Neil Young-Silver and Gold

Interesting. "Out Of Control" is actually my favourite Neil Young song from this period and "Queen of the mAll" (as I tend to write it) is accidentally quite funny ;-) The closer "Sanibel" was written by CSN's touring guitarist at the time. That is no different to having a song by their drummer Tony Beard on their "wiener album" some years back.

 

I've asked about this before but never got an answer. When the the album came out, there was an extended version of "Razor Love" that was made available online. It had a longer coda and this version is what convinced me to buy the album. Years later I put the album on my personal "Top 10 Albums of the 2000s" list, but I've lost track of that extended version of "Razor Love". I'd love to hear that again.

 

Yes, that DVD is one of my favorites. It has a really intimate feeling. Wish it were a little longer and included the other unreleased songs at the time though.

 

Yes a great DVD. I'm still puzzled while the Unplugged show has not been released on DVD. I think that show is amazing.

 

Can anyone comment on the vinyl? I always see it listed on sites as readily available to purchase but have yet to pull the trigger on it.

 

I think its fantastic. Can never decide if this or Comes a Time are my favourite Neil "acoustic" albums

 

Silver And Gold and Prairie Wind are the best Neil has done in the last 35 years IMO.

 

Yes, and they flesh-out Silver and Gold nicely.

I loved the album immediately and it has remained my most-listened-to Neil Young album in the years since it was released. My wife loves it too and is always happy when I put it on. My iPod and CDR custom edition add the Looking Forward trio of songs and I deleted Buffalo Springfield Again... the weakest track on the album to my ears.

 

I love the title track, and it's a permanent part of my repertoire.

 

I kind of agree with this statement. I prefer the second half of the program and really think that "Distant Camera" is also a really strong song. The first "side" is not horrible by any means but I have always felt this would have been a later period masterpiece if the first half was a bit stronger.

 

One of Neil's most underrated albums

 

I've got it and it's really good. Still in print as well I think.

 

I don't get the love for Prarie Wind, it's like no one notices the songs are for most part very weak and maudlin and he (absentmindedly?) borrows melodies off his old tunes - This Old Guitar (hello Harvest Moon), Far From Home (hello Like An Inca). When God Made Me...uggghh. Just an opinion, of course .

 

Sounds great and is not too expensive either (like his recent expensive records!!)

 

Thanks for the comments on the vinyl! I think I'll finally 'bite the bullet'.

 

I really noticed this when I saw the Heart of Gold concert film. The lyrics are very weak (Neil himself said he wrote them off the top of his head and it shows) and the melodies are overly familiar. Beautiful film, but it's too bad he had such a weak batch of songs.

 

Most of the comments so far are way more generous and positive than most people are about the merits of this strangely muted and oblique — almost semi-depressive — release. Like others mention I prefer the livelier, starker DVD and that's pretty much all I listen to from this period in Neil's hejira.

Christgau, who loves most of NY's 21st-century output and has given his latter-day releases a bunch of A's, really did not like this one at all:

Previously, Young's bad records have always had the mark of weirdness on them--impossible songs, twisted politics, stupid clothes. These 10 well-culled copyrights, two from the '80s and only four from 2000, are something new and ominous, because they're dull. They smell of equine methane: the old-fart hegemony that fuels alt-country, AC radio, and literary anthologies canonizing Ry Cooder, Ernie K-Doe, and Spooner Oldham. So though Duck Dunn and Jim Keltner get more beats going than Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina ever will, their mild funk is just another species of roots politesse, and Neil's self-indulgently halting vocals open the dismaying possibility that he takes Will Oldham seriously. True love isn't this boring, Young must know that. Hell, the Buffalo Springfield weren't this boring either. But they are now. C+

 

Except for the weirdness of a quintessential '60s band ending its final (probably) album with a song about an upscale Florida retirement destination.

 

I hold it in great affection as my wife bought it for me when it was released and I had just come out of hospital after having meningitis.

Thanks Jenny, Neil and The NHS.

Richard

 

So I saw this in an older thread but never truly answered--the German pressing of Silver and Gold on vinyl seems readily available. Can anyone confirm if this is a bootleg or not? I am revisiting this and really like it, so would like to have a vinyl copy, but am wary because of all the bootlegged neil young vinyl issues (mirror ball, harvest moon, etc.)

 

I really like it. IMO, the last great Young album.

 

Totally bored, but Razor Love was a great song.

 

I need to track down a show from the 99 tour and listen to it. I have seen nothing but raves about this tour and have never listened

 

I think it's a decent album but when the best track on it by a country mile, Razor Love is ten plus years old it does ring alarm bells a little bit.

 

I love this album too.