Neil Young’s albums ranked. Discuss

[4000]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

 

And I would certainly put Clapton in the high technique low emotion bracket, and possibly Harrison to be honest

I’d put Clapton in the mediocre technique bracket tbh. I think almost every guitarist I know, none of them pro, is technically way ahead of him. 

[wateroftyne]

42 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

No mention of Powderfinger which is possibly my personal favourite.

<Edit> Just spent 10 minutes blatting away a bassline to those two 🙂

Powderfinger has too many notes 😄

[Beedster]

20 hours ago, 4000 said:

I’d put Clapton in the mediocre technique bracket tbh. I think almost every guitarist I know, none of them pro, is technically way ahead of him. 

Ha ha, I was being polite wasn't I, the likes of Clapton and Harrison criticising NY's guitar playing strikes me as further proof of their mediocrity, technically and emotionally. I'm pretty sure Clapton has done nothing on much value since the late 60's - writing or recording - and whilst I'd be a little more charitable towards Harrison and suspect that the cut-off date might be a few years later, much the same is true of him. 

[wateroftyne]

6 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Ha ha, I was being polite wasn't I, the likes of Clapton and Harrison criticising NY's guitar playing strikes me as further proof of their mediocrity, technically and emotionally. I'm pretty sure Clapton has done nothing on much value since the late 60's - writing or recording - and whilst I'd be a little more charitable towards Harrison and suspect that the cut-off date might be a few years later, much the same is true of him. 

Big Beatles fan here.

Harrison was many great things, but IMO 'guitarist' isn't one of them.

[Beedster]

5 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Big Beatles fan here.

Harrison was many great things, but IMO 'guitarist' isn't one of them.

Exactly, Beatles fan here also, not a hug fan of GH's (or RS's) contribution to either recordings or songwriting to be honest, recognise they both probably made significant contributions to Lennon & McCartney's songs. Worth noting I have a rare neurological condition as the result of which my brain sees George Harrison and Bill Wyman as the same person, which might explain the bias a little

[Stub Mandrel]

I would say the same again. Don't rate Clapton by the mediocre feel-good lounge blues he plays most of the time.  And I happily rate Harrison as both guitar player and songwriter. I'd listen to Cloud 9 before several Beatles albums.

[4000]

Harrison wrote some wonderful songs. Never really rated his playing, but IMO the former is 100 times more important than the latter. 

[skankdelvar]

I think Harrison was under no illusions as to his abilities as a soloist.

When interviewed about his participation in the Travelling Wilburys project he observed "It’s the first band that I can think of that’s got five rhythm guitar players".

[Beedster]

14 hours ago, skankdelvar said:

I think Harrison was under no illusions as to his abilities as a soloist.

When interviewed about his participation in the Travelling Wilburys project he observed "It’s the first band that I can think of that’s got five rhythm guitar players".

And given a few of them were playing 12's it often sounded like more

[Beedster]

17 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I would say the same again. Don't rate Clapton by the mediocre feel-good lounge blues he plays most of the time.  

Saying this out of genuine interest, what would you suggest that I do rate him on? I'm in the mood for rediscovery at present? 

[Barking Spiders]

21 hours ago, Beedster said:

Exactly, Beatles fan here also, not a hug fan of GH's (or RS's) contribution to either recordings or songwriting to be honest, recognise they both probably made significant contributions to Lennon & McCartney's songs. Worth noting I have a rare neurological condition as the result of which my brain sees George Harrison and Bill Wyman as the same person, which might explain the bias a little

Hmm. For me the Beatles would've been even better if they'd replaced some of Lennon's & Macca's more crappy numbers with post 1966 Harrison songs.  Could've done without Ob-la-di.., Maxwell's Silver Hammer,  Wild Honey Pie etc and more along the lines of 'Something'.

[Beedster]

21 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

Hmm. For me the Beatles would've been even better if they'd replaced some of Lennon's & Macca's more crappy numbers with post 1966 Harrison songs.  Could've done without Ob-la-di.., Maxwell's Silver Hammer,  Wild Honey Pie etc and more along the lines of 'Something'.

Fair point, the Beatles produced some music that I really don't like, including but not limited to those L&M songs above. But these are perhaps the exceptions rather than the rule? Re GH I'd certainly rate Here Comes the Sun, Taxman & Old Brown Shoe as great songs, but I'd say the ratio good to bad songs GH to L&M was about the same, just the volume that differed, which can give the impression that L&M produced more crap songs  

But as ever, it's all personal opinion and tastes 

[wateroftyne]

20 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Fair point, the Beatles produced some music that I really don't like, including but not limited to those L&M songs above. But these are perhaps the exceptions rather than the rule? Re GH I'd certainly rate Here Comes the Sun, Taxman & Old Brown Shoe as great songs, but I'd say the ratio good to bad songs GH to L&M was about the same, just the volume that differed, which can give the impression that L&M produced more crap songs  

But as ever, it's all personal opinion and tastes 

Exactly right. George wrote his fair share of tat.

[Barking Spiders]

47 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Exactly right. George wrote his fair share of tat.

He did which is why I made the point of saying 'post 1966' as it's widely understood his earlier efforts weren't much cop.

[wateroftyne]

Just now, Barking Spiders said:

He did which is why I made the point of saying 'post 1966' as it's widely understood his earlier efforts weren't much cop.

Piggies? Only a Northern Song? For You Blue?

Maybe he was keeping the good stuff back, I dunno.

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

Piggies? Only a Northern Song? For You Blue?

Maybe he was keeping the good stuff back, I dunno.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/19/beatles-solo-albums-reviewed-1970

Or should I start another thread

[Stub Mandrel]

6 hours ago, Beedster said:

Saying this out of genuine interest, what would you suggest that I do rate him on? I'm in the mood for rediscovery at present? 

Post early 70s? Brilliance comes through in some of his live performances and collaborations.

[Len_derby]

7 hours ago, Beedster said:

Saying this out of genuine interest, what would you suggest that I do rate him on? I'm in the mood for rediscovery at present? 

For me it would be the early days with John Mayall’s Blues Breakers. Particularly the ‘Beano’ album. Very fiery electric blues playing. Plus some, but not all, of the Cream output. It’s all personal choice, but his playing seemed to make a step-change to become less special when he switched from playing Gibsons to Fender Stratocasters. His accountant may disagree.

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Post early 70s? Brilliance comes through in some of his live performances and collaborations.

 

17 minutes ago, Len_derby said:

For me it would be the early days with John Mayall’s Blues Breakers. Particularly the ‘Beano’ album. Very fiery electric blues playing. Plus some, but not all, of the Cream output. It’s all personal choice, but his playing seemed to make a step-change to become less special when he switched from playing Gibsons to Fender Stratocasters. His accountant may disagree.

Thanks for the above guys. I get that EC was both an innovator and a technician, but I never felt there was much soul in his playing, and I used to play a lot of old 60's blues and Cream covers so spent a lot of time listening (happy to be steered towards anything in the 70s I might have missed). I guess the contrast I'm making is with NY who is no technician, and quite possibly not an innovator, but who for me gets a hell of a lot of emotion out of his instrument, or at least, whatever he does on the instrument brings a lot of emotion to the song/recording overall. A good example being the intro to Alabama (which has always struck me as typical NY but is perhaps one of the session guys), that's got an edginess and even awkwardness that is really hard to replicate (and in my old band, we tried, how we tried). But for me, that line takes me somewhere that I suspect isn't too far form where NY was when he wrote the song, there's a powerful synergy of the emotion in the guitar playing with those in the lyrics

[StickyDBRmf]

I really like Neil Young. Sometimes. Glad I read all 4 pages because I was unaware he played with the Bluesbreakers. 

[Len_derby]

7 minutes ago, StickyDBRmf said:

I really like Neil Young. Sometimes. Glad I read all 4 pages because I was unaware he played with the Bluesbreakers. 

Sorry about the confusion but we side-tracked on to talking about Eric Clapton. He played for the Blues Breakers. Neil Young didn’t, as far as I’m aware.

[StickyDBRmf]

A joke. Gosh, you Brits. An American can't even get a Canadian Joke in edge-wise.

[Beedster]

11 minutes ago, StickyDBRmf said:

A joke. Gosh, you Brits. An American can't even get a Canadian Joke in edge-wise.

Love it

[Stub Mandrel]

22 hours ago, StickyDBRmf said:

A joke. Gosh, you Brits. An American can't even get a Canadian Joke in edge-wise.

Oh, the irony 🙂