Just to clarify - I was never directly involved in the fight itself (Sensei Rosenfeld taught us to use our karate powers responsibly) and I sold the (quite hideous) Neil Young tie dye off my back to a needy young Canadian.
I like this album. Listening to it again today I realized there are no 5-star songs on it. It's all very good, but none of it is excellent. When Neil was touring this material in 2012-2013 he played an acoustic version of Twisted Road which I like much better than the album version. Hopefully some of those shows get an official release someday.
I agree with Brett. The albums Freedom, Ragged Glory and Harvest Moon is a really great 3 album run. Anything from that period is easy to listen to. Unplugged and Weld are the two albums I use when trying to introduce people to NY. Do you like his quiet stuff or his loud stuff? Unplugged for quiet and Weld for loud.
I like that you guys are picking less obvious albums for inclusion. But I'm kind of on the fence about this album. If I lost it and forgot about it, I probably wouldn't miss it. That's true for a lot of NY albums after a certain point. Fortunately there is amazing archival material coming out all the time.
I am a Neil Young fan. I love NY & Crazy Horse. There’s a fundamental commonality yet each configuration has it’s own flavor. I’m old enough to remember many of NY’s truly classic hits when they were aired on the radio on their initial album releases. I own the albums from This Note’s For You through Mirrorball. I ceased purchasing NY et. al records after that due to prioritizing new release buys by my favorite bands, not for any change in opinion about the artistry of his prolific works. ‘Back in ye olden days …’ there were no internet streaming music services.
I listened to Psychedelic Pill for the first time today. What I dig about this substack is the opportunity to be exposed to something new to my ears. I’m not going to comment on this week’s album due to several of my pretentious music precepts: Once Is Not Enough & Your Mileage May Vary. At this point you may well be thinking ‘If you’ve nothing to say about the album shouldn’t you STFU? We don’t need another shit post.’ The point is well taken. Forgive in advance the written diarrhea.
I came here to say that the three album stretch consisting of Freedom (1989), Ragged Glory (with CH) (1990) and Harvest Moon (1992) stand as great a trilogy run as exists in modern music. Choose your 3 sequential releases by an artist; NY’s work here takes a back seat to none of them. Freedom is easily in my top ten albums of the last two decades of the 20th Century; likely in my all time top 20 albums. Don’t take my word for it. I humbly suggest that you listen to these albums in order if you have not already experienced them that way.
Keep On Rocking In The Free World [Freedom] will remain a rock & roll anthem played live for as long as rock & roll is performed, in my opinion. Crime In The City [Freedom] is absolutely devastating. It captures the zeitgeist of that time in America with chilling accuracy and searing tragedy. Ragged Glory w/CH is pure unapologetic boisterous heavy rock and you get the vibe that they boys are having fun. Not a weak sister on this album. I really dig the opening track Country Home; it sets the tone for the entire album. Harvest Moon as a whole feels nothing short of a lover’s gift to the world from Neil. The title track is as gorgeous a love song as he has ever written and performed. There’s comfort to be found in these tracks. For me the album is soothing in a way difficult to verbalize; it’s about the feelings the album as a whole invoke in me.
If you haven’t listened to Harvest Moon get thee to a nunnery and listen in an undisturbed environment.
Great comment and totally agree about the Freedom>Ragged Glory>Harvest Moon run. Unplugged, Silver & Gold, Mirror Ball and Broken Arrow are from that era, too. He had a very strong 90s.
For three album runs I'm probably more partial to Time Fades Away>On The Beach>Tonight's the Night. On The Beach might be my favorite album of them all, but that decision is way too mood dependent. Then again, I own the entire Geffen era in original vinyl bought when I was a kid, so I'm probably not the most objective Neil fan.
I do like me some Neil. Maybe not as much as Mitch….but he’s still one of the artists I enjoy listening toward on a regular basis (both with and without Crazy Horse).
Little know fact, but the ringtone on my phone for as long as you were able to buy and download ringtones from the iTunes Store has been Everyone Knows This is Nowhere (n.b. Nobody actually knows this fact because my phone is perpetually on silent).
One of my great accomplishments in life is getting my wife to change her mind about Neil. I once dragged her to a Neil Young concert at the Felt Forum/Theatre at MSG. The only thing she liked about the experience was watching some crazy old hippie dancing in the aisle - it cracked her up and to this day we still remember how he was in Mitch’s zone. Other than that she was miserable- hated the show and hated the experience. However over the years she’s come around. When a Neil song comes on the radio, there is no longer a visceral reaction to change the channel - in some cases she even sings along. What can I say - mission accomplished.
Music wise, I know the stuff that everyone knows - I don’t claim to be a student of his catalog, and to be honest had never heard of Psychedelic Pill before seeing it come into the rotation this week. Sorry - but this one just doesn’t do it for more. I was bored and found myself skipping through tedious and repetitive songs.
Driftin’ Back? Try Driftin’ Off.
If you’re going to nominate a Neil Young album to be in the EONS hall of fame - there has to be at least a dozen (or two) other albums you could have picked.
Well, you don't really need us to tell you that Rust Never Sleeps is a great album - we're trying to dig up the lesser known and more recent classics. Ragged Glory is another glorious Crazy Horse album that you might like better than PP. I'm a Greendale defender - Bandit is a fantastic song - but the movie and tour soured people on that album. Of course, last year's archival release Way Down in the Rust Bucket is a fantastic live album from the Ragged Glory era. Of the 50 or so Neil albums I'd still put PP in the top 20%.
Just to clarify - I was never directly involved in the fight itself (Sensei Rosenfeld taught us to use our karate powers responsibly) and I sold the (quite hideous) Neil Young tie dye off my back to a needy young Canadian.
I like this album. Listening to it again today I realized there are no 5-star songs on it. It's all very good, but none of it is excellent. When Neil was touring this material in 2012-2013 he played an acoustic version of Twisted Road which I like much better than the album version. Hopefully some of those shows get an official release someday.
I agree with Brett. The albums Freedom, Ragged Glory and Harvest Moon is a really great 3 album run. Anything from that period is easy to listen to. Unplugged and Weld are the two albums I use when trying to introduce people to NY. Do you like his quiet stuff or his loud stuff? Unplugged for quiet and Weld for loud.
I like that you guys are picking less obvious albums for inclusion. But I'm kind of on the fence about this album. If I lost it and forgot about it, I probably wouldn't miss it. That's true for a lot of NY albums after a certain point. Fortunately there is amazing archival material coming out all the time.
It's the best Crazy Horse album since "Broken Arrow" but I'm with you on the archival stuff - the last two have been *chef's kiss*
I am a Neil Young fan. I love NY & Crazy Horse. There’s a fundamental commonality yet each configuration has it’s own flavor. I’m old enough to remember many of NY’s truly classic hits when they were aired on the radio on their initial album releases. I own the albums from This Note’s For You through Mirrorball. I ceased purchasing NY et. al records after that due to prioritizing new release buys by my favorite bands, not for any change in opinion about the artistry of his prolific works. ‘Back in ye olden days …’ there were no internet streaming music services.
I listened to Psychedelic Pill for the first time today. What I dig about this substack is the opportunity to be exposed to something new to my ears. I’m not going to comment on this week’s album due to several of my pretentious music precepts: Once Is Not Enough & Your Mileage May Vary. At this point you may well be thinking ‘If you’ve nothing to say about the album shouldn’t you STFU? We don’t need another shit post.’ The point is well taken. Forgive in advance the written diarrhea.
I came here to say that the three album stretch consisting of Freedom (1989), Ragged Glory (with CH) (1990) and Harvest Moon (1992) stand as great a trilogy run as exists in modern music. Choose your 3 sequential releases by an artist; NY’s work here takes a back seat to none of them. Freedom is easily in my top ten albums of the last two decades of the 20th Century; likely in my all time top 20 albums. Don’t take my word for it. I humbly suggest that you listen to these albums in order if you have not already experienced them that way.
Keep On Rocking In The Free World [Freedom] will remain a rock & roll anthem played live for as long as rock & roll is performed, in my opinion. Crime In The City [Freedom] is absolutely devastating. It captures the zeitgeist of that time in America with chilling accuracy and searing tragedy. Ragged Glory w/CH is pure unapologetic boisterous heavy rock and you get the vibe that they boys are having fun. Not a weak sister on this album. I really dig the opening track Country Home; it sets the tone for the entire album. Harvest Moon as a whole feels nothing short of a lover’s gift to the world from Neil. The title track is as gorgeous a love song as he has ever written and performed. There’s comfort to be found in these tracks. For me the album is soothing in a way difficult to verbalize; it’s about the feelings the album as a whole invoke in me.
If you haven’t listened to Harvest Moon get thee to a nunnery and listen in an undisturbed environment.
Great comment and totally agree about the Freedom>Ragged Glory>Harvest Moon run. Unplugged, Silver & Gold, Mirror Ball and Broken Arrow are from that era, too. He had a very strong 90s.
For three album runs I'm probably more partial to Time Fades Away>On The Beach>Tonight's the Night. On The Beach might be my favorite album of them all, but that decision is way too mood dependent. Then again, I own the entire Geffen era in original vinyl bought when I was a kid, so I'm probably not the most objective Neil fan.
I do like me some Neil. Maybe not as much as Mitch….but he’s still one of the artists I enjoy listening toward on a regular basis (both with and without Crazy Horse).
Little know fact, but the ringtone on my phone for as long as you were able to buy and download ringtones from the iTunes Store has been Everyone Knows This is Nowhere (n.b. Nobody actually knows this fact because my phone is perpetually on silent).
One of my great accomplishments in life is getting my wife to change her mind about Neil. I once dragged her to a Neil Young concert at the Felt Forum/Theatre at MSG. The only thing she liked about the experience was watching some crazy old hippie dancing in the aisle - it cracked her up and to this day we still remember how he was in Mitch’s zone. Other than that she was miserable- hated the show and hated the experience. However over the years she’s come around. When a Neil song comes on the radio, there is no longer a visceral reaction to change the channel - in some cases she even sings along. What can I say - mission accomplished.
Music wise, I know the stuff that everyone knows - I don’t claim to be a student of his catalog, and to be honest had never heard of Psychedelic Pill before seeing it come into the rotation this week. Sorry - but this one just doesn’t do it for more. I was bored and found myself skipping through tedious and repetitive songs.
Driftin’ Back? Try Driftin’ Off.
If you’re going to nominate a Neil Young album to be in the EONS hall of fame - there has to be at least a dozen (or two) other albums you could have picked.
Sorry boys - this one doesn’t do it for me.
Well, you don't really need us to tell you that Rust Never Sleeps is a great album - we're trying to dig up the lesser known and more recent classics. Ragged Glory is another glorious Crazy Horse album that you might like better than PP. I'm a Greendale defender - Bandit is a fantastic song - but the movie and tour soured people on that album. Of course, last year's archival release Way Down in the Rust Bucket is a fantastic live album from the Ragged Glory era. Of the 50 or so Neil albums I'd still put PP in the top 20%.