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"
"Country Girl,"
returned him to the
folk
country
styles he had pursued before delving into the
hard rock
of
Everybody Knows
; two other singles,
"Sugar Mountain"
"Oh, Lonesome Me,"
also emphasized those roots. But
"Ohio,"
a
CSNY
single, rocked as hard as anything on the second album.
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
consisted of
country-folk
love songs, which consolidated the audience
had earned through his tours and recordings with
; 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
's major achievements. ~ William Ruhlmann