The Smiley Smile Message Board

Anyone enjoying Psychedelic Pill as much as I am? Wonderful stuff, granted the 28 min opening track may test the attention span of some listeners. This is a wonderful album, taking the vision of a NY/CH album to it's limits, I'm so glad they did it while there's still time. I t reminds me of the first 3 tracks from Broken Arrow crossed with This is Nowhere but stretched out in a cosmic groove. This one could be in the cd player for a long time. That's Why God Made the Radio will be revisited once I'm done here.

I'm surprised there's not more being posted about it - Walk like a Giant is on a loop in my car at the moment. A lot of it sounds as good as his early stuff to me. The world needs a bit of Crazy Horse!

I'm enjoying the album quite a bit. "Born in Ontario" and "Twisted Road" are catchy as hell and my favourite tracks are "She's Always Dancing" and "Walk Like a Giant". Honestly I was expecting something more from a 28-minute opener but I think the song as it is is just fine.

Here's hoping Nill 'n' the Hoss will bring the Alchemy tour to the UK (which he hinted at on Twitter recently).

I may be wrong but I'd read the UK tickets go on sale mid-December for March 2013...

EDIT: yep, looks like I am wrong! Unlikely that Twitter hints would be necessary if it were so  ???

Neil is one of my all-time faves but I must admit that I only truly love him when he's with The Horse!

Nothing like a canadian pretending he is cowboy from Texas.

First heard the 28 minute track played in its entirety on Deep Tracks (Sirius/XM) last week. First 5 or 6 minutes was fine, but after that I started day dreaming and almost fell asleep at the wheel. The rest of the album sounds good though - gonna give it another run in a coupla days.  Crazy Horse is a helluva band.  Always was - always will be!

Maybe Neil Young has got you now........singing Long May You, Long May You Run.......

yes born in Ontario and twisted road although not among the major songs on the album are just great rough and ready crazy horse workouts. I'm loving this album more with each listen.

We got cowboys up here too man. The prairies are ranching country

But yeah! Love Neil  :hat

Got tix to see him & the horse on 11/13! Can't wait --- my first show seeing him with the glorious Horse!

Love Neil Young more than words can say. He follows The Beach Boys who follow The Beatles in my list of favourite groups/artists. I encouraged a discussion on Neil Young here a few months ago and then bailed immediately which I have regretted ever since but busy times are busy times...

I would like to hear Pill but I am now currently chronologically filling the gaps in my Neil Young collection and I like to live with an album for a while before getting a new one (though I was compelled to get Le Noise ahead of schedule and was given Americana as a gift about a month ago). So I haven't heard it yet save for the songs I saw Neil do in a youtube concert of his latest tour.

The next album on my agenda is Trans and I'm looking forward to it. That Trans-Old Ways-Everybody's Rockin' triumverate was one of the most ballsy moves by any rock artist ever. That said, I don't know what Geffen was thinking in rejecting Old Ways.

Trans is just incredible. As is Psychedelic Pill.

I have no doubt! OK, maybe I'll pick up Psychedelic Pill soon too...

Do you have particular favourite albums of his, Ian?

Oh my lord, far too many to mention. I am a diehard Neil fan, bought all the records in all the formats, have seen him live many times. It is easier to say the ones I don't love, such as Everybody's Rockin', Old Ways, Landing On Water, This Note's For You, Harvest Moon, Silver And Gold, Are You Passionate, Prairie Wind, etc.
But if I was FORCED to pick 11 favorites (for today, at least), I guess I'll go with:

Rust Never Sleeps
Tonight's The Night
Sleeps With Angels
Zuma
Weld
On The Beach
Ragged Glory
After The Gold Rush
Greendale
Live At Massey Hall
PSYCHEDELIC PILL!

I am into Landing on Water at the Moment. It has it's (glaringly obvious) faults but I just have a liking for it. Trans, I don't go back to as much. Old Ways I really like, Everybody's Rockin I revisit once a year if that. Hawks and Doves is also a favourite of mine. Hell they all tickle my fancy to certain degree!

I like Old Ways too though not nearly as much as some of Neil's other country-tinged albums. Like I said above, I can't understand why Geffen would have rejected it unless they were entirely unfamiliar with Neil's work when they signed him. I agree that Hawks and Doves is a good one - really like Lost in Space, Stayin' Power, Coastline, and Comin' Apart at Every Nail.

Tonight's The Night has been one of my big albums in the last few years. It's painfully incredible.

I noticed, Ian, that you struck off some of Neil's later period soft albums (Harvest Moon, Silver and Gold, and Prairie Wind). I like all of those but I do wonder sometimes if there is something particularly Canadian about these albums - in the same way that there is something particularly American about the Beach Boys - that I in some way connect with. Mind you, that's just a theory.

Ian, in saying that you "bought all the records in all the formats" does that mean you have Archives 1? It's kind of a dream to have that along with the others when and if they are released.

I think the two major songs on Hawks And Doves are Captain Kennedy and The Old Homestead, possibly his most underrated songs and two of the most important. Everyone talks about wanting to hear the unreleased Homegrown album, but the key track from it, Homestead, was released. Folks just ignored it.
My issues with Harvest Moon and Silver And Gold are more along the lines of a certain phony, acoustic-Neil-by-numbers feeling I get from them. As if he decided to go into acoustic-Neil mode and pounded out these albums that sound fine to the ear, but on closer inspection are hollow, hard and lacking emotion. And inspired songcraft. The irony is, just as that painfully mainstream, hi-visibility Harvest Period was ending, he actually was just beginning to achieve a true return to the vulnerability of earlier acoustic work. Certain performances on Unplugged, such as Transformer Man and Stringman, and especially the almost unbearably sad and poignant Philadelphia, are worlds beyond Harvest Moon. Silver And Gold just lacked inspiration, causing him to rerecord the albums several times, then eventually just put it out while still dissatisfied. Prairie Wind is the best of the three, because it was honest and emotional for the most part. Unfortunately, the songs on it about him feeling impending death, that were quite moving at the time, seem a little bit silly and self-obsessed now, considering what really happened.
The album in that genre that is brilliant is Comes A Time.

Homestead is a great song, certainly. Captain Kennedy gets namechecked a lot (well, to the extent that anyone talks about Hawks and Doves) but it doesn't quite do it for me. From my perspective it takes from the roots tradition and doesn't really do much with it. Compare his method there with, say, what he does on Americana or what Bob Dylan does on, say, Love and Theft, and it just doesn't seem fulfilling. But, again, that's just my personal reaction.

I have heard that argument before regarding the hollowness of an album like Silver and Gold. Personally, I don't feel the hollowness. They are not necessarily my favourite albums but every so often when my iPod is playing and I hear a song like One of These Days, or Razor Love, or Silver and Gold it only works to reaffirm just how remarkable Neil Young is at crafting a haunting melody. I do get a sense with these arguments sometimes as if there is a belief that the real Neil is the hard rock/grunge epic noise Neil but it seems to me there are so many shades to his personality. Both Ragged Glory and Harvest Moon sit side-by-side and to me they are both quite compelling and, I might say, astonishing for an artist that far into his career. Agreed that Comes a Time is brilliant and also about the return to vulnerability on albums like Time Fades Away, Tonight's the Night, and On The Beach.

Anyone have the Archives?

Yeah, I got the Archives the day it came out. I pored over everything in it for so long that I had to take a couple years' break. Needless to say, it is essential for any big Neil fan.
Besides Razor Love, the excellent Silver And Gold track is Without Rings. That has the spook and mystery of Don't Let It Bring You Down-era Neil that the rest of the album sorely lacks.
The problem with later-era acoustic Neil isn't that it isn't the Horse or loud rock. It is just that Neil found a way to put his deepest emotion into his electric guitar solos. So when he goes "vulnerable", he actually gets more inside himself and puts a wall up, a smokescreen of "Neil Young Melody". A prime offender in that regard is From Hank To Hendrix, a song America would have rejected as too bathetic and unoriginal. But there are amazing moments on Harvest Moon, such as the overwhelming, ballsy Such A Woman and the paranoid Dreamin' Man. One can't really hate Unknown Legend, as it is a heartfelt portrait of his wife (other fine songs in this genre from Neil are Already One, My Boy and Once An Angel, the last two of which are little gems one has to pan through a lot of gravel for). Harvest Moon is a nice tune, but I didn't realize it until I saw Elliott Smith do it.
I think the astounding album of Neil's 90's era is Sleeps With Angels, which is the most personal, haunting, brave work of his career. Neil, Briggs and the Horse REALLY went out on a limb there. I mean, Driveby? Safeway Cart? TRANS AM? My lord. But Mirror Ball and Broken Arrow are also truly excellent albums that haven't gotten their proper due.
One thing about Neil that is important, is that even on his least impressive albums, there are at least a couple essential tracks/compositions. One major example is the song Coupe De Ville on This Note's For You. That is the On The Beach for the 80's and almost no one has located it. For Are You Passionate, there is the majestic Goin' Home and the haunted She's A Healer. There are the tracks I already mentioned from Old Ways and Silver And Gold. There are so many examples. So one can't throw out any Neil work. One could nearly make the best Neil album of all from these lost scraps (for proof, look at the incredible Lucky Thirteen, which makes a silk purse out of the Geffen sow's ear period).

Great stuff, Ian. Thanks.

I still find emotion in those albums but it's certainly a different kind of emotion.

That's cool, and I can definitely see the point of view that "guarded" acoustic Neil has a different sort of feel that shouldn't be compared to his other ways of communication. I mean, Psychedelic Pill has caused me to completely reassess my views of the last few Neil albums, and realize that he has found a new way of direct communication, ala late-60's/70's Brian Wilson. And not to expect the lyrical style of earlier times and to value what we have now.
My views on Neil are constantly changing and evolving, and I always appreciate the chance to discuss his work with other fans.
Keep talking, whenever you feel the inspiration, man.

The first Neil young album i bought was ragged glory and it is probably my favourite. For some reason i tend to listen most to his post 1980 albums for reasons i cannot fully explain. The masterworks to my mind are ragged glory, weld, sleeps with angels, prarie wind and perhaps psychedelic pill, but very few are less than excellent. The weakest are everybody's rockin , this notes for you, year of the horse, are you passionate and greendale. Of the seventies stuff on the beach, tonight the night and rust never sleeps are truly works of genius. Lets face it, the guy is incredible.

My Top 10 Neil:

1. Rust Never Sleeps
2. Sleeps With Angels
3. On The Beach
4. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
5. Zuma
6. Tonight's The Night
7. Broken Arrow
8. Ragged Glory
9. American Stars N Bars
10. Psychedelic Pill (only comes in at 10 because I'm still feeling it out)

Horse all the way, pretty much!

BTW, anyone who hasn't heard the first (non Neil-led) Crazy Horse album with "I Don't Wanna Talk About It" needs to track it down immediately!!!! Crazy Moon is a pretty damn good album too. There are some amazing Neil guitar freak-outs on there.

Just something that popped into my head while headbanging (actually impossible at my age, something might fall off :-\) to Psychedelic Pill the other day - is the title a nod to Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow or is that taken as read?

Neil, speechlessly amazing!!

Anyone else a big fan of his blistering guitar solo on The Monkees song You + I?

Over the last couple of weeks I've bought the archives live performance releases. Utterly atounding. In particular Dreamin' Man. I will likely never revistit Harvest Moon again. Neils singing and guitar/piano on this are perfection. A Treasure is just that, great fun recordings. Live at the Filmore, well what can you say apart from it's a shame we didn't get the whole show. Incredible stuff. Buy 'em is my only advice to anyone reading this!

UK dates announced! :D Newcastle, Birmingham, London, Dublin and Glasgow so far, not sure if any more are gonna be announced. For lack of any more looks like I'll be heading to Birmingham.

Glasgow in June. Superb. Last saw the horse in 2001 but saw Neil on the chrome dreams tour in Edinburgh. Quite a night!

It is one of my goals in life to listen to every single Neil Young cd/album in it's entirety, back to back. Neil is one of the all time greats. I saw him in 2003 when he was doing his Greendale tour. It was without a doubt one of the oddest concerts I've been to.  ;D He had people on the stage literally acting out the story. Certain people played charactors from the story. There were also "props", like cardboard cut out cars, etc. It was awesome!  ;D He did the entire album, which was at that time totally unknown to the audience. The only "classic" songs he did were at the very end of the show during the encore. He did Hey Hey, My My, Ride My Llama(I *think*), and he closed out the show with an incredible version of Powderfinger.

That tour was one of the best I have ever seen. But every time I have caught him was one of the best.

I hope to catch him in concert with CSN one day. They played Pittsburgh in 2000, and I really tried to pressure my parents into going, but it didn't work. At least I got to see The Who that year.  ;D

Rust Never Sleeps made my Christmas so much better! 8)