"After the Gold Rush" Makes Me Cry

Diana Hignutt · Nov 18, 2009

Yeah, you heard it. Neil Young's brilliant song "After the Gold Rush" off the album After the Gold Rush almost aways makes me cry. I don't know why. Maybe, it so perfectly captures the feeling of the early 1970's when I was beginning to understand the world as a kid. The desolation, the hope, and the hidden doom lurking under the current makes me feel like getting high. Lost innocence. I just don't know. I hear that song and I cry.

Any songs do that to you?

(Thread Rule: There may be no mention of that cursed song, "The Christmas Shoes" or whatever the F it's called, in this thread. Yes, it makes everyone cry or sick to their stomach.)

Paul · Nov 18, 2009

After the Gold's Gone
makes me weep

Priene · Nov 18, 2009

The song Don't let it bring you down, also on After the Goldrush, has these lines

Dead man lying by the side of the road
With the daylight in his eyes.

I used to work with a friend on an incredibly noisy washing-up machine, and this is one of the songs we used to sing. A few years later he died in a car crash.

No, I can't listen to that one at all now.

popmuze · Nov 18, 2009

From Neil Young, I always respond to "Sugar Mountain." Jackson Browne's "Before the Deluge" makes me sad. And then, just about this time of the year, Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues and "1000 Miles" by the Pretenders do the trick.

Diana Hignutt · Nov 18, 2009

You know, you guys are right, that whole album makes me sad, but in a special way.

Gotta go, there's shit in the streets. This is a job for.... sadly, me.

benbradley · Nov 18, 2009

I've had that song "make me cry" but for a totally different reason than what you surely mean. Well, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or what, but that very song got "adulterated."

It's on the "Trio II" album (Dolly Pardon, Linda Ronstadt, Emmy Lou Harris), and you know the part where Neal sings "And I felt like getting high" - well, these girls sing "And I felt like I could cry."
If you gotta see/hear, here's Dolly Pardon with Allison Krause and Suzanne Cox singing it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88GI9O2VpSE

benbradley · Nov 18, 2009

In the spirit of the OP's question, there's "Just For Me:"
http://www.dorenekedney.com/

RG570 · Nov 18, 2009

I don't cry, but if I did, it might be Leonard Cohen's Dress Rehearsal Rag.

I think that's the most powerful song he's ever written.

"After the Gold Rush" Makes Me Cry

Diana Hignutt

Very Tired

Paul

Priene

Out to lunch

popmuze

Last of a Dying Breed

Diana Hignutt

Very Tired

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

RG570