Neil Young - Albums from the 80s - Appreciation Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by DLeet, May 31, 2014.

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  1. DLeet

    DLeet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chernigov, Ukraine
    I had had an idea to do this long before I saw the lost geffen years records thread, which is quiet fascinating in its own way - talking what albums would have been released and in what way. I had in mind, however, to talk about what we have ended up with.

    I am a newly converted fan you could say, have listened to the 80s output recently, have listened it after the 70s material and I've only listened to "Sleeps with Angels" and "Ragged Glory" as well as the "Deadman OST" from the 90s so far. So, I am not one of those fans who loves and has to have every note and fart the man has ever produced.

    With that said - I don't really understand... why so much hate for his 80s output? Yes, admittedly there is a clunker in there - Hawkes and Doves, but still, first hald of it is really good. Re-Actor is a marvelous "rust meets new wave" example with some real hard rocking jamming there. Trans is a very interesting experiment. Kinda like MacCartney II only Neil is much more present and does not hide behind synths entirely - his trademark guitar sound is still there. Everybody's Rockin' - a very nice genre album... I don't get why the label and people hated it. Yes, it does not attempt to re-imagine stuff like Lennon did with his release. But it is still a very nice collection of rock'n'roll songs and his original flow in nicely and do not stand out (meaning as a compliment). Old Ways - don't like that one safe for a few songs, but that's because I don't care for country. On some sort of objective label, I understand that it is a fine album, but country is just boring to me. "Landing on Water" - a great come back if you ask me. Nice fusion of 80s production techniques with his songwriting strategies from the 70s. Absence of Crazy Horse is extremely refreshing. Life is slightly more boring but a bigger hald of it is still very good. This Note's for You - yet another nice genre foray. I mostly enjoyed quieter songs/ballads. And, of course, Eldorado and Freedom, but, as far as I've understood - these two released are loved by many, so let me stop there.

    Bottom line is - I think most of his 80s stuff is unjusty overlooked and rather underrated, and in some instances, really underrated, like with Landing on Water. And why so much hate for his genre forays, when they are all very well done LPs? Can someone explain? :)
     
  2. DLeet

    DLeet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chernigov, Ukraine
    no fans of the 80s period at all!?
     
  3. noyoucmon

    noyoucmon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    I'm a fan of the '80s period, but this has kinda been done to death elsewhere. I just clicked over from another thread about Neil's Geffen wars and saw this.
     
  4. noyoucmon

    noyoucmon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
  5. DLeet

    DLeet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chernigov, Ukraine
    well, there was more of a hypothetical discussion on lost albums, what they would have been like, etc. And I was more thinking of discussing what we have ended up with. And it's really curious to me - I am not the biggest fan (so far), but this period has surprised me much more than I had originally anticipated.
     
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  6. noyoucmon

    noyoucmon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    To get back to one of your questions, I'm not sure why folks have so much hatred for his genre exercises. I'm a big fan of Trans and Everybody's Rockin' and both are well executed and feature strong performances. I think a lot of people just have a little niche for Neil that doesn't go very far beyond the likes of Cinnamon Girl, Heart of Gold, etc.
     
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  7. dirie

    dirie Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    No, I can't. Maybe his output in the 80s was to different from what he did in the 70s. He changed styles very drastically between his releases.

    "Trans" was the first Neil Young record I listened to and I liked it very much. I noticed the two different styles that appear on the album. There were those tracks with vocoders and synthesiser and those with real vocals. But still today I can't decide which bunch of the songs I like better. "Computer Cowboy" and "Sample And Hold" work fine for me. The album as a whole has aged very good to these ears. And the same goes for most of Neil's 80s albums.
     
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  8. qtrules

    qtrules Forum Resident

    Location:
    canada
    hawks and doves is not a clunker at all!

    "union man", "hawks and doves", "hey babe" ... some SOLID country tunes on there.

    and side one, with "the old homestead", "captain kennedy", and "little wing" those all hail from the '70s.

    i've said it many times before - archives 3 (or whichever volume covers the '80s) will rewrite neil's legacy. so many people are quick to dismiss the music he created, but that's not fair at all.
     
  9. DLeet

    DLeet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chernigov, Ukraine
    Sorry, I made myself unclear. )) I REALLY like side one of Hawkes and Doves... It's the second side, which leaves me completely cold.
     
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  10. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    I have:
    Hawks & Doves
    Re-ac-tor
    Everybody's Rockin'
    Old Ways
    This note's For You
    Freedom
    ...and I love 'em all.
     
  11. stef1205

    stef1205 Forum Resident

    I really love Landing On Water, Trans, This Note's For You, Freedom, Re-ac-tor.
    Hawks and Doves is half awesome and half crap.
    Old Ways has its moments as well, but the recordings Geffen rejected are far better. They circulate as Old Ways III (böötleg).
    Everybody's Rockin' is the only album that does not work at all. It's collecting dust on my shelf.
     
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  12. Musicisthebest

    Musicisthebest Exiled Yorkshireman

    Location:
    Manchester, UK
    I really like

    Trans
    Landing On water
    This Notes For You
    Freedom
     
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  13. jimsumner

    jimsumner Senior Member

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC, USA
    I think its useful to understand the context. Throughout the 1970s, Neil Young gave us one masterpiece after another; Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, After the Goldrush, Harvest, Tonight's the Night, On the Beach, Zuma, et. al. and finishing the decade with Rust Never Sleeps, arguably his best album ever.

    Some misfires, to be sure. Journey Through the Past being the most obvious. But a remarkable decade of consistent excellence, guitar-driven songs, lyric-driven songs, electric, acoustic, ventures into orchestral and country.

    No reason to expect anything different in the '80s. But he followed up Rust Never Sleeps with Hawks and Doves, a weak effort whose short-lived flirtation with right-wing politics alienated a good bit of his fan base. I find much of Trans to be unlistenable. Everybody's Rockin', all 24 minutes of it, was a deliberate F-U to Geffen. My reaction to This Note's For You was "I hope he got it out of his system" and I guess he did. Few listeners conversant with his '70s output would consider Reactor or Landing on Water to be top-notch Neil Young.

    It wasn't a completely lost decade. He closed on a roll with Life and then Freedom, which I would rank as one of his five best ever. And he followed that with some great stuff in the 1990s.

    But if you look at the aggregate quality of his 1970s releases and the aggregate quality of his 1980s releases, the earlier decade wins by a landslide, IMO.

    And this is coming from someone who owns everything the man has released and some stuff that he hasn't. But I think there are good reasons why much of his fan base finds the 1980s to not be his best decade.
     
  14. rstamberg

    rstamberg Senior Member

    Location:
    Riverside, CT
    I love these Neil albums from the '80s:

    HAWKS & DOVES
    OLD WAYS
    LIFE
    THIS NOTE'S FOR YOU
    ELDORADO
    FREEDOM
     
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  15. dmiller458

    dmiller458 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midland, Michigan
     
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  16. There is a lot of great stuff both released and unreleased.Freedom is the stand out but I also love This Note's for You.
    There is a great compilation featuring mainly unreleased versions of stuff from the gaffer period called Lucky thirteen which gives a hint of the riches that will be on Archives Vol 3(call me a hopeless optimist when it comes to this).
    Don't give up on a Neil album called Old Ways until you hear the original rather than the weak ,one fingered gesture to his record company that was the released version.Different songs,very different vibe.
     
  17. dino77

    dino77 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Landing On Water should be re-recorded. A victim of awful 80s production. Steve Jordan's drums and Neil's guitars are great. Just add a real bass player on there and ditch the cheesy keyboards. Kind of like Bowie did with his re-recording of "Time Will Crawl".
     
  18. Meant Geffen period.
     
  19. Gasman1003

    Gasman1003 Forum Diplomat.

    Location:
    Liverpool, England
    I love Neil Young and for me Freedom is one of his top 3 albums.
     
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  20. Sean

    Sean Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa
    I like Old Ways (1985).
     
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  21. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    neil young fans, true neil young fans, have come to understand that every album he puts out will be an adventure in listening. each release has to be taken alone and listened to, some turn out brilliant, some,,,well not so brilliant, but all are interesting to say the least. there are some real gems in his 80's output, especially among the deep cuts.

    i only consider 2 album by young to be actual true clunkers with just about nothing on them to listen to a second time: greendale (a pretentious mess) and a letter home (shame on you neil, this from a man who preaches sound quality) when i do a neil young comp, nothing from either one of those goes on it, i always find something from everything else of value.

    and your comparison of young to mccartney made me cringe :)
     
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  22. DLeet

    DLeet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chernigov, Ukraine
    I didn't like Greendale because of the lyrics, but there are some really nice musical moments I've enjoyed. A Letter Home isn't even his album per se, just a covers collection recorded in the crappiest way possible. Message in the beginning was the most interesting part.
     
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  23. Adamski777

    Adamski777 Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    I find Hawks and Doves and Re-ac-tor to be pretty decent. If some unknown artist made those albums they'd be better regarded. I find the rest of his 80s output until Freedom to be dispensable, although Landing On Water has a good album buried in synths like others have mentioned.

    DLeet mentioned Greendale (whilst not 80s), which I like a lot but scoring a copy on vinyl has been futile for me so far. Seeing wild prices on eBay...
     
  24. lightbulb

    lightbulb Not the Brightest of the Bunch

    Location:
    Smogville CA USA
    In retrospect, The Eighties were a prolific decade for Neil Young:

    Hawks & Doves +++++ 1980
    Re-ac-tor ++ 1981
    Trans +++++ 1982
    Everybody's Rockin' ++++ 1983
    Old Ways +++ 1985
    Landing On Water +++ 1986
    Life ++++ 1987
    This Note's For You +++ 1988
    Eldorado +++ 1989
    Freedom +++ 1989

    Yes, not as consistent nor spectacular as his 70's output, (how would that be humanly possible, weighed against "Rust Never Sleeps" and "On The Beach"?) but these LPs actually hold up fairly well.

    Another view: compare Mr. Shakey against his top contemporaries (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, Rolling Stones, The Who) and their 1980's catalogs, and then the critical perspective allows for re-evaluation with a wider lens.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2015
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  25. Mr-Beagle

    Mr-Beagle Ah, but the song carries on, so holy

    Location:
    Kent
    Where have you heard the original Old Ways, Alan?
     
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