FEATURE:
Southern Man
Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush at Fifty
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I am doing a fair few album pieces this week…
IN THIS PHOTO: Neil Young in 1970/PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Bernstein
as there are anniversaries and boxsets coming out that I feel are worth nodding to. I will broaden things out next week but, tomorrow (19th September), Neil Young’s third studio album, After the Gold Rush, turns fifty. It is amazing to consider the album was seen (by some) as mediocre and a bit lacking when it came out on Reprise all those years ago! Young’s second studio album (which he recorded with with Crazy Horse), Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, of 1969 was viewed more favourably – with tracks like Cinnamon Girl, and Down by the River impressing critics; many noting how haunting his songs were without being depressive or bleak. In years since its release, After the Gold Rush is seen as one of Young’s best albums, and it is not surprising that the album was reappraised and reassessed years down the line. Harvest of 1972 – the follow-up to After the Gold Rush – was not reviewed overwhelmingly positive, and there are few today who see the album as anything other than a classic! The first side of After the Gold Rush – with Tell Me Why, After the Gold Rush, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Southern Man, and Till the Morning Comes, sitting alongside one another – is one of the very best of his career, and I am not sure why it took so long for people to realise the power, beauty and brilliance of the album! Young’s voice and lyrics are sensational throughout, but I am glad that After the Gold Rush was sort of rediscovered and evaluated after a while. It would be a shame if it was dismissed or shrugged off and that was that! Neil Young has just put out a new E.P., and it seems there is no slowing the legend!
As NME reported earlier in the year, there are plans for a reissue of the album to celebrate its anniversary:
“According to a new post on the Neil Young Archives, a 50th anniversary edition of the album, which was originally released on September 19, 1970, is going to be released on Reprise Records.
While there’s no exact date yet for the release, it will likely include a live concert film (dubbed “Young Shakespeare”) from his January 22nd, 1971 performance at Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Connecticut – which occurred three days after his legendary Massey Hall set in Toronto, Canada.
While Young’s show at Massey Hall has long been considered a legendary concert for the folk rock legend, he and producer John Hanlon feel that the Shakespeare Theater show is better.
“In fact, today as we listen and compare, [producer] John Hanlon and I both feel ‘Shakespeare’ is superior to our beloved ‘Massey Hall,’” wrote Young on his site. “A more calm performance, without the celebratory atmosphere of Massey Hall, captured live on 16mm film. ‘Young Shakespeare’ is a very special event. To my fans, I say this is the best ever.”
He added that the show was both “personal and emotional” for him and that it “defines that time”.
I am not sure whether that reissue is coming out later this year, but I have not heard any recent news. Many people might associate Neil Young with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and After the Gold Rush was one of four huge albums released by the quartet after their album, Déjà Vu, was released.
In terms of tone, After the Gold Rush is mainly Acoustic Folk/Country Folk, and the harder-rocking Southern Man is a highlight – and one of the best songs Neil Young ever put into the world! Most of the album was recorded at a makeshift basement studio in Young's Topanga Canyon home during the spring with Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young bassist Greg Reeves, Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina and Nils Lofgren of the Washington, D.C.-based band Grin on piano. Young was deliberately combining members of his bands, Crazy Horse, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Stephen Stills can be heard providing backing vocals on Only Love Can Break Your Heart. If Rolling Stone were negative about the album in 1970, they were more enthused and switched on by 1975 – with them and many others proclaiming it a masterpiece. In a retrospective review, this is what AllMusic had to say:
“In the 15 months between the release of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and After the Gold Rush, Neil Young issued a series of recordings in different styles that could have prepared his listeners for the differences between the two LPs. His two compositions on the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album Déjà Vu, "Helpless" and "Country Girl," returned him to the folk and country styles he had pursued before delving into the hard rock of Everybody Knows; two other singles, "Sugar Mountain" and "Oh, Lonesome Me," also emphasized those roots. But "Ohio," a CSNY single, rocked as hard as anything on the second album.
After the Gold Rush was recorded with the aid of Nils Lofgren, a 17-year-old unknown whose piano was a major instrument, turning one of the few real rockers, "Southern Man" (which had unsparing protest lyrics typical of Phil Ochs), into a more stately effort than anything on the previous album and giving a classic tone to the title track, a mystical ballad that featured some of Young's most imaginative lyrics and became one of his most memorable songs. But much of After the Gold Rush consisted of country-folk love songs, which consolidated the audience Young had earned through his tours and recordings with CSNY; its dark yet hopeful tone matched the tenor of the times in 1970, making it one of the definitive singer/songwriter albums, and it has remained among Young's major achievements”.
I am going to bring in a couple of articles before I close things, as they provide illumination and revelation regarding the recording sessions and After the Gold Rush’s legacy. I am fascinated by albums that are clearly wonderful but are sort of underrated or misjudged by critics at the time, only for the true worth of the album to be realised later on. It must have been quite disheartening for Neil Young to read some of the negative press, but I am glad there is more than enough love for the album out there now! In an article from 2014, Vice discussed the album’s beginnings and the initial reception it was afforded:
“Initial sessions for the After The Gold Rush took place at Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, while the majority of the album was recorded at a makeshift studio inside Young’s Topanga Canyon home. For his third album, Young enlisted the help of CSN&Y bassist Greg Reeves, Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina and a then burgeoning young musical prodigy by the name of Nils Lofgren on piano.
As a result, After The Gold Rush produced two charting singles, the simple yet poignantly delivered “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” which was allegedly written after Graham Nash’s breakup with Joni Mitchell and became Young’s first Top 40 hit as a solo artist, and “When You Dance I Can Really Love.” It also featured a self-titled track and the well-known acoustic opener “Tell Me Why,” which immediately set the tone for the album and marked a shift away from the hard-rock appeal of his previous release and into more serious singer-songwriter territory, effectively laying the groundwork for his 1972 album, Harvest.
But, it was Young’s controversial “Southern Man” that garnered him the most attention. As one of the only real hard, driving tracks on the album, it held a bright light to the racism experienced by blacks in the Deep South, and prompted much repugnance from Southerners during a time of desegregation. It has been said that Lynyrd Skyndyrd wrote their 1974 hit “Sweet Home Alabama,” partially in response Young’s “Southern Man.”
Interestingly, at the time of After The Gold Rush’s release, critics were unimpressed by Young’s songwriting. Rolling Stone even called the album uniform, suggesting that none of the songs rose above their “dull surface.” Though it took some time to reach critical mass––it wasn’t until a half-decade later that the media began to change their tune and praise the album calling it a “masterpiece.”These days, with more than thirty-five studio albums under his belt, it is almost endearing to revisit a time during which a songwriter of Young’s caliber was dismissed as being lackluster. After The Gold Rush has become widely known as a classic of the era and a staple of Young’s recording career”.
Happy fiftieth anniversary to one of the greatest albums ever, and one that has only grown in stature and importance since its release! I want to bring in an article from Classic Album Sundays, who talk about Young’s stunning songwriting, and how After the Gold Rush kickstarted his solo career in many ways:
“But stepping out of the failed film’s shadow, After The Gold Rush as a whole fits neatly into Young’s continued development as one of the finest songwriters of the North American tradition. Young’s ability to convey nuanced emotion through potently simple chord sequences and unvarnished yet poetic lyrics is exemplified on songs such as “Birds” and “Only Love…”, which highlight the often overlooked yet effortless sonic beauty of his music. The fact that the album allows such space for this aspect of Young’s work to blossom reveals why it remains one of the most beloved in his expansive catalogue.
Despite producing no major hits and suffering a ferociously critical review from Rolling Stone, the album truly kicked off Young’s celebrated solo career, preceding game-changing albums, such as 1972’s Harvest, and was quickly re-considered as one of the finest albums of the 1970s by the very publications who had tore it to pieces just a few years prior. It’s a testament to how swiftly Young’s career was ascending – from folk-rock’s resilient underdog to one of the standard-bearers of the great American songbook”.
Until the anniversary edition of After the Gold Rush comes out, you can buy the original and marvel at a fifty-year-old album that still manages to elicit so much beauty, heart and thought-provoking moments. It is a work of genius from one of the world’s most respected…
AND consistently brilliant songwriters.