Neil Young Part III: Best of the Rest
If you’ve read the first two lists and are checking into this one, that hopefully means you’re somewhat interested in Neil Young’s career. Perhaps you’ve even had time to check out some of the essential selections, and maybe even one or two of the cataclysms. This list is for those of you who are familiar with the essentials, enjoyed them, and are hungry for more.
These lists are not comprehensive. In other words, there are a number of studio albums that I’ve left off for various reasons. Some of the omissions are repetitive of other Young material, and fail to capture the interesting elements of their forebears. Others are still pretty good in their own way, but fail to distinguish themselves as being worth the bother.
I want to make that distinction, because the albums below aren’t the “average” albums. Instead, they’re all really great albums for people who like Neil Young, are familiar with some or most of the essentials, and are looking to check out some of his other stuff. These aren’t the best albums to begin with, but they are great if you want to continue your appreciation of Young.
Neil Young Part II: The Train Wrecks
Risk is an inextricable part of any creative expression. It is impossible for an artist to distinguish their work if they do not attempt to break or reshape the mold of their art in some fashion. What would the world of visual art look like if Picasso had never broken the barriers between his subjects and their surroundings? What would music sound like without the 1965 Newport Folk Festival or Bitches Brew?
But, these are only examples of risks that resulted in successful outcomes. Just as risk is essential to creativity, failure is an inherent and inevitable outcome of risk. This is obvious when considered in an abstract sense, but the idea becomes more perplexing when we see it take shape in the real world. Stevie Wonder reached his artistic zenith in 1976 and followed it up three short years later with Journey into the Secret Lives of Plants. Sting released some of the best music of the early 1980s with The Police before recording a duet with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart.
Even though these artistic developments may be difficult and sometimes even painful to hear, it’s important to embrace the bad with the good, because it helps to form a complete picture of the subject. If a society can be judged by entering its prisons, an artist can be judged by the albums s/he released in the 80s.
Neil Young Part I: The Essentials
While driving down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, a young folk musician named Stephen Stills spotted a hearse driving in the opposite lane. He recognized the driver as a quiet and intense Canadian whom he had met nearly a year earlier at a folk club in Thunder, Ontario. Upon their initial meeting, the two musicians had immediately taken to one another. They shook hands and departed with a vague agreement to work together in the future, but the transient nature of a musician’s life had made it difficult for the two aspiring artists to reconnect. This moment marked the first time Stills had seen the man since they first met.
Thinking quickly, Stills pulled a u-turn in the middle of the street and flagged down the hearse’s driver. They agreed to form a band on the spot, calling themselves Buffalo Springfield, and released their first album just a few months later. Headlined by a hit single that took a whimsical look at the Vietnam War (”For What It’s Worth”), the band dominated the airwaves with one of the most defining songs of the era.
Buffalo Springfield’s lifespan was brief–the band broke up two years after their formation. Despite this, the Canadian driving that hearse evolved into one of the most famous musicians of the twentieth century. His name is Neil Young, and for the last forty years he has challenged, inspired and confounded the world of popular music.
Due to his prolific output and his propensity for releasing “difficult” material, Neil Young is a daunting figure for those who are unfamiliar with his work. When an artist has released over thirty studio albums, it’s hard to know where to start and what to avoid. The following is a how-to guide for those who aren’t Neil Young fans, but are interested in learning more about this enigmatic and brilliant musician.
I’ve chosen three different categories for Young’s work: the essentials, the train wrecks, and the decent albums that are worth investment but probably aren’t good launching pads. I’m going to avoid discussing the collaborative efforts, such as the aforementioned Springfields and Young’s work with Messirs Crosby, Stills and Nash. All of that material is worth checking out, but this is a pure assessment of Neil Young. I am also refusing to consider Young’s live albums (that’s a topic that deserves its own series of posts), and the bootleg/unreleased material (Chrome Dreams, Where the Buffalo Roam, etc.) This is only the official discography.
I am also dividing this post into installments. The essential albums are included with this post (click the “read more” tab below), with the other two lists to follow at a later date. If you’re interested, I recommend listening to these albums in the order that they’re listed.
Enjoy, and don’t forget to keep on rockin’ in the free world!
