Neil Young: Decade. A look back at this three LP compilation.

[Nijinsky Hind]

If Springsteen had done the same thing, Marsh would have been rolling around naked on it.

Hahahahah!!

[NogbadTheBad]

One of my favorite NY albums though I don't have many, it's very good.

[StevegSr]

If Springsteen had done the same thing, Marsh would have been rolling around naked on it.

Yep, he did suck up to the Boss big time. Always will.

[JJ88]

^Well, they all did, didn't they? One of them was his manager/co-producer, of course...maybe he still is (Jon Landau).

[StevegSr]

What would be the best CD version of this compilation??

There is no remastered version of this CD. It's still the same one that came out in the late eighties and has that trademark Warner Bros. sterile sound quality and is quite harsh on some tracks, but that was Neil's' style at times.

[StevegSr]

^Well, they all did, didn't they? One of them was his manager/co-producer, of course...maybe he still is (Jon Landau).

Yes, Bruce was foretold as the second coming, especially by Landau in Rolling Stone before he became his manager. Bruce was supposed be a more gifted lyricist that Dylan, more authentic than Glam, Metal, or whatever, and I believe only myself and my brother thought that Bruce was an overblown media concoction.

His gravitating recently to stripped down roots rock and folk only shows how hollow his shtick really was, IMO.

[JKL2000]

I never owned Decade, partly because there was some non-Neil stuff (Springfield and CSN&Y) and I had what I needed (Nowhere, Goldrush, Tonight, Zuma... and yup, I was one of those idiots who zapped away On The Beach ) at the time of release... I also thought the track selection quite messy as well (one BS track on the A side, ditto for CSNY, Nowhere tracks on different discs, etc...)

I later bought RNSleeps and Live Rust, before slowly tuning him out with his 80's vagrancies... When came the time to buy CDs, I only ever bought Live Rust and the RNS DVD (aside from Arc/Weld and Ragged Glory, bought at release time). So I actually have fairly little classic NY 70's albums - I did do a CD-r compilation from the library borrowings, though, but I might have lost that very quickly.


Sooooo, actually, Decade seems like one of the best possible compilation from the pre RNS Neil (well, OTB is still under represented IMHO) and would probably be my best and easiest way to fill my discography gaps (knowing I don't have the vinyls anymore)

What would be the best CD version of this compilation??

Is On the Beach hard to find or something? I vaguely recall it's not been released on CD? I sold my vinyl of it long ago, and also sold all my Neil Young CDs long ago. He's one of those artists who's SO prolific that I couldn't keep up, and just ended up selling it all. Even ARC/WELD! Actually, I think I still own a copy of Trans and a bootleg CD of RE.AC.TOR.

[Staun]

Ragged Glory, Psychedelic Pill and Sleeps With Angels

Dave, I just checked the vinyl prices on all three. I need to win a lottery somewhere to bring these in. Holy what?

[Joe F.]

Is On the Beach hard to find or something? I vaguely recall it's not been released on CD?

On The Beach got it's official release on CD a few years back in 2003.

[Dave (in MA)]

Dave, I just checked the vinyl prices on all three. I need to win a lottery somewhere to bring these in. Holy what?

I'm not a Vinyl True Believer, though I've heard that he's notorious for charging a king's ransom for his vinyl. Maybe he's using it to offset the alimony he's shelling out to his latest ex wife.

[Dave (in MA)]

He's one of those artists who's SO prolific that I couldn't keep up, and just ended up selling it all. Even ARC/WELD!

If you can't keep up with his output, you sell off what you managed to buy? I don't get it.

[PeterG]

A couple of points that seem to have been overlooked by some:

1. Decade is not a best of or greatest hits compilation, it is an archive compilation album, this is evidenced by point 2 below.
2. Decade includes several NY tracks not available on album prior to the release of Decade, as well as his own versions of the BS tracks he wrote, which also weren't available before the release of Decade.

Previously unreleased
Down to the Wire (Neil Young, Stephen Still, Richie Furay and Dr. John - was planned for release on the unreleased BS album Stampede)
Love is a Rose
Campaigner
Winterlong
Deep Forbidden Lake

Other stuff
Prior to Decade this live version of Sugar Mountain was only avaialble as the B side to the Loner 7" single.
The version of Long May You Run on Decade is the full CSN & Y vocals, i.e not the version on the Stills-Young album
This previously unreleased version of Like a Hurricane has a different lead vocal to the version on American Stars 'n Bars
Ohio was first released as a CSN & Y single, then on the CSN & Y compilation - So Far

[Mr Class & Quality?]

Probably the greatest 'career to date' collection ever compiled.

[Trane]

It was on DVD-A and HDCD around 2003.

Are we talking about Decade or OTB??

^The CD itself never came out until then. I think the HDCD one is the version I'm talking about.

RYM says Decade's first CD reissue dates from 88. Yup, inexplicable why OTB was soooo long held back... A lot of people linj it with Tonight's gloom mood (Whitten's death), but I find OTB much more upbeat (and the artwork shows Neil more or less getting better than on Tonight)

May be a little off course but I liked what he did with Pearl Jam as backup on Mirror Ball. That's the Neil I like. Suggestions? But yes, this comp is a nice place to start.

Ragged Glory, Psychedelic Pill and Sleeps With Angels

Personally, I'll take RG, PP, MB and Arc/Weld

[PeterG]

'alf doz.

1. Zuma
2. Harvest
3. Ragged Glory
4. Rust Never Sleeps
5. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
6. On the Beach

[Dave (in MA)]

Are we talking about Decade or OTB??

It was a direct response to a statement about On The Beach.

[StevegSr]

A couple of points that seem to have been overlooked by some:

1. Decade is not a best of or greatest hits compilation, it is an archive compilation album, this is evidenced by point 2 below.
2. Decade includes several NY tracks not available on album prior to the release of Decade, as well as his own versions of the BS tracks he wrote, which also weren't available before the release of Decade.

Previously unreleased
Down to the Wire (Neil Young, Stephen Still, Richie Furay and Dr. John - was planned for release on the unreleased BS album Stampede)
Love is a Rose
Campaigner
Winterlong
Deep Forbidden Lake

Other stuff
Prior to Decade this live version of Sugar Mountain was only avaialble as the B side to the Loner 7" single.
The version of Long May You Run on Decade is the full CSN & Y vocals, i.e not the version on the Stills-Young album
This previously unreleased version of Like a Hurricane has a different lead vocal to the version on American Stars 'n Bars
Ohio was first released as a CSN & Y single, then on the CSN & Y compilation - So Far

I always give fans of such old venerated albums credit for knowing their idiosyncratic histories. Fan is short for fanatic, after all.

[PeterG]

I always give fans of such old venerated albums credit for knowing their idiosyncratic histories. Fan is short for fanatic, after all.

Thanks. In rock music, Neil Young was my first obsession.

[Nijinsky Hind]

Thanks. In rock music, Neil Young was my first obsession.

And I know its not a "Best of" album... Just seemed like a good quick description.

[The Dark Elf]

Oh, he was a douche.

In 1970, Rolling Stone trashed Neil Young's superb After the Gold Rush, saying, and I quote: "none of the songs here rise above the uniformly dull surface". Naturally, douches that the whole fucking magazine staff are, they reappraised it in their subsequent Rolling Stone Music Guide, giving it 5 stars and calling it a "masterpiece" - about 5 years after the whole world knew it. RS has been a hypocritical rag for decades.

[PeterG]

And I know its not a "Best of" album... Just seemed like a good quick description.

okay, fair enough!