My collection of Neil Young consists of a handful of MP3’s most likely ripped with Napster in college (all great songs), only half the Merkin Ball CD ripped to my iTunes for some reason, and Americana on CD somewhere which I haven’t ripped into iTunes yet.

I have heard Cinnamon Girl exactly once and am still trying to understand the infatuation people have with it.

My infatuation with Neil Young mostly involves a few things. First and foremost is his guitar playing, which is completely unique to him whether it’s his use of distortion and chords to communicate or acoustic. There’s a flow and feel to this that I simply hang on nearly every note.

The next thing, which I don’t hear enough about is his instincts for using negative space to amplify what he is playing. Not only does he know what to play and how to play it, but he knows when not to play and let the silence say what it needs to say - better than anyone else I have ever heard. There are points in, say, A Letter Home, that you can hear the floorboards creaking under him and that communicates as much as the notes on his guitar.

Finally, Neil Young doesn’t have a traditionally good singing voice at all, but he uses this instrument with his guitar to create something fully authentic and meaningful. Even his tossed off moments are purposeful to relay that. With his voice, guitar, and artistic choices over nearly 60 years have translated to an admirable level of independence that maybe only Dylan has earned himself. And even in that regard, there’s still some level of expectation with Dylan. Neil Young can play or record whatever he wants and you wouldn’t bat an eye because he is simply allowed to follow his muse. I don’t like everything he’s done, not even close to it, but I know whatever I get comes from him.

Radiohead sucks.

his way of singing is just...too much for me. He is basically yelling at you. No thanks.

And yes, of course Beyonce is a powerful performance and Lemonade is a great album but besides that i only care for a few handful of songs.

Also she is trying so hard these days, its boring.

zuma is the neil young record that appeals the most to my tastes

Yeah well it's also the best one.

Hey, at least you tried.

For me Neil is all about the melody. Liebzz's post is excellent and I agree with pretty much all of it, but first and foremost, it was just the pure pleasure of Neil's melodies that drew me to him.

And, in keeping with the theme of the thread, I'll say that "Cinnamon Girl" is okay but it probably wouldn't crack my top 200 NY tunes.

Related:

Uncut Magazine did a "Neil Young's 40 Greatest Songs" list, getting input from David Crosby, Graham Nash, Nils Lofgren, Ralph Molina, Billy Talbot, Poncho Sampedro, Spooner Oldham, Niko Bolas, Daniel Lanois, Jim Keltner and Micah Nelson, and this is what they came up with:

Spoiler: show

01 Sugar Mountain
02 Mr Soul
03 Expecting to Fly
04 Broken Arrow
05 Cowgirl in the Sand
06 Cinnamon Girl
07 Down by the River
08 Helpless
09 Ohio
10 Only Love Can Break Your Heart
11 Southern Man
12 Harvest
13 Heart of Gold
14 The Needle and the Damage Done
15 Time Fades Away
16 On the Beach
17 Ambulance Blues
18 Tonight's the Night
19 Danger Bird
20 Cortez the Killer
21 Comes a Time
22 Like a Hurricane
23 My My Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)
24 Powderfinger
25 Pocahontas
26 Shots
27 Like an Inca
28 This Note's For You
29 Crime in the City (Sixty to Zero)
30 Rockin' in the Free World
31 Love and Only Love
32 Harvest Moon
33 Be the Rain
34 Lookin' For a Leader
35 Hitchhiker
36 Ramada Inn
37 Ordinary People
38 Vampire Blues
39 Peace Trail
40 Olden Days

Gotta love ranking shit!

1/2 of merkinball eh bammer?

I love Neil but Jimi Hendrix is the Godfather of Grunge

Where’s Ride My Llama!? They wish they came up with “I wanna ride my llama, from Peru to Texarkana”

hendrix was the godfather of metal

im sure he is the godfather of a lot of kids

I wouldn't say they suck, but I don't think about them at all and have no idea how they were considered they greatest band in
the world at one time.

Bunch of plebs around these parts

thrasher left off that neil list? hmmph!

Literally could not imagine someone listening to Neil new live show "Way down in the rust bucket" and not thinking he is the greatest we've ever had.

Ha!

Oops.

I have been waiting to listen to this to where I have the time uninterrupted. I feel like I should just dive in.