For our May 2019 session we celebrate Neil Young classic ‘After The Gold Rush’.

The ’60s were barely over and the ’70s just starting when Neil Young recorded a requiem for the era. The mournful title track to his third album, After the Gold Rush (which was released on Sept. 19, 1970), is ostensibly an ode to the environment, but viewed from other angles, deeper implications surface.

It’s also the end of an early chapter in Young’s career. After breaking from Buffalo Springfield and releasing his debut solo album in 1968, the singer-songwriter would begin what would become the first of many career left turns. On 1969’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, he plugged in and scraped away at the scabs with the young Crazy Horse.

Read more: The Story Of Neil Young ‘After The Gold Rush’

But by the following year, when he was set to make a follow-up LP, he had fired them (but retained a few songs they had already laid down) and retreated to his basement in Topanga, Calif., where he started recording tracks for the follow-up record, a 360-degree turn into acoustic country and folk music with a group of musicians whose approach was a bit more delicate.

Rubbing against the plugged-in numbers left over from the Crazy Horse sessions, the new songs — which featured 18-year-old Nils Lofgren on guitar and piano, an instrument he was mostly unfamiliar with — helped create a ragged and almost disjointed record that’s never quite sure if it’s electric or acoustic, part of the ’60s or part of the ’70s.

And it’s a brilliant juxtaposition, one that gives After the Gold Rush a feeling of frustration and resignation. It’s a romantic album too — the soft “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” is a highlight — but the sting of “Southern Man,” which immediately follows in the track listing, tempers the mood.

Join us to experience the album as never before.

Please note our London Sunday sessions now begin an hour earlier at 3pm.

London

Time and Date: Sunday 19th May 2019 2019 3:00pm – 5:30pm

Venue

Brilliant Corners, 470 Kingsland Rd, London E8 4AE

Tickets

£10 in advance

Presenter

Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy

Audio Menu

Dynavector D17D3 MC Cartridge, Rega P9 Turntable, Rega IOS Phono Stage Audio Note Jinro Integrated Amp, Chord Signature Speaker Cable, Chord Signature Tuned Aray interconnects, ISOL-8 Substation Integra Power Conditioner, Klipschorn Loudspeakers and Klipsch SW-115 Subwoofers

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