Black Cat Bone

Matt Wilson wrote:
And I'd still say his template is very narrow. Usually, he does one of two things: Rocks with Crazy Horse, or does an acoustic, singer-songwriter

I think Neil provides a lot in between these parametric extremes.

As I type I am listening to Ordinary People from Chrome Dreams II - it rocks but the brass gives it another slant.

Perhaps I am being simplistic but I can't think of anything that Bob does that is so delicious






,

Jeemo wrote:Has Neil finished the guitar solo that he started last week?

Not quite.
Brilliant, isn't it?

The Slider wrote:

Jeemo wrote:Has Neil finished the guitar solo that he started last week?

Not quite.
Brilliant, isn't it?

eh.


no

Neil Young, easily.

I do enjoy Dylan, and if he had kept going with the live template he established in 1966, maybe I would like him more. Certainly his lyrics in the 60s are incredibly impressive. I wouldn't make the case that Neil deserves the Nobel for literature more than Bob does.

But I like Neil in a lot of different ways and I enjoy him more as a pure musical force. His music has just been more a part of my life. Seeing him in Bakersfield last weekend, I kept thinking, "he knows I'm here and he's picking all the songs that have deep personal relevance to my life!" But I realized later, it's just that there are SO MANY Neil songs with deep personal relevance to me, especially in his early-70s work, and he was doing a lot of that.

He once said that he hears that a lot - "it sounds like you wrote that song about this particular thing that happened in my life" - and he think it's because, his lyrics are not so specific that they EXCLUDE people. He's talking about a feeling he had, and lots of people can have that feeling without having experienced the same events.

I changed my mind a couple of times before submitting my vote, and finally I chose Neil. I think Neil has more great records than Dylan (also more crappy ones, true), even if I can accept that a couple of Dylan's great ones are greater. But if I have to make a top 10, in Dylan's case the difficulty would be to fill the last spots, while for Neil it'd be to eliminate a few from a long list.

Despite starting on both when I was about 10, I consider myself not very knowledgeable about either one. There are things I like from each, and much I don't care about. I guess I would vote Dylan because he's always meant a bit more to me than NY has, even though the latter has gone up in my estimation of late. Also Dylan is funnier and sharper. When I think of criticisms of Dylan, I think of people who give Yelp star ratings to things like the Taj Mahal, saying "Three stars. It wasn't as big as it looked in the pictures, terrible traffic getting there" etc. I have always assumed that anything I didn't like about Dylan was basically my problem, not his.

Osgood wrote: But if I have to make a top 10, in Dylan's case the difficulty would be to fill the last spots, while for Neil it'd be to eliminate a few from a long list.

See, it would be the opposite for me. Young's best albums simply don't seem as important as Dylan's. Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61, Blood on the Tracks, Bringing it All Back Home, The Basement Tapes, The Freewheeling Bob Dylan, Oh Mercy, Time Out of Mind, Love & Theft and Another Side of Bob Dylan would beat Young's top ten in my estimation.

There's more great unreleased songs on Biograph than Young's entire Archives box set and Bootleg Series Vol.4 is a better in-concert album than any live Young record too.

I listen to Young a great deal more.

Whilst Dylan's the greater songwriter, I find I like a lot of the cover versions a great deal more than his own takes.

Matt Wilson wrote:

Osgood wrote: But if I have to make a top 10, in Dylan's case the difficulty would be to fill the last spots, while for Neil it'd be to eliminate a few from a long list.

See, it would be the opposite for me. Young's best albums simply don't seem as important as Dylan's. Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61, Blood on the Tracks, Bringing it All Back Home, The Basement Tapes, The Freewheeling Bob Dylan, Oh Mercy, Time Out of Mind, Love & Theft and Another Side of Bob Dylan would beat Young's top ten in my estimation.

There's more great unreleased songs on Biograph than Young's entire Archives box set and Bootleg Series Vol.4 is a better in-concert album than any live Young record too.

Yeah, more or less. If I were forced to make a top ten albums list encompassing both, Bob would have 6 or 7 and Neil’s would be in the bottom half. Although stop with the Oh Mercy nonsense.

Matt Wilson wrote:

Osgood wrote: But if I have to make a top 10, in Dylan's case the difficulty would be to fill the last spots, while for Neil it'd be to eliminate a few from a long list.

See, it would be the opposite for me. Young's best albums simply don't seem as important as Dylan's. Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61, Blood on the Tracks, Bringing it All Back Home, The Basement Tapes, The Freewheeling Bob Dylan, Oh Mercy, Time Out of Mind, Love & Theft and Another Side of Bob Dylan would beat Young's top ten in my estimation.

I'd definitely agree with the first three, and there are a couple more that I consider essential, but no more than say Everybody Knows..., After the Gold Rush or Rust Never Sleeps. A joint top 10 would probably be half and half.

northernsky wrote:. Although stop with the Oh Mercy nonsense.

That was my choice for the '80s. I suppose I should've said Desire, which really is a better album.

Matt Wilson wrote:

northernsky wrote:. Although stop with the Oh Mercy nonsense.

That was my choice for the '80s. I suppose I should've said Desire, which really is a better album.

Only in the way that "Ziggy" is better than "Never Let Me Down".

There's nothing wrong with Oh Mercy though, and Never Let Me Down blows bowling ball-size chunks.

Both are better than the abomination that is Outrider, for fuck's sake.