I Hope Lynyrd Skynyrd Will Remember — Neil Young Don’t Need Them Around Anyhow
My Year of Neil Young, Part 3: My album review of ‘After The Gold Rush’
As some of you may already know, one of my plans for 2022 is to listen to and review all of Neil Young’s studio albums. Going into this, I’d previously heard only three or four of them in their entirety. However, I knew a lot of his songs from hearing them on radio stations and from a couple of compilation albums of his music that I owned. I’ve always considered myself a fan of Neil Young, but I never considered myself to be a superfan of him.
However, that’s quickly changing.
I recently listened to and reviewed his first two albums (Neil Young and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere) and gave both of them 4 out of 5 possible stars.
Since I loved them both so much, I was a little worried about listening to his third album, After The Gold Rush, for my first time. I already knew three songs from it: the title track, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” and “Southern Man.”
I liked those three a lot, but were the other songs going to measure up to the great music I’d fallen in love with from Neil’s first two albums? Was I going to have to give him less than 4 stars this time around?
After The Gold Rush is a bit more mellow-sounding than the first two albums. Not that those didn’t have slow songs on them, of course, but each of them contained more rocking tunes than the third one does.
Probably the most rocking (and most famous) song on the album is “Southern Man,” which I referenced in the title of this article. Lynyrd Skynyrd famously referenced “Southern Man” and Neil Young in their classic song “Sweet Home Alabama.” There are a lot of contradicting stories out there as to whether there was a rivalry or bad feelings between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young over the whole thing. I personally wasn’t around for any of it, so I don’t know. However, here is a piece on “Southern Man” on Wikipedia, if you want to read more about it.
Maybe it’s unfair of me, but I’ve always had kind of an attitude against Lynyrd Skynyrd for them slamming Neil Young in the lyrics of “Sweet Home Alabama.” Then again, I can see why they did it. Whatever, right? Maybe part of my problem is that I’ve heard “Sweet Home Alabama” 11, 635 (or so) times in my life. It’s a great song, but man, I’m really tired of hearing it.
All I know is that I love “Southern Man.” Lyrically, it’s very deep and mentions racism, cross-burning, and the KKK. It makes you think — which is something that not enough people do on a regular basis.
But it’s not just a “preachy” song — it also rocks! Neil and his great band have several awesome jamming moments in it. Musically, it’s wonderful.
Southern Man
So, how do I feel about the rest of the songs on After The Gold Rush? Well, here are the five that I love the most:
After The Gold Rush
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Don’t Let It Bring You Down
When You Dance I Can Really Love
Cripple Creek Ferry
“Cripple Creek Ferry” has been stuck in my head for the last few days and it’s currently my favorite song on the album. What’s funny, though, is that when I first heard it, I quickly declared it as my least favorite song on the album.
So, what’s my least favorite song on the album now? Well, as you can see from the example above, it could change at any moment, but I’d say my current least favorite is “Oh, Lonesome Me.” Still, having said that, I don’t dislike that one at all. It’s a very good song.
In fact, in my opinion, every song on After The Gold Rush is very good. I’m happy to say that I love the album even more than I love Neil’s first two albums.
Out of a possible 5 stars, I give it…drumroll, please…5 stars!
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