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Bonus Neil Young post!
I made this list in May. In June, Neil put out an archival release with a song I'd never heard before. I've become obsessed with it and have decided to rank it at No. 81, making this list a top 101.
81. Vacancy (Homegrown, 2020; written in 1974)
As I mentioned before, Neil wrote a bunch of songs in 1974 as a result of a major breakup. He recorded a whole bunch of these and other songs and prepared some of them for release on an album to be called Homegrown. Then he shelved the album in 1975 in favor of Tonight's the Night. Unlike some of Neil's lost albums, Homegrown never surfaced as a whole, but some of its songs (and others recorded at those sessions) ended up on other albums or made their way into live sets. Vacancy never did. It was a complete mystery, its existence only known to fans through a list of the songs recorded at the sessions, until Neil released Homegrown last month as part of his Archives series.
It is incredible. I am floored every time I hear it, and constantly send messages to a fellow music-geek friend about it. Honestly, the only reason it's as low as 81 is to guard against irrational exuberance.
And I have so many questions. But the main two are:
1. How can you write and record a song this great AND THEN KEEP IT UNDER WRAPS FOR 45 YEARS? Neil has said the Homegrown material was too personal, but he let people hear Pardon My Heart and Homefires, which are much more intimate than this, so that's not a good enough excuse.
2. How can you not retry this song with Crazy Horse at some point in the last 45 years? They could turn it into a massive stomper live. Neil salvaged the title track of Homegrown, reworked it for the Horse and released it on American Stars N Bars 2 years after the original album was abandoned. This would have been a MUCH better alternative.
Perhaps the issue was that the lyrics describe a situation that must have been particularly awkward for Neil. He is not addressing his ex but someone whom he may have tried to replace her with.
"I look in your eyes and I don't know what's there
You poison me with that long, vacant stare
You dress like her and she walks in your words
You frown at me and then you smile at her"
and:
"You come through in the weirdest way
You copy her with the words that you say
I need that girl like the night needs the day
I don't need you getting in my way"
Holy hell.
The music merges the best of Neil's hard-rock and country-rock impulses and wouldn't sound out of place on a Buffalo Springfield or CSNY record. The ending solo sounds straight out of a jam from a CSNY tour, and the transitions into and out of the verses are to die for. There's even a riff pulled from World on a String, which Neil probably figured was shelved for good in 1974.
If I ever get to see Neil in concert again, I am going to be that guy who annoys him by calling for this song all night.
I made this list in May. In June, Neil put out an archival release with a song I'd never heard before. I've become obsessed with it and have decided to rank it at No. 81, making this list a top 101.
81. Vacancy (Homegrown, 2020; written in 1974)
As I mentioned before, Neil wrote a bunch of songs in 1974 as a result of a major breakup. He recorded a whole bunch of these and other songs and prepared some of them for release on an album to be called Homegrown. Then he shelved the album in 1975 in favor of Tonight's the Night. Unlike some of Neil's lost albums, Homegrown never surfaced as a whole, but some of its songs (and others recorded at those sessions) ended up on other albums or made their way into live sets. Vacancy never did. It was a complete mystery, its existence only known to fans through a list of the songs recorded at the sessions, until Neil released Homegrown last month as part of his Archives series.
It is incredible. I am floored every time I hear it, and constantly send messages to a fellow music-geek friend about it. Honestly, the only reason it's as low as 81 is to guard against irrational exuberance.
And I have so many questions. But the main two are:
1. How can you write and record a song this great AND THEN KEEP IT UNDER WRAPS FOR 45 YEARS? Neil has said the Homegrown material was too personal, but he let people hear Pardon My Heart and Homefires, which are much more intimate than this, so that's not a good enough excuse.
2. How can you not retry this song with Crazy Horse at some point in the last 45 years? They could turn it into a massive stomper live. Neil salvaged the title track of Homegrown, reworked it for the Horse and released it on American Stars N Bars 2 years after the original album was abandoned. This would have been a MUCH better alternative.
Perhaps the issue was that the lyrics describe a situation that must have been particularly awkward for Neil. He is not addressing his ex but someone whom he may have tried to replace her with.
"I look in your eyes and I don't know what's there
You poison me with that long, vacant stare
You dress like her and she walks in your words
You frown at me and then you smile at her"
and:
"You come through in the weirdest way
You copy her with the words that you say
I need that girl like the night needs the day
I don't need you getting in my way"
Holy hell.
The music merges the best of Neil's hard-rock and country-rock impulses and wouldn't sound out of place on a Buffalo Springfield or CSNY record. The ending solo sounds straight out of a jam from a CSNY tour, and the transitions into and out of the verses are to die for. There's even a riff pulled from World on a String, which Neil probably figured was shelved for good in 1974.
If I ever get to see Neil in concert again, I am going to be that guy who annoys him by calling for this song all night.
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