David Bullough, 41, was jailed for two and a half years for the vicious attack on Patrick Ross, 61, a neighbour in the quiet rural village of Cridling Stubbs, at about midnight on August 31 last year.
York Crown Court last week heard Mr Ross had p
ulled up in his driveway and was listening to the end of a Bob Dylan track in his car when Bullough swore at him and told him to turn the music off.
Alan Mitcheson, prosecuting, said the incident turned nasty when Bullough returned with a baseball bat and started smashing it against the car.
Mr Ross, who had armed himself with a garden rake, was hit several times by the bat, bitten on the ear and his eyes were gouged by Bullough.
The attack eventually stopped when another neighbour heard the noise and shouted at Bullough to stop.
Mr Ross was left with a torn ear, four broken ribs and detached retinas and had to have surgery to reattach part of his ear, which now needs a hearing aid.
The court heard he has also been told by doctors that the damage to his eye is probably permanent.
Unemployed Bullough, who lived on Croft Lea, Cridling Stubbs, at the time of the attack but has since moved to Prospect Walk, in Camblesforth, admitted wounding with intent, criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon.
David Ward, mitigating, claimed Bullough – who is separated from his partner and lives with his two teenage children – had been concerned that the loud music would disturb local elderly residents and said: "This was perhaps a case of him being a little bit too community-spirited."
Judge Stephen Ashurst told Bullough: "You became enraged because the complainant had the temerity to sit in his own drive, listening to music.
"You did not leave it there. You returned to the scene with a baseball bat, began attacking his car and then hit him about the body and head.
"It was a particularly nasty assault on a vulnerable man. You bit him on the ear and poked him in the eye as well as striking his body with the bat."
He added that the attack had been "unnecessary", "violent" and "without justification".
Mr Ross later said: "If I had my way he'd have got 20 years (in jail]. We had had a nice night out and as we pulled into the drive, Bob Dylan's Simple Twist of Fate came on the CD player. It's one of my favourite songs so I decided to listen to it all the way through and told (my wife] Janet to make a cup of tea. Then I saw the outline of a man come up through the drive and peer through our window.
"I didn't have a clue who he was or what he was doing so I jumped out of the car and told him to clear off.
"He shouted 'turn your f***ing music off' but my music wasn't even loud."
Mr Ross said he went into his house to tell his wife about it when they heard crashing and banging outside.
He said: "I ran out and he was smashing up my car. Without thinking, I grabbed a garden rake but he saw me, immediately swung round and hit me on the top of my head with the bat."
