Neil Young : Songs For Judy

Does anybody find stoned ramblings tedious? I certainly do, and it ruins the listening.

The whole recording lacks quality. Sloppy guitar playing and singing.

There must be much better live recordings in the Neil Young Archives than this.

More quality control is needed for these type of releases.

 

Thanks. Definitely a no purchase then.

 

Some of the finest live singing in his entire catalog. Sloppy guitar playing? It's Neil. Give me soul, every time. every damn time. Kudos to the teenagers on the bus for mining the gold all those years ago. One of the finest live recordings he's released.

 

Can’t agree that Songs for Judy sounds soulful. To my ears it’s sloppy and lazy.

I would normally like ‘sloppy’ Neil as long as the music has his edge and emotion. Tonight’s the Night, for example, is a great album.

Having said that, I’ve only listened to the album once, so maybe it will grow on me.

 

Here in Canada, I just paid $37 CAD. It's the best price I could find and I'm not complaining.

 

is it me, or are all these neil young live albums from long ago starting to sound like the same thing over and over again, with a "new" song or 2 thrown in for sales potential?

and yes, i bought them all and i am a big neil young fan.

 

I wouldn’t base your decision on one forum member’s opinion. There are audio samples out here. Seek them out and then make a decision

 

Songs for Stony

 

There are and a lot of them have been released. Be happy he's in a 70's zone right now! I don't mind sloppy Neil. A lot of his original albums have that immediate approach to them. I'm a fan of his warts.

 

I finally listened to this the other day at the store I work at without seeing the songs listed. Oh, once "White Line" came on, I was all in.

 

some right fussy truckers on here,

would love to hear what some of you lot would say about the cassettes we shared around back in the '70's,
with audience noise, coughs, sneezes, burps and the odd, ''have a toke on that man''..........

not to mention the odd 'wow and flutter' every now and then

 

That was the Jimmy Durante ‘Live at the Brown Derby’ album, which is every bit as good and had a similar set list.

 

I hear that will be the follow-up album

 

Yes I've heard it thanks. I have all the other historic releases bar the Roxy show.

 

I would agree, but the new song or two (like Here we are in the Years) are enough for me. I’m not expecting a whole perfect album at this point from Neil 50 years + from when he started releasing music.

 

Is there a difference in mastering between the US and EU LP version ?
CB does not appear in my EU version deadwax

 

Maybe it's just me, but Neil doesn't seem all that stoned on this set.

"Bumper stickers should be issued!"

Maybe it's just me.

 

I am really late on getting this one. Having had "The Joel Bernstein Tapes" for years, it's nice to have this is better quality. I used to listen to that tape constantly. It's the kind of the thing I found revelatory as a new fan.

The only thing I don't like is the artwork. It's shockingly bad. I like Neil, and I like Judy. They didn't deserve that mess.

 

I mean, looking at his setlists throughout his career and what's been released so far, it's going to be tough to release stuff without repeating numerous tracks.

 

Also, it's not like the songs are done exactly the same. "Heart of Gold" from Judy is totally different than the one on Massey Hall and the performance of "The Old Laughing Lady" from the most recent is far from the way it appears on any of the other Performance Series.
And who doesn't love the foretaste of (the then unreleased) "Like a Hurricane" in the extended synth intro to "A Man Needs a Maid" on Songs for Judy?

 

I see your point and I think you should be able to skip the "stoned ramblings" --the between song banter on Roxy is especially annoying. That said, I don't think they detract from the performance of the songs themselves. Also, Songs for Judy , while certainly "loose" can hardly be described as sloppy.

 

I disagree with this point. Take Mr. Soul as perhaps the most egregious example. The playing is all over the place. Fluffed chords, irregular meter, all over the place.

It bothers me greatly, but this is probably my issue more than it is Neil's. I would imagine that Neil was not concerned with conventional notions of tidiness in his technical approach at the time. He was undoubtedly more concerned with the spirit he was putting forth. When he "fluffs" (as I put it) a chord, he tends to ride it out and lean on the mistake as part of the overall truth of his performance. He seems more interested in letting it roll without restraint. That's probably why many people find these performances inspiring.

 

I agree completely.

 

no. even less quality control is needed. put it all out there, and we can decide for ourselves to buy and/or listen.