Wednesday 27 March 2013

Albums for Life: 30: Neil Young: After the Goldrush

Sailing heart-ships through broken harbors
Out on the waves in the night
Still the searcher must ride the dark horse racing alone in his fright
Tell me why 

Plenty of bitter and sweet here.
It was the sweet balladry of 'After the Goldrush' that captured me way back in 1970 and is probably the album that introduced me to the idea of the 'singer/songwriter'.

The songs were written as an intended soundtrack to a script for a film 'After the Goldrush' written by Dean Stockwell. A"sort of an end-of-the-world movie", the film never saw the light of day but the recordings continued. Young's regular band Crazy Horse were augmented by Jack Nitzsche and 18 year old prodigy Nils Lofgren who was brought in primarily to play piano, a first for him.


The follow up 'Harvest' is probably an easier listen but there's a flow to this album that is truly intoxicating; 35 minutes of sheer bliss. There's a fragility to Young's voice that is almost other worldly.
The songs are impossibly beautiful; I knew on my first listen that this album would be with me forever.


6 comments:

  1. Love this album. My second favourite Neil album. Beauty & fragility indeed.

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  2. I'm probably halfway between Tim and Seamus - love the slower mellower songs . Although when he started singing about his dog on Harvest Moon .......

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    1. ... and 'halfway between Seamus and Tim'?
      That'd be a well read recluse with 'Celtic' tattooed to the right side of his face (we know Seamus), flat shiny nuts and a f***ing excruciating high voice...

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  3. Goodnight John Boy... too many wine gums?

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  4. Too much politeness on these pages, plus I'm trying out new adjectives. Interesting to experiment by using the colorful prose style of "Mr Agreeable"... shards of verbal venom mixed with grains of truth. Creative writing that pushes the envelope. But I suck at it. Should have at least begun "Hey Hey, My... ass!!!
    But truthfully, Neil is my compatriot, but I still think he sucks. He's not alone... Beiber, Celine Dion, Nickelback, etc. A lot of bad Canuck exports...
    Hmm... Is that the deportation officers at my door?

    TT

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