Your top 5 are my top 5. Tonight's the Night took me a few listens to really appreciate and for some reason, Borrowed Tune always moves me deeply, Those lyrics can move me to tears.
@@lostmixtapes the ordre tends to vary with mood or recency bias. The only time I saw Neil was at the 2012 ACL Fest here in Austin. He and the Horse were pushing Psychedelic Pill so I have a fondness for that record that connects to the memory, but iI admit t wouldn't be top 5.
On The Beach is what I go to when just one album is a distillation of stellar beauty. But those seagulls are still out of reach. Immersive and transcendant.
Todd, congratulations on the completing your list, I loved every episode of this and will for sure go back and revisit as I try and put all the sometimes complex Neil Young puzzle pieces together. Not surprisingly our lists would be pretty similar, especially as it gets near the top but found the lower and middle stuff quite fascinating. I appreciated the listening time you put into this, especially with the lower-numbered selections which reminds me, no matter how I may feel about certain albums, there's bound to be gems hidden almost anywhere and you took the time to focus on the songs themselves and be open-minded, and open-eared. Also, like with other music and our age difference, it's always interesting to hear you, and other people talk about the gateway albums of getting into artists at an earlier stage of life because that varies so much with age. And, wow, I saw your review of his recent show and think it's so exciting and such incredible kismet that you finished the last video hours before you got to see one of his West Coast shows. I do want to listen to your review again and think about the setlist too, what all he drew from, and I sure hope I can see him live again, as well as that other guy, Bob Dylan. Albums I've dug into and listed heavily to since seeing your series are American Stars and Bars, Sleeps With Angels, Toast and Barn which I loved when it came out but had tapered off with listening to. Not to mention hitting the NYA file cabinet for a deep-dive to connect the dots and discover the timeline of those discarded albums that may have been too personal for the time, songs that existed in earlier forms years before and to also discover that Dr. John played piano on Burned. Congrats again, very cool!
Thanks Joe! Always love talking Neil with you and glad you enjoyed this. There’s just such a wealth of material. I have a new appreciation for Sleeps With Angels and loved hearing those songs live. He’s a treasure. Hope you get to see him again soon.
Really enjoyed this whole series and very much appreciate the time that you put into it. It’s inspired me to dig out all my Neil records and re-listen all over again. I also love that I need to check out Homegrown and give Time Fades Away a proper listen so thanks for further recommendations. Amazing work….look forward to more of this stuff.
Thanks so much for watching. Love that it got you listening to more Neil. The new/old Chrome Dreams is definitely worth checking out as well, although not as revelatory as Homegrown. But it sure would have been something at the time.
On The Beach is his best album artistically, but my own personal favourite is Zuma. 1 Zuma 2 On the Beach 3 After the Goldrush 4 Tonight’s the Night 5 Rust Never Sleeps 6 Everybody Knows this Is Nowhere 7 Harvest 8 Comes a Time 9 American Stars’N’ Bars 10 Chrome Dreams 11 Sleeps with Angels 12 Ragged Glory 13 Hitchhiker 14 Homegrown 15 Freedom 16 Time Fades Away 17 Re-ac-tor 18 Hawks and Doves 19 Neil Young 20 Harvest Moon 21 Chrome Dreams II 22 Psychedelic Pill 23 Broken Arrow 24 Mirror Ball 25 Toast 26 Silver and Gold 27 Prairie Wind 28 Peace Trail 29 Old Ways 30 Life 31 Trans 32 Everybody’s Rockin’ 33 World Record 34 Colorado 35 Barn 36 Greendale 37 Fork in the Road 38 Landing on Water 39 Le Noise 40 A Letter Home 41 Americana 42 This Note’s for You 43 The Visitor 44 The Monsanto Years 45 Are You Passionate? 46 living with War 47 Storytone
Great video and series. Good on you for tackling a real mother of a topic: Ranking Neil’s discography, not just his top 10. You are a better man than I. 😎 Curious whether you would rank American Stars’n’Bars as a top 10 if it didn’t have Like A Hurricane. I suppose it’s an unfair question but for me it ranks as an “average” Neil record with a career-defining song, even for someone with as many great tunes as Neil. Btw, when I saw Alejandro Escovedo last summer here in Vancouver he covered Hurricane with an intro to the effect that it’s Canada’s national anthem. I’m ok with that! Harvest- agree that as an opening track, Out on The Weekend really puts you in a good space. Rust Never Sleeps- I remember loving that record so much when it came out. I was home from university for the summer and I’d put the speakers out on the deck and really crank the volume, especially on the acoustic side. It wasn’t just that I wanted it loud, I also wanted my neighbours to hear it; hoping they’d get turned on to the record. This is Radio Fitz… Zuma- Oh, Danger Bird! The best!! On The Beach- That’s my #1 as well. The one I play the most. Existential. Direct. Spatial beauty. Introspective. And feels as personal and vulnerable as you can get. “There ain’t nothing like a friend, telling you you’re just pissing in the wind”. Btw, there is a very, very interesting episode (CR013) of a podcast (Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music) called Rusty & Doug Kershaw: The Cajun Way with some fantastic background on the making of On The Beach. The Neil Young part starts at the 1 hour and 5 minute mark. Rusty plays the fiddle on Ambulance Blues. How was the show? Hope it was great and that you do a review.
Thanks so much for sticking with it. If Like A Hurricane wasn't on American Stars and Bars it wouldn't have cracked my top ten. I think the only reason it was in there was because I paired it with Homegrown. Otherwise I think I would have placed it around 15 or so. That first side doesn't do much for me. But Will To Live and Hurricane are so good. Alejandro doing Hurricane would be very cool. Love your Rust Never Sleeps story. I'm going to check out that podcast. Any kind of background info on the record would be of interest to me. The show was really good. Like being in the company of an old friend. It had some nice surprises. Not the man on a stool playing acoustic guitar kind of thing you might think it would be. Highlights for me were when he played electric and even slapped on Old Black. Vampire Blues was part of that. Plus Ohio. Great to hear songs from Sleeps With Angels and Mirrorball too. I'll try to do a review this week.
I also have made a Neil Young list of his albums starting from 47-1. I have been working on my list for the past 3 years and adding to this list as Neil brings out more albums. I am also a big fan of Neil and love how other people see his albums in differnt ways. That is what is so good about Neil Young. When you get to his top 10 to 20 albums is when you really see all very similar list but in differnt order. I love after all the differences in the list we come up with the same top 2! My top 10: 10. Rust Never Sleeps, 9. Freedom, 8. Sleeps with Angles , 7. Ragged Glory, 6. Zuma, 5. After the Gold Rush, 4. Everyone Knows this is Nowhere, 3. Harvest, 2. Tonight’s the Night, 1. On the Beach
My top three in any order are Freedom, Harvest Moon and Ragged Glory. Rest of the top 10 in any order: Comes a Time, Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush, Tonight's the Night, Zuma, On the Beach and Prairie Wind. Honorable mention: Harvest, Rust Never Sleeps and Homegrown.
Fantastic work, really enjoyed this series. Was heavily into Neil during the 90s but only listened to him occasionally over the last 20 years or so. Now revisiting my Neil collection and wandering why I left it so long. 🤦
@@lostmixtapes Isn't it just! Even if you've got all the studio albums you're only scratching the surface with all the archive material. Going to be quite a journey.
Such a great, prolific artist but he's done the "rankers" a great favor by allowing us to exclude from consideration the back half of his career, post-Mirrorball onwards, from consideration. After The Goldrush will always be #1 because of that niche in time for the emergence of the singer/songwriter, the unequalled brilliance of the work and the massive impact it had on the culture to which it was aimed and embraced. Like the second coming of Highway 61 Revisited. On The Beach was a massive artistic achievement, too, as well as the first solo album, then Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, the bookends flanking Buffalo Springfield Neil and Crazy Horse Neil. Delusional people go into raptures about the transition Beatle Paul made, going from Beatles to solo, but to consider that same journey taken by Young, then comparing the quality of the artistic output of both, is to render the ex-Beatle a barely tolerable source of musical entertainment.
as soon as you picked up time fades away i thought " i love that cover" then you said the same and it felt nice to hear that someone shares the same opinion. also i heard you mention you were going to the neil concert-i saw him two nights ago and it was excellent. his passion is still as strong as ever. it was like spending a nice evening with an old friend.
I had a moment when seeing him with POTR in 2015 where I felt like I was in a modern recreation of that picture. Up super close with a super friendly crowd all sharing in the excitement of being there. The show here on Thursday night did not disappoint. Agree…it was like seeing an old friend. Really special.
I first saw Neil Young in 1972 Like most 60's Musicians he had pretty much lost my attention by the early 80's American Stars 'n' Bars & Zuma would probably be the only albums i would listen to today.
That was a tremendous 5 part review of Neil's discography! To be honest, I would probably nudge Tonight's The Night to the top, but that's probably because it's the first album of his that I ever bought on vinyl.
Great series. I learned a lot - including the fact I only know about 1/3 of Neil's output. I must have missed one video because I didn't see where you placed the Freedom album.
Well that was an unexpected surprise at #1. But as that album wasn't showing up in the previous videos, thru deductive reasoning, I figured by the time "Tonite's the Night" came around, I realised...what else is left but "On The Beach." You make a good point about discovering some of these albums much later in life, and the issue with some of them being shelved and released later...this can get confusing, and as you stated, the un-availability (for you) of "On The Beach" could have possibly made it more attractive to you. I bought several of these in real time, as they came out, and have quite different opinions on some, like "Time Fades Away (a drag for me) AND "On The Beach" (less of a drag) There was a feeling of "miasma" as Jimmy Carter called it at the time, and these records were somewhat depressing for me. But then the opposite thing happened with "Tonights the Night." I had avoided it for years...I mean, just look at the cover! "More doom and gloom" I thought. But then I bought the CD, I think after reading the story behind it in the book, "Shakey." What a gem of an album! Definitely shot up to inside the top ten list of my favorite Neil albums. 😎 😻✌
I've got the same as my top. The neighbors next to the home I grew up in had that same yellow patio set (even through the '90s, after I had left my parents home) which was prominently visible from my bedroom window and our backyard. They were incredibly kind, lovely people. I sometimes wonder if that's why I'm drawn to that album. 2. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere 3. Harvest Moon 4. Rust Never Sleeps 5. Goldrush Nice job, this type of ranking would have broken my brain.
Wow...I love that your neighbors had the same patio set!! How cool is that? Love your list. I'm always happy to see Harvest Moon ranked high too. Such a good record.
Okay… posting my Top 10 before I watch the video. Also, might not be able to watch it right now, so will return with my comment. My favorites: 1. Tonight’s the Night 2. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere 3. On the Beach 4. After the Gold Rush 5. Rust Never Sleeps 6. Harvest Moon 7. Ragged Glory 8. Harvest (“A Man Needs a Maid” has always annoyed the living hell out of me. Drags it all the way down to #8. 😂) 9. Zuma 10. Time Fades Away (went back and forth on this - strongly considered Sleeps with Angels but had to be real with myself that those songs just don’t stick with me the same) Looking forward to seeing where we line up (if at all!).
@@lostmixtapes Hell yeah! We were really close. Though, I would say that most people have 7 of the same top 10 Neil records. Especially now that On the Beach has seemed to grow an audience over the last 20 years. Harvest was my Neil “training wheels.” My parents didn’t have a ton of classic rock records, and Harvest was the one Neil Young album they had. So when I saw Pearl Jam perform “Keep on Rocking in the Free World” with Neil on MTV, I dusted off their turntable and put Harvest on. “The Needle and the Damage Done” resonated for a young teen who was obsessed with Seattle bands. Topically, at least. I’m pleased to see Harvest down around 7. So many people still rate that one so high, and I just feel like there are too many other albums of his that are better. Hell, I might even drop it out of my Top 10 the more I think about it. So happy to see Tonight’s the Night in the Top 2. I’m a sad bastard, so it’s the obvious #1 for me. In my experience, people either love that album or could just do without it. “Danger Bird!” All the hell’s yes. That song and “Cortez the Killer” alone put Zuma in my Top 10. Really well done series, Todd. You also made it difficult to cheat and look ahead because you don’t hold the albums up that long. Lol Enjoyed this. You’re going to feel exhausted with videos after this. Cheers! - Jon
It’s funny, the Harvest songs are usually the last ones I’d like to hear him do live, at least post-Massey Hall and that whole time period, but he played Heart Of Gold the other night when I saw him and it sounded amazing. I guess I’m a sad bastard too. I like a real emotional element in music and the doom albums certainly have that in spades. Thanks so much for sharing your list and checking this whole thing out. I hadn’t thought about how I made them hard to skip ahead by not showing the albums for long. Ha. I hope you at least watched them at high speeds. :)
This is an excellent series you've got here, your rankings are superb, I must say your top 3 you've nailed perfect! I must ask, as you went to Neil's show and obviously he was performing a bunch of rarities, what was your favourite track from the concert?
Thanks! I appreciate that. I'd say two songs were the highlights for me. I knew there was a good chance he was going to play Vampire Blues, but when he played it on electric it totally made my night. Just assumed it would be acoustic. The other highlight was "A Dream That Can Last" from Sleeps With Angels. Just gorgeous on the piano. Oh...and Ohio on Old Black too. :) I have a full review I'm posting tomorrow.
@@lostmixtapes No problem! Gee that sounds so bloody awesome! Vampire Blues what an underrated track, I mean also A Dream That can Last, just all superb tracks. Look forward to the review!👌
Here’s the full ranking (just my opinions!!) 1. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere 2. Harvest 3. After the Gold Rush 4. Zuma 5. Rust Never Sleeps 6. Harvest Moon 7. Ragged Glory 8. Prairie Wind 9. Comes a Time 10. Neil Young 11. On the Beach 12. Mirror Ball 13. Re-ac-tor 14. Chrome Dreams II 15. Sleeps With Angels 16. Freedom 17. Homegrown 18. Landing On Water 19. Tonight’s the Night 20. American Stars ‘n’ Bars 21. Hitchhiker 22. Storytone 23. Hawks & Doves 24. Psychedelic Pill 25. Old Ways 26. This Note’s For You 27. Toast 28. Long May You Run 29. A Letter Home 30. Barn 31. Are You Passionate? 32. Life 33. Trans 34. The Visitor 35. Le Noise 36. Silver & Gold 37. Peace Trail 38. Colorado 39. Americana 40. Broken Arrow 41. World Record 42. The Monsanto Years 43. Fork in the Road 44. Living With War 45. Everybody’s Rockin’ 46. Greendale I’m sorry Lost Mixtapes if I have landing on water higher than tonight’s the night, but it’s the uniqueness to it that i just love.
Cool to see Prairie Wind so high up. I have new found appreciation for Landing On Water after doing this, but wow, that is a little shocking. Love that even the more obscure or written off albums have people championing them. A true artist with so much to discover and rediscover. Thanks for sharing your list!
For all its darkness, Tonight's the Night has three of the happiest songs Neil has ever written-- Speakin' Out, Mellow My Mind, and New Mama. For me it's #1 just in front of On the Beach, simply because of its intensity and inescapable-ness or something. I've watched a few Neil album ranking videos, and this is the closest to what mine would be (I'm late 50s, been a fan since I was 5!). I didn't shout at the screen at any time in it, like I usually find myself doing. Glad to see Time Fades Away so high.
I agree with On The Beach. I discovered it in 1998 and doled out $74 to someone in Germany for a vinyl transferred to a CD on eBay. I don't regret it to this day. Honestly, they did a very nice job with the artwork too! 😂
Hi, Chris again. Well you got it right, they are the top two. I don't think it's the unavailability, I've had them, and Times Fades Away, since they came out and they've always been my top three before I 'd even heard of the ditch trilogy. But....remember.... there ain't nothing like a friend who can tell you you're just pissing in the wind.
Love that quote! You just can’t beat the vibe of those records. I don’t think my Neil love would be nearly as strong without them. Thanks so much for checking them all out.
@@lostmixtapes Great show! Very eclectic, both the set list and the performance of it. Haven’t seen him since Greendale with Crazy Horse in ‘03, and I wasn’t sure I’d get to see him again.
Every album by Neil is good or great until 1980. I am not enamored with the album Tonights the Night because of 5 songs I just don't like on this record. Mellow My Mind /Roll Another Number (For the Road)/ Albuquerque / "New Mama" "Lookout Joe" . And Don't be Denied is a great song.
I don’t like Harvest Moon at all. I see it as like..Neil’s adult contemporary album, and it really sounds like too. I hate the way it sounds, and it’s almost sterile in how clean it. It’s corny and wishy-washy and lame.
Interesting. I know some people share your opinion. I thought it may not have aged well and hadn’t listened to it for years. Then I played it again and loved it. Wish he’d do another record like it actually, of that kind of quality and attention to detail.
Time Fades Away is my favourite followed by Zuma, Goldrush, Tonight's The Night, Harvest, Everybody Knows.
@@shaynewest8757 A one of a kind record. Love that one.
Here we go!!!
Your top 5 are my top 5. Tonight's the Night took me a few listens to really appreciate and for some reason, Borrowed Tune always moves me deeply, Those lyrics can move me to tears.
Love that one as well. Powerful song. Is your top 5 in the same order?
@@lostmixtapes the ordre tends to vary with mood or recency bias. The only time I saw Neil was at the 2012 ACL Fest here in Austin. He and the Horse were pushing Psychedelic Pill so I have a fondness for that record that connects to the memory, but iI admit t wouldn't be top 5.
On the beach is my favorite too!
On The Beach and Tonight's the Night switches back and forwards from 1 & 2 for me. Good choices!
On The Beach is what I go to when just one album is a distillation of stellar beauty.
But those seagulls are still out of reach.
Immersive and transcendant.
Great way to describe it.
Todd, congratulations on the completing your list, I loved every episode of this and will for sure go back and revisit as I try and put all the sometimes complex Neil Young puzzle pieces together. Not surprisingly our lists would be pretty similar, especially as it gets near the top but found the lower and middle stuff quite fascinating. I appreciated the listening time you put into this, especially with the lower-numbered selections which reminds me, no matter how I may feel about certain albums, there's bound to be gems hidden almost anywhere and you took the time to focus on the songs themselves and be open-minded, and open-eared. Also, like with other music and our age difference, it's always interesting to hear you, and other people talk about the gateway albums of getting into artists at an earlier stage of life because that varies so much with age. And, wow, I saw your review of his recent show and think it's so exciting and such incredible kismet that you finished the last video hours before you got to see one of his West Coast shows. I do want to listen to your review again and think about the setlist too, what all he drew from, and I sure hope I can see him live again, as well as that other guy, Bob Dylan. Albums I've dug into and listed heavily to since seeing your series are American Stars and Bars, Sleeps With Angels, Toast and Barn which I loved when it came out but had tapered off with listening to. Not to mention hitting the NYA file cabinet for a deep-dive to connect the dots and discover the timeline of those discarded albums that may have been too personal for the time, songs that existed in earlier forms years before and to also discover that Dr. John played piano on Burned. Congrats again, very cool!
Thanks Joe! Always love talking Neil with you and glad you enjoyed this. There’s just such a wealth of material. I have a new appreciation for Sleeps With Angels and loved hearing those songs live. He’s a treasure. Hope you get to see him again soon.
Really enjoyed this whole series and very much appreciate the time that you put into it. It’s inspired me to dig out all my Neil records and re-listen all over again. I also love that I need to check out Homegrown and give Time Fades Away a proper listen so thanks for further recommendations. Amazing work….look forward to more of this stuff.
Thanks so much for watching. Love that it got you listening to more Neil. The new/old Chrome Dreams is definitely worth checking out as well, although not as revelatory as Homegrown. But it sure would have been something at the time.
On The Beach is his best album artistically, but my own personal favourite is Zuma.
1 Zuma
2 On the Beach
3 After the Goldrush
4 Tonight’s the Night
5 Rust Never Sleeps
6 Everybody Knows this Is Nowhere
7 Harvest
8 Comes a Time
9 American Stars’N’ Bars
10 Chrome Dreams
11 Sleeps with Angels
12 Ragged Glory
13 Hitchhiker
14 Homegrown
15 Freedom
16 Time Fades Away
17 Re-ac-tor
18 Hawks and Doves
19 Neil Young
20 Harvest Moon
21 Chrome Dreams II
22 Psychedelic Pill
23 Broken Arrow
24 Mirror Ball
25 Toast
26 Silver and Gold
27 Prairie Wind
28 Peace Trail
29 Old Ways
30 Life
31 Trans
32 Everybody’s Rockin’
33 World Record
34 Colorado
35 Barn
36 Greendale
37 Fork in the Road
38 Landing on Water
39 Le Noise
40 A Letter Home
41 Americana
42 This Note’s for You
43 The Visitor
44 The Monsanto Years
45 Are You Passionate?
46 living with War
47 Storytone
Great video and series. Good on you for tackling a real mother of a topic: Ranking Neil’s discography, not just his top 10. You are a better man than I. 😎
Curious whether you would rank American Stars’n’Bars as a top 10 if it didn’t have Like A Hurricane. I suppose it’s an unfair question but for me it ranks as an “average” Neil record with a career-defining song, even for someone with as many great tunes as Neil. Btw, when I saw Alejandro Escovedo last summer here in Vancouver he covered Hurricane with an intro to the effect that it’s Canada’s national anthem. I’m ok with that!
Harvest- agree that as an opening track, Out on The Weekend really puts you in a good space.
Rust Never Sleeps- I remember loving that record so much when it came out. I was home from university for the summer and I’d put the speakers out on the deck and really crank the volume, especially on the acoustic side. It wasn’t just that I wanted it loud, I also wanted my neighbours to hear it; hoping they’d get turned on to the record. This is Radio Fitz…
Zuma- Oh, Danger Bird! The best!!
On The Beach- That’s my #1 as well. The one I play the most. Existential. Direct. Spatial beauty. Introspective. And feels as personal and vulnerable as you can get. “There ain’t nothing like a friend, telling you you’re just pissing in the wind”.
Btw, there is a very, very interesting episode (CR013) of a podcast (Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music) called Rusty & Doug Kershaw: The Cajun Way with some fantastic background on the making of On The Beach. The Neil Young part starts at the 1 hour and 5 minute mark. Rusty plays the fiddle on Ambulance Blues.
How was the show? Hope it was great and that you do a review.
Thanks so much for sticking with it. If Like A Hurricane wasn't on American Stars and Bars it wouldn't have cracked my top ten. I think the only reason it was in there was because I paired it with Homegrown. Otherwise I think I would have placed it around 15 or so. That first side doesn't do much for me. But Will To Live and Hurricane are so good. Alejandro doing Hurricane would be very cool.
Love your Rust Never Sleeps story.
I'm going to check out that podcast. Any kind of background info on the record would be of interest to me.
The show was really good. Like being in the company of an old friend. It had some nice surprises. Not the man on a stool playing acoustic guitar kind of thing you might think it would be. Highlights for me were when he played electric and even slapped on Old Black. Vampire Blues was part of that. Plus Ohio. Great to hear songs from Sleeps With Angels and Mirrorball too. I'll try to do a review this week.
I also have made a Neil Young list of his albums starting from 47-1. I have been working on my list for the past 3 years and adding to this list as Neil brings out more albums. I am also a big fan of Neil and love how other people see his albums in differnt ways. That is what is so good about Neil Young. When you get to his top 10 to 20 albums is when you really see all very similar list but in differnt order. I love after all the differences in the list we come up with the same top 2! My top 10: 10. Rust Never Sleeps, 9. Freedom, 8. Sleeps with Angles , 7. Ragged Glory, 6. Zuma, 5. After the Gold Rush, 4. Everyone Knows this is Nowhere, 3. Harvest, 2. Tonight’s the Night, 1. On the Beach
Hard to argue with that top ten. Especially #1 and 2.
My top three in any order are Freedom, Harvest Moon and Ragged Glory. Rest of the top 10 in any order: Comes a Time, Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush, Tonight's the Night, Zuma, On the Beach and Prairie Wind. Honorable mention: Harvest, Rust Never Sleeps and Homegrown.
That run of records is great. What a comeback.
Fantastic work, really enjoyed this series. Was heavily into Neil during the 90s but only listened to him occasionally over the last 20 years or so. Now revisiting my Neil collection and wandering why I left it so long. 🤦
Thanks! It’s a great time to get back into Neil. So many new/old releases.
@@lostmixtapes Isn't it just! Even if you've got all the studio albums you're only scratching the surface with all the archive material. Going to be quite a journey.
Such a great, prolific artist but he's done the "rankers" a great favor by allowing us to exclude from consideration the back half of his career, post-Mirrorball onwards, from consideration. After The Goldrush will always be #1 because of that niche in time for the emergence of the singer/songwriter, the unequalled brilliance of the work and the massive impact it had on the culture to which it was aimed and embraced. Like the second coming of Highway 61 Revisited. On The Beach was a massive artistic achievement, too, as well as the first solo album, then Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, the bookends flanking Buffalo Springfield Neil and Crazy Horse Neil.
Delusional people go into raptures about the transition Beatle Paul made, going from Beatles to solo, but to consider that same journey taken by Young, then comparing the quality of the artistic output of both, is to render the ex-Beatle a barely tolerable source of musical entertainment.
as soon as you picked up time fades away i thought " i love that cover" then you said the same and it felt nice to hear that someone shares the same opinion. also i heard you mention you were going to the neil concert-i saw him two nights ago and it was excellent. his passion is still as strong as ever. it was like spending a nice evening with an old friend.
I had a moment when seeing him with POTR in 2015 where I felt like I was in a modern recreation of that picture. Up super close with a super friendly crowd all sharing in the excitement of being there. The show here on Thursday night did not disappoint. Agree…it was like seeing an old friend. Really special.
I first saw Neil Young in 1972
Like most 60's Musicians he had pretty much lost my attention by the early 80's
American Stars 'n' Bars & Zuma would probably be the only albums i would listen to today.
That was a tremendous 5 part review of Neil's discography!
To be honest, I would probably nudge Tonight's The Night to the top, but that's probably because it's the first album of his that I ever bought on vinyl.
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it. Depending on the day Tonight’s The Night could easily slide into my number one spot.
@@lostmixtapes I look forward to seeing more of your videos ✌🏼
my top 3, in that order!!
Thanks for checking it out.
Great series. I learned a lot - including the fact I only know about 1/3 of Neil's output. I must have missed one video because I didn't see where you placed the Freedom album.
Thanks! So much there. Really looking forward to the 90s albums coming out on vinyl. Freedom was #12 for me.
I agree with you about top 3. And will have to spin Zuma today.
Sounds so good cranked up on a summer day.
Well that was an unexpected surprise at #1. But as that album wasn't showing up in the previous videos, thru deductive reasoning, I figured by the time "Tonite's the Night" came around, I realised...what else is left but "On The Beach."
You make a good point about discovering some of these albums much later in life, and the issue with some of them being shelved and released later...this can get confusing, and as you stated, the un-availability (for you) of "On The Beach" could have possibly made it more attractive to you.
I bought several of these in real time, as they came out, and have quite different opinions on some, like "Time Fades Away (a drag for me) AND "On The Beach" (less of a drag) There was a feeling of "miasma" as Jimmy Carter called it at the time, and these records were somewhat depressing for me.
But then the opposite thing happened with "Tonights the Night." I had avoided it for years...I mean, just look at the cover! "More doom and gloom" I thought. But then I bought the CD, I think after reading the story behind it in the book, "Shakey." What a gem of an album! Definitely shot up to inside the top ten list of my favorite Neil albums. 😎 😻✌
I've got the same as my top. The neighbors next to the home I grew up in had that same yellow patio set (even through the '90s, after I had left my parents home) which was prominently visible from my bedroom window and our backyard. They were incredibly kind, lovely people. I sometimes wonder if that's why I'm drawn to that album.
2. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
3. Harvest Moon
4. Rust Never Sleeps
5. Goldrush
Nice job, this type of ranking would have broken my brain.
Wow...I love that your neighbors had the same patio set!! How cool is that? Love your list. I'm always happy to see Harvest Moon ranked high too. Such a good record.
Okay… posting my Top 10 before I watch the video. Also, might not be able to watch it right now, so will return with my comment.
My favorites:
1. Tonight’s the Night
2. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
3. On the Beach
4. After the Gold Rush
5. Rust Never Sleeps
6. Harvest Moon
7. Ragged Glory
8. Harvest (“A Man Needs a Maid” has always annoyed the living hell out of me. Drags it all the way down to #8. 😂)
9. Zuma
10. Time Fades Away (went back and forth on this - strongly considered Sleeps with Angels but had to be real with myself that those songs just don’t stick with me the same)
Looking forward to seeing where we line up (if at all!).
Very close…
@@lostmixtapes Hell yeah! We were really close. Though, I would say that most people have 7 of the same top 10 Neil records. Especially now that On the Beach has seemed to grow an audience over the last 20 years. Harvest was my Neil “training wheels.” My parents didn’t have a ton of classic rock records, and Harvest was the one Neil Young album they had. So when I saw Pearl Jam perform “Keep on Rocking in the Free World” with Neil on MTV, I dusted off their turntable and put Harvest on. “The Needle and the Damage Done” resonated for a young teen who was obsessed with Seattle bands. Topically, at least. I’m pleased to see Harvest down around 7. So many people still rate that one so high, and I just feel like there are too many other albums of his that are better. Hell, I might even drop it out of my Top 10 the more I think about it.
So happy to see Tonight’s the Night in the Top 2. I’m a sad bastard, so it’s the obvious #1 for me. In my experience, people either love that album or could just do without it.
“Danger Bird!” All the hell’s yes. That song and “Cortez the Killer” alone put Zuma in my Top 10.
Really well done series, Todd. You also made it difficult to cheat and look ahead because you don’t hold the albums up that long. Lol
Enjoyed this. You’re going to feel exhausted with videos after this. Cheers! - Jon
It’s funny, the Harvest songs are usually the last ones I’d like to hear him do live, at least post-Massey Hall and that whole time period, but he played Heart Of Gold the other night when I saw him and it sounded amazing.
I guess I’m a sad bastard too. I like a real emotional element in music and the doom albums certainly have that in spades.
Thanks so much for sharing your list and checking this whole thing out. I hadn’t thought about how I made them hard to skip ahead by not showing the albums for long. Ha. I hope you at least watched them at high speeds. :)
This is an excellent series you've got here, your rankings are superb, I must say your top 3 you've nailed perfect! I must ask, as you went to Neil's show and obviously he was performing a bunch of rarities, what was your favourite track from the concert?
Thanks! I appreciate that. I'd say two songs were the highlights for me. I knew there was a good chance he was going to play Vampire Blues, but when he played it on electric it totally made my night. Just assumed it would be acoustic. The other highlight was "A Dream That Can Last" from Sleeps With Angels. Just gorgeous on the piano. Oh...and Ohio on Old Black too. :)
I have a full review I'm posting tomorrow.
@@lostmixtapes No problem! Gee that sounds so bloody awesome! Vampire
Blues what an underrated track, I mean also A Dream That can Last, just all superb tracks. Look forward to the review!👌
One of the very few, but the more i listen the better he gets.
Here’s the full ranking (just my opinions!!)
1. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
2. Harvest
3. After the Gold Rush
4. Zuma
5. Rust Never Sleeps
6. Harvest Moon
7. Ragged Glory
8. Prairie Wind
9. Comes a Time
10. Neil Young
11. On the Beach
12. Mirror Ball
13. Re-ac-tor
14. Chrome Dreams II
15. Sleeps With Angels
16. Freedom
17. Homegrown
18. Landing On Water
19. Tonight’s the Night
20. American Stars ‘n’ Bars
21. Hitchhiker
22. Storytone
23. Hawks & Doves
24. Psychedelic Pill
25. Old Ways
26. This Note’s For You
27. Toast
28. Long May You Run
29. A Letter Home
30. Barn
31. Are You Passionate?
32. Life
33. Trans
34. The Visitor
35. Le Noise
36. Silver & Gold
37. Peace Trail
38. Colorado
39. Americana
40. Broken Arrow
41. World Record
42. The Monsanto Years
43. Fork in the Road
44. Living With War
45. Everybody’s Rockin’
46. Greendale
I’m sorry Lost Mixtapes if I have landing on water higher than tonight’s the night, but it’s the uniqueness to it that i just love.
Cool to see Prairie Wind so high up. I have new found appreciation for Landing On Water after doing this, but wow, that is a little shocking. Love that even the more obscure or written off albums have people championing them. A true artist with so much to discover and rediscover. Thanks for sharing your list!
My top 2 albums same as yours, I would have Ragged Glory as 3, actually, my top 3 could be interchangeable.
Tonight's the Night got me through the roughest time, man. I was raw, stripped bare, and Neil was too.
For all its darkness, Tonight's the Night has three of the happiest songs Neil has ever written-- Speakin' Out, Mellow My Mind, and New Mama. For me it's #1 just in front of On the Beach, simply because of its intensity and inescapable-ness or something.
I've watched a few Neil album ranking videos, and this is the closest to what mine would be (I'm late 50s, been a fan since I was 5!). I didn't shout at the screen at any time in it, like I usually find myself doing. Glad to see Time Fades Away so high.
I agree with On The Beach. I discovered it in 1998 and doled out $74 to someone in Germany for a vinyl transferred to a CD on eBay. I don't regret it to this day. Honestly, they did a very nice job with the artwork too! 😂
We listen and like a different Neil young-even tho they’re same songs
Old enough to be your father, but your top two are also mine. I’m surprised a lot of people my age haven’t even heard On The Beach.
Ambulance Blues!
Hi, Chris again. Well you got it right, they are the top two. I don't think it's the unavailability, I've had them, and Times Fades Away, since they came out and they've always been my top three before I 'd even heard of the ditch trilogy. But....remember.... there ain't nothing like a friend who can tell you you're just pissing in the wind.
Love that quote! You just can’t beat the vibe of those records. I don’t think my Neil love would be nearly as strong without them. Thanks so much for checking them all out.
Did you see him at White River Amphitheater on Thursday? I went to that show!
I did. Loved it. What did you think?
@@lostmixtapes Great show! Very eclectic, both the set list and the performance of it. Haven’t seen him since Greendale with Crazy Horse in ‘03, and I wasn’t sure I’d get to see him again.
tonights the night forever
Got Rock and Roll. Got Country music playin. If you hate us you just don't know what you're sayin.
Every album by Neil is good or great until 1980. I am not enamored with the album Tonights the Night because of 5 songs I just don't like on this record. Mellow My Mind /Roll Another Number (For the Road)/ Albuquerque / "New Mama" "Lookout Joe" . And Don't be Denied is a great song.
Yeah, that would make it a little difficult. The Roxy version cuts one of them for you.
I don’t like Harvest Moon at all. I see it as like..Neil’s adult contemporary album, and it really sounds like too. I hate the way it sounds, and it’s almost sterile in how clean it. It’s corny and wishy-washy and lame.
Interesting. I know some people share your opinion. I thought it may not have aged well and hadn’t listened to it for years. Then I played it again and loved it. Wish he’d do another record like it actually, of that kind of quality and attention to detail.
Harvest Moon is fantastic. Oh, well.