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Neil Young"the overview"
#1
NEIL YOUNG OVERVIEW 1966-PRESENT!

since completing the Neil Young "beginners guide" i have compiled all his career albums
by their 'rating' scores to come up with a list of the "essential" albums one needs in their
collection and also those that need to be avoided at all costs!

i also find it interesting that over his career spanning forty-six years and close to some
fifty albums...not including movie soundtracks or compilation albums that the average
rating for his albums comes in at a more than respectable 2.2 with 58% of his recordings
exceeding the average mark of 2.2.

of his ten best albums not one comes from the 1980s, of the rest predictably half come
the 'classic' period of the 1970s with one from the 1960s and two each from the
1990s and the 'noughties'

i think the biggest surprise of all is that "after the goldrush" failed by a solitary point
to make the top ten albums, so either there is something wrong with the rating
system i have adopted from Music Head(which i doubt as it usually seems pretty
accurate) or Neil Young has made some damn fine albums during his career?!?!

the top ten Neil Young albums of all time are IMO:

tonight's the night
rust never sleeps
live rust
weld
prairie wind
chrome dreams II
deja vu (with CSNY)
harvest
on the beach
harvest moon

the ten albums to avoid are:

arc
landing on water
broken arrow
life
re-ac-tor
trans
le noise
dreamin' man '02
looking foreward (with CSNY)
americana



[Image: 51hEMsVAqLL._SL500_AA300_.jpg]

opinions on the final lists welcomed!
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..."  -  Me 2014.


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#2
my opinion is you are awesome for putting this together

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#3
Hear Hear !!

Magnificent effort, Lloyd.

Can't disagree with any of the Top 10, although This Note's For You would probably creep in there for me.

Of the avoids, I've only heard Broken Arrow, & Silver & Gold, and neither of those are particularly bad IMV.

Great stuff. What are you going to do next ?? Elvis ??
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"

Unknown
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#4
Ta, guys.

guess we all have one or two that could make the top 10...but there was only room for 10, and After The Goldrush had to miss out for me.

yeh,
Silver And Gold is ok, it must have had something i really liked back in 2000 because it made me want to explore his back catalogue further.

Elvis?
you gotta be joking man! never thought of him and probably wouldnt as most of his albums were either movie soundtracks, compilations or contained a lot of tracks from existing albums to fill them up, but maybe an overview in similar vein to the way Gryphon does it may work???

next....
the complete works of Neil and Tim Finn from 1975's "mental notes" debut by Split Enz through Crowded House, the Finn Brothers albums and the solo album by both brothers.
their Split Enz material is some of the most exciting stuff i have ever heard in terms of originality since discovering Lennon/McCartney.
their songs may not all be worth "***" but its well worth exploring, especially for all you guys who have probably not heard 90% of their material, it may make you see how talented and consistantly good these guys have been for the last 35+ years.
ive always thought of them as like Lennon/McCartney in the way they bounced off eachother, also Neil the the great pop song writer of the two and Tim the Lennonesque 'thinker'....thats my opinion, be interesting to hear your reactions when you listen to some of their not so familliar material.
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..."  -  Me 2014.


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#5
A detailed and thorough account album by album of your favorite artist !!!! Well done, mate. I can't say enough. I have great admiration for you in doing this as I have said in past PMs.

I am looking forward to the Finn Brothers project and to tell you the honest truth I have only heard Crowded House before ...I had a casstte by them in the 80s...I think it was their first one ???

Still trudging through Paul Weller's catalogue...and enjoying it...slowly off and on ..but I'll get there. So much music !

.....I still like Trans and Le Noise !!!

SteveO
 The ultimate connection is between a performer and its' audience!
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#6
to be fair to "trans" i actually like half the songs on it, but with the MH-Rating System or MHRS for short...LOL, the overall rating comes out quite low.
i copped a lot of ribbing for liking "le noise" when it first came out, pretty sure i gave it a 2.6 on the MHRS where the maximum point value is 3.0 but over time the album has become too much the same old-same old, i do dtill love "hitchhiker" and like three other tracks, but again the MHRS rates it pretty poorly now, almost cutting its original score in half (1.6) IMO
still, if both albums are enjoyable for you SteveO, thats all that matters.
another NY fan here, Mr.Soul, would disagree with my disregard of his 80s material strongly,again, if they turn him on....great, but not my cup of tea.

and i appreciate your comments also mate
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..."  -  Me 2014.


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#7
Yah what's the MHRS rating-how does it work ? I guess you're awake CH and MH is too so chime in.
 The ultimate connection is between a performer and its' audience!
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#8
SteveO Wrote:Yah what's the MHRS rating-how does it work ? I guess you're awake CH and MH is too so chime in.

hey SteveO,
i was awake mate but i had to do a few hours work after getting rained out yesterday...

ok the Music Head Rating System aka MHRS as i percieve it, was something MH had playing round in his head for a while before he came to the site(correct me if im wrong MH) and found the forum a place to use it in. i just call it the MHRS as a bit of a joke title, but its true, it belongs to Music-Head and i approve of it.
each track on an album that he listens to ,and i have adopted, generally gets awarded stars:

* donates "do not like"
** donates "like"
*** donates to "love".
the idea is to add up the stars and divide by the number of tracks on the album, thus giving an average rating for the album

an overall rating of between 1.0-1.6 means "do not like the album"
a rating of between 1.7-2.2 means "like the album"
a rating of between 2.3-3.0 means "love the album"

when reviewing "new releases" the system is a bit different, whereby he, and now i, rate the individual tracks anything from 1.0 thru 3.0, this is so we allow for listening to an album for the first time, generally when an album is new we like to post it asap, so one or two airings is all we get to do so. ie: a song that i/he may not like but has room to grow in us may get 1.6ish, one we like may get a rating of 1.7-2.2 if it borders very good on first listen, its very rare that we rate a new song in the "love" rating after just one listen.

hope i explained how it works for you to "get it" SteveO
its not really complicated, but i find it works satisfactory for me
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..."  -  Me 2014.


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#9
I feel like I'm in some kinda dream state.
I don't even remember typing that above post.
outta my head CH!

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#10
Yes, MH, you are in the dream state of Kentucky !!!!lol couldn't resist
 The ultimate connection is between a performer and its' audience!
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