vedderstapp

I've always been a fan of Neil Young, albeit passively, and finally got around to just blind buying Deja Vu and Harvest - and loved them both.

Just wondering if any forum members can help me out with where to go next? Either with these two, or with some other bands? I've always been a fan of melodic country/alt rock...

All help is appreciated. Thanks!

wendersfan

CSN/CSNY is pretty easy since they didn't record a lot of stuff. If you've alreay got Déjà Vu then get the eponymous first album and you're pretty well set. The live Four Way Street is also very good.

Neil Young is more problematic, since he tends to work in a variety of styles and genres. Harvest is the most acoustic, 'country-rock' release of his classic era ('69-'79.)

IMNSHO his best albums are:

After the Gold Rush
Tonight's the Night
On the Beach
Time Fades Away
Zuma
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
Rust Never Sleeps

in roughly that order. Keep in mind that you'll probably never see Time Fades Away on CD. Stylistically these are all over the map, with Zuma probably being the most electric hard rock of the list, and After the Gold Rust being the most singer-songwriter-ish, but these are just approximations. Rust Never Sleeps has an acoustic side and an electric side, but I guess since we now have CDs they aren't sides anymore...

Tonight's the Night, On the Beach, and Time Fades Away are all pretty depressing lyrically, but are monumental works of early-'70s rock. After the Gold Rish is just a masterpiece, plain and simple.

ETA: Maybe you should just get Decade, the wonderful Young compilation that also includes some of his work from Buffalo Springfield, but not the tremendous "Flying On the Ground Is Wrong", sung by Richie Furay.


(Can you tell I'm a big Neil Young fan?)

The Antipodean

Neil's one of my all time faves and he is also hugely eclectic. If you like the mellower stuff, you might like his Harvest Moon semi-sequel to Harvest. Decade is great too like Wendersfan said. I have to admit the CSNY never really appeals to me as much as Neil solo. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is classic early Neil. he starts getting darker and, er, "grungier" with Tonight's The Night I think.

Here's my "top" Neil albums
On The Beach
Freedom
Zuma
Weld (an absolutely amazing live set I think)
Sleeps with Angels (very underrated)
Prairie Wind (great 'late career' mellow album)

And I'm really digging his latest, the grab-bag "Chrome Dreams II".

KYDR_chris

"Deja Vu" is one of the greatest releases in the history of R-n-R. I've owned it in every iteration/format: Vinyl LP, 8-track, cassette, & CD. It has no weak track(s), and is as fine a listen from beginning to end as "Abbey Road", another HUGE favorite of mine.

Brain Stew

Get the first CSN "couch" album, then the 1977 "sailboat" CSN album. If you're really into it, get Daylight Again. It's not that great but there's a couple decent cuts. Also, get Stills I & II, both the Manassas albums, Nash's first two solo albums, the Crosby & Nash albums and Crosby's first solo album.

vedderstapp

Thanks for all your help so far guys... I am taking copious notes

Hiro11

Neil Young's catalog is so huge that it's tough to tell where to start. I guess I'd get the Decade set first as it's uniformly excellent. If you want to go deeper, my favorite Neil Young albums (I'm more of a Crazy Horse fan):

Classics:
1. After the Gold Rush
2. Zuma
3. Everyone Knows this is Nowhere
4. Rust Never Sleeps
5. On the Beach

Late period:
1. Ragged Glory
2. Freedom
3. Sleeps with Angels

Live Sets:
1. Live Rust
2. Unplugged (very underrated, IMO)
3. Massey Hall '71
4. Weld

Deep cuts:
1. Chrome Dreams 2 (recent selection of old and new stuff)
2. American Stars and Bars (the precursor to CD2)
3. Harvest Moon
4. Long May You Run

Best of the Rest:
1. Comes a Time
2. Tonight's the Night (probably his most critically favored album as well, just not a favorite of mine.)