Neil Young song draft

[Erik]

48. Last Dance (Time Fades Away, 1973)
After Harvest and Heart of Gold topped the charts, Neil found himself in an existential crisis. He did not want to be Paul Simon or James Taylor -- or any of Crosby, Stills or Nash. As he said of Heart of Gold in his liner notes on Decade: "This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there."
He soon slammed into the ditch with his chaotic early 1973 tour and the live album of previously unreleased songs that resulted from it, Time Fades Away. It is the diametric opposite of Harvest. There is nothing pretty about it in the slightest. It is ALL rough edges, and many of Neil's fans and colleagues thought he had gone mad.
Last Dance, which closes the album, is the prime example of Neil hitting the ditch. Loud, noisy, with strained vocals and weird tangents (why is Neil babbling about coffee and orange juice toward the end?), it is a proud declaration of liberation from the mainstream. This is not going to be an easy listen for some of you (looking at you, Gregg), but without it and the other electric songs on this record, we don't get Tonight's the Night, Zuma, side 2 of Rust Never Sleeps, or Ragged Glory.
Back to the orange juice and coffee tangent -- I have heard other versions of Last Dance from this tour on bootlegs, and none of them have that part. Neil's inclusion of this specific version may be the first example of him trolling his record company and audience, which we would see a lot of in the '80s.

[Erik]

This version of Last Dance is just as messy as the officially released one, but it ends as intended -- with a constant refrain of "come on, turn on the light" that's at least more tuneful than the orange juice/coffee stuff. All versions I've heard have this EXCEPT the officially released one.

[Erik]

47. Welfare Mothers (Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)
I have a very long and intense history with side 2 of Rust Never Sleeps. Since this is its first appearance on the list, here is where I tell (at least some of) the story.
In 1979 my father received a cassette of RNS for his birthday. We listened to the whole thing once. After that, my parents would only play the acoustic side 1, rewinding it every time. Clearly side 2 was a bit much for them.
A few months later, my parents went out for a night and my sister and I got a babysitter -- a boy of about 16. Not long after my parents left, he perused their record collection and spotted this. And got REALLY excited.
"Yes! I'm gonna crank up side 2!" he exclaimed.
"But we're not allowed to listen to side 2!" I reacted, as 8-year-olds do.
"Oh, you don't know what you're missing!" he responded.
And indeed I didn't. He put it on, turned it up, and started pumping his fist. After initial trepidation about whether the neighbors would complain (they didn't), I had a realization that would shape my musical outlook forever: "This is dangerous -- and I LIKE it!"
My history with loud, noisy, chaotic rock and roll -- culminating in more than 1,000 concerts if you count my friends' bands playing in bars -- started here. So thank you, Caleb Milne, wherever you are.
As for Welfare Mothers, the lyrics are dumb. D.U.M.B. Probably among the worst of Neil's career. But WHO CARES when the rock is this momentous and badass. The riffage makes me want to convulse in ecstasy, even all these years later. And I got to witness a killer version on the Weld tour as the first encore of my first Neil show.

[Mithrandir]

47. Welfare Mothers (Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)
I have a very long and intense history with side 2 of Rust Never Sleeps. Since this is its first appearance on the list, here is where I tell (at least some of) the story.
In 1979 my father received a cassette of RNS for his birthday. We listened to the whole thing once. After that, my parents would only play the acoustic side 1, rewinding it every time. Clearly side 2 was a bit much for them.
A few months later, my parents went out for a night and my sister and I got a babysitter -- a boy of about 16. Not long after my parents left, he perused their record collection and spotted this. And got REALLY excited.
"Yes! I'm gonna crank up side 2!" he exclaimed!
"But we're not allowed to listen to side 2!" I reacted, as 8-year-olds do.
"Oh, you don't know what you're missing!" he responded.
And indeed I didn't. He put it on, turned it up, and started pumping his fist. After initial trepidation about whether the neighbors would complain (they didn't), I had a realization that would shape my musical outlook forever: "This is dangerous -- and I LIKE it!"
My history with loud, noisy, chaotic rock and roll -- culminating in more than 1,000 concerts if you count my friends' bands playing in bars -- started here. So thank you, Caleb Milne, wherever you are.
As for Welfare Mothers, the lyrics are dumb. D.U.M.B. Probably among the worst of Neil's career. But WHO CARES when the rock is this momentous and badass. The riffage makes me want to convulse in ecstasy, even all these years later. And I got to witness a killer version on the Weld tour as the first encore of my first Neil show.

Welfare Mothers would be #3 on my list of Neil favorites.

Great story!

[Erik]

Thanks! Given that you took Welfare Mothers in the 2nd round and most everyone else probably wouldn't have taken it before the 5th, I figured it had to be your Black Sheets of Rain of Neil songs.

[johnnya24]

I thought everyone thought Welfare Mothers was a great song. I don't think the lyrics are bad ... weird and interesting yeah. Still not 100% what he was trying to say though.

[Gregg]

Gregg is going to be shocked!

50. Heart of Gold (Harvest, 1972)
We're halfway through the countdown and it's time for THAT song. Heart of Gold is probably Neil's most famous song, and it was his only No. 1 single.
So why is it ranked all the way down here? I love it and it's an excellent example of the strengths of the country rock style that was dominating the charts at the time. But as good as it is, Neil has songs that are more compelling, including one from the same album done in a similar style that ranks MUCH higher on this list. That's a testament to his amazing skill.

I wanted to think about my response and then got side tracked. I decided that I am not shocked but I also am not in agreement. It wasn't until your last two posts and the story of you and your baby sitter that it came into focus for me.

First let me say I am enjoying your countdown and commentary. Agreement or disagreement is only a small part of it. So thank you for posting.

I lived through the whole metamorphosis of old Neil. I was there when he was unknown. I was there when Young was actually young. I can lay claim to being one of the ones that helped him become famous so others may enjoy the rest of the story. If my hippie brothers and sisters ignored him it would have ended with his first solo attempt. But we did not.

Old Neil had an idea of how to push our buttons. With each song each album he kept trying. There was no known music that was going to promise that Neil would not burn out or fade away. In that moment Harvest was potentially one of the last things he would ever write that would merit getting pressed into vinyl.

Buffalo Springfield, CSNY, and Young on his own were part of my life's sound track much like Last Dance is part of yours. The difference is Last Dance did not exist to compare it to Heart of Gold. I am glad for both of us that Neil survived and didn't quit.

I look forward to seeing the rest of your list. It will be fun to watch and listen.

[Erik]

Thanks for your perspective, Gregg. There wasn't much precedent for Neil doing what he did in 1973. And he wouldn't have been able to do it without Harvest and CSNY -- who, I have been told, were looked upon as the American Beatles by some.

[Erik]

46. Pushed It Over the End (CSNY 1974, 2014; written and first performed in 1974)
Neil reached some amazing heights on tour with CSNY. In the early years, toward the end of their sets, they would churn out an epic version of Down by the River (in 1969) or Southern Man (in 1970). It was often the high point of a show with a lot of them.
For the 1974 reunion tour, Neil had a new song to occupy that slot: Pushed It Over the End. It was going to be the centerpiece of the reunion album, Human Highway, which never happened due to confrontation during the sessions. And it delivered every bit as much as its predecessors had. David Crosby's chunky rhythm guitar provides a foundation for Neil's lead guitar to take flight, while Stephen Stills and Graham Nash on keys provide subtle touches not generally heard on Neil's previous epics.
I first heard the song, which is loosely inspired by the Patty Hearst saga in the headlines at the time, on a bootleg of random performances that a high school friend acquired in the late '80s. I was stunned that Neil would leave a masterpiece like this unreleased. Little did I know there were many more of them!
Perhaps because of bitterness over how CSNY ended things in 1974, Neil never returned to this song after that tour, though slight touches of it can be heard in Fountainebleu, a vastly inferior song that ended up on the Stills-Young Band album in 1976.
It remained unreleased everywhere except Italy until 2014, when it was included on the CSNY 1974 box set, both on CD and DVD (that's how I know who played what!)
The CSNY 1974 version is not on Youtube, so below is that first version I heard, which it turns out was included on an Italian box set in the early '80s. That's why it sounds "cleaner" than many live recordings.

[Erik]

45. Harvest Moon (Harvest Moon, 1992)
Neil doesn't usually write straightforward love songs, but when he does, they are usually gorgeous like this. I suspect that of all the songs Neil has released after 1979, this is the one that the average person is most likely to have heard of.
This is also a special song for me because it was my father and stepmother's favorite Neil song. There are elements of their story in it. This year it's difficult for me to write about that any further, so I'll stop there.

[Erik]

Because we were in lockdown and I was bored and had 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.

44. Don't Be Denied (Time Fades Away, 1973)
This is just as raw as the other TFA material, but even more anguished, as the lyrics are basically his autobiography up to that point, and are a testament to overcoming obstacles, even the ones you build yourself. Probably because it's kind of a theme song for him, it's the one song from TFA that Neil has allowed into his setlists since then. I love the interplay between Neil's guitar and Ben Keith's pedal steel.

[Erik]

43. Pardon My Heart (Zuma, 1975)
Of the batch of songs Neil wrote in 1974 about his breakup with the mother of his first child, this one is the most gorgeous and gripping. The lyrics are just killer, especially this passage: "Pardon my heart/If I showed that I cared/But I love you more than moments/We have or have not shared."
This song was so strong that's it's no wonder that, soon after the Homegrown album for which he'd recorded it was shelved, he released it. It appears on Zuma and, helped by harmonies from Crazy Horse's Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina, is the perfect contrast to the bone-rattling material around it.

[Erik]

42. Time Fades Away (Time Fades Away, 1973)
I wrote this when I picked this song in our draft in 2011 and I can't think of a better way to put it: "Remember in Don't Look Back, how Bob Dylan chastises the media for not printing "the truth," then when they ask what "truth" they should print, Dylan says "a tramp vomiting in an alley." "Time Fades Away" to me has always seemed like Neil's version of that "truth." Verses describing some of the most desolate, desperate and greedy people imaginable alternating with choruses cautioning you against ending up like that. Love how there's an extra junkie at the beginning of each verse (first thirteen, then fourteen, then fifteen, borrowing a device from the Allman Brothers' "Black Hearted Woman.") The Dylan connection is also played up in the music, with a driving, ragtag track that sounds straight out of Highway 61 Revisited."
What has happened since then is the Tuscaloosa archival release, which is from much earlier in the TFA tour than the version released in 1973. The Tuscaloosa version is MUCH cleaner and tighter. Things really did deteriorate along the way on that tour.

[Erik]

Tuscaloosa version for comparison:

[Erik]

41. Change Your Mind (Sleeps with Angels, 1994)
Coming off the Freedom/Ragged Glory/Harvest Moon run that revived his career, Neil's Sleeps with Angels was equally heralded upon its release in 1994. Unfortunately IMO it hasn't held up as well as the others. Many of the songs feel abstract, while Neil is at his best when he's concrete and direct. And frankly some of them come off as white-man-splaining.
The one track that still resonates today is the same one that made the biggest impact on first listen: The sprawling guitar epic Change Your Mind. Contrary to popular narrative, it was not written as a response to Kurt Cobain's suicide -- which affected Neil deeply, in part because Kurt's suicide note quoted Hey Hey My My (Into the Black) -- but it served as reassurance to my generation from its Godfather, reminding us to turn to the ones we love when we are troubled.
For nearly 15 minutes, we are able to leave our troubles behind and follow Neil through the twists and turns of guitar bliss. More subtle than the blowouts on Ragged Glory, the guitar work is as lyrical as anything he'd done since Down by the River.