Dave's Music Hall of Fame: Album Inductees (February 2022)

The Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums Originally posted 2/22/2022. January 22, 2019 marked the 10-year anniversary of the DMDB blog. To honor that, Dave’s Music Database announced its own Hall of Fame. This month marks the thirteenth group of album inductees. These are the top folk/folk-rock albums of all time, excluding previous inductees Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited from Bob Dylan, Carole King’s Tapestry, and Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush. See the full list of album inductees here.

The Band Music from Big Pink (1968) Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

Ironically it took a group of four Canadians and one American to popularize Americana, or roots-based music. The Band’s debut album came about after the members had already made a name for themselves backing Ronnie Hawkins and then Bob Dylan. This album, which featured “The Weight” and “I Shall Be Released,” is a Grammy Hall of Fame inductee. Read more.

The Band The Band (1969) Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

AllMusic.com’s William Ruhlmann called the Band’s self-titled sophomore album “a more deliberate and even more accomplished effort” than their debut. It was commercially more successful, reaching the top ten and selling a million copies.The album, which features “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down,” is a Grammy Hall of Fame and National Recording Registry inductee. Read more.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Déjà Vu (1970) Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

In 1969, the trio of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash were hailed as one of rock’s first supergroups. It seemed impossible to top their triumphant Woodstock appearance and a top-ten, four-million-selling album debut, but they roared back the next year by adding Neil Young to their arsenal and delivering a #1 album that doubled the sales of its predecessor. The Grammy Hall of Fame album featured a plethora of folk-rock staples, including “Teach Your Children,” Woodstock,” “Our House,” and “Helpless.” Read more.

Bob Dylan Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

“Subterranean Homesick Blues,” the leadoff track from Bob Dylan’s fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home, wasn’t just his first top-40 single and an iconic video. It also announced a bold new direction for the folk hero: he was going electric. The move alienated some of the genre’s most rigid aficionados but made for a triumphant merger of folk meets rock. The Grammy Hall of Fame album also introduced “Mr. Tambourine Man,” which the Byrds turned into the signature song for the entire movement. Read more.

Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks (1975) Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

AllMusic.com’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine said, “Dylan made albums more influential than this, but he never made one better.” The Grammy Hall of Fame inductee is popularly referred to as his divorce album because it documents the collapse of his marriage to Sara Lownds, although Dylan denies this. He was also surprised people responded so much to an album with painful themes, but it was definitely a commercial success, reaching #1 in the U.S. and selling 10 million copies worldwide. Read more.

Joni Mitchell Blue (1971) Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

AllMusic.com’s Jason Ankeny called this “the quintessential confessional singer/songwriter album.” Joni’s platinum-selling, Grammy Hall of Fame inductee is an exercise of “writing about what you know” as she lays bare her feelings about ending her relationship with Graham Nash and starting an affair with James Taylor. Paste magazine said, it “set a new bar for breakup albums and still remains the standard by which any acoustically inclined singer/songwriter today will be compared.” Read more.

Van Morrison Astral Weeks (1968) Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

The Grammy Hall of Fame album failed to chart in the U.S. or UK but integrated the improvisational spirit (as well as some significant players) from the jazz world into a folk-leaning effort that no one expected from the guy who’d delivered “Brown Eyed Girl” on his debut and the iconic garage rock “Gloria” with his band Them. PopMatters.com’s Jason Mendelsohn called it “a jazz record disguised as a rock record.” Read more.

Van Morrison Moondance (1970) Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

After the jazzy Astral Weeks, Van Morrison did another 180 and returned to a more tightly-structured, pop-leaning effort with Moondance, a three-million seller that delivered the top-40 hit “Come Running” as well as classic rock hits like “Into the Mystic,” “Crazy Love,” “And It Stoned Me,” and, of course, the title cut. Read more.

Simon & Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970) Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

It’s hard to top Bridge Over Troubled Water as a last hurrah. The fifth and final album for Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel was a massive success, hitting #1 for 10 weeks in the U.S. and 33 weeks in the UK. It sold over 28 million copies worldwide and won the Grammy for Album of the Year. It also gave the world the top-10 hits “The Boxer,” “Cecilia,” and the iconic chart-topping title cut. Read more.

Neil Young Harvest (1972) Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

Harvest was a #1 album that sold more than 16 million copies worldwide, thanks to the chart-topping “Heart of Gold,” top-40 hit “Old Man,” and perhaps the best “don’t do heroin” song ever, “The Needle and the Damage Done.” Billboard named it the Album of the Year and it has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. PopMatters.com’s Erik Klinger says it “hardly sounds like a naked grab for the mainstream” but, as his co-hort Jason Mendelsohn says, “it is by far the most accessible suite of songs he had written thus far in his career.” Read more.

Neil Young “Old Man” released

Old Man Neil Young

Writer(s): Neil Young (see lyrics here) Released: April 17, 1972 First Charted: April 28, 1972 Peak: 31 BB, 26 CB, 27 GR, 33 HR, 4 CL, 4 CN, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 101.08 video, 137.68 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Rock singer/songwriter Neil Young was born in 1945 in Toronto. He rose to fame as a member of Buffalo Springfield and also worked with Crosby, Stills & Nash on their 1970 classic Déjà Vu before releasing his own critical and commercial peak with Harvest, his fourth solo album. Most of the attention was focused on “Heart of Gold,” Young’s only #1 song. It was considered a significant song in the singer/songwriter movement of the 1970s and a prime example of folk rock at its best. However, the album also featured gems such as “The Needle and the Damage Done” and “Old Man.” The latter was written about an old caretaker Louis Avila on Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch in California. Young said, “Louis took me for a ride in this blue Jeep. He gets me up there on the top side of the place, and there’s this lake up there that fed all the pastures, and he says, ‘Well, tell me, how does a young man like yourself have enough money to buy a place like this?’ And I said, ‘Well, just lucky, Louis, just really lucky.’ And he said, ‘Well, that’s the darndedest thing I ever heard.’ And I wrote this song for him.” WK The song compared an old man and young man’s life, showing how the older man used to be like the younger one and that they largely have the same needs. Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor both sang on the song; Taylor also played a six-string banjo tuned like a guitar. WK They also sang on “Heart of Gold.” Ronstadt said, “I thought they were such beautiful songs. I loved them…I don’t think we started until midnight and it was dawn when we came out out…It was really exciting. I just thought I’ve been part of something really wonderful.” SF The song has been used and performed in many settings. One of the most notable was a cover of the song by Beck in 2022 to promote a football game between the Tampa Bay Buccanneers and Kansas City Chiefs. It was a nod to 45-year-old quarterback Tom Brady, the oldest player in the league, vs. the young QB phenom Patrick Mahomes. Both won Super Bowls at 24 years old, making for a perfect reference to the line in the song “24 and there’s so much more.” WK It was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Performance. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Neil Young SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 2/14/2024; last updated 4/26/2024.

Neil Young hit #1 with “Heart of Gold”

Heart of Gold Neil Young

Writer(s): Neil Young (see lyrics here) First Charted: January 29, 1972 Peak: 11 US, 11 CB, 12 GR, 11 HR, 8 AC, 1 CL, 10 UK, 12 CN, 14 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.4 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 4.0 radio, 92.0 video, 373.84 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Critic John Rockwell once called Neil Young “the quintessential hippie-cowboy loner.” FB The legendary artist first made a name for himself with Buffalo Springfield in the late ‘60s before striking out on his own. In 1970, he collaborated with Crosby, Stills & Nash, contributing classics like “Ohio” and “Helpless” before returning to his solo career. In 1972, he found his biggest success with Harvest, his fourth solo album. The album produced the only top-40 hits of his solo career with the chart-topping “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man.” Harvest and “Heart of Gold” were perfect representations of the ‘70s singer/songwriter era, when adult-contemporary and folk-driven artists like Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor found huge mainstream success. Both of them lent their backup vocals to “Heart of Gold.” They were in Nashville to perform on Johnny Cash’s TV show and Elliot Mazer, the producer for Harvest, invited them to perform on the album. WK During the recording of the album, Young was wearing a brace because of a back injury. He explained that it made the album mellower because he couldn’t stand for long periods of time to play electric guitar, but he could play acoustic sitting down. All Music Guide’s Denise Sullivan called it “the ultimate campire song,” AMG noting that it is marked by “a little harmonica, a little peddle steel, his natural twang, and two simple verses that speak of the universal condition.” AMG “Heart of Gold” served as the “perfect expression of the brooding idiosyncratic artist at the height of his quest.” FB It featured “one of Young’s most haunting, memorable melodies, sung in his usual broken voice.” TB Bob Dylan said that while he always liked Neil Young, he despised “Heart of Gold” because it was the only time it bothered him that someone else sounded like him. WK Young himself has knocked it, saying in the liner notes for his 1977 Decade compilation, “This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch.” A wide variety of artists have recorded the song, including Tori Amos, Boney M, Johnny Cash, Bettye LaVette, Kacey Musgraves, Willie Nelson, Passenger, Roxette, and James Taylor. WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Neil Young AMG All Music Guide review by Denise Sullivan FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 308. RC Rod Couch (2015). The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era: 1955-2015. Pages 193-4. SF Songfacts DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 129. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 134. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 2/5/2021; last updated 4/28/2024.