“After the Gold Rush” (1970) – Neil Young * Written by Neil Young * LP: After the Gold Rush * Produced by David Briggs, Kendall Pacios, and Neil Young * Label: RepriseAccompanying himself on lone piano, Young sings like a cartoon character on this LP title track, but the weirdness gives way to weightiness when the line “look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s” takes root and the “silver spaceships” he sings about later glow with symbolic meaning of the listener’s own choosing. The flugelhorn solo provides a knowing funereal effect similar to that of the french horn on the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” One of the ultimate “looking inward” tracks of its era.