Songs: Tell Me Why, After the Gold
Rush, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Southern Man, Till the Morning Comes, Oh Lonesome Me, Don´t Let It Bring You Down, Birds, When You dance (I Can Really Love), I Believe In You, Cripple Creek Ferry.
Type of Music: Early
Seventies Folk/Country/Hippie Rock
After having
recorded Deja Vu with colleagues
Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil Young went back to the studio to record his
third solo Album “ After the Gold Rush “. Many people complain about Neil´s
whiny out of tune voice here as well as the sloppy playing. Well in my opinion
these are Neil´s Trade-Marks. I know his guitar playing and singing are not the
best in the world from a technical point of view but it´s his style and it´s
unique.
After the Gold Rush is certainly one of his better
efforts. Neil wrote 10 of the 11 songs on the Album while he renders a nice
version of Don Gibson´s country classic Oh
Lonesome Me. Two of Neil´s
compositions namely the tender Till The Morning Comes and the playful Cripple Creek Ferry are simply too short and leave the listener slightly unsatisfied and wanting for more. But the remaining eight songs are all classic Neil Young. His
backing band Crazy Horse shines on the strong Country Rocker When You Dance and the anti-racism inspired Southern Man. Obviously,
this song was not well received in Dixieland and four years later Lynyrd
Skynyrd replied with “ Sweet Home Alabama”. There are also beautiful ballads
like Tell Me Why, Only Love Can Break Your Heart and Birds.
A very powerful album that should be part of anybody´s
collection of Rock Music despite the extensive air-play that most of the music
on the album gets on Classic Rock Radio. It´s also a pity that the
Sound-Quality of the regular CD leaves a lot to desire. Look for the Remastered
Version instead.
Who should buy this Record: Everybody.
Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)
Black = Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better
