Neil Young

Neil Young.  His music has had an unprecedented impact on me.  He creates vivid imagery with just a few lines and is undoubtably one of the Rock's rawest guitar players, often being sited as the Godfather of Grunge.  His work transcends genre ranging from Folk to R&B, Country to Electronica & Blues to Rock & Roll.  He has created a body of work which has confounded critics as he constantly reinvents himself often releasing music wholly different from what is expected of him.  After the massive success of his best known album Harvest, the 'ditch trillogy' began; a complete u-turn in musical and lyrical terms.

I won't go on to write a complete biography of Young's life, you can find that on Wikipedia here, however if you're a fan you may be interested in reading Jimmy McDonough's biography Shakey, I've read it an I found it fascinating.   Young's career began with Buffalo Springfield in the mid 60s, when the band split he began to work as a solo artist releasing 2 albums before collaborating with Crosby, Stills (who had also been in the Buffalo Springfield) & Nash in the early 70s.  1972 saw Young's seminal album Harvest, he continued to release albums throughout the 70s and 80s covering numerous genres from Rockabilly to Electronica.  The 90s saw a resurgence in popularity as he toured and recorded with  Pearl Jam.  He has recently released an archives collection spanning the first 20 years of his career.


I don't pretend to like every song Young has ever released, I don't, but the vast majority of his music is worth delving into.  The Songs I'm going to share with you here are among my favourite, I like far too many of his songs to post.  If you have Spotify, you can find a playlist to accompany this post with all of my favourite Neil Young songs here.




In Roughly Chronological Order:

Mr Soul



Cinnamon Girl

Down By The River


Tell Me Why


Southern Man


Helpless


Ohio


Heart of Gold


Old Man 


Alabama


Walk On


My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)


Like A Hurricane


Cortez The Killer


Keep On Rockin' In the Free World

I hope you've found this interesting, I've been meaning to write a post about Neil Young for a while now, I hope that you will watch a couple of the videos and find something you like.  Young's music is well worth discovering. 

You can find the Spotify playlist to accompany this post here.