Quote
tomcasagranda
Broken Arrow - Great album, apart from the worst ever cover of Baby What You Want Me to Do. It's so bad, it trumps the Stones' Mr Pitiful.

no!!! love that version! and it's audience recording, to boot! love it!

Tonight's the Night is his Masterpiece. Live Rust after that to get started.

a little love for Ragged Glory, please?

Quote
GRNRBITW
a little love for Ragged Glory, please?

A lot of love for Ragged Glory.

"I guess Neil Young is the king of rock 'n roll. I don't see anybody else on the scene standing anywhere near this tall nowadays..."

Kurt Loder, in his review of Ragged Glory
Rolling Stone, 20 September 1990

For anybody who cares about Ragged Glory, it's vital to track down the "Mansion On The Hill" CD single which includes the non-album "Don't Spook The Horse." The track ties together lyrics from across the album into a hilarious country-grunge stomp. Neil joked that it was Cliff's Notes for the album and would save hostile reviewers the time of listening to the whole thing...

I'm also pretty sure that Zuma (1975) is not getting nearly enough love in this thread.

Wow what a legacy... Harvest and Prairie Wind are my personal favorites but with Neil it's all a toss up, I love all mentioned here. CSN&Y's "Four Way Street" has some of Neil's greatest acoustic performances plus highlights the power of Young's and Stills' gunslinging guitars in reckless abandon.

Quote
uhbuhgullayew
Reactor
Trans

><

What ya tryin' to do this dude? This is akin to recommending Emotional Rescue or Dirty Work to a new Stones fan as the two must buy first albums!

Cheers,
SonicD

Quote
detroitken

Quote
keefriffhard4life

Quote
Silver Dagger
For the solo stuff start with After The Goldrush and Harvest. For the Crazy Horse/band albums start with Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere or Zuma. All are 5 star albums with not a turkey on them.

i support this post

agreed

Straight on the money! But if you like incendiary, gritty live albums, bolt on Weld! Rust Never Sleeps is also a must have live album.

Cheers,
SonicD

I'm a recent Neil convert and the two that really grabbed me initially were Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and Harvest - they're both very accessible. Tonight's The Night is much more of a challenge but so worth it.

This is my all-time favorite Neil-related clip, though:

[youtu.be]

Quote
detroitken

Quote
keefriffhard4life

Quote
Silver Dagger
For the solo stuff start with After The Goldrush and Harvest. For the Crazy Horse/band albums start with Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere or Zuma. All are 5 star albums with not a turkey on them.

i support this post

agreed

Yup.

I have always maintained that if I could only have one album for a deserted island, Harvest Moon would be it. For me, it is the best album ever made. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE that album. Fantastic.

This is hard as I'm a huge NY fan, and he has sooooo many albums from which to choose, but I'm trying to think of the ones that I listen to the most, and what comes to mind beyond Harvest Moon, is Old Ways, Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, Unplugged, and Decade.

Good luck - honestly, I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. I find Neil Young to be an absolute genious, one who far surpasses Bob Dylan - a comment for which I'm going to be cruxified on here, but Neil Young is never afraid to take chances, and just doesn't give a F about anything. Granted Dylan had his christian period, but he's been the industry darling for years now. You'll never find Neil Young as anyone's darling, and for me, I think that's great.

He's a beast:

I would say a good starting point is "Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 1968". Neil solo on acoustic guitar playing his songs from the Buffalo Springfield albums.

At the same time get

- Harvest (1972)
- After The Gold Rush (1970)
- Everybody knows this is Nowhere (1969)
- Neil Young (1968)

Decade is a great starting point - lots of the well known stuff going back to "Mr. Soul" days. Harvest would be next.

Then explore this deep well as you can afford to.

Bobby wasn't such a darling when they booed him in '65...but he did get more adorable as the decades moved on....

Quote
Rev. Robert W.

I'm also pretty sure that Zuma (1975) is not getting nearly enough love in this thread.

I LOVE this album!! "Dangerbird" is a masterpiece imo.

Always been a fan of Live Rust.

Also really liked the 2005 Heart of Gold concert film from Nashville.

I'm an On The Beach/Zuma guy myself with a Time Fades Away chaser. It did take me 30 plus years to settle on this, however. OTB or Zuma would be a good start with two or three of the more mainstream releases mentioned here.

Frankly, find a used CD place and pick up a copy of Decade. A good sampling of the many faces of Neil. Also contains his vintage Springfield tracks (once you've heard Expecting To Fly...forget about it).

My personal favourite albums:

After The Goldrush (my first NY album)
Tonight's The Night
Zuma
Comes A Time
Hawks & Doves
Trans
Freedom
Ragged Glory
Weld
Sleeps With Angels
Mirror Ball
Year of the Horse
Greendale
Prairie Wind

+ every other Neil album

I've always loved Neil for walking his own road and not to think about others. And he always have loved LP's. So have I.

Quote
Single Malt
My personal favourite albums:

After The Goldrush (my first NY album)
Tonight's The Night
Zuma
Comes A Time
Hawks & Doves
Trans
Freedom
Ragged Glory
Weld
Sleeps With Angels
Mirror Ball
Year of the Horse
Greendale
Prairie Wind

+ every other Neil album

I've always loved Neil for walking his own road and not to think about others. And he always have loved LP's. So have I.

OK, OK..but how about YOU think about others and consider your list.

It's fine to have deep or quirky choices...but the guy is looking for Neil Young albums to START WITH.

A morsel like Hawks and Doves isn't going to inspire anyone to walk very far down that Neil Young road...

Quote
tomcasagranda
Harvest Moon and Le Noise are my favourites.

I also have a sneaking admiration for Old Ways, Are You Passionate, Prairie Wind, and on The Beach.

Le Noise - The Film... from NY youtube channel

Nobody for American Stars & Bars? Well, I am. Because it's electric and acoustic and the other way round. One song has a funny sound: like a cracking fire in the studio!

That was indeed a fire. "Will To Love" was recorded on a cheap cassette in his home with the fire place blazing away. He knew he could never get the same feel in the studio, so the cassette was transferred to tape and Neil then did all the overdubs with Dave Briggs producing. That cracklin' fire and lo-fi nature of the underlying track give that song its unique vibe.

It has often been my dream
To live with one
who wasn't there
Like an ocean fish
who swam upstream
Through nets,
by hooks, and hungry bears.

As real a Shakey lyric as you'll find. Great album...

Quote
shakeydeal
That was indeed a fire. "Will To Love" was recorded on a cheap cassette in his home with the fire place blazing away. He knew he could never get the same feel in the studio, so the cassette was transferred to tape and Neil then did all the overdubs with Dave Briggs producing. That cracklin' fire and lo-fi nature of the underlying track give that song its unique vibe.

As real a Shakey lyric as you'll find. Great album...

Funny. "Will to Love" was so roundly derided for so long and now seems to have been completely reevaluated. The discussion of the recording in Shakey, particularly of the emotional and creative bond between Neil and David Briggs, is one of the book's high points.

A great resurrection of "Hold Back The Tears" with Ben Keith and Pegi Young from a few years back. Must've been one of Ben's last:

For starters:

These, which I own,
do nothing for me:

After The Gold Rush
Harvest Moon
Sleeps With Angels
Broken Arrow

Here are the yummies,
which I own too:

Harvest
Live Rust
Ragged Glory
Mirror Ball



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-04-24 18:10 by noughties.

Quote
loog droog

Quote
Single Malt
My personal favourite albums:

After The Goldrush (my first NY album)
Tonight's The Night
Zuma
Comes A Time
Hawks & Doves
Trans
Freedom
Ragged Glory
Weld
Sleeps With Angels
Mirror Ball
Year of the Horse
Greendale
Prairie Wind

+ every other Neil album

I've always loved Neil for walking his own road and not to think about others. And he always have loved LP's. So have I.

OK, OK..but how about YOU think about others and consider your list.

It's fine to have deep or quirky choices...but the guy is looking for Neil Young albums to START WITH.

A morsel like Hawks and Doves isn't going to inspire anyone to walk very far down that Neil Young road...

It depends on who's listening. H&D was one of the first NY albums to me and I loved it since the very first time I heard it.

Harvest and Rust Never Sleeps are perhaps the most mentioned NY albums so perhaps it'd be easy to start with them?

LIve Rust

As someone said earlier, you are in for an unbelievable journey. If you're like me, (a serial monogamist), one of the suggested starters will hook you, and you'll listen to nothing but Neil Young for the next three months.

Neil has gone done so many paths; you'll be hooked by some (Harvest, Live Rust, Ragged Glory) and completely mystified or bored sh*tless by others (Re-Ac-tor, Are You Passionate?).

Enjoy the ride. It's a wild one.

T@3

I just want to say thank you to everyone! Love all the info!

Again: Rust Never Sleeps. It's half acoustic/ half electric.

With a one way ticket to the land of truth and my suitcase in my hand.

This is my interpretation of Thrasher (Neil Young)

Love the "Ragged Glory" album...

Neil Young is playing in Australia, New Zealand and Europe on several festivals this summer. He is confirmed for the Moon & Stars festival in LOcarno (CH) and the Paleo in Nyon (CH).

[www.neilyoung.com]

sjouke