Saw him in Paris a couple of weeks back and he did a pretty broad set, he blew the place down all the same. The crowd could hardly keep up.

Andy-Pandy

Id love him to play here this summer

jonniebgood1

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/neil-young-heads-for--castle-as-winehouse-joins-******-lineup-1307006.html

Neil young in ireland this summer- Is Malahide castle a good venue- never been at a concert there?

Andy-Pandy

Here is my problem, im supposed to be flying out to New Zealand on the 27th of june to see my girlfreind for two weeks, i have still to book the tickets, do i take a flight two days later so i can see Neil play? God dam it, i asked aiken to make the weekend before, they never listen to me. What do i do, i've waited years to see him play, and the sets he is playing on the tour are amazing, the chance to hear Cortez the killer live, is it work two days less in New Zealand?

PiE

Well that depends on how hot your girlfriend is.

John

Neil Young > Girlfriends

Andy-Pandy

PiE wrote: »

Well that depends on how hot your girlfriend is.

Very, as if i would be with a minger.

punchdrunk

John wrote: »

Neil Young > Girlfriends

+1

BarryCreed

and i have a "monday morning meeting" at 9am. i really need to see neil young

John

Neil Young > meetings

blackbox

Listened through "Landing on Water" today. 2 out of 10 by Neil standards.

Tzetze

Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Ragged Glory

Great album. Not least because it takes me back to some good times.

blackbox

Tickets for Malahide have arrived in post.

Can't wait.

redmosquito

Am I allowed post these??

Just put up by someone on youtube,
Neil's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKAtgtr41pI

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtpZ4Gqf9M0

A good watch