TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Rumour has it that Neil Young and Daryl Hannah have got hitched:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/aug/29/neil-young-daryl-hannah-marry-california-wedding

Jules

No one tell Croz!

I'm thinking that he probably wasn't invited.

Jules

They have made their peace, allegedly (according to Croz).

Just that bloody Nash now then.

I'm guessing you've all read this? http://dailyrockbox.com/crosby-stills-nash-young-may-reunite-over-the-one-thing-they-hate-more-than-each-other/?a=MM&var=CSNYReunionPossibility-ROCK&utm_campaign=csnyreunionpossibility&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=author-mm-posted_by-mm-repost-rock&utm_content=csny

I'm not so sure Croz and Daryl are bosom buds though.

Jules

It's all idle speculation for now though, isn't it?

Jules

Yes!

Will Daryl be designing their stage costumes?

Will their next album be in Dobly?

Jules

will it make a splash! ;D ;D

Her legs must be almost as long as Neil is tall.

For the first show we need the band to emerge from four 18" CANVAS teepees.

Each to be transported separately, of course.

Jules

This seems relevant:
https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/kyle-meredith-with-david-crosby/?fbclid=IwAR0DkRaGp-RRTSEBbRoTv6JlHxThFT4oL8TuI7EM0a4dF6RxcX__Xp2PlP0

Thanks for that, Bob, I'll have a listen in a bit.

This is also relevant, a new archival release on its way:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/neil-young-songs-for-judy-album-1976-live-744282/

Jules

apparently Neil Young has now confirmed marriage to Daryl Hannah
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46056636  ;D ;D

As most people may have already seen, Neil Young and Bob Dylan will both be playing the first BST Summer Time concert in Hyde Park next year. Big problem for me is top price tickets (to the only area where the sound is decent!) are £320 each  :-X Both BBC4 and Sky Arts are bidding to show highlights so I’ll have to make do with that

Neil Young not happy about BST Hyde Park:  https://www.pollstar.com/article/neil-young-had-no-idea-about-british-summer-times-dylan-co-headline-announcement-136874

It's unclear whether he is pulling out, staying in, or never "pulled in" in the first place.

Oops! He’s not a happy bunny is he?

Barclaycard were sponsors the last time he played Hyde Park in 2014, so why does he have a problem with them now but, presumably, not then?

Neil is happy again:  https://www.pollstar.com/article/aeg-addresses-neil-young-british-summer-time-performance-136906

You may plan your summer accordingly.

The man did what he needed to do.  Respect.

Jules

Ragged Glory II released next year?  More songs from the superlative 1990 sessions may get a 2019 release:

http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2018/12/ragged-glory-ii-neil-young-and-crazy.html

Jules

Ooh I hope so, possibly my favourite Neil Young and Crazy Horse album.

It's definitely mine.  However, we all know Neil and his album announcements...

Jules

Zuma is definitely my favourite Horse album (even if there are variations from the Horse theme within) - and probably my favourite Neil album full stop.  But Ragged Glory is brilliant (the last stone cold cert no debate classic?), and this will be nice to hear, which is almost certainly something we'll never be uttering about a new Neil album again.

Here's a nice little list for discussion...we all like a good list after all ;D https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/nov/05/neil-young-every-album-ranked

Some weird placings there. Have to read it properly later. Thanks for that David.

Harvest Moon ahead of Harvest? You gotta be kidding.  :o

But then I like Long May You Run so what do I know?  :)

I'd put Are You Passionate higher up the list. Only time I've seen him live was when he had or was about to release that album.

It's well worth having a rant at with oneself!  I wrote elsewhere it is a little revisionist, but some of that revisionism I rather care for (I'm not a fan of Harvest for instance).  I cheered when I saw Landing on Water at the bottom, but tbh some of the 21st century albums are worse than that...  In general I do rather care for the top half of the table though...it's quite similar to how a list of mine might look - although Sleeps with Angels hasn't aged well, I don't think...it's not a Top 10er, surely?.  On the other hand, Life, Old Ways and Everybody's Rockin' are all much better than their placings suggest.  Opinions, eh?   ;) ;D

As I (half) said above (or is it below) I'm not really a fan of either, but that does seem a somewhat deliberately perverse decision!

Being an anorak I have them all but I do like some (a lot) more than others.

I'm not desperately surprised to see Fork In The Road and Americana languishing fairly low down but along with Freedom, they are probably my favourite post-Seventies Neil albums.

I read this earlier this evening. It is of course nonsense on all sorts of levels. Ridiculously high placing for Le Noise which is unlistenable to me. Old Ways by contrast should be much higher.

And how dare they put Landing On Water last?  ;)

Genuinely there are probably 10 albums on that list that I would place below it.

He has no quality control button - there's probably 10 albums on the list that should never have seen the light of day.

I agree with this.

On form, he's one of the greats but he's probably made more bad albums than anyone else I regard myself a fan of. However, he's so diverse, I'm pretty sure if I listed either my ten favourites or the ten I'd happily organise burnings for, I'd get a bunch of replies telling me what a cloth-eared buffoon I was.  :)

In truth I'd probably put 10 albums below Landing too...sadly they'd all be recorded in the last 20 years.

Another one from the vaults...

https://www.forfolkssake.com/reviews/39860/album-neil-young-return-to-greendale

Though as it says, "Young is releasing and re-releasing music at such a rate right now that even the most committed fans might need to start being selective."

I think the most telling phrase in there refers to to cliff-edge drop in quality post-David Briggs.

I see that Archives 2 is in the works. It’s a lovely looking box, but isn’t a lot of it already out (Tuscaloosa, Live at The Roxy et al)? Although according to the track listing I saw I guess a lot of people will be looking forward to the live versions of ‘Stringinan’ and that old Saturday night TV staple ‘Lotto Love’. 😁
https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/neil-young-archives-vol-ii-now-available-to-pre-order/

Apropos of nothing at all to do with Neil Young, I spent far more of my life than I really wanted to working in Tuscaloosa, Alabama...

I helped design and build Sprint's Alabama mobile phone service from there. College town I remember, and with a massive football stadium. Mercedes Benz had a plant there too if I recall. Most abiding memory was of a 'restaurant' that had 5 words on its menu: "Steak", "Ribs", "Pork", "Chicken", "Pie" (Pie was desert.)

Sorry, sudden flashback. Do carry on.

Here is a little oddity from the archives.  Neil Young busking in a Glasgow street in 1976
https://archive.org/details/neil-young-busking

At the rate these Archive series are coming out the last one should be available just before my grandchildren retire.  ;) ;D

As someone on another forum points out - another week, another unreleased Neil Young album. It might be interesting to see what the Trans band sound like on ‘normal’ songs. Mind you, it’s not out yet, and you know what he’s like for the old release date switcheroo. https://americana-uk.com/neil-young-announces-release-of-lost-album-johnnys-island

Standalone first time CD releases for Time Fades Away & Eldorado, 19 August.

Did Hell freeze over?  :o

Any hope for Journey Through The Past?

Unlikely, but... TFA will be nice to have.

Eh? I have CD versions of Journey Through the Past and Eldorado.

Or are you referring to remaster/reissues?

Yes, to be fair Eldorado was originally released on CD but only briefly and it has been out of print for a long time.

Your Journey Through The Past must be a boot. It has never had an official CD release. Same goes for Time Fades Away except as part an Official Album Series box. There was a vinyl reissue a few years back, which I have and a digital release which I also have courtesy of Amazon Auto Rip when I bought the vinyl but there has never been a stand alone CD.

To the best of my recollection I got my JTTP in the 1980s from a store in New Hampshire called Noteworthy, which sold CDs at bargain prices, so it may well have been a boot. To be honest, I have the rip, but sold the CD on long ago, so I can't really check. The sound quality isn't great, but then, a lot of 1972 recordings were pretty shitty.

Here's a challenge: Given a maximum playing time of 90 minutes, what tracks (from which albums as some tracks are repeated many times) would you include on a "Best Of" Neil Young (including Crazy Horse but no variants of CSNY)?

This will take some consideration but the inability to include Ohio or Helpless is a handicap. Many epics may need to be sacrificed for the sake of quantity/variety.

1. Old Man (from Harvest, recorded 1971)
2. Heart of Gold (as above)
3. Albuquerque (from Tonight's the Night, recorded 1973)
4. Ambulance Blues (from On the Beach, recorded 1974)
5. Try (from Homegrown, recorded 1974)
6. Cortez the Killer (from Zuma, recorded 1975)
7. Like a Hurricane (from American Stars 'n Bars, recorded 1975)
8. Long May You Run (from Long May You Run, recorded 1976) - features Stephen Stills, but I don't care
9. Comes a Time (from Comes a Time, recorded 1977)
10. Thrasher (from Rust Never Sleeps, recorded 1978)
11. Powderfinger (as above)
12. Eldorado (from the Eldorado EP, and Freedom, recorded 1988/9)
13. Over and Over (from Ragged Glory, recorded 1990)
14. Unknown Legend (from Harvest Moon, recorded 1991/2)
15. Prime of Life (from Sleeps with Angels, recorded 1993/4)
16. Big Time (from Broken Arrow, recorded 1996)
17. The Great Divide (from Silver & Gold, recorded 1999)

This might be just over 90 minutes, but it's amazing what a little bit of unobtrusive pruning can do.

Jules

Rocking in the Free World.

All of the Ragged Glory album ;-)

It isn't perfect and I may make other choices on a different day but here is my best shot.

Thanks, chaps. Good suggestions!

It's pretty good. Winterlong is out of its proper time zone, and you're much more disposed towards ATGR than I was. I reckon that between the two of us, we've got it licked... somewhere.

Jules

Yes, Winterlong is showing the Decade release date. I must go through my library and correct those dates in the metadata but it is a bit of a faff! Funnily enough I didn't realise I had picked so many from ATGR until I had finished. I just went through all the tracks in alphabetical order, chose favourites and whittled down (I only had to remove one song). I'm not too surprised though as ATGR was probably the first NY album I heard in full (either that or Comes A Time) so was pretty influential for me. I was tempted to include a solo performance of Helpless, maybe from Unplugged as I love that song but then, what to leave out?

An alternative 90 (& a bit) minutes!  ;D

Last night saw Alex Hart finish her set at Beardy with Old Man and excellent it was too

You could always just break Andy's rules!  ;D

Helpless is one of those that I just find a bit flat and dull. Needle is another one. Maybe it's overfamiliarity, but then I still dig Heart of Gold, so...

Jules

Someone's already done it. https://www.discogs.com/release/2148578-Neil-Young-For-The-Turntables  ;D

Here are my selections. I'm tempted to to add something from the Noise and Flowers album but have probably run over the 80 minutes. You can add up the timings if you've nothing better to do.  :)

01 - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere) 2:26
02 - Southern Man (from After The Gold Rush) 5:33
03 - Heart of Gold (from Harvest) 3:07
04 - Old Man (from Harvest) 3:24
05 - Tonight's The Night (from Tonight's The Night) 4:42
06 - Through My Sails (from Zuma) 2:39
07 - Like A Hurricane (from American Stars 'n Bars) 8:20
08 - Already One (from Comes A Time) 4:53
09 - My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) (from Rust Never Sleeps) 3:47
10 - Get Back to the Country (from Old Ways) 2:50
11 - The Ways of Love (from Freedom) 4:29
12 - Over and Over (from Ragged Glory) 8:28
13 - Harvest Moon (from Harvest Moon) 5:05
14 - Downtown (Mirror Ball) 5:10
15 - When I Hold You In My Arms (from Are You Passionate?)
16 - This Old Guitar (from Prairie Wind) 5:32
17 - Let's Impeach The President (from Living With War) 5:10  

 

The criteria was 90 minutes I think so you should be ok.

Oh good. That means I can include something from Landing on Water.  ;D

I almost did! I love Touch The Night but I chickened out.

It's the only thing resembling a decent song on the album (unlike, say, Trans where there are a number of excellent songs) imho but you'd have to really hate Neil to get that - or tbh I'd argue anything from the last 30 years - onto a C90s worth studio Best Of...

I would agree with you, except for the 30 year thing. 23 years for me, as I consider Silver & Gold to be one his finest.

Jules

That's one of the many albums of his I've never listened to... until today! On first listen it gets the thumbs up. It's on his YouTube channel where there are many hours of listening awaiting you. TBH I don't think I've heard any of the albums he's done since Fork in the Road.

https://www.youtube.com/@neilyoungchannel/releases

Hmmm, I'm not sure I can define a cut off point. There are albums I like from the last 30 years, notably Psychedelic Pill and Storytone. Toast is terrific, albeit an archive release.

The last three Crazy Horse albums have all been patchy but have all had moments. And there are individual tracks scattered throughout the period that I would place in the upper third of Neil's output. Certainly I would have included No Hidden Path had it not been for length and Andy's stipulated time restrictions.

Really liked that one, but wish they'd fixed the snare drum disaster which occurred midway through.

Jules

I've not tried in c22.75 years...will have another go.

ATGR was the first album I bought back in my teenage years. Heard it played at my cousin's house on a tiny portable player and was just drawn in by the raw emotion of the album. With Harvest following it was a formative time for my musical awareness and taste and those albums were played and played. Choosing 90mins of tracks from my collection is just too tricky.

...has cancelled the remaining dates on his current tour, citing unspecified illnesses within the band.

 :(

Not unexpected.  Time for the Horse to go back in the barn to live out its days?  I think I've read (might even have been here) that it's Billy that's struggling?  Both Billy and Ralph are into their 9th decades...Neil's only get 17 months left before he joins them there.  To everything, there is a season...etc.etc.

 Bloody sad though isn’t it…..
We’ve lived through exceptional musical times,,,,

In a charity shop today, I picked up a mint copy of "Weld" for £3.

10 minutes later, across the road in another "pre-loved" emporium... "Arc" for 99p (cue "you've been ripped off"!)  ;)