Customer Reviews

Neil Young

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After a few years of coming and going with Buffalo Springfield, the "first American supergroup," Neil Young parted ways for good in 1967 with his band. In 1968, with Crazy Horse pianist Jack Nietsche arrangement, Young's self-titled debut was unleashed. Out of all his following albums, "Neil Young" is the most cohesive, mainly because Nietsche helped keep the budding artist on track. It probably has more overdubs than anything that Young did with the Springfield, and certainly everything since Granpa Crispy struck out on his own. The album starts off, ironically, with one of Nietsche's own compositions, "The Emperor of Wyoming," a nice, pleasant country instrumental. "The Loner" follows, and now we are clearly in Neil's world of angst and paranoia. "The Old Laughing Lady" is a great track, with female background vocals reminiscent of anything done for Motown, despite the fact the song is clearly not a Motown product. Besides the aforementioned, Neil's other songs of longing, like "If I Could Have Her Tonight" and "What Did You Do to My Life," make this a thrilling ride. The final track, "The Last Trip to Tulsa," is Young accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. The track is about nine minutes long, with the most arcane, non-sensical lyrics I have ever heard. The crazier the song become lyrically, the harder Young strums his guitar, until you think the strings will crack under the strain. With Nietsche's brilliant arranging, "Neil Young" is a fine start to a long, storied career.

Neil was at the height of his powers when he wrote the songs on this CD. There are no klunkers here, every song has a strong melody and intriguing lyrics.

I find this album compares favorably with the more famous Beach Boys or Beatles albums that came out at the same time. Like the Beach Boys and the Beatles, the rich melodies are the primary appeal of the album. Every song is good, though they are almost all sad, with lots of sweet, heartfelt chords and notes.

The production of this album is a source of frequent comment. In my opinion, the CD is better mixed than the original vinyl. I'll have to confess however, that when I was listening to this album as a teenager, I had a poor stereo. It may simply be that the great sonic equipment we can buy now does justice to an album that couldn't be heard properly on a cheap stereo. Certainly it seems to me that Neil's voice is louder in this mix than the way I remember it from my youth. Also the songs seem to have more of an edge to them, so that the rockers come out with a bit more punch. Some of the instruments seem to stand out more clearly now.

The melodies from this album are so strong that I would compare it favorably against many other good records from any point in rock history. However, you have to understand that this is Neil Young, and the album is moody, a bit introverted, even quite dark at times. But I listen to it for the lush production, the warm bittersweet chords, and the beautiful melodies. Plus, I like Neil's youthful melancholy. It rings true to me.

Neil Young's moving and breathtaking debut. Every time I listen to this record I become more and more certain that it's Neil Young's finest. The tracks "The Loner", "If I Could Have Her Tonight", and "The Old Laughing Lady" are all very good, but the best track is definitely the deeply moving "I've Been Waiting For You". A must for any fan of great music, and an absolute necessity for any Neil Young fan. Buy it!

This album is good, but only if you have it on vinyl. The song "What did you do to my life" is mixed very badly on the cd, with that sort of droning incredibly irritating organ sound. This is only one instance of the poor transfer to digital that occured with this cd. It is on one of the best songs on the album, but just sounds horrible on the cd. I don't think they put this one out on vinyl since the early eighties, I was lucky to get it from an old neighbor. On LP, "what did you do to my life," without the bad electronic noises, gives the album a cohesion that it otherwise lacks. Does anyone else out there know what I'm talking about? The rest of the album lacks the rich production level of the LP. It's almost like it's a completely different album. I know--this is Neil Young minutia, but I just can't get over how bad this album sounds on cd.

Neil's first is actually his second?!? Huh? Confused? Ok, here's the story: When "Neil Young" was released, the cover was simply the artwork, no title. Also, the mix is WAY different. The story is that Neil, at the time, was somwhat embarrassed by his voice and that he deliberately buried it deep within the mix so that it wouldn't offend anyone. But apparently after the album had been out for awhile, he and/or the record company had second thoughts about the original mix and decided to do a 'remix' version, long before that was the cool thing to do. And when that version came out, the cover now contained the title above the artwork. And the mix? Just about every song is different, not just the newly-resurrected voice but the instruments are either amped up or reduced or just plain taken out. Very interesting to compare the two versions. If you should ever come across the original, hang onto it. It's rare, very rare.
Okie doke, just a little bit of little-known history behind this record.
What do I think about it? I love it. I just prefer the first version.

I'm a big Neil fan and have most of his recordings. This album is a true classic as it offers a collection of early Neil "country rock" tunes. There is a subtle hint of Buffalo Springfield but the guitar tracks are pure Neil. The album tunes range from "country and western" instrumental tracks like The Emperor of Wyoming, to gentle ballads like Here We Are In the Years, to the the rocking song The Loner. Without a doubt, my favorite Neil album. Thanks to amazon I finally found and ordered the CD. My album is worn out!

It was 1969 when I saw this on the shelf of the local record shop and, expecting more of what I heard on Buffalo Springfield Again, I snatched it right up. (It was that and more). Quite astonishing it is. The sound is both luminous and dark, the melodies ancient and new, a fusion of folk, rock, classical, country, electric, acoustic, new and old.

It was the "Neil Young vision" thing, I thought. (that's until I heard "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" - another half of the multiplying vision). A quiet, totally unheralded minor masterpiece, I soon wore my vinyl copy of "Neil Young" out and had to buy another. Who knew this guy would loom over us for so long and give us so much more?

As a demonstration of how Neil gets into your head, the great just-Neil-and-guitar epic, "Last Trip to Tulsa" seemed to have been written about a solo road trip I had just made from Oklahoma to Chicago in an old Chevy. I was and am hooked.

Unrelated, but a great contemporary quote from Captain Beefheart about Neil: "If he's so Young, why does he have to Neil?"

Oh, by the way, the two country/string instrumentals still are among my favorite Neil tracks.

I've been an active fan of Neil Young since 1964. My favorite ballad of his is "Philadelphia" (City of Brotherly Love), and my favorite rocker is still "I've Been Waiting For You" off of this album.

In my opinion, this is still his finest album, beginning to end. Every cut is thoroughly excellent, and you can't say that about any of his other albums (even though most of them have unforgettable songs on them and are worth a good listen). Never forget how great this album was when it was released. Only Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced" and Pink Floyd's debut album were more powerful and influential (and the Beatles and Stones certainly held serve). But, "Neil Young" still holds its own with such as these.

As mentioned previously, the first edition of this album on vinyl was completely different from the soon remixed vinyl lp with the big white Neil Young banner across the top. If you ever see one with the painting full and no banner, pay whatever it takes. The overdubs and effects are very different than any version released since. Very layered, with none of the mixed-to-the-top guitars of version b. 1a all makes better sense. A couple of songs are ruined by bringing background rhythm guitar to the top. Jack Nitzche's oversight was meant to be as originally mixed and is also one of his best, if not his best production(s).
Very much an extension of the experimentaion on Buffalo Springfield Again, Neil Young 1a is very psychedelic and makes a very trippy adventure completely unlike anything since.
I love raw Neil, and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is fabulous in a whole different way. But this first mix of Neil Young needs to see CD release. Please Neil.
This fact has pretty much disappeared and most people, even avid fans aren't aware. I just happened to buy a first issue release, the only one in town. I loved it so much I bought one for my girlfriend a year later. I was shocked by what are in some places, drastic changes. Very briefly on one of the old Warner/Reprise 2 dollar 2 record samplers, there is a line about Neil not liking his vocals on his first record and insisting on remixing them.
Don't know what you can do to hear it, even my copy got worn a good bit, so my attempts to digitize result in emphasize the surface noise, but I wouldn't sell it for any amount.
So now you know. That said this is still a great album in any mix. Coupled now with the new Sugar Mountain live set, done to prepare for the release of this album, it illuminates a period of prolific and top of his game Young.

A while back, Warner Brothers Japan re-released 12 Neil Young titles. The surprise was that remastered content appeared for the first time on most of them.

The titles & WB-Japan catalog numbers are:

Neil Young WPCR-75086
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere WPCR-75087
After The Gold Rush WPCR-75088
Harvest WPCR-75089
On The Beach WPCR-75090
Tonight's The Night WPCR-75091
Zuma WPCR-75092
Long May You Run WPCR-75093
American Stars n' Bars WPCR-75094
Comes A Time WPCR-75095
Rust Never Sleeps WPCR-75096
Live Rust WPCR-75097

I picked up most of these, A/B'd them, and found them to be superior to the domestics. However, having purchased the domestic 2002 remasters of "Beach" and "Stars n Bars", I declined the Japan versions of those two titles.

Unfortunately, while the Japan version is remastered, Live Rust is not restored to the original LP's running form, and remains still the bastardized version.

If you own the U.S. versions, and you're a NY fan, I would seriously consider replacing them with these.