"The tracklist features 16 songs from his 35-year career, ranging from 1969's "Down by the River" to 1991's "Harvest Moon".
Young's stubborn integrity extends beyond his politics-- which inform all of his songs, but only define a few like "Ohio" and "Rockin' in the Free World"-- and saturates his music. His catalog is riddled with sharp contrasts and sly contradictions, not least of which is the fact that this bearish-looking man sings with such a fragile falsetto. More crucially, Young moves from ragged guitar epics to jangly country ballads with impressive agility. He's also not one to rein in his songs, so they may often run for only two intense minutes ("The Needle and the Damage Done") or sprawl to upwards of nine ("Down by the River", "Cowgirl in the Sand").
These extremes make for a strange and strangely compelling 'Greatest Hits'. Conceptually, it shouldn't work: Young has played many roles over five decades, but indeed, he's never been a singles artist. In fact, he has only a passing acquaintance with the pop singles chart-- "Heart of Gold" went to #1, but he's had only two other solo top 40 singles-- and many of his most popular songs run much longer than the typical single's three minutes.
The disc begins, perversely and brilliantly, with the one-two punch of "Down By the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand", which together total almost 20 minutes. This seems less an act of rebellion than a simple stroke of luck, as the compilation is sequenced chronologically. Even so, the songs illustrate clearly that Young and the hits format aren't exactly perfect for each other, while still constituting an impressive introduction for newcomers. Which is precisely what this record is designed to do.
'Greatest Hits' is obviously intended mostly for curious initiates or casual listeners (although the remastered tracks will likely attract hardcore Young fans, too), and it achieves its goals sufficiently. Those unacquainted with his work will learn that Young was a tremendous guitar player who gave himself ample room to range; that Crazy Horse understood the need to provide a good backdrop for his solos and knew how to churn a drag-the-river momentum; that Young was an able songwriter who could craft a killer line like "The Needle and the Damage Done" clincher "every junkie's like a setting sun." What they won't learn is the difference between Young's work with Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills & Nash: All 16 tracks are presented as Young's solo work, which is misleading. Historical liner notes could have cleared this up and even introduced Young's collaborators. Instead, the package leaves it to listeners to infer these distinctions from the song credits.
Fittingly, 'Greatest Hits' skews to Young's early material: Eleven of these tracks represent his 1969-71 output, and only two songs postdate the 1970s (and, therefore, the still-in-print, two-disc Decade)." - Pitchfork
Compact Disc pressing
Tracklisting:
1. Down By The River
2. Cowgirl In The Sand
3. Cinnamon Girl
4. Helpless
5. After The Goldrush
6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart
7. Southern Man
8. Ohio
9. The Needle & The Damage Done
10. Old Man
11. Heart Of Gold
12. Like A Hurricane
13. Comes A Time
14. Hey, Hey, My, My (Into The Black)
15. Rockin In The Free World
16. Harvest Moon
