Neil Young’s “Ditch Trilogy”

[Mercury]

Edit: I mistakenly posted this in the games forum. It’s not a game. I am silly. Apologies.

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Time Fades Away by Neil Young

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Tonight's The Night by Neil Young

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On The Beach by Neil Young

I’ve been listening to these 3 albums a lot lately. They make up the so-called Ditch Trilogy. They’re all fantastic and beloved and so forth.

I wanted to make a poll to see what is your favorite of the 3. And if you want to rank em and talk about then, you can as well, obviously. Also curious how you all feel this run of albums compares to his other runs of albums, such as his classic 3 just before this 3 (Everybody Knows..., After The Goldrush, Harvest) and some of his later periods of creative brilliance.

Right now I lean Time Fades Away > On The Beach > Tonight’s the Night. But as I listen to Tonight’s the Night now I am second guessing myself yet again. My opinion keeps shifting on the relative quality.

Anyway, thoughts?
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-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

[Skinny]

[Mercury]

[PossiblyMichigan]

[Mercury]

[Skinny]

Sorry, that was unnecessarily curt. I'll have to give these a relisten before I can offer any concrete thoughts.
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2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.

[KitchenSink]

Tonight's The Night is my favorite of the 3 (as well as my favorite Neil Young overall) honestly by a pretty wide margin. can elaborate on that when I get some more time/energy but in the meantime I'll just say it's a somberly beautiful record that nearly always leaves me feeling like this

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A Variety of Artists

[LedZep]

I'm gonna be a basic beach and go with On the Beach. Both that one and Tonight's the Night have some incredible highlights, but Ambulance Blues and the title track are both top 5 Neil Young songs, while Tired Eyes and Borrowed Tune aren't. Also I think On the Beach is slightly more consistent. Time Fades Away is better than some people say, but it's not in the same tier as the other two.
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Finally updated the overall chart

2020s
90s

[Patman360]

All good, but I've always loved On The Beach the most out of any Young album by some distance. It hits harder for me.
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2023
2022

[Mercury]

Hmm... I relistened to Tonights the Night last night and its amazing. I think I have been underrating it for a long time. There is a deep agony and stark honesty about it which is great. Although the title track in its versions both soft and hard never really did it for me quite as much as the rest of the album or the other albums. The meats and veggies that make up the album between the bread which is the title track in this long and ridiculous sandwich analogy is some of the best stuff in his discog.

If you'd asked me just a month ago which is the best of the Ditch Trilogy I would have said On The Beach, no contest. Maybe its just the copious use of the most beautiful word in music and english - Blues - on 3 songs, but those songs and not just the titles, are absolutely mind-blowing. The whole vibe of On The Beach seems more varied and more uhhh, hmmm, lets seee,... i guess more dirty and more ominous and dangerous than Tonight's The Night. TtN is more raw and deeply sad.

But I am the asshole who voted for Time Fades Away, so what gives?

Well, it may be "recency bias" as I only recently kinda fell in love with this album and it inspired me to give the other same-era albums a few more listens and reappraisals. Its such a daring and kinda career suicidal thing to release a rough, scruffy live album of new material as your album follow up to your big hit. I respect the insane daring that took. And considering Neil made this hard to get your hands on for decades after its release, a mystique and legend started to surround it. Yes, on youtube and other places on the internet this album was available to stream. But I am a simple man and I have a weird phobia of listening to youtube album videos. I just want the album on CD, vinyl, or on Apple/spotify. And so I gave up on it and listened to other stuff when a few months ago I on a whim checked if it was miraculously uploaded to Apple music, and... IT WAS! That was a special moment. I loved the album on first listen, one of my fave live albums ever now and I have loved it more and more on subsequent listens. Don't have real actual musical thoughts on it, but I just think that ramshackle live atmosphere lends something special to the intensity and sadness of these tunes.

As for how it and the other 2 albums in the "trilogy" stack up to other eras and albums by and from Neil Young, well with my recent deep dive into them, I'd say they are quickly closing the gap with After the Goldrush and Rust Never Sleeps. Those 2 and in that order are my fave Neil Young albums ever still. But just behind is Time Fades Away, On The Beach, Harvest, and a little behind them is Tonight's the Night and Everybody Knows This is Nowhere and Zuma and Live Rust. I can't say I've heard many Neil Albums post, say, 1979. I know he has some good ones in the late 80s and 90s. But outside of Harvest Moon (which is quite cool iirc) and a listen to the 1989 album (which i barely remember but I think I liked) I can say most everything after that brilliant 1-2 punch in 1979 is a blindspot.

As for decades of music, 1969 to 1979 Neil Young is absurd. Just so many perfect or near perfect at least albums. I count 7 classics and another 3-4 very good near classics. Dylan 63-69 is the gold standard of dominance in my mind. Prince in the era from 1979 to 1989 is pretty close. Joni Mitchell from 1968 to 1976 is just insane as well. Miles Davis, from what I have heard, was maybe the greatest and most consistent artist i've heard many albums from, especially 1955ish to 1974. And I know I am leaving off people like Bowie and Mingus and so forth that have yet to be fully explored by me or have yet to really blow my mind or consume my interests for any amount of time.

Anyway, that is my take on this.

OH! Whoever moved this to the MUSIC FORUM, thank you very much!
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-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!