What's Silver and Gold closest too, in terms of previous releases?

I'd also second 'Decade' and then go from there.

Decade's awesome but do you really want to own a 3 album comp when you're likely to buy most of the albums that it pulls from later.

I wore my vinyl copy of decade out as a kid though.

Yeah, I know everybody loves Decade (I've never heard it), but I just don't think the "greatest hits" route is the way to go with Neil Young.

Probably After the Gold Rush.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere isn't bad either, and both of those also have a song apiece that are pretty familiar to most people: "After the Gold Rush" and "Cinnamon Girl".

Zuma is such a loose balls-out rock record, but the songs never pop up anywhere on Classic Rock radio or things like that.

On the Beach is so good from start to finish, but it's also very dark. It's almost a closure (and I hate that word) record where Young buries the pain of his broken marriage to actress Carrie Snodgress.

While it stands on its own two feet very well, it also occupies a space after the huge Neil Young breakout from the Springfield and CSNY and the drunken rowdiness of Tonight's The Night which was recorded in 1972 or 73 but not released until 1975.

After OTB, Neil shook off his demons--upon the advice of a close friend, probably David Briggs, maybe Crazy Horse, but I forget--and got back to making loud, loose rock and roll with Crazy Horse, which is where you get Zuma.

But you might not buy them. I mean I dont really listen to Decade any more either but if you want a good collection of songs, its a great way to go.


plus its probly available used for fairly cheap.

Y'alls hatred of comps is idiotic.

I damn near played the silver off my copy of Decade.

Comes a Time is folksy

I don't hate comps, but when I buy an artist's greatest hits and then decide that I want their albums, I generally wish I had just started with an album.

Best-ofs generally deter me from going further with an artist for quite a while rather than having the opposite effect. There was a gap of several years with me between buying best-ofs for David Bowie, Bod Dylan, The Who, and The Velvet Underground (to name a few) and actually buying any of their albums. Once I did buy them I had to find a way to get rid of all of those now-useless comps.

Or alternatively, just throw on the comps if you don't feel like hearing a whole album. I still break out Decade from time to time, you get to hear a little bit of everything.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. After posting this, but before seeing the replies, I went by a used music store and saw decade for $12. I almost bought it, but was disuaded by the high price, for a used cd (even if it's 2), and also it's comp-ness. I don't have any real problem with comps, but I prefer to hear albums as albums, all the way through, as the artist intended.

I believe as far as Neil is concerned though, he is totally involved in his album production, even the comps. Just food for thought. I read something about how involved he was in the recent Greatest Hits album released. I'll try to scrounge up the article and throw up a link...it should be bookmarked somewhere.

I'm at 22% on my last contribution girls. The wait is almost over.

Quit fucking around and just buy everything the guy put out in 60s and 70s, skip the 80s and go to Harvest Moon in '92.

He's putting out a TON of unreleased stuff from the 60s in the next year via a boxset.

Got any idear on a date for this yet?

source, please? I just want to read up some more about this.

neil young opens the vaults -- story from rolling stone.

i'm particularly interested in some of those live shows.

I don't hate comps in general, but I do think its redundant to own a comp and then most or all of the songs on their original studio releases. Most of us own too many albums/cds already to do that.

As great as Hot Rocks is, would you really recommend it to someone over Exile, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed, or Aftermath? I'm guessing you wouldn't.

Comps have their place for artists that you don't consider it worthwhile to own all the albums they pull from. I really like having the Beatles Red Album "1962-1966" for example because I really don't feel the need to own all their earlier pop albums but its nice to have the hits. I just don't think Neil fits in that category.

awesome.

get Trans next

Lest we forget:

http://obner.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=113 ... neil+vault

please start with everybody knows this is nowhere.

A good chunk of his 70s output is quite good. A good chunk of his 80s output is very, very bad.

1) On the Beach
2) Zuma
3) Rust Never Sleeps/Everybody Knows.../After the Goldrush

Hot Rocks is probably a bad example because I consider the first disc to be very essential because it compiles the Stones mid 60's "singles" period. It is also, in general, a great place to start.

Even though I consider it probably the greatest album of all time, I wouldnt suggest that anybody qstart off with Exile. That's just me.

I do see your point though. I think it is also important to consider that not everyone has the copious resources, budget and dedication to their music collection as you do. For some, a comp. of a given artist will suffice just fine.

I don't personally think that Neil Young is one of those artists, but I do think that Decade is a great snapshot of his most productive period and captures it much better than say Bob Dylan's Greates Hits Volume 1 which is a waste of plastic IMHO.

Don't get me wrong, Decade, Hot Rocks and Kink Kronikles are probably the three greatest comps ever. I owned all of 'em as a pre-teen because I couldn't afford all the studio albums and I played 'em to death. I get your point.

But I think Neil Young's early to mid 70's string of albums are probably only rivaled by David Bowie's output over the similar period for consistent greatness over a fairly long time period. I'm not trying to be crass and suggest that everyone needs to own every good album. I'm just thinking Haq is going to eventually want most of these if he likes whatever he buys as an entry point.

And I really dislike Dylan's greatest hits. Its not that the songs aren't great as individual songs. More that its a horrible entry point in my opinion because it groups all the songs where his voice is most difficult to digest (eg like a rolling stone, subterrean homesick blues, etc.). I avoided dylan for a long time based on it so I hold a grudge against it.

Yeah it's amazing that I became as huge a Dylan fan as I am considering that was the only thing I owned by him for a few years. Utter. Garbage.