Explain Neil Young to me...

[Dixie]

I never got Neil Young either, but at least he is a talented artist.

He's better than much of today's no-talent, digitally enhanced, performers who "look good".

[oldE]

Neil Young is a poet with some great guitar licks, who is brave enough to get up on stage and give us what he's got.
Needle and The Damage Done, Old Man & Tell Me Why are tunes I've been playing (poorly) for over 30 years. It really surprised me last year, at a going-away party for a friend of my son, another of his friends asked if I could play "Comes A Time". I was kind of surprised she even knew who Neil was, let alone one of his old titles.
The guy has got some legs.
Long may he run.
Les

[Moses]

They played "Comes a Time" at my best friends funeral. He was 23 when he died and a huge Neil Young fan.

Neil Young is brilliant.

[nostatic]

According to "traditional metrics", Dylan can't sing, Young can't sing, Cobain couldn't sing, Waits can't sing, etc...

I'd rather listen to someone with something to say sing it from the heart than hear some schlock performed by someone with perfect pitch.

Music (and art more generally) isn't necessarily about being "pretty." It is about challenging one's soul.

Well, except for Zamfir...he rocks!

[aways]

I like Neil Young. I think his voice perfectly complements his lyrics. For many years he was my favorite. I also like to listen on occassion to performers with great voices and so-so lyrics. There's room for both. As far as "art" is concened, I'll take a beautiful painting from the baroque period (for example) anyday, over some modern-day poser who throws a used tampon in a jar of vomit, and calls it "art".

[nostatic]

Originally posted by aways
over some modern-day poser who throws a used tampon in a jar of vomit, and calls it "art".

It hurts me that you dismiss my work so flippantly. I shall go cry now...

[speeder]

Originally posted by nostatic
According to "traditional metrics", Dylan can't sing, Young can't sing, Cobain couldn't sing, Waits can't sing, etc...

I'd rather listen to someone with something to say sing it from the heart than hear some schlock performed by someone with perfect pitch.

Music (and art more generally) isn't necessarily about being "pretty." It is about challenging one's soul.

Well, except for Zamfir...he rocks!

Well put! Not sure who Zamfir is, but the rest anyways.

I don't listen to Young much, but he is a true, great artist. In all forms of popular music, major points are allowed for style and passion over technical prowess.

The others mentioned are all great as well, I am more of a John Prine fan myself. Also Harry Nilsson.

[nostatic]

http://www.nndb.com/people/141/000025066/

[RANDY P]

Originally posted by Jared Fenton
yes, many times in fact. They did an album together. Although I think Pearl Jam sucks ass.

Pearl Jam does in fact suck - badly. However their (sort of) predecessors Mother Love Bone - now that's some bad $hit!

Neil Young? Dunno except I've never made it past the first 3 seconds of anything he's done.

[Seahawk]

Listened to an extended version of, 'Cowgirl in the Sand' (thank you Sirius!) today...great.

But, what do I know: I like Waits and John Prine.

[Superman]

Waits is great. Young is a genius. His music is just his music. It flows from him. I'm not sure how much it matters to Neil whether his music is popular or not. He's bee plugging away, forging his own musical style, for several decades now. Nothing changes that.

Who saw that concert in which Neil had a couple of HUGE amplifier-props and some little cloaked people as stage hands? In my view, if you can watch his performances and still call him a poor artist, then you just cannot recognize art.

Vetter is a whiner. Oddly, I don't consider Young or Dylan to be whiners. Young endeared himself to the grungies when he told Miller Beer to pound sand.

You guys who think Young is not a good artist, how do you explain the observation that two thirds of Young's music is nasty, messy, intense, ugly....and the remaining third is the most beautiful melodious and sweet music you ever heard. Like (of course) Harvest Moon versus Keep On Rockin' In The Free World.

[nostatic]

There is a town in north Ontario,
With dream comfort memory to spare,
And in my mind
I still need a place to go,
All my changes were there.

Blue, blue windows behind the stars,
Yellow moon on the rise,
Big birds flying across the sky,
Throwing shadows on our eyes.
Leave us

Helpless, helpless, helpless
Baby can you hear me now?
The chains are locked
and tied across the door,
Baby, sing with me somehow.

Blue, blue windows behind the stars,
Yellow moon on the rise,
Big birds flying across the sky,
Throwing shadows on our eyes.
Leave us

Helpless, helpless, helpless.

[TimT]

Who saw that concert in which Neil had a couple of HUGE amplifier-props and some little cloaked people as stage hands?

I saw that concert. I believe he was using those props around the time the Return of the Jedi had just come out,or perhaps the original Star Wars. I thought the little cloaked people looked like the the poeple that traded the droids perhaps. The huge amps and were cool, and the little cloaked people with the glowing red eyes scurriied around the stage moving the set.

Ive been to quite a few Neil Young concerts, some were truely awful, other concerts were transcendant experiences.

[TimT]

Heres a pic of what I remember seeing at the Neil Young tours with the little cloaked people.. They reminded me of these characters from Star Wars.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Zamfir, the pan flute god, luring little children to the giant boiling pot of doom.

[azasadny]

My favorite "non-singer" is Joe Cocker, I just could never get into Neil Young...

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Mother Love Bone rocked.

I'm a star dog baby.

[K.B.]

Explaining why Neal Young is good would be like explaining why grid girls are good. Some things can't be just explained by words. You either feel the energy or you don't.

[MichiganMat]

Oh man, Pearl Jams "Ten" album rocks my socks off. I don't listen to it every day, but its a screamer by any standard.

However, my ears were just coming to age around the time of grunge and I practically grew up with Pearl Jam, STP, etc etc. Never was into Nirvana though, don't know why they don't rock me.

As for Neal, he's a true original for sure. Him and Waits and the Dead and Cocker, etc. If technical skill were directly related to artistic beauty we would all be listening to classical music and Rock-n-Roll would never have flourished. Few people want to hear artists pratice scale runs and arpeggios, John Patitucci can is a fine example of that. I don't care how fast he can play, he bores me to tears.

[VaSteve]

Originally posted by TimT
Heres a pic of what I remember seeing at the Neil Young tours with the little cloaked people.. They reminded me of these characters from Star Wars.

This was the Rust Never Sleeps tour documented in the movie "Rust Never Sleeps". Those guys are the "road eyes" I guess a joke on "roadies" The movie came out in 1978-1979 so the gag was quite topical.

I have all of Neil's albums. Seen him on tour 5 times:
Solo '92
w/ Steve Cropper '93 (twice)
w/ Crazy Horse (Farm Aid '96)
w/ CSNY '02

Alwasy something different. Many don't get voice or the extended feedback (with the band) but it's always a good time.

Neil never really "faded away" in the 80's... partly to protest a contact with Geffen, h e did a series of "non-commercial" records:
- This Note's For You (10 piece swing band) 1998 (before the swing thing hit big)
- Old Ways 1984 (full on country - not the country tinged rock of some of the other albums)
- Everybody's Rocking - 1983, 50's doowop type album
- Landing on Water 1986 - electonicish pop album (LOW is a joke - when a plane lands on water, nobody survives)
- Life 1987 (rocker with Crazy Horse) A couple to direct jabs at Geffen
- Trans 1982 (full on electronic weirdness. Vocorder on every song (or close) A vocorder is the thing used on Frampton's Do you Feel like we Do)

Neil hit a home run with Freedom's (1989) Rockin' in the Free World and was "back" (on Reprise records) - though he never really left.

Around 1981, Neil suffered some sort of eppileptic problem and it affected his ability to play guitar. Once a bit more fluid, his later style is more of a "choppy attack" on the strings. Most apparent in the live work, like "Weld".

I have all of Neil's stuff and like most of it. I would have to say that the never stuff, I just can't get into.

The standout albums have already been mentioned, but some other songs are worth checking out as well:

Down by the River
Cowgirl in the Sand
On the Beach (whole album)
Tonight's the Night (any live version/whole album)
Like a Hurricane
Powderfinger
Thrasher
Natural Beauty (Harvest moon)

Even his worst stuff is leauges better than stuff written by a professional and performed by a pitch perfect, good looking performer.