After the Gold Rush (song)

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“After the Gold Rush”

Song by Neil Young

Album

After the Gold Rush

Released

September 19, 1970

Recorded

March-April, 1970

Genre

Rock

Length

3:45

Neil Young

Neil Young
David Briggs

After the Gold Rush track listing

"Tell Me Why"
(1)

“After the Gold Rush”
(2)

"Only Love Can Break Your Heart"
(3)

"After the Gold Rush" is a song written by Neil Young from the 1970 album of the same name. In addition to After the Gold Rush, it also appears on Decade, Greatest Hits and Live Rust.

The song contains lyrics often associated with the environment. The three verses are often categorized as a movement from past, present and future. The horn solo in the middle of the song is often replaced by a harmonica solo from Young in live performances. The line "Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s" has been amended by Young in concert over the decades, and currently is sung as "Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 21st century."

The song has been covered numerous times, best seen in the 1974 version by Prelude which was a top 40 hit all over the globe, especially the United Kingdom where it re-charted in the Top 40 in 1982. Other versions have been performed by artists such as k. d. lang, The Flaming Lips, Michael Hedges and Natalie Merchant; Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt included it on their Trio 2 album in 1999.( Dolly Parton's version had the song lyric " I felt like getting high" changed to "I felt like I could cry" with the permission of Neil Young) and during Radiohead's 2003 World Tour, Thom Yorke occasionally played this song solo, usually segueing it into "Everything in Its Right Place". The song has also been covered in live shows by Tori Amos, and by Nana Mouskouri during her 1970s BBC show.