As you sad reprobates probably know by now, Uncle Neil is my hero. Which means that I will hunt down and kill anyone who hurts my feelings when he dies. Michael Jacksonisms are inappropriate and will lead to Chinese water torture. Mr Sandman hold thou fell tongue!
My no. 1 Neil Young song is…
Campaigner
In 1988, late on a summer night, my girlfriend and I pulled up to a red light in a borrowed van. My friend and his girlfriend pulled up next to us in his car. He rolled down the window, and had “Down By the River” going in the background as he made some kind of joke to us. The light changed to green, we turned left, he turned left to follow us, and then about ten seconds later I looked in the mirror and watched him get creamed from behind by a drunk driver. His girlfriend was dazed, but my friend was catatonic for the rest of the night in the emergency room, and only came “back to reality” the next day. But otherwise, remarkably, he wasn’t really hurt badly at all.
In 1989 I played “Cinnamon Girl” on stage. I was on guitar. My brother sang, and I did the harmony. Then in 1996 I did the same thing again, but this time it was a quieter version without drums.
In 1990 a friend and I spent an inordinately drunken amount of time giggling over a particular “Life in Hell” cartoon, specifically the one where the pregnant bunny (is that what they were?) shows up at her Dad’s place with her boyfriend. The boyfriend says “I only put it in a little bit,” and the girlfriend says “We’re in love.” My friend and I serendipitously discovered that these two lines fit in perfectly with the vocally unaccompanied guitar line in the last part of the first verse of “Winterlong.”
“Heart of Gold” was one of the first songs I ever learned how to play on guitar. “The Needle and the Damage Done” was one of the second ones.
Touching anecdotes, Mr Rousseau. 
I once taught myself how to play “Natural Beauty.” It’s up there among my favorite Neil Young songs.
marboulette
Ok fuckit. This is mine and Uncle Neil’s thread so I’m going to digress.
(The order gets a bit hazy after the first five)
A Man Needs a Maid.
Harvest was one of the anthem albums of my mid to late teens. Which reminds me that I must dig it out and play it in my car when I go out later.
I’m a Depressing Whiner Who Should Be Locked in a Closet.
Mr/Ms Redwagon, you are hereby banished to the Michael Jackson thread.
[quote=“Omniloquacious”]A Man Needs a Maid.
Harvest was one of the anthem albums of my mid to late teens. Which reminds me that I must dig it out and play it in my car when I go out later.[/quote]
Aye that album is great Heart of Gold and Old Man too.
Heart of Gold and Southern Man are my favs.
Wow, really??? Amazing, those also happen to be my fuckin GRANDMA’S favourite NY tunes…
tommy, shut the fuck up.
Don’t Cry No Tears For Me off of Zuma
Does Danny Whitten singing Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown from Tonight’s the Night count???
Honorable mention for Cinnamon Girl, 'cause I used to have one.
And Over and Over Again from Ragged Glory in the Best Overall Crazy Horse Song sub-category.
Wow, really??? Amazing, those also happen to be my fuckin GRANDMA’S favourite NY tunes…
tommy, shut the fuck up.
Don’t Cry No Tears For Me off of Zuma
Does Danny Whitten singing Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown from Tonight’s the Night count???
Honorable mention for Cinnamon Girl, 'cause I used to have one.
And Over and Over Again from Ragged Glory in the Best Overall Crazy Horse Song sub-category.[/quote]
As with most Neil Young fans, it’s tough to pick an ultimate favorite.
For me, the top five would probably be:
Like A Hurricane (Live Rust version)
Cortez the Killer
Barstool Blues
Southern Man
When You Dance I Can Really Love
EDIT: Ah shoot, Tonight’s The Night, and Needle And The Damage Done too. The more I think about his catalog, the more I want to add to my list. :s
It’s gotta be “Cinnamon Girl.”
Who else has the balls to play a guitar solo of over 25 same notes in a row?!
The chief used to have a roommate named “Skippy”, and the ONLY music they could agree on was Neil Young.
Ask him.
(the chief)
Bob Dylan said that it was his favourite song of all time. He is henceforth banished to the womens’ forum to take his punishment like a man.
There are two types of Neil Young songs.
My favorite electric Neil is “Hey Hey My My”. The best song about punk rock by a non-punk rocker.
My favorite acoustic Neil would be almost anything off of After the Goldrush. Maybe “Tell Me Why” or “I Believe in You”.
I also just want to point out that “Cortez the Killer” has the most ludicrously historically inaccurate lyrics I’ve ever heard. A great tune, though. The first few minutes don’t have any lyrics, anyway.
I don’t know about favorite song, though Cinnamon Girl, Down by the River, Hey Hey My My (or the reverse) and Cortez the Killer might be on the list. But my favorite album for a long while was Live Rust, which I bought, had stolen from me, bought again, had stolen again, etc. A lot of great songs on that and only one that I often skipped over – Sedan Delivery (not on my favorite list).
Anything off ‘After the Goldrush’ and 'Rust Never Sleeps.
Without which I never would have survived high school.
Vampire blues off the On the Beach album.His version of Bob Dylan’s Just like Tom Thumb’s Blues is also fantabulous.
“Crazy Horses” for the noisy stuff, but “Puppy Love” hands down for the ballads. That one still puts a catch in my throat and a tear in my eye.