After the Gold Rush
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After the Gold Rush is the third album by Neil Young, and one of four high-profile albums released by each partner of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping Déjà Vu album of 1970. It peaked at #8 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart; two singles taken from the album, "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and "When You Dance I Can Really Love," made it to #33 and #93 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100.
Track listing
- "Tell Me Why" – 2:54
- "After the Gold Rush" – 3:45
- "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" – 3:05
- "Southern Man" – 5:41
- "Till The Morning Comes" – 1:17
- "Oh, Lonesome Me" – 3:47
- "Don't Let It Bring You Down" – 2:56
- "Birds" – 2:34
- "When You Dance I Can Really Love" – 3:44
- "I Believe in You" – 2:24
- "Cripple Creek Ferry" – 1:34
History
Neil Young's third solo album was released during a prolific period of his career, having recorded two solo albums and Déjà Vu in less than a year; he would wait until 1972 for his subsequent LP Harvest, which would make Young a household name. Although his work with Buffalo Springfield had shown him experimenting with a variety of musical styles, on Gold Rush Young continued the mix of hard rock with the country and folk-flavored acoustic approaches from CSNY and on 1969's Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.In Neil Young's biography Shakey, it was stated that he was intentionally trying to combine Crazy Horse and CSN on this release, with Crazy Horse appearing alongside Stephen Stills and CSNY bass player Greg Reeves. After the Gold Rush also brought to national prominence eighteen year-old guitar and keyboard whiz Nils Lofgren, at the time also performing with his Washington, DC-based band Grin. Both Lofgren and producer Jack Nitzsche, who also contributed to Gold Rush, would join Crazy Horse for a period at this time, each appearing on that band's eponymous album of 1971, recorded while Young was busy with CSNY.
Critics were not immediately enamored; the original review in Rolling Stone began:
"Neil Young devotees will probably spend the next few weeks trying desperately to convince themselves that After the Gold Rush is good music. But they'll be kidding themselves. For despite the fact that the album contains some potentially first rate material, none of the songs here rise above the uniformly dull surface."
As is typical of Young releases, critical reaction has improved with time, and Gold Rush now considered a milestone in Young's recording career. Ink Blot magazine's retrospective review summarizes more current critical thinking:
- "One of his least stylized efforts, the record gains its strength from not only the rock solid songwriting, but the array of musical personalities that Neil displays. ... The variety and quality of the songs causes After The Gold Rush to play like a greatest hits album, which unbelievably it is not."
Personnel
- Neil Young: guitar, piano, harmonica, vibes, vocal
- Danny Whitten: guitar, vocal
- Nils Lofgren: piano, vocal
- Jack Nitzsche: piano
- Billy Talbot: bass
- Greg Reeves: bass
- Ralph Molina: drums, vocal
- Bill Peterson: flugelhorn
- Stephen Stills: vocal
Additional Personnel - Production
Alphabetically:- Joel Bernstein - Photography
- David Briggs - Producer
- Gary Burden - Art Direction
- Kendall Pacios - Producer
- Elliot Roberts & Lookout Management - Direction
- Neil Young - Producer
Billboard Singles Charts
- "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" peaked # 33 on Pop Singles in 1970
- "When You Dance I Can Really Love" peaked # 93 on Pop Singles in 1971
Lyrics
- [After The Gold Rush] (excludes "Oh, Lonesome Me")
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