I had toured once already with CSNY. I recorded this in my Topanga Studio. I put the wood on the walls myself and loved that feeling. My house was on a steep hill overlooking the canyon. The French horn player ran out of breath on my steep driveway. Thanks to Dean Stockwell for inspiring this song for his movie "After The Gold Rush". It was his title. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

... Dean Stockwell came by the house with a screenplay called After The Gold Rush. He had cowritten it with Herb Berman and wanted to know if I could do the music for it. I read the screenplay and kept it around for a while. I was writing a lot of songs at the time, and some of them seemed like they would fit right in with this story. The song “After The Gold Rush” was written to go along with the story’s main character as he carried the tree of life through Topanga Canyon to the ocean. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace 2012

“I was gonna write a movie that was personal, a Jungian self-discovery of the gnosis,” said Stockwell. “It involved the Kabala, it involved a lot of arcane stuff.” Though the After the Gold Rush script is currently missing, Shannon Forbes recalls that it involved a huge tidal wave coming to destroy Topanga. “It was sort of an end-of-the-world movie,” she said. “At the very end, the hero is standing in the Corral parking lot watching this huge wave come in and this house is surfing along, and as the house comes at him, he turns the knob—and that’s the end of the movie.” Russ Tamblyn was to play an over-the-hill rocker living in a castle; others vaguely recall some scene of George Herms carrying a huge “tree of life” through the canyon. Despite what the back cover said, Young, over twenty-five years later, could recall only two of After the Gold Rush’s cuts actually being inspired by the movie: the title cut and Cripple Creek Ferry. Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

We ought to do this song here for Al Gore tonight. It's funny you know - here's a guy who decided he didn't want to do that other thing any more. It got down to what he really wanted to do - sort of half way through his life - something he'd be committed to for a long time. And he's just so committed to it that, unlike all of his peers, he had the balls to really say what he believed in. And then, Al ... "damn Democrat!, geez, how could he do that?" People just can't separate politics and life. So just because Al's a Democrat some people don't believe in global warming. I don't understand that. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Anyway, just my two cents worth. I woke up this morning and checked out my computer and read his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize ... I like people who say what they mean. Well this song, this song's for you Al. And I won't say anything more about it, except you know what you gotta do, if you want to. Neil Young Tower Theater, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, USA December 10, 2007

This next tune is about a dream I had one day. I woke up in the morning, went downstairs, sat down with my pipe, 8:30AM ... didn't even have any eggs or bacon. Neil Young Bayfront Center Arena, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA February 3, 1973

Dean Stockwell came by the house with a screenplay called After the Gold Rush. He had cowritten it with Herb Berman and wanted to know if I could do the music for it. I read the screenplay and kept it around for a while. I was writing a lot of songs at the time, and some of them seemed like they would fit right in with this story. The song “After the Gold Rush” was written to go along with the story’s main character as he carried the tree of life through Topanga Canyon to the ocean. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012