Steve Dawson and All-Star Band Reimagine Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush Album (Oct. 18 & 19)
“After The Gold Rush is an environmental song. I recognize in it now this thread that goes through a lot of my songs, that’s this time-travel thing… When I look out the window, the first thing that comes to my mind is the way this place looked a hundred years ago.” – Neil Young
Most of the tracks on Neil Young’s iconic After the Gold Rush album were recorded in the basement studio of his Topanga Canyon home. Young began recording the songs in August 1969 at about the same time he started playing with Crosby, Stills, and Nash. That month he joined the CSN trio as “a guest” for a couple of songs in their Woodstock set but asked that his name be left out of the band credits. Young initially wrote some of the Gold Rush material for a movie Dean Stockwell and Dennis Hopper were planning, although that project never materialized. Stockwell’s apocalyptic script no longer exists but at some point in the story a tidal wave roars in off of Santa Monica Bay and wipes out the Topanga Corral nightclub.
Over the course of a year, while performing with both Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Young wrote and recorded the album’s songs. Many of the musicians featured on After the Gold Rush came from Crazy Horse, including newbie Nils Lofgren, a nascent Horseman who was surprised to be asked to play most of the piano on the sessions.
The album’s cover photo, taken by 18-year-old Joel Bernstein in June 1970, captures a fleeting moment when Young and an elderly woman cross paths on a Greenwich Village sidewalk. Originally, bandmate Graham Nash was also in the frame, but the image was cropped to focus solely on Young and the woman. Taken quickly, the photo was slightly out of focus so Bernstein solarized the image in the darkroom to try and sharpen it. Young liked the blurred effect and chose the altered print for the cover of the album, released in September 1970.
Musician Steve Dawson, along with an all-star cast featuring Sue Foley, Krystle Dos Santos, Joe Henry, Rich Hope, Marcus Mosely, Samantha Parton, Marin Patenaude, Steve Poltz, and Julian Taylor, will pay tribute to Young’s album, After the Gold Rush, at the Kay Meek Arts Centre on Oct. 18 and 19. For over a decade, Dawson – born and raised in West Vancouver but now based in Nashville – has hosted annual shows reimagining classic albums with a handpicked group of musicians performing alongside his band. The concept honours the spirit of the original music without attempting to copy the recording. Performances always leave room for interpretation, such as adding horns to Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited. The first set typically covers the full tracklist of the album, with each guest artist assigned a song. In the second set, the musicians get a chance to choose a favourite song from the featured artist’s catalog to perform. Dawson’s tribute shows usually sell out so check the Kay Meek website for ticket status.
The tracks on Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Early Daze album were recorded in 1969, around the same time as the sessions for After the Gold Rush, but they weren’t officially released until just a few months ago. “Birds,” was recorded on August 3, 1969, at Sunset Sound studios in Hollywood. The lineup for that session included Neil Young on guitar and vocals, Danny Whitten on guitar and vocals, Billy Talbot on bass, and Ralph Molina on drums and vocals. Young switches to piano for the version of “Birds” heard on After the Gold Rush with Whitten and Molina backing him on vocals.
