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List Price: $46.49 | | Label: Reprise
Salesrank: 507743
Released: September 11, 2002 |
| Our Price: $67.06 |
| Used Price: $65.72 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Editorial Review:
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
Decade Reviews:
Best Neil Young Ever! 
2009-07-14 - I don't have many words. I just love this. Neil Young fans will understand. The man has so much depth, lyrically and musically.
Decade
2009-06-21 - Decade is a compilation album that was first released in 1977 as a 3 record set and is now released as a 2 CD compilation. Here we get 35 tracks worth of music and the album was hailed by critics when it was released and Allmusic and Robert Chritgau gave the album top marks and I agree with this. All the tracks have been compiled by Young himself and we get handwritten notes on each track. The booklet does not have any of the lyrics but does have unsigned liner notes and some nice photographs from the time that this compilation was released. 5/5.
decades by Neil Young 
2009-04-24 - the is fine...exactly what I wanted...could not find it in a store...but Amazon had it...and a good price too.
Neil Young Early Career Retrospective
2008-12-18 - "Decade" is a great compilation album, put together by Neil Young of his early career in 1977. It was originally a three album compilation, but this release is on two CDs. The retrospective is mostly chronological; though there are some exceptions, and it does cover all aspects of his career, whether it is with Buffalo Springfield, Solo, with Crazy Horse, or as part of Crosby Stills Nash & Young.
Six of the first seven tracks are from his days in Buffalo Springfield, including songs like "Down to the Wire" also with Dr. John, a live version in the studio of "Mr. Soul", and "Broken Arrow". The other track is "Sugar Mountain" a live track from a solo performance in Ann Arbor days before he released his first solo album. It also includes "The Loner" and "The Old Laughing Lady" from that album. It then moves into my personal favorite period, which is his first album with Crazy Horse and his second solo album "After the Gold Rush". This includes wonderful tracks such as "Cinnamon Girl", "Down by the River", "Cowgirl in the Sand", "I Believe in You", "After the Gold Rush", and "Southern Man", and the first CD closes with the first of two tracks from the "Déjà" Vu album from Crosby Stills, Nash & Young, "Helpless".
The second CD picks up where the first CD leaves off (and where the 4th side of the three album set began) with "Ohio" from Crosby Stills, Nash & Young's "Déjà Vu" album. This is followed by "Soldier" from the soundtrack "Journey through the Past", which is followed by five tracks from Neil's "Harvest" album, including classics like "Old Man", the somewhat unusual selection "A Man Needs A Maid", "Harvest", and "Heart of Gold", and a live recording of "The Needle and the Damage Done", though Neil also mixes in "The Star of Bethlehem" from the "American Stars `N Bars" album before the last one. Next up is two tracks from "Tonight's the Night" starting with the title track, and then including "Tired Eyes". Next are a couple of tracks from the "On the Beach" album, including "Walk On" and "For the Turnstiles".
Neil then makes an unusual choice to include some previously unreleased tracks. These days it has become a common practice, but back then it was unusual. These tracks include "Winterlong" and "Deep Forbidden Lake", and later in the disk "Love is a Rose". He also includes a version of "Like a Hurricane" from a rehearsal sessions for his Northern California Coastal Bar Tour in 1975. The other tracks which finish up this album include "Cortez the Killer" from the "Zuma" album, and two more previously unreleased tracks, the first being "Campaigner" from The Stills-Young Band, and finishing with a version of "Long May You Run" performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Not every track on this album is great, at least not to me, but the collection as a whole is outstanding, because it is more than a collection of hits, and instead is made up of interesting and thoughtful choices by Neil Young. Some of the unreleased tracks are among the best tracks on the album, though I am not particularly fond of "Campaigner", and that makes this collection a treat for fans which already have his other albums. If you like Neil Young, this is a great collection to pick up.
Good, balanced collection
2008-11-18 - I bought this 2 CD-set for Neil's Greatest Hits and some that maybe should have been. Not at all disappointed with "Helpless, "Heart Of Gold", "Ohio", and the rest of the more familiar ones. As an interested but not deep fan, the Buffalo Springfield stuff and several other selections might take some time.
My initial take on my first NY collection is that he didn't go into the studio to "write a hit". He had the words and music which wee going to connect with a very large number of fans, anyway.
Young is a classic folk-rock stylist, instantly recognizable.
Some of the more melancholy. drug-life reflections have little resonance today - drugs took away lives? It was terrible judgment (and perhaps powers-that-be who looked away because they didn't want to stifle...creativity) that claimed so many young lives.
I don't care for the handwritten notes on all the tracks. That's for a preface or exit statement. I'd like to know Month and Year of recording and have the session personnel in bold print.
Much has been written on the poor sound quality. My aging sound sytem might not lend to objective criticism. The acoustics come through without a hitch.
