After the Gold Rush
After the Gold Rush is the third studio album by the Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released in September 1970 on Reprise Records. It is one of four high-profile solo albums released by the members of folk rock group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping 1970 album Déjà Vu. Young's album consists mainly of country folk music along with several rock tracks, including "Southern Man". The material was inspired by the unproduced Dean Stockwell-Herb Bermann screenplay After the Gold Rush.
After the Gold Rush entered Billboard Top Pop Albums chart on September 19, and peaked at number eight in October. Two of the three singles taken from the album, "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and "When You Dance I Can Really Love", made it to number 33 and number 93 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite a mixed initial reaction, the album has since appeared on a number of greatest albums of all time lists.
In 2014, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Background
Young recorded the album while living in Topanga Canyon, an artistic community in Southern California. It was largely recorded in his home studio there. Songs on the album were influenced by people he met while living there, including producer David Briggs, Young's then wife, Susan Acevedo, and actor Dean Stockwell, whom he met through Susan. The album was recorded with members of both of his associated groups at the time, Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, as well as the first appearance by long-time collaborator Nils Lofgren. By the time the album was released, however, Young had split with Susan and had moved to his Broken Arrow Ranch in Northern California, where he would record many of his subsequent albums.Writing
Songs on the album were inspired by a screenplay written by Dean Stockwell and Herb Bermann also titled After the Gold Rush. The screenplay's plot involves an apocalyptic ecological disaster that washes away the Topanga Canyon hippie community. Stockwell, a lifelong friend of Young, was also part of the Topanga Canyon artist culture of the time. Mutual friend Dennis Hopper encouraged Stockwell to write his own screenplay in wake of Hopper's success with Easy Rider. Stockwell recalls writing the script: Young recalls coming in contact with the script in his 2012 memoir Waging Heavy Peace:In Young's biography Shakey, the script, now lost, is described as an end of the world movie which culminates in a tidal wave crashing into local music venue and hangout The Topanga Corral. Stockwell explains, "I was gonna write a movie that was personal, a Jungian self-discovery of the gnosis. It involved the Kabala; it involved a lot of arcane stuff." In a December 1995 interview with Nick Kent for Mojo, Young recalled:
Ultimately, only two songs on the album were directly influenced by or had been intended for use in the film: "After the Gold Rush" and "Cripple Creek Ferry". The lyrics to "After the Gold Rush" were inspired by a dream and consider a future when mankind uses space travel to perpetuate the species in wake of environmental destruction.
The chorus of "Tell Me Why" features the memorable chorus question "Tell me why/ Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself/ When you're old enough to repay/ But young enough to sell?" Young shared in a June 1988 interview for Spin that the lyrics lost meaning for him over time, and made it difficult to sing the song live:
The song "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" was written for Graham Nash in the aftermath of his breakup with Joni Mitchell. Nash would tell Constant Meijers in September 1974: "I'd broken up with Joni and Neil came to me and said he'd written a song for me, because he knew exactly how I felt. Joni is one of those people who can't make a good relationship last. When we were doing alright, she quit."
The lyrics to "Southern Man" address slavery and segregation. The intensity of the song was influenced by conflict with Young's then wife, Susan Acevedo: "'Southern Man' was an angry song. I wrote 'Southern Man' in my studio in Topanga. Susan was angry at me for some reason." "Those girls always get jealous when you're working on something with great intensity. Susan, who was a lot older than me, was very jealous. One morning, I got up early to work on 'Southern Man' in the studio, she threw breakfast against the door. When I opened the door to see what was going on, she threw the coffee at me."
"Oh Lonesome Me" is a cover of the 1957 Don Gibson song, recorded in a somber and radically different arrangement than the original. Young's arrangement dates from his coffeehouse folk days in Toronto in late 1965: "I wanted to give the acoustic solo thing a try in the Village. I took my acoustic twelve-string to a few gigs and got some bad reviews. I had an arrangement of 'Oh Lonesome Me' that I really liked, and people laughed at it, thinking it was a parody or something. I used it on 'After the Gold Rush', and that worked." The song is the first recording by Young to feature harmonica, as well as the first song Young recorded that he didn't write himself. The song was released as a single in advance of the album in February 1970.
The lyrics to "Don't Let It Bring You Down" deal with falling into depression, and how new experiences or acquaintances can snap you back out. Young explains to Spin in 1988: "Every once in awhile something could happen, especially when I was younger, that would get me really depressed, then I would run into somebody and forget about it, just because I got into an another thing. People are wonderful that way; the presence of another human being can be so strong that it’ll change your whole outlook." Young wrote the song during his first transatlantic trip, while touring with CSNY. On the album 4 Way Street, Young jokes as he introduces the song: "Here is a new song. It's guaranteed to bring you right down. It's called 'Don't Let It Bring You Down'. It sort of starts off real slow and then it fizzles out all together."
"Birds" dates from at least 1968. Young attempted recording the song several times before the take featured on After the Gold Rush. One attempt, available on his Archives website, was recorded as a duet with new bandmate Graham Nash. Its lyrics concern a breakup, using bird imagery as metaphor.
"I Believe in You" is a somber ode to abandoned love. Young described the song in a June 1988 Spin interview:
Recording
Young would once again employ David Briggs as producer for the sessions, as he did for his first two albums. Sessions took place over the course of a year, from August 1969 to June 1970 and were held at both professional recording studios and at a recently built studio in Young's Topanga Canyon home. During the recording of the album, Young toured with both Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills and Nash, and made solo concert appearances. Sessions also overlapped with sessions for Déjà Vu, to which Young contributed the songs "Helpless" and "Country Girl".Initial sessions were conducted with backing band Crazy Horse at Sunset Sound Studios in August 1969. The sessions followed the band's tour of North America in support of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere from February to June of that year. Although progress was hampered by the deteriorating health of rhythm guitarist Danny Whitten, the sessions yielded two album tracks, "I Believe In You" and "Oh, Lonesome Me". Songs "Everybody's Alone", "Wonderin'" and an alternate take of "Birds" were also recorded but not used for the album. The sessions coincided with rehearsals for Crosby, Stills and Nash's tour in support of their debut album. Young was asked to join the group to facilitate performing the group's material in a live setting. Young would explain to author Nick Kent:
After the sessions, Young embarked on a tour of the US with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young that would include their now-famous appearance at Woodstock. The band would also make appearances at the Big Sur Folk Festival and on American television. In October, Young would again resume sessions with Crazy Horse at Sunset Sound and Larrabee Sound Studios, recording Whitten's "Look at All the Things" and Young's "Dance, Dance, Dance" and "Winterlong," each of which would go unused. In November, Young booked time with CSNY at Wally Heider Studios to record Déjà Vu before resuming their tour of North America followed by January appearances in Europe. In February and March, Young toured North America with Crazy Horse, performing the shows that would later see release on Live at the Fillmore East. Young's split attention between Crazy Horse and CSNY would result in some resentment from the latter band:
The bulk of the album was recorded in mid-March 1970 in Young's home studio in Topanga Canyon, dubbed "Redwood Studios". Young recalls building the studio in the liner notes to Decade: "I put the wood on the walls myself and loved that feeling. My house was on a steep hill overlooking the canyon. The French horn player ran out of breath on my steep driveway." Musicians for these sessions generally feature CSNY bassist Greg Reeves, Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina and burgeoning eighteen-year-old musical prodigy Nils Lofgren of the Washington, D.C.–based band Grin on piano. The incorporation of Lofgren was a characteristically idiosyncratic decision by Young, as Lofgren had not played keyboards on a regular basis prior to the sessions. Along with Jack Nitzsche, Lofgren would join an augmented Crazy Horse sans Young before enjoying success with his own group as well as solo cult success and membership in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Biographer Jimmy McDonough has asserted that Young was intentionally trying to combine Crazy Horse and CSNY on this release, with members of the former band appearing alongside Stephen Stills and Reeves. The album features several song where Young performs on piano as the primary instrument; "Oh, Lonesome Me" also features his first use of harmonica on record.
The April session for "When You Dance, I Can Really Love" at Young's Topanga home studio marks the last time Crazy Horse played together with Danny Whitten. Young remembers in a post on his website: "Danny Whitten could not make the sessions but he did come in at the end and recorded with us, doing a lot of chorus singing on many songs and playing on one song, "When You Dance I Can Really Love". Jack Nitzsche was there on a wild piano. Billy Talbot on bass. What a memory that is! Ralph Molina played drums on every track." He continues in his memoir: He further reminisces in Shakey:
The final session for the album produced the song "Birds." "Birds" was recorded on June 30, 1970, at Sound City Studios during a break in CSNY's summer tour. Young had made several previous attempts to record the song. The first attempt was in August 1968 with Jim Messina on bass and George Grantham on drums for Young's debut album. During the August 1969 Sunset Sound sessions, Young recorded a version featuring vibes with Crazy Horse that was erroneously released as the b-side to "Only Love Can Break Your Heart." The version lacks the second verse. Young explains in the biography Shakey: "The electric version of "Birds" with vibes turned out to be great, but it was only half the song. After the first verse I stopped. Forgot the second verse." Later that month during a break in CSNY's first tour, Young recorded a duet version on acoustic guitar with Graham Nash on vocals. The final take used on the album features Young on solo piano accompanied by members of Crazy Horse on vocals.