Broken Arrow is criminally underrated in my book. Recognizing Neil was doing a lot with the Horse at this time, so maybe it was too much of a good thing for folks to handle But, if it ain't broke...95. Slip Away (Broken Arrow, 1996)
When Neil's music starts, sometimes I just slip away. That's basically what this is about. Neil's guitar is at its most trance-like and it's a blast to just let it wash over you. It's even better live, and I was fortunate to witness it at my second Neil show in 1996. He hasn't played it since 1997 and needs to bring it back!
Studio version -- not that there was any kind of studio tinkering going on whatsoever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN4qQD2_PfQ&feature=youtu.be
Live version from Year of the Horse soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75eDr4tgA7A
It wasn’t Ragged Glory and it wasn’t Pearl Jam, so some folks may have decided not to bother.Broken Arrow is criminally underrated in my book. Recognizing Neil was doing a lot with the Horse at this time, so maybe it was too much of a good thing for folks to handle But, if it ain't broke...
Will be curious to see if some others from this gem show up in the countdown
Thanks again! Do you mind if I share this elsewhere when the countdown is done (which won't be until September)?
SureThanks again! Do you mind if I share this elsewhere when the countdown is done (which won't be until September)?
I nearly turned this off early because of the sax and the cliched shadowy sax figure in the video, but then I learned what he was doing with it...OK, this was so clever all around.Pip's Invitation said:94. This Note's for You (This Note's for You, 1988)
This song was Neil's first step back into the zeitgeist after having been irrelevant to pop culture for much of the '80s. The infamous award-winning music video is below. And yet it's a product of his '80s genre-hopping. The blues album to which it lent its title was more successful than most of his other '80s experiments, but, as with his country phase a few years before, the experiment worked much better live than in the studio, and many of the best songs from the period were played at the shows but didn't make the record. More on that later. Of those that did make the record, this one is the tightest of the bunch and sums up his "art above all else" ethos as well as anything.
The video. The song playing at the beginning is Bad News (Has Come to Town), one of many songs he worked up for the Bluenotes to perform in concert but didn't put on the album. It was actually written in 1974 and just barely missed my list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSSvzCNBvlQ&feature=youtu.be
Live version from the Blue Note Cafe archival release, which is a much better showcase for the Bluenotes than the studio album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h41wsU9GmqY. Sort of like how the best showcase for the International Harvesters is A Treasure, not Old Ways.
Loved this one!93. Mansion on the Hill (Ragged Glory, 1990)
I wore the hell out of my copy of Ragged Glory in college and you'll be seeing plenty of it here. By the time I graduated (in 1993), the CD jewel case was held together with Scotch tape. This one is prime garage rock.
Video (in which Neil rises from the dead -- symbolic much?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1WpgTzf8nk&feature=youtu.be
Live version from Weld: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWAmsNpTcUc
Can't wait.@krista4 After writing up #47 today, I have determined that it's Neil's equivalent of the monkey monkey song.
Given how much you hate saxophones, you definitely don't need to hear the rest of the This Note's for You album.I nearly turned this off early because of the sax and the cliched shadowy sax figure in the video, but then I learned what he was doing with it...OK, this was so clever all around.
To be more clear, I don't hate saxophones; I hate a lot of their use in pop/rock songs.Given how much you hate saxophones, you definitely don't need to hear the rest of the This Note's for You album.
I listened to this one over the weekend thinking it might be a Springsteen cover93. Mansion on the Hill (Ragged Glory, 1990)
To be more clear, I don't hate saxophones; I hate a lot of their use in pop/rock songs.
Great comeback for Crazyhorse with this record.93. Mansion on the Hill (Ragged Glory, 1990)
I wore the hell out of my copy of Ragged Glory in college and you'll be seeing plenty of it here. By the time I graduated (in 1993), the CD jewel case was held together with Scotch tape. This one is prime garage rock.
Video (in which Neil rises from the dead -- symbolic much?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1WpgTzf8nk&feature=youtu.be
Live version from Weld: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWAmsNpTcUc
Neil doesn't do many covers and to my knowledge he has never covered Springsteen.I listened to this one over the weekend thinking it might be a Springsteen cover
Yes, this was their best work since Rust Never Sleeps/Live Rust, and orders of magnitude better than their previous collaboration, Life.Great comeback for Crazyhorse with this record.
Krista's worst nightmareTo be more clear, I don't hate saxophones; I hate a lot of their use in pop/rock songs.
Why so angry? Oh wait, is it Springsteen?To be more clear, I don't hate saxophones; I hate a lot of their use in pop/rock songs.
I stand corrected. He played Born in the USA at the Bruce Springsteen Musicares Gala in 2013. That's it, though.Neil doesn't do many covers and to my knowledge he has never covered Springsteen.
Never heard this one before but liked it a lot - some angry country music there.92. Grey Riders (A Treasure, 2011; written and first performed in 1985)
As I said earlier, Neil's country phase in the mid-80s was marked by strange choices; a tour that worked far better than the album it supported, and a number of new songs that were left off the album that were better than those selected. Grey Riders illustrates both. It's a propulsive hoedown with some extremely evocative imagery in the lyrics. Powerful enough to be selected as the closer to 25 International Harvesters shows. But forgotten for Old Ways and never performed again after 1985. It saw the light of day in 2011 on the archival release A Treasure, which is essential.
A Treasure version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vYNVmuudGY&feature=youtu.be
Agree - great find here.Never heard this one before but liked it a lot - some angry country music there.
Beautiful. I loved what he did with his voice on the line "I'd rather start all over again." Must have been the honey slides!91. Motion Pictures (For Carrie) (On the Beach, 1974)
This is a sleepy little tune with surprisingly aware lyrics; the narrator is both suspicious that his partner is cheating on him (this was in fact happening to Neil when he wrote this) and that the trappings of success offer false hope. As with all of side 2 of On the Beach, it was recorded under the influence of honeyslides (google it).
Studio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLi6stJrF5A&feature=youtu.be
It has only been performed live once. Luckily, it is on what may be Neil's most-circulated bootleg, a surprise set opening for Leon Redbone in May 1974. Aside from "Helpless" and one cover, his entire set was songs from On the Beach, which had not come out yet, and songs he had recently written that would show up on later albums (or not). Here, he explains honeyslides! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tscuMCFJsQY
Oh, it was totally the honey slides.Beautiful. I loved what he did with his voice on the line "I'd rather start all over again." Must have been the honey slides!
Neil's guitar sounds like it's coming from another song.92. Grey Riders (A Treasure, 2011; written and first performed in 1985)
As I said earlier, Neil's country phase in the mid-80s was marked by strange choices; a tour that worked far better than the album it supported, and a number of new songs that were left off the album that were better than those selected. Grey Riders illustrates both. It's a propulsive hoedown with some extremely evocative imagery in the lyrics. Powerful enough to be selected as the closer to 25 International Harvesters shows. But forgotten for Old Ways and never performed again after 1985. It saw the light of day in 2011 on the archival release A Treasure, which is essential.
A Treasure version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vYNVmuudGY&feature=youtu.be
I liked the album, but it didn't produce that one signature song. It might have helped if Eddie sang more - PJ's "sound" is Eddie more than anything. Without him, they are just another name in a long list of Neil's backing bands. Swap in the Horse or POTR on Mirror Ball, and you'll get essentially the same album.Neil's collaboration with Pearl Jam should have been better than it was, but it produced some winners, including this one. Here, PJ serves Neil as well as Crazy Horse ever did.
Agreed. Would have loved Eddie contributing. Haven't listened to it in a long time. Just looked now and I'm thinking at first glance I'm the Ocean might be my favorite from the album.I liked the album, but it didn't produce that one signature song. It might have helped if Eddie sang more - PJ's "sound" is Eddie more than anything. Without him, they are just another name in a long list of Neil's backing bands. Swap in the Horse or POTR on Mirror Ball, and you'll get essentially the same album.
I wouldn’t be able to handle having different rankings in different places, either. And I think once you made the 48/49 swap you could be tempted to re-look at others as well. My vote is don’t do it. Stick with your process.@krista4 I've gotten to a point in your Beatles thread where you're agonizing over your rankings and making changes to a song's ranking after you posted your writeup. I've not done that and won't plan to. I sat down one day, made the list based on how I felt that day, and that was that, except for adding that one song last month after I heard it for the first time. Seems like my process resembles Neil's (songs and recordings are done quickly based on how he was feeling about it that day) and yours resembles the Beatles' (endless changes being made and a relentless quest for perfection).
However, I am struggling with whether to swap #49 and #48, not because of a change of heart ranking-wise, but because of narrative. After I did the write-ups, it became clear to me that #50 and #48 go together. #48 exists because of what happened with #50. But I didn't think about that stuff when I made the list -- I just went by what I was feeling that day. I probably won't change anything because I've already made the posts on Facebook and the other site, and the OCD aspect of me wouldn't be able to deal with the rankings being different in different places.
The Horse is its own beast (pun sort of intended), so the sound would be somewhat different but the approach would be the same. The other part of what makes PJ's sound distinctive to me is Mike McCready's lead guitar bursts, and there was no room for that here. So yeah, we mainly got a more polished Crazy Horse album. It didn't help that all but the first two songs were written by Neil during the sessions (which were very short), so no thought was given into crafting something that could better take advantage of PJ's strengths.I liked the album, but it didn't produce that one signature song. It might have helped if Eddie sang more - PJ's "sound" is Eddie more than anything. Without him, they are just another name in a long list of Neil's backing bands. Swap in the Horse or POTR on Mirror Ball, and you'll get essentially the same album.
I remember I was at the playground at with my daughter the day Neil filled in for Eddie Vedder at Pearl Jam's show in Golden Gate Park. When the winds were right, you could hear them pretty clearly.Oh, hey, here's one for @cap'n grunge.
90. Downtown (Mirror Ball, 1995)
Neil's collaboration with Pearl Jam should have been better than it was, but it produced some winners, including this one. Here, PJ serves Neil as well as Crazy Horse ever did.
Studio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAfDScPFj0c&feature=youtu.be
Live version with PJ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-lb0aB0MY
I was SO pissed that we didn't get a Neil/PJ US tour. They did shows in Seattle and San Francisco before an 11-date European tour, and that was it. It was that damn fight with Ticketmaster, wasn't it?
this was my traveling pick-up line in the early 80sRide My Llama
Shocked at Rolling Stone's ranking - if it was left off altogether I doubt many would push back.I
94. This Note's for You (RS #42)