Song Lyric Sunday: What Gold Rush?

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It’s Sunday, and that means it’s time for another Song Lyric Sunday, doesn’t it. This week, Jim is asking us to play a song associated with climate change and the environment, as he tells us in his post Impacting Life On Earth. My chosen song isn’t perhaps the most obvious one, but as I have played several others both for SLS and Tuesday Tunes I thought I’d go for something I haven’t tried before, though I may not be alone in this choice..

This one goes right back to 1970, when songwriters were beginning to write about the earth, our environment, and what we were doing to destroy them. This is a live performance from that year, and in a break from my usual habit I’m not going to give you all of the lyrics, as you can see them on the video:

As if you didn’t know, that was Neil Young playing After The Gold Rush, the title track of his third album, which was  released in September 1970 and peaked at #1 in The Netherlands, #5 in Canada, #7 in the UK and #8 in the US. If you’re wondering why I chose this, there is a detailed explanation in Wikipedia that I’m borrowing:

 

“Young has said that he doesn’t recall what the song is about. Dolly Parton, recalling a conversation while in the process of recording a cover of the song, along with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, for their 1999 album Trio II, said:

I loved the song on Neil Young’s [1970] album and I loved it when Prelude had it out in 1974. But I didn’t know what the song meant. Linda and Emmy knew Neil, so we called him and asked him. He said, ‘I have no idea.’ I thought that was so funny. I think it’s about the Second Coming or the invasion of aliens, or both.

However, in his 2012 biography Young reportedly gave a different explanation of the song’s origin and meaning, describing the inspiration provided by a screenplay of the same name (never produced), which apocalyptically described the last days of California in a catastrophic flood. The screenplay and song’s title referred to what happened in California, a place that took shape due to the Gold Rush. Young eventually concluded that:

After The Gold Rush is an environmental song… I recognize in it now this thread that goes through a lotta my songs that’s this time-travel thing… When I look out the window, the first thing that comes to my mind is the way this place looked a hundred years ago.”

 

The imagery in the song of people using a rocket ship to escape from the destruction they have caused to the planet is, I think, very powerful, even more so for being depicted as part of a dream. And the recorded version is treated simply – just Neil on piano and vocals and Bill Peterson on flugelhorn, which also adds to its power in my view. The live version I am playing mirrors that, with Neil’s harmonica taking the flugelhorn part.

Having allowed Dolly Parton to mention both the version she recorded with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt and the one by Prelude I thought I’d play you both of those, too, as they are equally lovely. Firstly, the official video of the one from the Trio II album:

Trio II was released in February 1999, nearly five years after it was recorded, as a result of contract disputes and the difficulties of diary scheduling to assemble them for promotional appearances. It reached #62 in the US, but made #4 in both the US and Canadian Country charts, selling more than half a million in the US, and received the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals in 2000.

A version I grew up with was the aforementioned Prelude, who were formed in Gateshead (NE England) in 1970. They released an a cappella version as a single in 1974 and this video shows them performing the song live in 1984:

Prelude got to #21 in the UK and #22 in the US with the song, and also to #28 in the UK in 1982 after they re-recorded it. I still think their version is lovely, and Irene Hume has a beautiful voice. Not a bad effort for a husband and wife duo – with others at times – who started out on the UK folk clubs circuit!

I think three versions of the same song should be enough to have implanted its message into your subconscious, so at this point I will take my leave of you. Just one final thought before I go – if you’re wondering why I chose today’s title, you have a go at finding the words ‘Gold Rush’ anywhere in the song!

Have a lovely day, and I’ll see you again for another round of Tuesday Tunes 😊

53 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: What Gold Rush?”

  1. Pingback: That Was October | Take It Easy

  3. Pretty song, especially the trio. I might have heard it before, but this time I paid more attention to the lyrics. Glad for your writing on the song, because I’d never had known from the song’s words what it was about. 🙂

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  8. My best advice: Never try to figure out a Neil Young lyric.. He has a mind that works on 20 levels at the same time. And how he is feeling at any particular time will affect the mood he portrays. Us mere Earnhlings are best off just listening, and enjoying, in awe of a genius at work.

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  13. It’s a lovely ‘mood’ piece. I like Neil’s fragile plaintive voice on this, though the Trio’s vocal strengths can’t be denied. Prelude suit it very well too.

    My only eye-rolling moment was the Trio’s changing of the lyrics from ‘high’ to ‘cry.’ Yes, I know the US Country market gets all bent out of shape about even the possible mention of certain illegal mood enhancers. (‘Course, drinking yourself blind on Big Daddy’s back shed White Lightning… well whoa there, now that’s different, that’s just good ol’ fun, ain’t no harm in that, nosireeBob.) I guess they know the market, but still, it seems a tad precious.

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  14. If I had to listen to a song more than once today, this is the song that I would choose and thanks for featuring it, Clive. I love how Dolly Parton wanted to find out more about this tune, and she had her friends Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt call Neil and ask him what it meant.

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  17. We both selected this song, but our write-ups couldn’t be more different — mine more “matter of fact,” while yours was more personal. Well done. I also like that you included the two covers, both of which are excellent.

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  18. Another great post, love the history…I will botch this but I read once that Neil Young was playing his new album for someone…he took them out in his lake and had one massive speaker blaring from his barn, the other from his house…his version of stereo I guess….and at one point he yelled to his techs: “more barn!”

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  21. I have always considered the song as an environmental song though when I think about it there is no specific reason why. But what a tune. All the covers you have included compliment the song in their own ways.

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