Showing posts with label After The Gold Rush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label After The Gold Rush. Show all posts

Monday, September 14, 2020

50 Years of Music • After The Gold Rush

Inside jacket

Album cover
September 19, 1970 is the 50 year anniversary of After the Gold Rush by Neil Young and is often ranked as one of the best albums of all-time. In my recent blog - List Your FAV FIVE Albums, I ranked it #2.

1. The White Album, The Beatles
2. After the Gold Rush, Neil Young
3. Who's Next, The Who
4. Late For The Sky, Jackson Browne
5. Buffalo Springfield Again, Buffalo Springfield

Album back cover
In that FAV FIVE Albums blog, I didn't give a back story for any of my above selections and thought I'd share a couple of thoughts here about After the Gold Rush

In September, 2015 I wrote a blog, The songs playing in our heads this week where I said this, "Next up and in my head this past week, a couple of songs from Neil Young's 1970, After the Gold Rush. I absolutely wore this vinyl record out on my bedroom record player. It is a classic with Tell Me Why and Only Love Can Break Your Heart as two more favorites of mine since I was a sophomore in high school. I remember once writing my first girl friend a letter (whom I had broken up with as a freshman) and included the lyrics to Tell Me Why. She wrote back and said she didn't understand what the hell I was trying to say to her. Well, being a 15 year old kid, I probably didn't know what I was trying to say either. So who better for me to quote than the brilliant and often abstract Neil Young."

The part above where I say I wore the album out in my bedroom is actually the part that I was reflecting on this past week. I'm sure you have heard Brian Wilson's In My Room,

There's a world where I can go and tell my secrets to
In my room, in my room
In this world I lock out all my worries and my fears
In my room, in my room

Do my dreaming and my scheming
Lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing
Laugh at yesterday

Now it's dark and I'm alone
But I won't be afraid
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room

In My Room has always touched me deeply. I think as a young person when you're still living at home, your bedroom is your retreat, the place where you can sit still, think, and try to make sense of your world.



As a fifteen-sixteen year old, listening to After The Gold Rush was my go to 'in my room' album to listen to by myself. Most of the songs on After The Gold Rush would simply thrust me into a state of introspection that as I look back, was self-therapy.

Several weeks ago, I asked and got back many of my original vinyl albums from my youth from my ex-wife Pam, who happened to have them. She also gave me our old turntable that I connected to my current bedroom stereo system. Thank you Pam! It's kind of cool after all these years to have my old vinyl record collection back in my room.

Last Friday, I pulled out After the Gold Rush from the collection and listened to it while lying on my bed. It was very relaxing. My back-to-the-future therapy.

So my suggestion, make some time this week to listen to After The Gold Rush in a quiet space, by yourself.

Stay well my friends.


Monday, August 10, 2020

List Your FAV FIVE: Albums




Last week's blog, LIST Your FAV FIVE Songs was a lot of fun! I'm so thankful to the people who participated and made Monday Monday Music a little more interactive. For the little music blog that could, I got a larger number of hits than most weeks, as I think that some readers passed along the blog to family and friends who may have cast a silent ballot at home.

The feedback I got from several people was that it was really hard to pick only five songs, and that's why I liked it so much! So if you either electronically responded or silently made your list on a napkin, I thought I'd continue the reader participation theme this week by stepping it up a notch. This week let's all put our heads together and list our five favorite albums of all-time.

As I write this on the weekend before the Monday post, I've started a brainstorm list (on recycled printer paper) of 33 albums and initially only knew one album that would will make the final five. My suggestion- just start looking through your vinyl album/CD collections, or music streaming service favorites. That should get you going.

After studying my list of 33, it came down to:
  • Which Beatle album(s) to pick;
  • Which singer-songwriter album(s) to pick;
  • and most importantly, what albums did I know every song and played them into my heart and soul.
Paul Hobbs texted me last week after participating in the FAV FIVE Songs blog and wrote, "It would be interesting to hear what made one choose a particular song. As music is a time machine, specific incidents and events can certainly play a role in creating a list such as this." I couldn't agree more; and so my third bullet point above and Paul's words lead me to this list of five albums that have stayed with me since "the era" of the 60's and 70's. 
  1. The White Album, The Beatles
  2. After the Gold Rush, Neil Young
  3. Who's Next, The Who
  4. Late For The Sky, Jackson Browne
  5. Buffalo Springfield Again, Buffalo Springfield
This week I will forgo why I chose these five albums as your list will also come to me without an explanation to the "time machine, specific incidents and events" that influenced your short list. 

What makes your list and my list interesting, is that we may or may not have some background information of 'why' one made a specific album selection, but the mystery and our speculation may be enough to make our music week a little more intriguing. So share this blog with friends and family as it may spark an interesting conversation. 

Note- For kicks, you might be interested in 'my weekend brainstorm' of 33 albums and I've included it here at the end of the blog. I made my list within a hour and then put my pen down and did that on purpose because knowing myself, it quickly would grow to fifty, then one-hundred and hey thats' a horse of a different color.

One last thing before I turn you loose to think and create your own list; I want to simply make the distinction between 'best' and 'favorite.' Citizen Kane is often ranked by critics as the best movie of all-time and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is similarly ranked as the best album of all-time. My list could have easily included Sgt. Pepper, but the emotional impact of The White Album for me comes from a place in the time machine that makes it an extra special favorite.

Now it's your turn.


If you do not see the Google Form in this blog from your browser, use this direct link -
https://forms.gle/6efiGQv7wrgPeXCu7

I'll be looking forward to making and posting Your FAV FIVE Albums playlists this week, so come back to see everyone's playlists! (note- I will create the playlists in the order I receive them on my end.)

Doug McIntosh's FAV FIVE Albums












Mary Kit McIntosh's FAV FIVE Albums












Paul Hobbs' FAV FIVE Albums












Ron Ouellette's FAV FIVE Albums

Desperado, Eagles (on Spotify, as the complete studio album is not available on YouTube)

Desperado (pieced together with various studio and live song versions)











Shawna McIntosh's FAV FIVE Albums












Vicki Forman's FAV FIVE Albums












Ken Forman's FAV FIVE Albums












Ron Zieman's FAV FIVE Albums








Are You Experienced • Jimi Hendrix (This link is available on Spotify as there are only a few original studio tracks from the album available on YouTube)

Note - Ron suggested I get this album as I purchased Are Your Experienced and Buffalo Springfield Again at the same time in 1968 as these two albums were the first albums I actually bought with my own money (from my paper route). It's so fitting to find it here as one of Ron's FAV FIVE along with my Buffalo Springfield Again pick above.




Roger Demchak's FAV FIVE Albums












Jane Hobbs' FAV FIVE Albums


Hotel California • Eagles
(This link is available on Spotify as there are only a few original studio tracks from the album available on YouTube)










____________________________
Doug's Brainstorm List of 33 FAVorite Albums
(Listed in the order they came into my head)
  1. Late For The Sky, Jackson Browne
  2. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
  3. Who's Next, The Who
  4. The White Album, The Beatles
  5. Abbey Road, The Beatles
  6. Innervisions, Stevie Wonder
  7. Buffalo Springfield Again, Buffalo Springfield
  8. Desperado, Eagles
  9. Tumbleweed Connection, Elton John
  10. Madman Across the Water, Elton John
  11. John Prine, John Prine
  12. After The Gold Rush, Neil Young
  13. Deja Vu, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
  14. Sail Away, Randy Newman
  15. A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles
  16. There Goes Rhymin' Simon, Paul Simon
  17. Tea For The Tillerman, Cat Stevens
  18. Court and Spark, Joni Mitchell
  19. Sweet Baby James, James Taylor
  20. Talking Book, Stevie Wonder
  21. Moondance, Van Morrison
  22. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel
  23. Tapestry, Carol King
  24. Blue, Joni Mitchell
  25. Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
  26. Blood On The Tracks, Bob Dylan
  27. Revolver, The Beatles
  28. Cover Girl, Shawn Colvin
  29. Prisoner in Disguise, Linda Ronstadt
  30. Nilsson Schmilsson, Harry Nilsson
  31. Karla Bonoff, Karla Bonoff
  32. Damn The Torpedoes, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
  33. If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, The Mama's and the Papa's