Neil Young song draft

[Erik]

a) That's a lot of typos. Drunk or tired?

b) Where are all these picks from the '90s you claimed you were gonna make?

c) I thought I was gonna be able to get that one.

[Erik]

Overkill, are you still on and picking, or can I go back to bed?

[overkill94]

And I just realized it is now my turn.

4.04 - "Four Strong Winds" (Comes a Time, 1978)

First a Buffalo Springfield song and now a cover? I know, I'm a poser. Either way, this song was just too beautiful to pass up. Plus, I'm a sucker for female back-up vocals.

[Lucky]

And I just realized it is now my turn.

4.04 - "Four Strong Winds" (Comes a Time, 1978)

First a Buffalo Springfield song and now a cover? I know, I'm a poser. Either way, this song was just too beautiful to pass up. Plus, I'm a sucker for female back-up vocals.

The Greatest Canadian Song Of All Time, and Erik has already gone to bed. Isn't that Hank's guitar he's playing there?

[johnnya24]

Isn't that Hank's guitar he's playing there?

Looks like it ....

It's really interesting seeing how other people rate some of these songs I've been listening to for years on my own. I have always felt that Thrasher, Powderfinger and Welfare Mothers have a real stand out quality in Neil's cannon ... no-one else could have wrote and performed those songs.

In terms of lyrics, Thrasher is my favourite all time Neil song. I love the songs were you can put him in a time and place, and see what he was thinking (same with Dylan). It was top of my list for the next pick. I spent hours learning this song and the lyrics on the guitar years back ... trying to figure out where the "crystal canyons" where

Worthy of a full lyrics post me thinks:

They were hiding behind hay bales,
They were planting in the full moon
They had given all they had for something new
But the light of day was on them,
They could see the thrashers coming
And the water shone like diamonds in the dew.

And I was just getting up, hit the road before it's light
Trying to catch an hour on the sun
When I saw those thrashers rolling by,
Looking more than two lanes wide
I was feelin' like my day had just begun.

Where the eagle glides ascending
There's an ancient river bending
Down the timeless gorge of changes
Where sleeplessness awaits
I searched out my companions,
Who were lost in crystal canyons
When the aimless blade of science
Slashed the pearly gates.

It was then I knew I'd had enough,
Burned my credit card for fuel
Headed out to where the pavement turns to sand
With a one-way ticket to the land of truth
And my suitcase in my hand
How I lost my friends I still don't understand.

They had the best selection,
They were poisoned with protection
There was nothing that they needed,
Nothing left to find
They were lost in rock formations
Or became park bench mutations
On the sidewalks and in the stations
They were waiting, waiting.

So I got bored and left them there,
They were just deadweight to me
Better down the road without that load
Brings back the time when I was eight or nine
I was watchin' my mama's T.V.,
It was that great Grand Canyon rescue episode.

Where the vulture glides descending
On an asphalt highway bending
Thru libraries and museums, galaxies and stars
Down the windy halls of friendship
To the rose clipped by the bullwhip
The motel of lost companions
Waits with heated pool and bar.

But me I'm not stopping there,
Got my own row left to hoe
Just another line in the field of time
When the thrashers comes, I'll be stuck in the sun
Like the dinosaurs in shrines
But I'll know the time has come
To give what's mine.

[Erik]

Rust Never Sleeps is a very important album for me, so I need to grab something from it before it's too late.

4.05 Sedan Delivery (Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)

Rust Never Sleeps was my second exposure to Neil after CSNY's So Far. My mother gave a cassette of RNS to my father for his birthday in 1979 when I was 8. It had a profound effect on me. The acoustic songs are among his most beautiful and profound, and the electric songs are among his most passionate and rocking. If you put a gun to my head, I would say RNS is my favorite Neil album. The thing was, though, that my parents weren't into loud Neil. They played the album all the way through once. After that, they would only play side 1, rewinding it after Sail Away. So I didn't hear side 2 again for another year or two. One night, my parents hired a neighborhood teenager named Caleb to babysit for us. He saw RNS in the tape collection and bellowed "Awesome! We have to put this on now!" He fast-forwarded to side 2 and started cranking Powderfinger at high volume. As he was doing that, I said "No! We're not allowed to play side 2 in the house!" But after a few minutes I was very glad he broke the "rule."

Some critics at the time considered side 2 of RNS to be Neil's embracing of/response to the punk-rock movement that had recently ascended. There's no better musical example of that than Sedan Delivery, which is loud, fast, and distorted in a different way from his usual rockers. The main riff would be perfectly at home on a Clash or Sex Pistols album. And the lyrics, like those of Welfare Mothers, are batpoop crazy. "Yesterday I went to the dentist/He pulled some teeth and I lost some blood/I want to thank you for the card you sent us/My wife and I were all choked up." WHAT? Playing pool with a woman with varicose veins? Huh? However, the song could have had a very different history. He recorded a very different version in 1976 for Chrome Dreams. After that album was aborted, he offered it (and Powderfinger) to Lynyrd Skynyrd just before their plane crash. Not very punk rock at all. So it is with Neil -- many of his songs have alternate lives beyond their official releases.

Here's how it would have sounded on Chrome Dreams:

Side 2 of RNS is now complete.

[Erik]

In terms of lyrics, Thrasher is my favourite all time Neil song.

Yes, I think it's easily his best lyrical effort, up there with Dylan's best. I figured Sedan Delivery would be taken before my pick and then I would get Thrasher, but the reverse is what happened.

[johnnya24]

The Daddy of all those great tracks on Rust Never Sleeps:

4.06 Revolution Blues On The Beach, 1974

"Well we live in a trailer on the edge of town ..."

The version of On The Beach I have was clearly recorded from a well used vinyl copy. Just as the first guitar kicks in, there is a slight glitch and the sound turns flat for a second before correcting itself ... really adds to the track.

[Mithrandir]

Cool book that covers Neil Youngs songs and the stories behind the songs.

I just read this about two months ago. Head to your local public library and request it !!

http://www.amazon.com/Neil-Young-Stories-Behind-1966-1992/dp/1847326943

[Erik]

a) Damn you, that was going to be my next pick.

b) This is the song whose lyrics frighten the hell out of me. He's essentially imagining himself as a Charles Manson type.

c) He refuses to play this song live because of those lyrics, despite CONSTANT requests to do so. It has only been played 36 times, the last in 1987.

[Mithrandir]

I had 2 different songs in mind, but decided to take the following song. I know Young has so many great songs but had to look twice to make sure this song wasn't taken.

4.07 Tonight's the Night, Tonight's the Night, 1975



I particularly like the chugging rhythm guitar throughout the song..just as good as Neil's squealing solo's

[Erik]

I am surprised TTN lasted this long, and it was on my list. I might have grabbed it had I not wanted to join the RNS run. Nice pick.

And it was my Plan B for round 5 after Johnny snagged Revolution Blues. If any of you take Plan C, I will CUT someone.

[johnnya24]

And the lyrics, like those of Welfare Mothers, are batpoop crazy. "Yesterday I went to the dentist/He pulled some teeth and I lost some blood/I want to thank you for the card you sent us/My wife and I were all choked up." WHAT? Playing pool with a woman with varicose veins? Huh?

I can see how it would be awkward being around Neil for an extended period of time ... he seems to see and take in everything. Continuing the the varicose veins line:

Nothing was easier
than the first seven
I beat a woman with varicose veins.

She stopped to see
herself in the mirror
Fix her hair and hide heir veins
And she lost the game.

The image of this over-the-hill women, hanging around a bar playing pool with strangers, fixing her hair in the mirror ... it's a really evocative and sad picture being painted when you stop and think about it. From an odd description of her legs, and a glance in the mirror ... and you can almost see this woman, and tell her life story. Only truly great writers can do that.

[Erik]

Neil has not played Thrasher live since 1978. I guess he feels guilty about dissing CSN like that.

[DMT]

4.08 Ambulance Blues (On the Beach, 1974)