were always a bit shit!

Got to be Neil......broader range, more inventive and just plain feel like listening to him more.

As I do like 4 or 5 of his songs and on the other hand (and the more squeamish amongst the massive may want to look away now) I have never knowingly heard a Neil young record......

Post

Justification not required.

I bought 'Astral Weeks' when I was at university, and thought it was rubbish. Around about a similar time I bought 'Harvest', and thought it was brilliant. That thorough research could only bring one outcome, and I've not bought anything by Van Morrison since.

Neil Young: my favourite artist of all time. I'm currently slowly re-reading "Shakey", and stopping at every album point to listen to it on headphones!

I used to love NY till I seen him in concert. His performance put me off him and have not really listened to him since.
I seen Van Morrison in concert without really knowing much about his music and loved his stuff although he was a bit grumpy on stage.Van is a better singer but Neil Young has more classic songs.
I think then that its a draw going into extra time!

I have Astral Weeks, Moondance and the one he did with The Chieftians. I like them all just fine...in parts they are superb!

I have 20+ Neil Young albums...I don't like Trans much but I love all the rest. I have his latest on my computer desk but I've not played it yet.

"Into The Mystic" and "Moondance" should be listened/danced to with a lover. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any Neil songs I'd share with my other half.

Still.....Neil gets my vote.

Apologies if I'm talking pish but I've had more tonight than Dave drinks in a week.

Incidently MyAmericanMate....I first came across Louis Prima about a year ago....he's in my *legends* section now!

is the man.

Might go and play On The Beach now.

Van's just a brown arsed git

but only just - I find something (I hate to say it) almost mystical in the output of both men, but Neil's output over the last twenty years tips the scales.

For added points, Neil Young is the one I'd rather have a beer with.

Has there ever been a more overrated record? I love Van The Man but there are dozen of his albums I prefer to it.

And his 80s output, which is generally overlooked in comparison to his 70s stuff is terrific. Beautiful Vision, Poetic Champions Compose, and especially No Guru, No Method, No Teacher, are just great albums.

As to who's the best, Van or Neil, at their respective peaks I couldn't separate them.

Yes please - Neil Young - always interesting.

No thank you - Van Morrison - miserable cunt.

But Van released a string of albums in the 70s that would take some beating (Veedon Fleece being my favourite. I agree with Johan about No Guru No Method.
I also agree with Sir Tainley about who I'd rather have a beer with.
I'd rate Van as the better artist and Neil as the better man.

Van's fallen from favour hasn't he? The gob iron story, the demeanour and dress sense of a provincial cabbie, the assumption that he is in Professor Biscuit's memorable phrase above "a miserable cunt".

Well, I expect through history many major artists in all fields of cultural endeavour have been complete and utter Jeremy Hunts too. Ol' Neil - lest we forget - has had many Huntish episodes - which in the portrayal of his life and work seem to have been airbrushed out of the picture.

Anyway, their personality aside, who is the greater? I would contend that given the range of his work and the breadth of his influence on subsequent major artists the answer is Neil Young. Morrison is a genius too - of that, there is little doubt - but he is an idiosyncratic one.

To extend a literary parallel, a comparative choice could be made between James Joyce (Young) and Thomas Hardy (Morrison). Of course, Joyce is revolutionary and the pin-up boy for every would be literary iconoclast since. Hardy is out of favour, fodder only for TV and Film adaptations. However, there is a depth and richness and humanity in Hardy which is somewhat lacking in Joyce. Yes, there is invention and dazzlement and complexity but warmth perhaps less so. So, I believe, is the case with Young and Morrison.

In their peak, both have produced albums of brilliance and lasting quality - but as the more constant companion, I would choose Morrison. In Astral Weeks and It's Too Late To Stop Now, he made albums I have probably listened to more than any others.

And, let's not forget there was a time when Van was a cocky, handsome young Dan who produced the best pop single that these Isles produced. Given that he had some reasonable competition at the time in the form of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who, that's no mean feat.

So for me, it's Van The Man I would choose. And that single?

Them and "Here Comes The Night"

Van Morrison was in a skiffle group (The Sputniks; so bonus points there) and was the leader of 'THE' early/mid 60s R 'n' B group, Them, who wipe the floor with all opposition in the incredible mid-60s.
Fantastic group, make the clash sound like The Wombles.

Whilst I like Neil Young, I think that Bob Dylan could have made pretty much any of his albums.
However, no one has ever made an album in the pop field like 'Astral Weeks'.
It's completely unique.

I like lots of Van Morrison songs and albums. But Neil Young is the correct answer. As above, i was introduced to both by The Last Waltz.

A more interesting, restless artist.

He headlined at a local blues festival a few years ago.

No interreaction with the audience whatsoever. Great music, but not a great concert experience.

Sorry, but I really do think he is a miserable cunt.

Neil's best is long gone. Van made two indisputable classics (Astral Weeks - which is the best album either has ever made - and Moondance) but neither has made anything better than decent since the early 70s.

Of the two, I'd go for Van - simply because he's out of fashion, and I always root for an underdog. But neither has made anything as great as this:

(in my humble opinion - others may vary)

in error.

For the pure and simple reason that I attended his show with Booker T and the MGs at Finsbury Park in 1993. Possibly the finest gig I've seen... it was megalithic.

4 Non Blondes were shocking, however.

Between the viaducts of your dreams
Where the mobile steel rims crack
And the ditch and the backroads stop
Could you find me
Would you kiss my eyes
And lay me down
In silence easy
To be born again

for Astral Weeks
it has to be Van.

Harvest was my favourite album as a teenager followed by After the Goldrush. Harvest Moon was my favourite album when I met my wife - we played it over and over.
I love Van too but don't buy the Astral Weeks legendary status - I much prefer his later era and there is a deep resonance for me with the spoken narrative Coney Island which is just lovely. By the way, the remark that Bob Dyland could have made any of Neils albums is a bit off the mark - I doubt he could replicate the awesome lead guitar of albums like Freedom.

for me, at least.

The reason being, I quite like records by both of them but I can only listen to either of them for about 20 minutes at a time. Both on grounds of their voices.

I like more Neil Young lps (Nowhere, Goldrush, On The Beach) than Van Morrison lps (Blowin' In The Mind, Astral Weeks, bits of Moondance) but I like Them more than Buffalo Springfield.

And I prefer the first CSN lp to Deja Vu (I don't like anything else by them).

So, take your pick I suppose - so long as I can turn it off after 20 minutes, I'll be happy with either of them. Providing it's from the selections I've named, otherwise I'd be equally unhappy.

It's a stand alone work of genius, in my view. Van's made plenty of decent stuff since, but none that's as startling or as unique.

"Moondance", for example, is brilliant but very much a pop album, I think; a collection of concise, enormously appealing songs, with catchy choruses, etc.

"Astral Weeks", bar the jarring exception of "The Way Young Lovers Do", has something else - not always something tangible. I'd be hard pressed to say why "Cypress Avenue" or "Madame George" are that much more moving than anything else in his oeuvre, but to me, they just are.

Music's a peculiar beast, isn't it?

Neil Young owns VM. He made "On The Beach", "Harvest" and "After The Goldrush".

Even some of his newer songs are good too. (I quite enjoyed "Fork In The Road", but don't tell anyone...)