The Rush For Gold

One that I always come back to. Neil Young's, After the Goldrush. It's so familar now but I can recall a time when the sounds and album cover were new to my eyes and ears. It's easy to forget after so many years, that 45 years ago, the name Neil Young wasn't as well known as it would eventually become. At the time he was relatively unknown in my universe. I didn't know of his Buffalo Springfield roots and the connection with Crosby, Stills and Nash was also new. Nor was it a given that he would still be recording five or ten years down the line. The future for Neil Young was not clear.

This is one of those records where I don't need a lyric sheet to follow along with the vocals. (Not that it would help in this case as the supplied lyric sheet is in Young's less than perfect penmenship and occasionally difficult to read.) I can't sit down and recite the lyrics as poetry but when the music starts the words suddenly return along with accompanying flashbacks of my early teenage years.

This is one of the handful of records that I think of as a personal transition point from listening to the weekly Top-40 hits on AM radio to seeking out vinyl albums and discovering the few but much "cooler" channels on FM-radio in those days. And 45 years later, it still sounds as fresh and vital as it did in 1970.