After the Gold Rush (song)
| After the gold rush | |
|---|---|
| Neil Young | |
| publication | 1970 |
| length | 3:45 |
| Genre (s) | Folk |
| Author (s) | Neil Young |
| Label | Reprise Records |
| album | After the Gold Rush (1970) |
After the Gold Rush is a song written by Neil Young that appeared as the title track on the album of the same name in 1970 .
song
The song consists of three stanzas that move from the past (a medieval festival) to the present (in a burned-out basement) to the future (the "chosen ones" fly away in a silver spaceship). On the original recording, in addition to the singing, two instruments are used in the song: a piano and a French horn. The line of text "Look at Mother Nature on the run / In the 1970s" was often adapted by Young to the current decade.
Dolly Parton said about the recording of her cover version:
“When we were doing the trio album, I asked Linda and Emmy what it meant and they didn't know. So we called Neil Young, but he didn't know either. We asked him what it meant and he said, “Damn it, I don't know. I just wrote it. It depended on what I was taking at the time. I think I took something different for each verse. ""
Cover versions
The song has been covered many times. In 1973 it was interpreted by Prelude , whose a cappella version was among the top 40 hits worldwide. There are other versions by Thom Yorke , Kd lang , The Flaming Lips , The King's Singers , Michael Hedges , Nena and Natalie Merchant . Linda Ronstadt , Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris included it in their 1999 album Trio II and were awarded a Grammy for their version. Parton also released a solo version of the song in 1996 - it changed the line from "I felt like getting high" to "I felt like I could cry" with the permission of Neil Young.
Patti Smith recorded the song for her 2012 album Banga . The song was also played in concerts by Tori Amos , Dave Matthews , Neil Finn and Nana Mouskouri . Billy Corgan played a version on The Howard Stern Show . In 2019 Dolly Parton played the song at the 2019 Grammy Awards with Maren Morris and Miley Cyrus .