after the gold rush

Neil Young came down to the river of sight to make the best of his time and find expression for the band playing in his head.   After 'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere', Young had joined with Crosby, Stills, and Nash to record as Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young for 'Déjà Vu'.  Recording for his next album began in the winter of 1969 with Crazy Horse at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles and then continued in the spring of 1970 at Redwood Studios in the basement of Young's home in Topanga Canyon.  Young produced the sessions with David Briggs with Kendall Pacios.    'After the Gold Rush' credits Neil Young on guitar, piano, harmonica, vibes, and lead vocals;   Danny Whitten on guitar and vocals;   Nils Lofgren on guitar, piano, and vocals;   Jack Nitzsche on piano;   Billy Talbot  and  Greg Reeves on bass;   Ralph Molina on drums and vocals;   Stephen Stills on vocals;   and  Bill Peterson on flugelhorn.  

Some of the songs were inspired by a screenplay called 'After the Gold Rush' written by Dean Stockwell and Herb Berman.  Young reveals:    "[The film] was all about the day of the great earthquake in Topanga Canyon when a great wave of water flooded the place. It was a pretty 'off-the-wall' concept, they tried to get some money from Universal Pictures. But that fell through because it was too much of an art project. l think, had it been made it would stand as a contemporary to Easy Rider and it would have had a similar effect. The script itself was full of imagery, 'change' . . . It was very unique actually. I really wish that movie had been made, because it could have really defined an important moment in the culture...I just remember thinking that Goldrush was the next logical step after Everybody. Just after I'd begun playing with CSN&Y, I went out on the road and did some really funky things that indicated that our next album would be in that particular vein....I always thought there was a funny side to my music. But see, my sense of humor hadn't really been appreciated at that point in my career. Shit, it hadn't even been noticed (laughs). I mean, Last Trip To Tulsa. . .that's my idea of a really funny song and that's just one of 'em...I really just wanted to make music... My only concern was to make the fuckin' records sound right. When I finally got the studio together and played, I think, Running Dry [on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere], that was my first live vocal . As was almost the whole of Goldrush after it. . . Things like I Believe In You - that's when I started recording live."

'After the Gold Rush' was a major breakthrough for Young, going to number fourteen in Sweden, thirteen in Australia, eight in the US, seven in the UK, and five in Canada.  







http://www.neilyoung.com/








"After the Gold Rush"



Well, I dreamed I saw the knights
In armor coming,
Saying something about a queen.
There were peasants singing and
Drummers drumming
And the archer split the tree.
There was a fanfare blowing
To the sun
That was floating on the breeze.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.

I was lying in a burned out basement
With the full moon in my eyes.
I was hoping for replacement
When the sun burst thru the sky.
There was a band playing in my head
And I felt like getting high.
I was thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.
Thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.

Well, I dreamed I saw the silver
Space ships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun,
There were children crying
And colors flying
All around the chosen ones.
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun.
They were flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home in the sun.
Flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home.







"Only Love Can Break Your Heart" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOl01vKXv6I


When you were young
and on your own
How did it feel
to be alone?
I was always thinking
of games that I was playing.
Trying to make
the best of my time.

But only love
can break your heart
Try to be sure
right from the start
Yes only love
can break your heart
What if your world
should fall apart?

I have a friend
I've never seen
He hides his head
inside a dream
Someone should call him
and see if he can come out.
Try to lose
the down that he's found.

But only love
can break your heart
Try to be sure
right from the start
Yes only love
can break your heart
What if your world
should fall apart?

I have a friend
I've never seen
He hides his head
inside a dream
Yes, only love
can break your heart
Yes, only love
can break your heart






"Southern Man"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGuwlkxT4KQ


Southern man
better keep your head
Don't forget
what your good book said
Southern change
gonna come at last
Now your crosses
are burning fast
Southern man

I saw cotton
and I saw black
Tall white mansions
and little shacks.
Southern man
when will you
pay them back?
I heard screamin'
and bullwhips cracking
How long? How long?

Southern man
better keep your head
Don't forget
what your good book said
Southern change
gonna come at last
Now your crosses
are burning fast
Southern man

Lily Belle,
your hair is golden brown
I've seen your black man
comin' round
Swear by God
I'm gonna cut him down!
I heard screamin'
and bullwhips cracking
How long? How long?




"Don't Let It Bring You Down" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXrSoECrAt8




Old man lying
by the side of the road
With the lorries rolling by,
Blue moon sinking
from the weight of the load
And the buildings scrape the sky,
Cold wind ripping
down the alley at dawn
And the morning paper flies,
Dead man lying
by the side of the road
With the daylight in his eyes.

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning,
Find someone who's turning
And you will come around.

Blind man running
through the light
of the night
With an answer in his hand,
Come on down
to the river of sight
And you can really understand,
Red lights flashing
through the window
in the rain,
Can you hear the sirens moan?
White cane lying
in a gutter in the lane,
If you're walking home alone.

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning,
Just find someone who's turning
And you will come around.

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning,
Just find someone who's turning
And you will come around.







'After the Gold Rush'
full album:


All songs written by Neil Young except where noted.

Side one
1. "Tell Me Why"   2:54
2. "After the Gold Rush"   3:45
3. "Only Love Can Break Your Heart"   3:05
4. "Southern Man"   5:31
5. "Till the Morning Comes"   1:17
Side two
6. "Oh, Lonesome Me" (Don Gibson) 3:47
7. "Don't Let It Bring You Down"   2:56
8. "Birds"   2:34
9. "When You Dance I Can Really Love"   4:05
10. "I Believe in You"   3:24
11. "Cripple Creek Ferry"   1:34

ragged glory

Neil Young + Crazy Horse took a chance on love to overcome hate with the healing light of a psychedelic grunge resurgence.    Young had endured numerous stylistic changes with twenty-three albums  (Neil Young in 1968,   Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere in 1969,   After the Gold Rush in 1970,   Harvest  in 1972,   Time Fades Away in 1973,   On the Beach in 1974,   Tonight's the Night  and  Zuma in 1975,   Long May You Run  in 1976,   American Stars 'n Bars in 1977,   Comes a Time in 1978,   Rust Never Sleeps and  Live Rust  in 1979,   Hawks & Doves in 1980,   Re-ac-tor  in 1981,   Trans  in 1982,   Everybody's Rockin' in 1983,   Old Ways in 1985,   Landing on Water in 1986,   Life  in 1987,   This Note's for You  in 1988,   and   Eldorado   and  Freedom in 1989)  released over twenty-one years; but his work over the past decade had not been well received by critics or fans.  With the political fire of the hit single "Rocking in the Free World" from Freedom, he had found renewed respect and a renewed sense of direction.  


His next album 'Ragged Glory' was recorded during April of 1990 at Plywood Digital in Woodside, California (except "Mother Earth" which was recorded live at The Hoosier Dome).  The sessions were produced by Young and David Briggs and featured   Neil Young on guitar and vocals,  Frank Sampedro on guitar and vocals,  Billy Talbot on bass guitar and vocals,  and  Ralph Molina on drums and vocals.  

The sound harkens back to the aggressive guitar rock of albums like Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.  Young would express:    "Things just keep cycling around.  I really don't know what brought me back to it. I woke up one morning and all I could hear was the loudest . . . drum I ever heard in my life in my head -- so I knew that wasn't country!...We did the whole thing in three months, from before the songs were written until the album was mastered and turned in,  It happened kind of fast. It was like something comes along and you have to jump on and do it. You can't stop until it's done because obviously we knew we were onto it. And we've learned over the years that when the wave comes along, you'd better grab it. So that's what we did, and we just stayed on it until it was up on the beach. It wore me out, but in a real good way. I feel real lucky to have caught that one...With Crazy Horse, it's all one big, growing, smoldering sound, and I'm part of it.  It's like gliding, or some sort of natural surfing, or something. . . . It's like a long ride...They've been around a long time.  In some ways, they're related to roots of other families of my music in my past and even other music in my past that I didn't make myself. I don't go through this album without hearing Hendrix, Cream and the Doors as well as my own roots...I don't know. I just do what I do. I like to make music, and I feel real lucky to have made this one here, which has really attained a height of some sort. There's definitely some kind of height to this I haven't felt in some time."


 'Ragged Glory' went to number thirty-one in the US, twenty-five in Sweden, twenty-two in New Zealand, twenty in Canada, and fifteen in the UK.  







http://www.neilyoung.com/

http://neilyoung.warnerbrosrecords.com/music-1/ragged-glory-cd.html







"Farmer John"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXOeNLs0EBY




"Mansion on the Hill" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1WpgTzf8nk




"F*!#in' Up"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKaDCP-wKr8




"Love to Burn"  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9wceu6Qxb0




"Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQCcMisYSLw





 'Ragged Glory' 
full album:





All songs written by Neil Young except as noted.

1. "Country Home"   7:05
2. "White Line"   2:57
3. "F*!#in' Up"   5:54
4. "Over and Over"   8:28
5. "Love to Burn"   10:00
6. "Farmer John" (Don Harris, Dewey Terry) 4:14
7. "Mansion on the Hill"   4:48
8. "Days That Used to Be"   3:42
9. "Love and Only Love"   10:18
10. "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)"   5:11


bonus
 "Don't Spook the Horse"    7:36

tonight's the night

Neil Young opened up tired eyes and sent chills up and down the spine standing on the sound of this shaky searching salutation.  In the wake of the deaths of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten on November 18, 1972 and roadie Bruce Berry on June 4, 1973, Young recorded a live album of new material called 'Time Fades Away' during the tour for his blockbuster album 'Harvest'.  His next project directly dealt with the deaths of his friends.  Most of the album was recorded during August and September of 1973 at Studio Instrument Rentals in Hollywood' with The Santa Monica Flyers (Ben Keith, Nils Lofgren, and the Crazy Horse rhythm section of Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina).   "Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown" was recorded live with Crazy Horse at the Fillmore East in New York in March of 1970; and "Lookout Joe" and "Borrowed Tune" laid down at Broken Arrow Ranch in December 1972 and  December 1973, respectively.  "Lookout Joe" features his 'Harvest' band The Stray Gators (Jack Nitzsche, Tim Drummond, Ben Keith, and Kenny Buttrey) while "Borrowed Tune" is Neil solo.   The album was produced by David Briggs and Neil Young with Tim Mulligan.  

'Tonight's The Night' credits  Neil Young on vocals, guitar,  piano, harmonica, and vibes;    Ben Keith on pedal steel guitar, vocals, and slide guitar;   Nils Lofgren on piano, vocals, and guitar;   Danny Whitten on vocals and electric guitar;   Jack Nitzsche on electric piano and piano;   Billy Talbot and Tim Drummond on bass;   Ralph Molina on drums and vocals;  Kenny Buttrey on drums;  and  George Whitsell on vocals.    Reprise was not happy with the dark tone of the album and did not want to release it.  In the meantime, Young recorded and released 'On The Beach' , but continued to pressure the record company to put out 'Tonight's The Night', which they finally did in June of 1975.    The album went to number sixty-one in Canada, forty-eight in the UK, forty-two in Australia, and twenty-five in the US.  Along with  'Time Fades Away'  and  'On The Beach' , it is part of what is called Young's "Ditch Trilogy".  

Young would confess:     "The album 'Tonight's the Night' is the best I have ever made. It's recorded live. On one side there are four songs recorded in one take without stopping. In a hall belonging to Studio Instrument Rentals in LA. The owner of the firm, Ken Berry, is the brother of the former roadie Bruce and he let me use that hall. The atmosphere was so relaxed that we began recording immediately. And it's the most honest thing I have ever done. The guys I'm playing with at the moment make me feel relaxed and that's why I can be so honest. But I think the public thinks I'm trying to trick them ... Tonight's the Night is like an OD letter. The whole thing is about life, dope, and death. When we played that music we were all thinking of Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry, two close members of our unit lost to junk overdoses. We played Bruce and Danny on their way all through the night ... All of these things happen to people, so I figured it happened to me so I'll write about this, and I'll just write from my heart, and if other people have this happen to them they'll relate to this."

"It's odd.  I don't know why, it was a subconscious move, I think Tonight's the Night is the most grand example of that resistance [to success]. It was actually recorded in August of '73 at SIR [LA's Studio Instrument Rentals], where we had the party last night. Everything on Tonight's the Night was recorded and mixed before On the Beach was started, but it was never finished or put into its complete order till later. Everybody said that Harvest was a trip. To me I'd happened to be in the right place at the right time to do a really mellow record that was really open, 'cause that's where my life was at the time. But that was only for a couple of months. If I'd stayed there, I don't know where I'd be right now, if I'd just stayed real mellow. I'm just not that way anymore. I think Harvest was probably the finest record that I've made, but that's really a restricting adjective for me. It's really fine, but that's it."

 "Tonight's the Night didn't come out right after it was recorded because it wasn't finished. It just wasn't in the right space, it wasn't in the right order, the concept wasn't right. I had to get the colour right, so it was not so down that it would make people restless. I had to keep jolting every once in a while to get people to wake up so they could be lulled again. It's a very fluid album. The higher you are, the better it is. And it really lives up to that, a lot of records don't … you should listen to it late at night...Those mixes were a little unorthodox. Like it's real music. Sometimes I'd be on mic and sometimes I'd be two feet off it. Sometimes I'd be lookin' around the room and singin' back off mic…we'd have to bring it way back up in the mix to get it. And you can hear the echo in the room. We were all on stage at SIR just playing, with the PA system and everything, just like a live thing.

"I got tired of … I think what was in my mind when I made that record was I just didn't feel like a lonely figure with a guitar or whatever it is that people see me as sometimes. I didn't feel that laid back – I just didn't feel that way. So I thought I'd just forget about all that … wipe it out. Be as aggressive and as abrasive as I could to leave an effect, a long-term effect, that things change radically sometimes, it's good to point that out ... At SIR, when we were playing, and these two cats [Berry and Whitten] who had been a close part of our unit, our force, our energy, were both gone to junk, both of them OD'd. And now we're playing in a place where we're getting together to make up for what is gone and try to make ourselves stronger and continue. Because we thought we had it with Danny Whitten. At least I did. I thought that a combination of people that could be as effective as groups like the Rolling Stones had been … just for rhythm, which I'm really into. I haven't had that rhythm for a while and that's why I haven't been playing my guitar: because without that behind me I won't play. I mean, you can't get free enough. So I've had to play the rhythm myself ever since Danny died. Now I have someone who can play rhythm guitar, a good friend of mine...Nils is a lead player, basically. And when I use Nils – like on Tonight's the Night I used him for piano, and I played piano on a couple of songs and he played guitar. In the songs where he plays guitar he's actually playing the way Bruce Berry played guitar. The thing is I'm talking about him and you can hear him. So Nils just fits in – he plays that hot rock'n'roll-style guitar...It's just that there was a lot of spirit flyin' around when we were doin' it. It was like a tribute to those people, you know? Only the ones we chose no one had really heard of that much, but they meant a lot to us. That's why it gets spooky. 'Cause we were spooked. If you felt that I'm glad because it was there...The first horror record, a horror record …"

http://www.neilyoung.com/

'Tonight's The Night'
full album:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL94gOvpr5yt3Gz94uu1UztA5cD_iIq_k-






All songs written by Neil Young except where noted. 

Side one
1. "Tonight's the Night" (with the Santa Monica Flyers) 4:39
2. "Speakin' Out" (with the Santa Monica Flyers) 4:56
3. "World on a String" (with the Santa Monica Flyers) 2:27
4. "Borrowed Tune" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Neil Young) 3:26
5. "Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown" (live from the 1970 tour with Crazy Horse) Neil Young, Danny Whitten 3:35
6. "Mellow My Mind" (with the Santa Monica Flyers) 3:07
Side two
1. "Roll Another Number" (with the Santa Monica Flyers) 3:02
2. "Albuquerque" (with the Santa Monica Flyers) 4:02
3. "New Mama"   2:11
4. "Lookout Joe" (with The Stray Gators) 3:57
5. "Tired Eyes" (with the Santa Monica Flyers)  4:38
6. "Tonight's the Night" (with the Santa Monica Flyers) 4:52

rust never sleeps

Neil Young revitalized his career by embracing the spirit of punk while staying true to his roots with this half acoustic, half electric tour de force.  After recording the country folk of 'Comes a Time' in 1977, Young was ready to move on to something new.  He became involved in the film 'Human Highway' with Devo, who recorded a version of his song 'Out of the Blue' with him in the film.  During the performance, Mark Mothersbaugh was chanting the phrase "rust never sleeps" which was part of an advertising campaign he had done for Rustoleum paint.  Young put it in the song and used it as the template for his next big project:  a choreographed concert to be recorded and filmed.  The shows would begin acoustic and, after the road crew put together huge amplifiers during the concert, end with a raucous electric set with Crazy Horse.  

Young would reveal at the time:   "I wanted people to leave saying that Neil Young's show was the loudest fucking thing they'd ever heard...I first knew something was going on when we visited England a year and a half ago.  Kids were tired of the rock stars and the limousines and the abusing of stage privileges as stars. There was new music the kids were listening to. As soon as I heard my contemporaries saying, 'God, what the fuck is this....This is going to be over in three month,' I knew it was a sure sign right there that they're going to bite it if they don't watch out. And a lot of them are biting it this year. People are not going to come back to see the same thing over and over again. It's got to change. It's the snake that eats itself. Punk music, New Wave. You call it what you want. It's rock & roll to me, it's still the basis of what's going on...I knew I had to get out there and rock.  But I also knew that I couldn't see myself out there doing it the way it had always been. Standing out there with a microphone. It's got to continue to be as new as when it started...The music business is so big these days, I feel dwarfed by it. I mean, I put out a record and, you know, it does okay. Somebody like Foreigner or Boston, they come out with a record and sell ten times as many as I do. I think that's great. But I still feel like this...little guy...You know, I do the same thing over and over and over again. It has a slightly different look to it every time. This tour seemed to wrap something up. It's a retrospective, but it's looking back on right now. I think I broke through to another arena; now, people won't be surprised if I enhance the program with actors and diverge totally away from music, then come back out of it into music again. It's making rock & roll more visible to me...I'm lucky.  Somehow, by doing what I wanted to do, I manage to give people what they don't want to hear and they still come back. I haven't been able to figure that out yet...People don't understand sometimes, how I can come in and go out so fast, how I can be there and want to do something and then when it's over, for me it's over. To other people it's just a beginning. Sometimes that's hard for people to take. I can see how that would be. I just don't like to stay in one place very long. I move around, I keep doing different things...Just different things...I only follow the [impulses] I get.  And if it makes me laugh... I know it's a good one. Basically I've had a really good time, even though my songs have mostly expressed the down side. I like that there's a lot of humor in rock & roll now. A lot of people take me so seriously. They don't know what to do with me not taking myself so seriously anymore. I guess it's just that a lot of people from the Sixties and early Seventies...just aren't that funny...I've got a job to do, The Eighties are here. I've got to just tear down whatever has happened to me and build something new. You can only have it for so long before you don't have it anymore. You become an old-timer... which... I could be... I don't know.    After all, it's just me and Frank Sinatra left on Reprise Records."

Much of  'Rust Never Sleeps' was recorded live at San Francisco's Boarding House and during the Neil Young tour with Crazy Horse in late 1978.  Overdubs were added later and two songs were recorded in the studio before the tour.   Produced by Neil Young, David Briggs, and Tim Mulligan,  the album features Neil Young on guitar, harmonica, organ, and vocals;   Frank "Pancho" Sampedro on guitar and vocals on side two;  Billy Talbot on bass and vocals on side two;  Ralph Molina on drums and vocals on side two;   Nicolette Larson on vocals on "Sail Away";  Karl T. Himmel on drums on "Sail Away";  and Joe Osborn on bass on "Sail Away".

'Rust Never Sleeps' hit number twenty-eight in Canada,  thirteen in the UK, nine in Sweden,  eight in Australia and the US, and number seven in New Zealand.  The electric sound presaged the grunge movement and gave Young new credibility with the kids.  






http://www.neilyoung.com/





'Rust Never Sleeps' 
film trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir9VmO0cBbQ


film playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL67A9D7A1299DB8BC




"My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" (Young, Jeff Blackburn) – 3:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpr8Y39FLMA




"Thrasher" – 5:38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t00MXZKbW0M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PsdaoKuNLg





"Sail Away" – 3:46
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrd03CvfbQs




"Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" (Young, Blackburn) – 5:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQhEvfeJocM




My my, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay
It's better to burn out
Than to fade away
My my, hey hey.

Out of the blue and into the black
They give you this, but you pay for that
And once you're gone, you can never come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black.

The king is gone but he's not forgotten
This is the story of a Johnny Rotten
It's better to burn out than it is to rust ('cause rust never sleeps)
The king is gone but he's not forgotten.

Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There's more to the picture
Than meets the eye.
Hey hey, my my.

full album:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrQRSk_JRU4Xt4u5a5UMqd4GPGnIxk2ZO





All tracks written by Neil Young except where noted

Side one (acoustic)
1."My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)"  Neil Young, Jeff Blackburn 3:45
2."Thrasher"   5:38
3."Ride My Llama"   2:29
4."Pocahontas"   3:22
5."Sail Away"   3:46
Side two (electric)
1."Powderfinger"   5:30
2."Welfare Mothers"   3:48
3."Sedan Delivery"   4:40
4."Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)"  Neil Young, Jeff Blackburn 5:18