Album of the Week - After the Gold Rush
Kicking off Neil Young's doom trilogy, is a timeless, and meaningful classic
Last week we covered Manassas, Stephen Stills’ follow up to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young superhit Deja Vu, this week we are covering After The Gold Rush by Neil Young, Neil’s follow up to Deja Vu. I was planning on dropping a different Album of the Week, and on the way to work last week I caught Only Love Can Break Your Heart on the radio, which is conveniently on this album… and immediately knew to myself, that I had to scrap the last one and talk about After the Gold Rush, and man do I have a lot to say about this album. So buckle up, the bus is on its way.
Released in 1970, quite literally months after Deja Vu, is After the Gold Rush - which was a big fat statement by Neil Young. After the Gold Rush has so much to offer, for an album that sounds like it was written and recorded in a basement. A seminal album, that is a great example of emotional vulnerability and contains deep emotional truths. It takes one full listen, front to back to hear the vulnerability and understand the deep truths that can definitely relate to your life, each song capturers that truth and makes it understandable in our own lives.
After the Gold Rush, also kicked off - what critics and fans alike - call Neil’s “doom trilogy”. Starting with After the Gold Rush, followed by Harvest and bookended by On the Beach, Neil dropped three albums in four years that to a normal listener, would consider doom ensuing and very sad, but Neil knew what he was doing. The doom trilogy albums, have a majority of tracking that are in a minor key (they sound sad, for all those unfamiliar with music theory) with major key theming, structure and subject matter, we will get to more of this in the track by track but we have a bit more to discuss first. I mean get a look at that album cover, if that doesn’t give you a doom ensuing, snarling and menacing feeling, I don’t know what will.
The cosmic spacing of the songs on this album is impeccable, it sounds ever so carefully planned out and done with great intent - but at the same time still having the jingle jangle of a record that was written and recorded in your basement. Neil Young is a sort of musical oracle in the way he conveys the truth behind the lyrics he writes. I have had the privilege of seeing Neil Young once in concert, and he did play many of the songs off this album, a magical experience I will not soon forget.
Track by track:
Tell Me Why
Tell Me Why kicks this record off in pure Neil style. Solo acoustic. Neil has admitted that he quit playing this song live because he can’t remember the reasoning behind the lyrics. But to me this is another song that the listener has to derive their own meaning from. “Tell me lies later, come and see me, I’ll be around for awhile” paints a beautiful picture of desperation and internal yearning, but at the same time the singer has come to terms with his fate… whatever that fate may be. Check it out and let me know what you think.
After The Gold Rush
On the solo piano, Neil creates a soundscape that is unforgettable with After The Gold Rush. When I caught Neil in concert, he said that he wrote the song - sicker then a mad dog, in Joni Mitchell’s Detroit apartment. Neil has been known to spread the truth a bit, but this song holds a special place in the hearts of fans and critics alike.
Additionally, one of very few songs in the pantheon of rock and roll that features a French Horn solo.
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
One of the first songs I learned how to play on the acoustic guitar. Only Love Can Break Your Heart tells us a tale, again of desperation - heartbreak and hope. This song is one of the best key examples of the deep emotional truths on this album, because it is true - only love can really break your heart, what if your world should fall apart?
Only Love Can Break Your Heart is a song that circles around five chord changes that make the song into a major key, with a minor key theme, a bit of role reversal for this record.
Southern Man
The highest octane and rocker on this album. 100% a protest/statement song, Southern Man tells a story of Neil touring in the southern United States and seeing the racial injustice, and begs to ask the question - Southern Man, when will you pay them back? Each and every listen will give you chills.
Famously, inspired Lynyrd Skynyrd to write and record the smash hit Sweet Home Alabama, Ronnie Van Zant rebuttals with a song that says southern people are loving and accepting, but if you ask me I think Neil came out on top in this battle. Southern Man bites a little to hard and is a tinge to poignant then Sweet Home Alabama can ever hope to achieve. The third verse: “Lily Belle your hair is golden brown”… knocks you into your chair, ending on the lyric: “How long, how long, how?”
Till the Morning Comes
Following Southern Man is a lighter themed song, revolving around a piano riff and one repeated lyric, the French horn makes a reappearance on this song reaffirming the piano riff.
Maybe Neil is trying to tell us that he is only giving us till the morning comes to address the subject matter of Southern Man?
Oh, Lonesome Me
Seldomly played live by Neil Young - is Oh, Lonesome Me. Another song that conveys the deep emotional truths of this album incredibly well. You will have to give it a listen and see if you find the same meaning that Neil paints cosmically. Many consider this a blues song, but the structure is centered around a folk rhythm not a 12 bar blues structure, so quite the contrary.
Don’t Let It Bring You Down
Oft described as a brush with depression, is Don’t Let It Bring You Down. Written entirely in the minor key and pentatonic, this song conveys the doom trilogy very strongly. It does end on a hopeful note, Neil Young is a genius at bringing the theme to a new peak at the end of the song, which he does here quite well. Almost changing the entirety of the songs meaning in the last 30 seconds of the song.
Birds
Another solo piano number - Birds is a song that depicts the storyteller floating away, lost in their feelings about a situationship. Similar to Don’t Let It Bring You Down, Birds contains positives over a very dark and depressing subject matter.
I have heard that Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam was inspired to write the song Black on Peral Jam’s Ten album, after hearing Birds - which makes great sense to me, as the pair of songs offer the same intrinsic meaning… Birds says it in the first line: “Lover, there will be another one. Who’ll hover over you beneath the sun.” In Black, it takes a bit to get to the same meaning: “I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life, I know you’ll be a star in someone else’s sky, but why, why, can’t it be mine.” Sometimes sadness can be beautiful, as depicted by Black and Birds.
When You Dance I Can Really Love
Musically similar to Southern Man, but lyrically very near to Don’t Let It Bring You Down. There is a great version of When You Dance I Can Really Love on the live album: Live Rust. Hearing Neil’s scrappy electric guitar on this song really ties the theme together.
I Believe In You
If there is one song on this album that represents the doom trilogy, it is I Believe In You. I Believe In You tells the tale of believing in someone who DOES NOT believe in you, and doesn’t want to.
Cripple Creek Ferry
Ending After The Gold Rush, Cripple Creek Ferry is a song that feels like it is held together by a thread, and that thread can snap at any second. Offering beautiful harmony vocals, Cripple Creek Ferry ties the album right up and packages it for you on a plate of anxiety and depression.
After the Gold Rush is a record that you absolutely have to be open for, especially emotionally. The high highs and low lows of this album aren’t for the lite of heart. The emotional vulnerability one has to have to understand and enjoy this record are quite substantial, but once you get there, this record has so much to offer you as a listener. Neil Young, paints pictures on this record that you have to experience for yourself, similar to the pictures Bob Dylan paints on Blood on the Tracks. I hope you open yourself to the values After the Gold Rush has to tell you, even if it is a hard look at yourself - which is not easy… After the Gold Rush will be waiting for you on the other side of that reality.