"After The Gold Rush" is my favorite Neil Young album. A strong argument can be made that the very first, the eponymous "Neil Young", is better. And "Harvest" was bigger. But I'm partial to "After The Gold Rush".
If I could view the videotape of my mind, I could tell you who turned me on to "Everybody Know This Is Nowhere". I MIGHT have bought it without advice, needing another hit of what was on "Deja Vu", but it doesn't seem that way. Especially since I abhorred "Helpless" (I was more into the multi-part "Country Girl").
"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" is an uneven album. It's one of those records you listened to not far from the turntable. Because you needed to pick up the tonearm and SKIP tracks. But there were three you had to listen to. And I did, over and over and over again.
At this point, the song you hear on the radio is "Cinnamon Girl". Which ain't bad, not by any stretch of the imagination, but compared to "Down By The River" and "Cowgirl In The Sand" it was pedestrian. Catchy. In-your-face. Whereas "Down By The River" and "Cowgirl In The Sand" were short stories. Well, not THAT short. And "Down By The River" was SO simple. Yet, there was this EMOTION. That couldn't be denied. I played that track the whole summer of '70. Even learned it on guitar.
I couldn't wait for "After The Gold Rush".
Oh, I went back and bought the first record a few years later. But at this time I wasn't convinced! I was willing to go forward, but not BACK! Then again, I was pretty dedicated. For I bought "After The Gold Rush" the day it came out, at the Vermont Book Shop, overpaying by a dollar just to have it.
My favorite song on "After The Gold Rush" is "Don't Let It Bring You Down".
At dinner Jim told this woman whom I'd gotten to recite her love history that THIS was what I was into. That I'd rather get your STORY than talk business.
He knows me.
"Don't Let It Bring You Down" has got this middle of the night feel. Like you're sitting 'round a candle. There's been a silence. And now, after a pause, you're going to reveal your truth.
My second favorite song on "After The Gold Rush" is "When You Dance You Can Really Love". Most rocking tracks are to lose your mind to. To get fucked up and forget to. But "When You Dance You Can Really Love" sounds like the perfect high school dance. You know, the one where you ask the prom queen to dance, and she says YES! As you're moving on the floor, you're in heaven. And you LOVE that it's not a wimpy track, that it's got a searing guitar.
Alas, the prom queen didn't want to dance with me. And I'm SURE she didn't want to hear a blistering guitar while embraced on the dance floor by her love. But this was the FANTASY WORLD created by the music. The one I believed existed SOMEWHERE if I could just FIND IT!
After that I'm partial to "Till The Morning Comes" and "Cripple Creek Ferry". Just trifles, I know. Yet, the fact that they're throwaways ENDEARS me. It's like you're sitting in the kitchen, and all of a sudden Neil starts picking out a song he made up on the spot. Just for you. It's your inner secret. Not labored over in a studio for mass consumption, rather just a shared composition that bonds artist and fan, FAMILY MEMBER, forever.
And I can barely stand "Oh Lonesome Me".
And I don't feel much stronger about "I Believe In You".
And I tolerate "Only Love Can Break Your Heart".
But I like the jangly feel of "Tell Me Why". And "Birds" is introspective and pierces me. Although quiet, it's not country. Go too country and you lose me.
"After The Gold Rush" is so STRANGE!
Oh, I don't think you get it now. You see the sixties were full of TURMOIL! But by the fall of '70, it was all suddenly behind us. Kent State was the last gasp. It was a new decade. We were all older. Where were we going?
When Linda Ronstadt updated this song, she changed the decade. But "After The Gold Rush" belongs in 1970. It set the tone for what came thereafter. We were tired, we wanted to be soothed. We all had bands playing in our heads, we all felt like getting high. We were looking for answers.
And that leaves the most famous track on "After The Gold Rush", "Southern Man".
Now this is the rare instance where the ANSWER song is better than the inspiration. Yes, primarily "Southern Man", but also "Alabama" from "Harvest", inspired Lynyrd Skynyrd to stick up for their homeland, the South. Even though they were from Florida, they felt the solidarity. Maybe because they'd worked in Muscle Shoals. They wrote "Sweet Home Alabama".
"Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her Well I heard old Neil put her down Well I hope Neil Young will remember A southern man don't need him around anyhow"
Whew! They threw it right back in Neil's face. What did this CANADIAN, a denizen of California, know about the SOUTH! What did the whole COUNTRY know about the South? Yes, there were the immortal lyrics stating that the band wasn't concerned with Watergate. And, as a matter of fact, did it bother YOU!
And those three lead guitars in Lynyrd Skynyrd SING in this track. They loop and dive better than all the roller coasters at Six Flags. THIS is an infectious track. One that you can't burn out on, that you can't get over.
But to elicit such a response, "Southern Man" must not have only been good, but must have had a HUGE IMPACT!
Albums are not quite ubiquitous the way they used to be. I bet fifty percent of America is completely unfamiliar with 50 Cent's material. Being in the Top Ten no longer means your material is known by everybody. But back in the seventies it did. Oh, not the Top Ten of the SINGLES chart, but the Top Ten of the ALBUM CHART! These were the touchstones of our generation. The same way the Mario Brothers are for the finally reaching twenty baby boomlet. EVERYBODY knew "Southern Man". It was on the radio CONSTANTLY! We know it as well as we know where we were when Kennedy was shot.
About 7:45 this evening, on my way to pick up my friend Jeff for a night hike in the Santa Monica Mountains, as I was crossing Ocean Park Boulevard, I heard Nils Lofgren on the Loft on XM. He was babbling about working with Neil Young.
Those of us in the know from reading "Rolling Stone" were familiar with Nils' story. This complete unknown, our age, under twenty, was plucked from obscurity to accompany this nascent SUPERSTAR on his next release.
Yeah, big deal Nils. That was almost thirty five years ago.
But then Nils started telling the story.
Neil called him up and said he was gonna play PIANO on his new album. This pissed Nils off, because he wanted to play GUITAR! FURTHERMORE, he didn't know HOW to play the piano.
But Neil said that since he knew how to play the accordion, he'd make it work.
And thus, Nils found himself in the studio. With Neil Young and Crazy Horse.
And on this particular day, they were cutting "Southern Man".
It was a quiet track. Akin to the stuff that precedes it on the album. But just before they put a bow on it, finished it off completely, Neil called a break.
Whilst Neil was outside the studio, taking care of business, Nils started to jam. With Ralph Molina, a stalwart of Crazy Horse. And Greg Reeves, the bass player for CSNY who finally appeared on the cover of "Deja Vu". Nils waxed rhapsodic about Greg's style. How it was a little busy, but was so LOCKED IN!
And while they're playing, Nils is starting to improvise. He's doubling up his part. Playing the piano the way he normally played the ACCORDION!
And they're goofing off for an hour, and then Neil stumbled in and said THAT'S IT!!! They proceeded to fire up the tape recorder and lay down "Southern Man" the way we now know it.
And that's an interesting story. Showing how true artists don't belabor decisions, but play by FEEL, go with what works in their GUTS!
And this story demonstrates the value of collaboration. Neil himself didn't hear the song this way, he needed to be inspired by OTHERS!
But what was truly inspiring, what blew my mind, what put a smile on my face, was after telling this story, Nils Lofgren sat down at the piano and PLAYED THE PART!!!
I can't tell you the last time I heard "Southern Man". Probably a year or eighteen months ago. But, when Nils started tickling the ivories, I said THAT'S IT!!!!
You don't understand. That's why we used to go to the SHOW!
Seemingly EVERYTHING sold today was irrelevant to us back then. We didn't care about production. We didn't want to SEE the music as much as HEAR IT! The prerecorded parts, the tapes, those are the OPPOSITE of the live experience. The live experience is about the people who wrote and played the music playing it live, right now, JUST FOR YOU!!!
You can't believe it. This song you've listened to HUNDREDS of times. That you drove to, did your laundry to, read to. It was really written and played by human beings. THESE CATS! You don't GIVE a fuck if the rendition's not perfect. As long as it's close enough.
We don't want our records made on computers. We don't want samples. Well, if we do, we don't want to see these acts LIVE!
Live we want to see PLAYERS! Who've practiced, who have skills, who are ARTISTS!!
It's really not describable. It's just that when you hear your favorite tracks live, especially the album cuts, the ones you think only YOU know, you melt. The world's complete. You can die now. It's MOMENTARY, TRANSITORY, but better than any drug. You've got to get the feeling AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN! Which is why every show sold out in the seventies. Because the music was just that good, just that important, it was the pulse of life, you were DRIVEN to see it performed live.
It was just Nils Lofgren and Mike Marrone. Having an extended conversation. Not scripted by a record company, but inspired by what TRANSPIRED!
THIS is the promise of radio. THIS is what is absent from terrestrial radio. Radio so good, you don't want to leave the CAR!!
And after finishing the "Southern Man" part, and Mike spinning the original for comparison, Nils sat down at the piano and played "Goin' Back". Which live in the studio sounded every bit as good as "Southern Man".
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