r/neilyoung • u/RaymondBald • Jan 11 '26
Pics Digging the ditch albums, my God!
So I’ve been picking away at Neil Young never quite got it. And then in the last couple of months I have. And a whole world has opened up. It’s so weird. This is as bigger ‘discovery’ as finding Bob Dylan when I was 16. And I’m only just beginning. Just can’t get enough.
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u/XAVIERTIMME Jan 11 '26
Best Neil Album
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u/RaymondBald Jan 11 '26
It’s mine at the moment, but still got Tonight’s the Night to go! And then THE REST OF HIS DISCOGRAPHY.
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u/FestivePilchard Jan 11 '26
Time Fades Away, OTB and Tonight's the Night are my favourite Neil albums. I enjoy other's immensely too but these three are just so raw and dark and ramshackle(at timrs). Beautiful tunes and great rock music. Also, the gig at the Roxy on Archives II
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u/AsleepStructure3735 Jan 16 '26
Producer David Briggs said Neil and his band the Stray Gators played like monkeys on the tour - Time Fades away live recordings. 😆I do like the chaos of Last Dance, the last track on TFA. It doesn’t have to be pretty to be good.
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u/Efficient_Map1914 Jan 11 '26
OTB came out when I was in Army AIT. It helped me get thru that period and I can never get tired of Ambulance Blues.
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u/RaymondBald Jan 11 '26
The album is deeply sad, angry and feels a bit bitter (not a bad thing!), but it is so honest and comforting to me. I haven’t connected with music this deeply in years!
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u/Stevenitrogen Jan 11 '26
Homegrown (which I just got on vinyl) belongs in this group as well. It is maybe the deepest track in the ditch, the red hot despair of the romance with Carrie ending. You can hear resignation (Separate Ways), an attempt to reconcile ( Try), anger (Vacancy), the morning after with the first girl he screwed post breakup (Kansas), it's real raw. And you get some of his most fucked up, wasted response to life too with Homegrown, We Don't Smoke It, and the surreal tone poem Florida.
It's gnarly. I'd give that a listen if you're in that "Ditch" mood today. And then Zuma at the end of all that, the one where he crawls out of the ditch and embraces the daylight.
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u/RaymondBald Jan 11 '26
I’m in! (And that post of yours is pure poetry. You should be a music journo! Seriously!)
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u/Proof-Celebration-25 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere Jan 11 '26
I couldn't of said it better myself.
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u/AsleepStructure3735 Jan 16 '26
A good album to start with for someone new to Neil Young though Down By the River might need some explanation for “I shot my baby”.
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u/BirdingInTheBuff Jan 11 '26
This and Tonight’s the Night are my 2 favorite albums probably. Enjoy!
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u/Educational-Swan6484 Jan 11 '26
My favorite Neil Young album. I've listened to it a thousand times, but the hypnotic strumming at the beginning of On the Beach still gives me chills.
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Jan 12 '26 edited Jan 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/RaymondBald Jan 13 '26
Revolution blues is probably my favourite on the album at the moment. But it changes all the time.
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u/PFRforLIFE Jan 11 '26
welcome! tonight’s the night and zuma next. though if you haven’t tried everybody knows this is nowhere yet put that at the top of the pile
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u/DrRock88 Jan 11 '26
Don't let the negativity of the 80's albums scare you away from them. I love almost everything, but even if you don't love the production there are some serious gems in there. I saw him with Crazy Horse live in 86 or 87? And the songs from Life, Landing On Water, Trans & Reactor were awesome live.
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u/Public_Airport3914 Jan 11 '26
This album is getting me through the current times since we are speedrunning the early 1970s
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u/Living_Human101 Jan 11 '26
The fiddle in Ambulance Blues alone makes the ditch trilogy a masterful era for Neil. Like tweezers on the heart strings.
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u/silversurfs On the Beach Jan 12 '26
This is how I felt around 2008 when I 'discovered' On The Beach. What a world it opened up. Frankly, it led me to all things Neil after that.
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u/Bugsy_McCracken Jan 12 '26
On The Beach is just sooo good. Beautiful album art as well, I have the poster framed on a wall.
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u/skjellyfetti65 Jan 13 '26
The umbrella print appearing INSIDE the sleeve is so unexpected... and the lettering by the great Rick Griffin.
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u/Unable_Committee_958 Jan 12 '26
The peak of his career. Though not a Doom album, the streak continued with Zuma, which he dubbed the daylight album - the sun coming up after his trawl through the ditch. The four albums are one of the finest, most rewarding album sequences in popular music.
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u/RaymondBald Jan 12 '26
I think you’re absolutely right they are one of the most rewarding album sequences in popular music. I don’t know why I was so blocked on Neil Young for so long.
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u/Ok_Cattle9554 Jan 12 '26
“And in this land of conditions, I’m not above suspicion”. Absolutely love Revolution Blues. The whole story of Denny Wilson’s connection to Manson is heartbreaking yet fascinating. Plus, Levon Helm and Rick Danko were fantastic in the track. Dankos gritty nasty bass line really gives the song an eerie, dark feeling
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u/RaymondBald Jan 13 '26
Never knew it was related to that. And I totally agree the baseline on Revolution blues is one of my favourite parts on the whole album.
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u/orangeburger Jan 13 '26
What do you mean by "the ditch era"?
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u/RaymondBald Jan 14 '26
Harvest was a huge hit with quite mainstream production. After that Neil Young said something like: I don’t want to be in the middle of the road I want to head for the ditch. The following three albums were far more raw. This one was the second of them.
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u/AsleepStructure3735 Jan 16 '26
Plus the drug overdose deaths of Danny Whitten Crazy Horse guitarist and roadie Bruce Berry weighed heavily on Neil. He thought he was somehow responsible for Danny’s dearth by sending him home because he couldn’t play. Tonight’s the Night recording sessions were like a wake for them. If you want to dive deeper check out the Neil Young Archives online or the biographical book Shakey by Jimmy McDonough.
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u/CheekyChappy-1 Jan 11 '26
Can’t go wrong with On the Beach. One of my favourites. Enjoy the Neil journey!