In the 15 months between the release of
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and
After the Gold Rush,
Neil Young issued a series of recordings in different styles that could have prepared his listeners for the differences between the two LPs. His two compositions on the
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album
Deja Vu,
"Helpless" and
"Country Girl," returned him to the
folk and
country styles he had pursued before delving into the
hard rock of
Everybody Knows; two other singles,
"Sugar Mountain" and
"Oh, Lonesome Me," also emphasized those roots. But
"Ohio," a
CSNY single, rocked as hard as anything on the second album.
After the Gold Rush was recorded with the aid of
Nils Lofgren, a 17-year-old unknown whose piano was a major instrument, turning one of the few real rockers,
"Southern Man" (which had unsparing protest lyrics typical of
Phil Ochs), into a more stately effort than anything on the previous album and giving a classic tone to the title track, a mystical
ballad that featured some of
Young's most imaginative lyrics and became one of his most memorable songs. But much of
After the Gold Rush consisted of
country-folk love songs, which consolidated the audience
Young had earned through his tours and recordings with
CSNY; its dark yet hopeful tone matched the tenor of the times in 1970, making it one of the definitive
singer/songwriter albums, and it has remained among
Young's major achievements. ~ William Ruhlmann
![Desire [Remastered]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0827969239322_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "Desire [Remastered]")
