Neil Young song draft

[chancellor]

Love this song, but if this wasn't made under the influence of honeysliders, I can't imagine which song was. Unless it was something stronger.

And agree on Queen of the Mall. Wow, that was horrifically bad.

[Erik]

And agree on Queen of the Mall. Wow, that was horrifically bad.

Songs Neil gave to CSNY since 1988:
American Dream
Name of Love
This Old House
Feel Your Love
Queen of the Mall
Slowpoke (not terrible but basically a carbon copy of Heart of Gold)
and two other songs (Looking Forward and Out of Control) that are OK but which he had decided to cut from Silver and Gold.

Woof.

[chancellor]

LOL...that's a helluva way to extract his revenge on David Crosby.

[Gregg]

87. Ride My Llama (Rust Never Sleeps, 1979; written in 1975; first performed in 1978)
Rust Never Sleeps is peak Neil. How good is it? This song, with its keening melody and far-out sci-fi lyrics, would be one of the best on most albums. Here, it is an afterthought compared to what surrounds it. I have very strong feelings about this album, which I'll delve into later.
Like many songs Neil wrote in the mid-70s, this one has a twisted history of how it ended up where it did. It was written during the Zuma sessions and was slated to be the title track of an early version of that album. Then it was recorded for the Hitchhiker sessions in 1976 -- an archival release of that abandoned effort came out recently. Then Neil dusted it off for 10 acoustic shows in 1978. One of these performances, with the audience noise stripped out, is what made it on Rust Never Sleeps. It has not been performed live since.

I can't help wonder if this is not a reference to David Bowie and his music/place and time in history.

[Erik]

86. Windward Passage (unreleased; written and performed in 1977)
This may be the entry that you are least likely to have heard before, and it comes from very unusual circumstances. In the summer of 1977, Neil wanted to withdraw from the hustle and bustle of the music industry, so he combined with an aggregate of friends from the SoCal music scene (including former Moby Grape bassist Bob Mosley) to perform as The Ducks (not "Neil Young and The Ducks" as labeled in the video) in area bars. All four members contributed songs and vocals, and their sets included a couple of old Neil songs and a handful of new ones. All of the latter eventually ended up on Neil albums except this one, a groovy-as-hell instrumental that's sort of like psychedelicized surf rock. It never resurfaced after the Ducks shows, which is a shame.

[Erik]

Because we're in lockdown and I'm bored and have a lot of time on my hands, I made a list of my top 100 Neil Young songs. I'll be posting one a day on Facebook (when I remember) and when I do, I'll add it to this thread because why not.

85. Albuquerque (Tonight's the Night, 1975)
This is what Harvest-style country rock sounds like after a tequila bender. Bonus points for showing up in Phish setlists occasionally.

[johnnya24]

Loving the daily drip of old Neil ... keep em coming!

[Gregg]

Loving the daily drip of old Neil ... keep em coming!

He has 84 more to go.

[Erik]

Thanks, Johnny! Here's another one.

84. Everybody's Alone (Archives Vol. 1, 2009; written and first performed in 1969)
Back in the '90s, someone gave me a tape with various unreleased Neil songs on it. This was one that called to me. It's got an insistent melody and profound lyrics such as "But when I'll learn to be free, I wonder if I'll miss the pain." It appears to date from his first material with Crazy Horse, and the version included on the first Archives box set sounds like it could have fit in well on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.
There are only four documented live performances, three of which were in 1969-70 and one of which was a surprise bustout on the 1997 HORDE tour.

[Erik]

This is the version of Everybody's Alone that was on the bootleg I received in the '90s. It's an acoustic demo.

[Erik]

83. I've Been Waiting for You (Neil Young, 1969)
Fuzzed-out bliss. One of the few tracks from his solo debut that wasn't done in by overproduction/bad mixing. Bonus points for being covered by David Bowie and the Pixies.

[Erik]

82. Winterlong (Decade, 1977; written in 1969; first performed in 1970)
This dreamy ass-kicker is like a minimalist Wall of Sound. That probably makes no sense, but that's Neil for you. It likely dates from the earliest Crazy Horse material and was first played on his 1970 tour with them. A studio version finally appeared on the Decade anthology in 1977; all we know about the age of that version is that it was recorded at the same session as Walk On, which appeared on 1974's On the Beach, so sometime between 1969 and 1974. I have seen this live twice (2000 and 2007).
This is the second song in a row that was covered by the Pixies. I did not arrange it that way on purpose.

[Erik]

81. Sail Away (Rust Never Sleeps, 1979; written in the mid-70s; first performed in 1977)
Here's another song from Rust Never Sleeps that is brilliant but pales next to what surrounds it. Unlike the rest of the album, it is not a live recording with the audience noise stripped out, but a studio outtake from the Comes a Time sessions. It features nature and road imagery that he employed often, and some gorgeous harmonies from Nicolette Larson. Oddly, it first surfaced in the setlists of his rough-and-tumble Ducks project.

[Erik]

80. When You Dance I Can Really Love (After the Gold Rush, 1970)
From this point on, we are dealing with songs that I knew would make the top 100, it was just a question of where they would fall. So I guess you can say I have 80 favorite Neil songs. This is one of the few rockers on After the Gold Rush, and it's delightful.

[Erik]

79. Lotta Love (Comes a Time, 1978)
"It's gonna take a lotta love to change the way things are" -- these words have never been truer than they are now.
This is one of the few Neil songs where someone else's version is better known than his own. It was a major hit for Nicolette Larson, who sang backup on much of the Comes a Time album but, oddly, not this track.