He's a badass. Nothing wrong with that.

 

I've never had a problem with Neil's playing, he has always had great taste in gear and a gnarly tone. His voice is not my favourite but to each his own. That being said, I didn't like that performance, hopefully it was a free concert and not a paid production

 

I disagree on the performance. Not many could play a hollowbody with that tone, sing at the same time, without a backing band. Acoustic singer/songwriter is hard enough. With an electric, at least for me, it is very hard to pull off. I’ve done it once at an outdoor venue with a semi hollow. There is no room for mistakes. It was very scary. With a band behind you it is much easier to hide the mistakes like open strings ringing out, misplaced fretting fingers muting strings that should be played etc. A hollowbody by itself you hear every mistake.

 

He played by himself in his hometown here in Ontario last year and I'm pretty sure he didn't use a pick. I like playing without a pick myself so it made me feel less like a no pick playing loser. Anyone else like playing without a pick?

 

Saw NY several years ago in London and thought he played very well. His tone was superb, articulate, dialed in to maybe three distinct tones with variables that seemed to be fingers. His catalogue is huge with a lot of variety in style, which says to me that he’s very versatile.

 

The summer of 1970, I was writing for a small music tabloid in Montreal that promoter Donald K. Donald was bankrolling. I did mostly album reviews, and got a LOT of free albums that summer (some of which I still have). It was also the summer that the Kent State killings occurred. Like many, I went down to the U.S. Consulate, with former CHOM DJ Angus McKay (who also worked on the magazine), on Dr. Penfield Avenue (then with a different Anglo name, was it McTavish?) to protest, until they turned the fire hoses on us. It was a big crowd and since we weren't the first to arrive, we were at the rear of the crowd, so we didn't get sprayed.

That autumn, exhausted from all the free albums I had to review that were not my first choice, I bought Young's "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" with my own money, and spent many an hour that autumn playing along to that album in my room, trying to emulate his tone and feel. He's not a highly technical player, but he knows how to go for broke. Some of the live Youtubes of "Cortez the Killer" may strike one as excessively long, but on closer inspection he manages to build melodic solos in a methodical way that maintains your interest. Not flashy, just sincerely emotional. He also knows how to use the butt of his picking hand to restrict sustain in useful ways, which he clearly demonstrates here. Maybe it's just something you have to work on when you play a big hollowbody that is always at risk of feeding back if you let things ring out too long.

 

Saw Neil in Barrie one year (Molson Park?) a long time ago. Anyway, it was an all day thing with bands. Screaming Trees, See Spot Run, Jewel, etc. etc. Then Oasis came on and then Neil headlined the show with Crazy Horse. IMHO, Neil WAS the show. Stunning performance. A bunch of electric tunes, then him solo with the acoustic, then more with the band, a few more acoustic numbers, then the band joined him again. Had to have been 4 encores. He rocked the place. A real icon of the music industry.

 

Saw Neil in Barrie one year (Molson Park?) a long time ago. Anyway, it was an all day thing with bands. Screaming Trees, See Spot Run, Jewel, etc. etc. Then Oasis came on and then Neil headlined the show with Crazy Horse. IMHO, Neil WAS the show. Stunning performance. A bunch of electric tunes, then him solo with the acoustic, then more with the band, a few more acoustic numbers, then the band joined him again. Had to have been 4 encores. He rocked the place. A real icon of the music industry.

That was an awesome show.


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He played at my first high school dance in 1963. Small mining town in Northern Ontario. With the Squires. They came in the hearse (Long May You Run).

My little teenage mind was blown. I didn't know the guitar could be played higher up the neck than the nut. I talked to him. I still like some of his songs in spite of his annoying celebrity-saviour persona.

I liked the performance you posted @Kerry Brown. I didn't think much about the incident at the time and I was quite surprised at my "square" parents outrage. "You don't shoot kids!"

 

I love Neil's guitar playing. Learned a lot from him, specially on an acoustic (no pick!).
I like his syncopated strumming like in Cowgirl in the Sand - acoustic version from Live at Massey Hall or 4 Way Street with CSNY. I like his overdriven electric tone and solos in Powderfinger or Southern Man or many more...
Thanks to Neil I never use a pick on an acoustic. Hitting strings down with fingernails is not as precise of course but that's the beauty of this style.
I love Neil's guitar playing.

 

I love Neil's guitar playing. Learned a lot from him, specially on an acoustic (no pick!).
I like his syncopated strumming like in Cowgirl in the Sand - acoustic version from Live at Massey Hall or 4 Way Street with CSNY. I like his overdriven electric tone and solos in Powderfinger or Southern Man or many more...
Thanks to Neil I never use a pick on an acoustic. Hitting strings down with fingernails is not as precise of course but that's the beauty of this style.
I love Neil's guitar playing.

You make it sound like Neil never plays acoustic with a pick which would not be accurate.

 

I was always a big NY fan, although I will admit to being turned off in later years by his annoying celebrity-saviour persona as mentioned by @KapnKrunch.

He always puts on a good show.

 

I'm a bit younger and didn't get into Neil Young until my late 20's, currently 34. There is just something about his raw passion and song writing that just amazes me. He can take something that is seemingly quite simple and make it a master piece. As of late i have been influenced by his playing and even my 7 year old asks to Listen to some Neil Young. A couple weeks ago my kids asked to look at a picture of Neil to which they responded "ohh, Grandpas cuter"

 

I just watched the video you posted in the beginning. Playing solo on a distorted guitar and this syncopated rhythm that I mentioned and like so much .. love it. Great topic!

 

I've seen Neil Young live twice--completely different periods & styles--bti enjoyed both.

I think he is seriously underrated as an acoustic guitarist--and even on the electric guitar.
He's written some great riffs and he has been a huge influence on y playing.
Cowgirl in the Sand, T-Bone and Hey Hey My My are etched into me as far as feel and just going for it--and not worrying about technique.

 

I've seen Neil Young live twice--completely different periods & styles--bti enjoyed both.

I think he is seriously underrated as an acoustic guitarist--and even on the electric guitar.
He's written some greta riffs and he has been a huge influence on y playing.
Cowgirl in the Sand, T-Bone and Hey Hey My My are etched into me as far as feel and just going for it--and not worrying about technique.

Many critics have noted how Greta Van Fleet copies Led Zeppelin a lot. But if Neil is doing Greta riffs, does that mean he's really trying to copy Jimmy Page?

 

His work with Crazy Horse is an obvious beginning of the Grunge era, long before Grunge was a concept.

 

I love Neil Young's writing. I love his acoustic work.

I don't enjoy his electric guitar style. I think he's an amazing talent and that's just the way he likes to play. It just doesn't appeal to me and that's ok.

There's no explaining it.

 

My guitar teacher in the 70s asked me "is there a style you'd like to emulate". I said "Neil Young". He said "why would you want to play like that?" I replied with one word "crunchy". He didn't get it.

 

I didn't "get" Neil Young until I saw a couple of things:

1) I saw him play "No More" on SNL. His solo during that song sounded like his singing. It was a bit ragged, but somehow right.
2) I heard a live recording of "Old Man." I had thought he was a weak singer until that. He sounded like he always does, but with power.

I should also mention that I think "Harvest Moon" is a wonderful song.

I weighed in on a debate over the solo in "Cinnamon Girl" at another guitar site. Someone said it was a lousy solo, and I said that it was perfect for the song, and asked what they would play in it's place. I submit that there isn't anything else you could play there that would work better.

 

It's seldom a matter of "getting" something or not.

It's what you like or don't like.

In these sort of topics, anytime you have someone saying a solo is "lousy" you're wasting your time in my opinion.

I love the song Cinnamon Girl. The solo is a part of the song I could have lived without or with someone else playing it.

I wouldn't call it lousy.

It's not hard to "get". It's whether or not you want it once you get it.

I would add, that for years I would have said that my wife just doesn't get Rush.

Now I realize that she always got it. She knew and never denied that they were masterful musicians. She's not dumb. She just didn't enjoy the songs.

 

I love listening to his music and his conversations...I especially like his take on analog to digital conversion...a focused man.

 

Love electric Neil and acoustic Neil. Huge influence on my playing and me playing guitar at all.

How can you not love someone who got sued by his own record company for not sounding like himself?

Or took a shotgun to crates of vinyl as there was an error in the master process and it didn't sound right and then paid for the albums to be repressed out of his own pocket?

 

Wow. Amazing performance. And of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, but i have a difficult time understanding what could be problematic for anyone about that electric guitar playing. Killer riff, mean as hell tone, amazing song....what more could you want?

 

What more could I want?

For him to play the same song on a Martin D28.

 

Here is Neil working on his score to Jim Jarmusch’s western “Dead Man.” Again, if you dun ged this, nut sher whad ya ged...

 

your timing for posting this particular song is spot on, close at least. just saw that it was 51 years ago today

 

The event and the song had a profound effect on me.

 

That's a great vid, I love Neil, play a lot of his stuff, just so hard to find a key that I can play and sing to (Old Man, Heart of Gold for examples)

 

The amount of genres he's tackled and the number of times he's reinvented himself is remarkable.
Probably won't be with us for all that much longer, and I think people will probably be quite surprised with the size of his legacy in retrospect.

I love this non-traditional version of the classic. Apparently Nils Lofgren really enjoys playing it too.

 

I have seen Neil live 7 times and full disclosure I am a super fan.

I think that his electric playing is like controlled anger and feedback that transcends more than it is technically impressive. His acoustic playing live, in the right venue, is as close as I have come to religion - It is truly something to marvel and should be experienced by every guitar player before they die. I love both and I love the fact that they are so different like split personalities.

Best show I ever saw was in Buffalo New York in 2008 and he did the first set fully acoustic with just him sitting in a circle of guitars and playing, singing and the occasional harmonica. Then there is a set break and he comes back out with the full band, grabs "old black" and a wall of tweed amps and just rocks the place.

Long may you run Neil

 

Any guitarist who thinks Neil is not a good guitarist needs to learn to play Needle & The Damage Done exactly as Neil plays it and then talk to me.

 

I think that could be said of any number of Neil Young songs. He gets amazing sounds out of a D45, such a dynamic player and he really seems to be able to exploit the deep bass a D45 will provide.