Neil Young song draft

[Cobain's Ghost]

5.03 Sugar Mountain

good one. i was taking it next if it was there.

[swampdragon]

Some great tunes, the occasional clunker, and a few albums where you just scratch your head and say WTF?

And when it's time for romance, drop the needle on Arc. Guaranteed to put her in the mood.

Arc???? - really??

[DMT]

for Erik

5.04 On the Beach (On the Beach, 1974)

[johnnya24]

Well, your pick was at the top of my list. We have eerily similar tastes in music.

Really wanted Revolution Blues and Ambulance Blues with those 2 picks. I wish I had a cat to kick.

Great pick ... awesome song ... "Back in the old folky days"

[overkill94]

"Ambulance Blues" and "Sugar Mountain" were on my short list, good picks.

5.05 - "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) (Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)

Had to get a Rust Never Sleeps song in before it was too late. I've always preferred the "prettier" acoustic version to the sludgy electric version Cobain's Ghost picked earlier although both are great. It always made me chuckle when Nirvana fans would attribute "It's better to burn out than to fade away" to Kurt Cobain, I'm guessing they have no idea who originally said it.

[Cobain's Ghost]

5.06 - crime in the city (sixty to zero, pt.1)

"crime in the city" is a little rock opera in one song. like "rockin' in the free world" and much of "freedom", he captures my feelings about the late 80's perfectly. beneath the surface of high-flying feel-good times, there were cracks in the foundation, and people were slipping through them. this song is a series of vignettes about those people and the dark compromises they had to make to survive. on "freedom," he was warning us all "this can't last." he looks like a prophet now.

i've heard three arrangements of this song, all of which are awesome. there's the studio version from "freedom" (sorry if i'm insulting anybody by posting this - this group seems to love 70's neil, and i don't know what 90's neil you all have and haven't heard) -



then there's the balls-out crazy horse blowout on "weld," but i can't find that one on you tube.

lastly, there's the solo acoustic version. i love how he stalks around the stage in this video -

[Lucky]

5.06 - crime in the city (sixty to zero, pt.1)

"crime in the city" is a little rock opera in one song. like "rockin' in the free world" and much of "freedom", he captures my feelings about the late 80's perfectly. beneath the surface of high-flying feel-good times, there were cracks in the foundation, and people were slipping through them. this song is a series of vignettes about those people and the dark compromises they had to make to survive. on "freedom," he was warning us all "this can't last." he looks like a prophet now.

i've heard three arrangements of this song, all of which are awesome. there's the studio version from "freedom" (sorry if i'm insulting anybody by posting this - this group seems to love 70's neil, and i don't know what 90's neil you all have and haven't heard) -

then there's the balls-out crazy horse blowout on "weld," but i can't find that one on you tube.

lastly, there's the solo acoustic version. i love how he stalks around the stage in this video -

Outstanding pick, high on my list. Also one of the songs we got to hear him play live in '91.

This one is worth reproducing the lyrics. They are powerful.


Well, the cop made the showdown
He was sure he was right
He had all of the lowdown
From the bank heist last night
His best friend was the robber
And his wife was a thief
All the children were killers
They couldn't get no relief
The bungalow was surrounded
When a voice loud and clear
Said, Come on out with your hands up
Or we'll blow you out of here.
There was a face in the window
The TV cameras rolled
Then they cut to the announcer
And the story was told.

The artist looked at the producer
The producer sat back
He said, What we have got here
Is a perfect track
But we don't have a vocal
And we don't have a song
If we could get these things accomplished
Nothin' else could go wrong.
So he balanced the ashtray
As he picked up the phone
And said, Send me a songwriter
Who's drifted far from home
And make sure that he's hungry
Make sure he's alone
Send me a cheeseburger
And a new Rolling Stone.
Yeah.

There's still crime in the city,
Said the cop on the beat,
I don't know if I can stop it
I feel like meat on the street
They paint my car like a target
I take my orders from fools
Meanwhile some kid blows my head off
Well, I play by their rules
That's why I'm doin' it my way
I took the law in my hands

So here I am in the alleyway
A wad of cash in my pants
I get paid by a ten year old
He says he looks up to me
There's still crime in the city
But it's good to be free.
Yeah.

Now I come from a family
That has a broken home
Sometimes I talk to Daddy
On the telephone
When he says that he loves me
I know that he does
But I wish I could see him
I wish I knew where he was
But that's the way all my friends are
Except maybe one or two
Wish I could see him this weekend
Wish I could walk in his shoes
But now I'm doin' my own thing
Sometimes I'm good, then I'm bad
Although my home has been broken
It's the best home I ever had
Yeah.

Well, I keep gettin' younger
My life's been funny that way
Before I ever learned to talk
I forgot what to say
I sassed back to my mom
I sassed back to my teacher
I got thrown out of Bible school
For sassin' back at the preacher
Then I grew up to be a fireman
Put out every fire in town
Put out anything smokin'
But when I put the hose down
The judge sent me to prison
He gave me life without parole
Wish I never put the hose down
Wish I never got old.

[ManCalledFoot]

5.07 Natural Beauty (Harvest Moon, 1992)



I needed an epic, and I needed to get out of the 70s ghetto. This gorgeous 10-minute masterpiece is my perfect album closer.

[Lucky]

Alice's pick to close out the 5th round:

5.08 Country Girl (Deja Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, 1970)

It may be from the first CSNY album, but instantly recognizable as 100% Neil Young.

[Lucky]

I thought Ragged Glory was one of the best albums of the 90's, and this song was one of the reasons why. Nothing technically stunning, not even any real virtuosity, just ten full minutes of what made a generation of grunge fans look to Neil Young as an icon.

6.01 Love To Burn (Ragged Glory, 1990)

[Cobain's Ghost]

I thought Ragged Glory was one of the best albums of the 90's, and this song was one of the reasons why. Nothing technically stunning, not even any real virtuosity, just ten full minutes of what made a generation of grunge fans look to Neil Young as an icon.

6.01 Love To Burn (Ragged Glory, 1990)

d'oh! awesome song.

looks like the oldsters are turning their eyes to the 90's; time to get busy.

[Erik]

I'm back, thanks to DMT for picking for me. Love to Burn was on my short list, and Ragged Glory was indeed one of the best albums of the '90s.

[ManCalledFoot]

6.02 The Loner (Neil Young, 1968)



Nope, back to the 60s for me. Can't let this classic go by...I do prefer the original with the wimpy strings to the more muscular Live Rust version (above). First pick from his debut LP!

[Lucky]

6.02 The Loner (Neil Young, 1968)

Nope, back to the 60s for me. Can't let this classic go by...I do prefer the original with the wimpy strings to the more muscular Live Rust version (above). First pick from his debut LP!

I think we're all tracking along similar lines. My choice was between The Loner and Love To Burn. I wanted to pull something from the debut, but I'm weak for stuff from the Weld tour.

[Erik]

Gonna do some running commentary on the picks that were made while I was out:

5.03. Johnny - Sugar Mountain (B-Side of "The Loner," 1968)

Another one with such a strange song history. Written in 1965 upon literally turning 20, he included it on a set of pre-Buffalo Springfield acoustic demos while trying to make it as a folkie. It was officially released three years later as the B-Side to his first single as a solo artist, "The Loner." It then continued to show up as a B-Side, on the flips of "Cinnamon Girl" and "Heart of Gold," among others. From his first post-Springfield solo concerts, it was a staple of his acoustic shows, and many fans at the time would likely have heard it first at a concert or on a bootleg. It didn't show up on album until the Decade compilation, and continues to make regular appearances in his acoustic sets.

5.04. Erik - On the Beach (On the Beach, 1974)

This is one of the most desolate songs ever written, and it is both beautifully haunting and hauntingly beautiful. I love the pseudo-apocalyptic imagery throughout ("I went to a radio interview, but I ended up alone at the microphone"), and the mellow blues progression suits it perfectly. A particular favorite among Neil fanatics, it has only appeared live nine times (all but three in 1974), making it a "white whale" for many of us. The version he played on 5/1/99 in Chicago is so gorgeous that it has made me weep.

That version's not on Youtube, but the one from the much-bootlegged Bottom Line 1974 gig is.

5.05. Overkill - My, My, Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue) (Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)

I love how this and the electric version bookend RNS. Like many Neil songs, it is perfect either way. Their lyrics are slightly different, but these days the setlist keepers have stopped trying to keep track. If it's acoustic, it's credited as MMHH, if it's electric, it's credited as HHMM.

5.06. Cobain - Crime in the City (Sixty to Zero pt. 1) (Freedom, 1989)

Have any of you heard the original version of this? There's a reason there's a "Part 1" in the title. The original "Sixty to Zero" has ELEVEN verses and lasts seventeen minutes. He played it that way at 11 shows in 1988 before truncating it to the parts that appeared on Freedom. What you hear on Freedom is actually the second half of the original concept.

There's not a full 17-minute version on Youtube, but this clip has the "missing" verses.

5.07. Foot - Natural Beauty (Harvest Moon, 1992)

One of the two songs that really struck me when I first bought HM. I won't mention the other yet because it's still out there and maybe I'll grab it later.

5.08. Lucky - Country Girl (CSNY's Deja Vu, 1970)

Love this, but it's way overlooked in Neil circles for some reason. While the three sections were separate songs at one point, the main reason Neil had it listed as a three-part suite was because he got a bigger percentage of songwriting royalties that way -- he got credited for 4.5 songs on Deja Vu instead of 2.5. He was always trying to stick it to Stills back then.

6.01. Lucky - Love to Burn (Ragged Glory, 1990)

I like this one better than Love and Only Love, which went much earlier. Not that I don't like L&OL, they are both awesome. A truncated version of Love to Burn got played on some FM stations in the early '90s, that's how transfixed everyone was with Neil back then.

6.02. Foot - The Loner (Neil Young, 1969)

I was naively hoping this would fall further to me, but I knew it wouldn't because it was already left out there way too long. I love both the studio and live arrangements, and the main riff is in my head often.