Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Down To The Wire
2. Burned
3. Mr. Soul
4. Broken Arrow
5. Expecting To Fly
6. Sugar Mountain
7. I Am A Child
8. The Loner
9. The Old Laughing Lady
10. Cinnamon Girl
11. Down By The River
12. Cowgirl In The Sand
13. I Believe In You
14. After The Gold Rush
15. Southern Man
16. Helpless

Disc 2:

1. Ohio
2. Soldier
3. Old Man
4. A Man Needs A Maid
5. Harvest
6. Heart Of Gold
7. Star Of Bethlehem
8. The Needle And The Damage Done
9. Tonight's The Night (Part 1)
10. Tired Eyes
11. Walk On
12. For The Turnstiles
13. Winterlong
14. Deep Forbidden Lake
15. Like A Hurricane
16. Love Is A Rose
17. Cortez The Killer
18. Campaigner
19. Long May You Run

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2951 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set

Amazon.com
The first stop for anybody new to Neil Young's music, this 34-song set (originally released in 1977) traces his growth from Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to Crazy Horse to his Harvest band, the Stray Gators. The album defined Young to rock radio the way Hot Rocks determined which Rolling Stones songs would become classics, but this is more than a quickie greatest-hits collection. Rarities and hits--Springfield's "Mr. Soul," CSNY's "Ohio," and Young's "Cinnamon Girl," "Heart of Gold," and the closing "Long May You Run"--develop in thematic and chronological patterns. --Steve Knopper

Customer Reviews

The Best and the Worst
How can an album as important as this one be allowed to remain in it's current state of "not yet remastered" disrepair? Forcrisake, every other chunk of trite music out there from the 70's and 80's has been remastered. Either Neil is going to launch the mother of all box sets, or someone has just gotten very lazy.

The worst fidelity in my collection of 2,000+ CDs
The music would be a fine introduction to early Neil Young, but the fidelity sounds like an old car radio playing through your friend Larry's coat. Every track that is available elsewhere sounds better elsewhere. (Compare "Like a Hurricane" on this album to the one on "American Stars n Bars," which is HDCD in standard release.) If you simply must have some of the oddball cuts it doesn't look like you have much choice. Actually, the smart thing to do would be to wait until Young's back catalogue gets the audiophile treatment.

Ten golden years
Spanning Neil Young's career form 1966 to 1976 (and leaving no stone unturned), Decade is an epic collection of songs, a glorious encapsulation of one of the greatest discographies ever recorded. As an introduction to the wonderful world of Neil, it can't be beat; every one of the eclectic artist's passions is on full display here, from the apocalyptic electric guitar workouts of "Down By The River" and "Cowgirl In The Sand" to the soul-shaking folk introspection of "Old Man" and "Heart Of Gold." As such, every facet of Young's genius can be found somewhere on this record. One listen to the artist's lopsided, circuitous evolution, from the acid-dream folk rock of his early days with Buffalo Springfield to his tenure as the surreally bitter poet laureate of the post-Vietnam era, should convince anybody that Neil Young was a unique and compelling artist, an inspired madman howling from a dark and gorgeous dream world.

Ahem. The music found herein is simply fantastic. These two discs are saturated with masterpieces. Aside from the aforementioned tracks, we've got dreamweaving classics such as "Expecting To Fly" and "Broken Arrow," as well as the tortured sonic soundscape of "Cortez The Killer." The spooked psych-soul of "The Old Laughing Lady" slams headlong into the crunching rock anthem "Cinnamon Girl," birthing the tortured outrage of "Southern Man" and "Ohio" in the process. And then there's the quiet apocalypse of "After The Gold Rush," the mournful haze of "Sugar Mountain," the raw sting of "The Needle And The Damage Done," and the mangled death funk of "Tonight's The Night (Part 1)." Sure, these songs (most of them, anyway) can be found on albums that you should already have (such as Harvest, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and Tonight's The Night), but Decade is still a worthy purchase for the simple reason that before you buy it, "Like A Hurricane" and "Campaigner" won't be in your collection. After you buy it, they will be. Plus, collection or not, its sounds great to listen to these 35 songs in this order.