Neil Young song draft

[Cobain's Ghost]

13.07 Wonderin' (Everybody's Rockin', 1983)

You got it CB! I was actually going to take this with my next pick, but a) Cobain threw down the gauntlet and b) I've gotten used to the Luckys not picking anything remotely near my wantlist.

"Wonderin'" rules, bite me all of you. The LP and Neil's wholesale embrace of a cartoonish 50s image were a bit cringe-worthy I'll admit... but this song should have been a solid gold hit. In fact, it was kind of a hit on MTV in its glory days. Reading the comments on YouTube confirms I'm not alone in fondly remembering this.

unk:

ok, that video was funny. he looks really out of place, like some degenerate that wandered onto the set by mistake.

not quite as funny as some of the "trans" videos i've been watching on youtube, though.

[Erik]

When I was 11, I remember seeing the video for "Sample and Hold" and going "what the HELL is this?"

[Erik]

Foot, here's the CH version of Wonderin'.

[Cobain's Ghost]

When I was 11, I remember seeing the video for "Sample and Hold" and going "what the HELL is this?"

that's the one i was just watching! lol. wow. neil, dude...

[Lucky]

Okay, here's Alice's pick:

13.08 The Ways of Love (Freedom, 1989)

[Lucky]

Okay, I already said that I like "groove" songs, and I guess that sometimes goes to extremes. You can love it, or you can hate it, but you can't ignore it. And isn't that one definition of great art?

14.01 T-Bone (Re*ac*tor, 1981)

It's brutal, punishing, unrelenting. But there you have it.


"You Don't Write a 10 Minute Song About Having Mashed Potatoes and Not Having A T-Bone Without Making A Few Enemies"

[Cobain's Ghost]

Okay, I already said that I like "groove" songs, and I guess that sometimes goes to extremes. You can love it, or you can hate it, but you can't ignore it. And isn't that one definition of great art?

14.01 T-Bone (Re*ac*tor, 1982)

It's brutal, punishing, unrelenting. But there you have it.

"You Don't Write a 10 Minute Song About Having Mashed Potatoes and Not Having A T-Bone Without Making A Few Enemies"

:beavis:

and to think i stayed away from "country home" because of its slight lyrics.

[ManCalledFoot]

Heyyyyy, I wanted T-Bone. Oh well, let's keep the Re*ac*tor love going with:

14.02 Southern Pacific (Re*ac*tor, 1982)

I'm surprised this wasn't taken. I love the grunge-y original, but this country-fied version is pretty damn good too:

[ManCalledFoot]

T-Bone has similarities to a few other "three-chord, one verse, 10-minute endurance test" demented rock classics.

It's very much like Flipper's "Sex Bomb", but both records were released almost simultaneously in late '81 so Neil couldn't have been aware of this one. I think.



Of course we all know the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray", except that goes on for a mind-numbing 17 f*cking minutes:



But most interesting is the old 1963 proto-garage stomper "Hot Pastrami (With Mashed Potatoes)", by The Dartells originally, but Joey Dee & The Starliters actually took this mess into the top 40:



I guarantee Neil knew this one from his early 60's garage bands!

[Erik]

The Ways of Love was written in the late '70s and made its live debut at the Boarding House shows in 1978, from which side 1 of RNS was taken. Maybe it would have closed side 1 of RNS instead of Sail Away had Neil been in a different mood when he put it together. You never know with him.

Southern Pacific to me has worked better as an acoustic/country song than a CH one. It is country music in the best sense -- classic Americana, something you could picture Johnny Cash singing. It was a perfect fit for the International Harvesters and it sounded sublime on the 1999 solo tour. It was also a logical choice for inclusion in a unique set of shows he played in 1985 in Australia and New Zealand, in which the band was IH and CH COMBINED.

Anal retentive correction: Re*ac*tor came out in 1981.

[Lucky]

The Ways of Love was written in the late '70s and made its live debut at the Boarding House shows in 1978, from which side 1 of RNS was taken. Maybe it would have closed side 1 of RNS instead of Sail Away had Neil been in a different mood when he put it together. You never know with him.

Southern Pacific to me has worked better as an acoustic/country song than a CH one. It is country music in the best sense -- classic Americana, something you could picture Johnny Cash singing. It was a perfect fit for the International Harvesters and it sounded sublime on the 1999 solo tour. It was also a logical choice for inclusion in a unique set of shows he played in 1985 in Australia and New Zealand, in which the band was IH and CH COMBINED.

Anal retentive correction: Re*ac*tor came out in 1981.

I knew Re*ac*tor was 1981. I even looked it up in his Discography to be sure. Then I promptly typed 1982. I think I mentioned earlier the 80's were kind of a blur for me.

[Cobain's Ghost]

ok, i was gonna take this in the last round, and i'm pretty sure nobody's looking at "broken arrow", but i don't want to get burned again, so -

14.03 - slip away

my turn for a story.

1997. my brother - huge neil young fan - was celebrating his 30th birthday. me and all his college buddies were in town for a special event - neil young and crazy horse headlining the h.o.r.d.e tour! and one of his friends decided to make it a night to remember by scoring some mushrooms, which we timed to kick in right as neil was scheduled to play.

now, this was the scene - outdoor amphitheater. blazing hot july day in the midwest. long day in the heat. bad weather approaching. so a lot of people who were hot, tired, partied out, had come to see other bands, or were looking to beat the storm left right before neil came on. i mean, this place emptied out to about 5,000 people. i was thinking "oh, crap, small crowd, bad weather - probably unlikely he's going to be up for this show." wrong! he came out and rocked "hey, hey, my, my" and "crime in the city." he thanked everybody for sticking around and invited us all to move up towards the stage. played some song i didn't know, then rolled into "big time" from "broken arrow." big long guitar groove as the clouds rolled in and the wind started to whip up. very cool - it came off much better than it did on the record. crazy horse leaves the stage. neil picks up his acoustic and does "from hank to hendrix" and "the needle and the damage done." says his thank you and goodnight.

kind of a short set, but under the circumstances, i figured it was probably all we were gonna get. but, wait - from where we were sitting, we could see neil and the band huddled at the side of the stage. i imagine they were making a "go-no go decision." the small crowd was begging them to play on - with so few people, you could hear people shouting at them to keep going. the anticipation was insane. after what seemed like forever, they hit the stage again, and 5,000 people went completely apesh!t as they launched into "slip away." it was one of those unforgettable mushroom moments - thunder and lightning broke out to north and storm clouds drifted across the moon as they rocked out this 10-minute guitar apocalypse -



it will be imprinted on my brain forever. it was almost too perfectly awesome to believe it was really happening. i never wanted that song to end.

the storm blew past while they played it, and they ended up doing four more songs. but "slip away" is the moment from that show all of us will remember.

sadly, i almost never listen to the album version, because it can never compare to that performance.

[Erik]

That was one of the 15+ songs I was considering for one of my last two picks.

[Cobain's Ghost]

That was one of the 15+ songs I was considering for one of my last two picks.

cool. i was expecting everybody to go "wtf is that?" lol

you thought i was going to "mirrorball", didn't you?

[Erik]

Here's your setlist:

1997-07-24, Riverport Amphitheatre, Maryland Heights, Missouri, USA
HORDE Festival
w/ Crazy Horse
Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) / Crime In The City / Hippie Dream / Big Time / From Hank To Hendrix / The Needle And The Damage Done / Slip Away / Tonight's The Night / Sedan Delivery // Piece Of Crap / Mansion On The Hill

"Hippie Dream" is from the otherwise dreadful Landing on Water album.