Patti Smith Covers Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" - Roma, 27 luglio 2022

Patti Smith at the Wiltern, Sept. 7, 2022(Image: © Jerome Brunet via Rock Cellar Magazine)

From a note by Randy & Shari M:

 

Hello Thrasher,

 

Hope you and your wife are doing well and are feeling the benefits of your recent holiday.

My wife and I had the pleasure of seeing Patti Smith and band perform here in Los Angeles at The Wiltern Theatre last week in which Patti played Neil's song along with some other covers. No one has posted the song from that night on you tube (there are some others) but i did find a version very similar to what we saw from Rome in her recent tour over in Europe. (see below)

 

Thought the members might enjoy it, she has some VERY nice words in the introduction about Neil which was similar to what she said to us. 

Smith and her band — Lenny Kaye (guitar), Jackson Smith (guitar), Tony Shanahan (bass, keys) and Jay Dee Daugherty (drums) — have been playing some shows the past few months, mostly overseas,

At the Wiltern, Smith led the ensemble through a a 17-song performance visiting eras from her influential career, including the Patti Smith Group and beyond, as well as covers of artists such as Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, the Who, Neil Young, the Stooges and more.

Regards & Peace,

Randy & Shari M

ps -  Was hoping you were a fan. She's turning 76 in December and she was in full on punk mode in her singing on a few of the longer/faster/harder songs. It's jaw dropping that she can still muster it up in limited stretches.

I thought I had mentioned, but didn't, that 'below the You Tube video' the band info, picture and setlist are from an online site i found in looking for reviews of the show.

Thanks so much for sending along Randy & Shari!  We're doing great here and always really enjoy hearing from around the world about how Neil's music is "everywhere".

Yes, Patti is a real gem and one for the ages, for sure.  At the bottom of this post is a shot we took when Patti opened for Neil back in 2012.  Glad to hear Patti still still brings it.

 

 

Patti Smith - After the Gold Rush - Roma, 27 luglio 2022 

 

"People Have The Power" - Patti Smith
(Dedicated to Neil's Old Black Guitar)opening for Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Philadelphia, 11/29/12
Photo by thrashette
(Click photo to enlarge)

Also, see "Neil Young After The Gold Rush 50th Anniversary" by Harvey Kubernik

 

 

"Neil Young After The Gold Rush 50th Anniversary" by Harvey Kubernik

---

---

INTERVIEW: Patti Smith Chats w/ Neil Young @ BookExpo 2012

Patti Smith's cover of Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last week sparked quite a bit of interest in both Patti and Neil. (Watch video here.)

We have been chronicling the mutual admiration of Patti Smith and Neil Young now for awhile and this is a good time to re-post this complete video of the lunch conversation at BookExpo America 2012 with Neil Young and Patti Smith , who sat down to discuss their processes for writing songs and writing a book.

Patti Smith & Neil Young - BookExpo 2012

During the interview -- where they both seem unusually nervous initially -- Patti makes a number of observations like what an Angel sounds like versus what an Angel feels like -- and the importance of both, or the recognition that Neil delivers feelings to people rather than product. At the conclusion, Patti is heart warming when she encapsulates "Wayfarin' Stranger" where the arc of a career delivers hope in the face of pain and cataclysms: "I know dark clouds will gather over me. I know my way, my way is rough and steep. Yet beautiful fields lie just before me." (Thanks for recollections Greg M.!)

Back in 2012, Neil Young had just released his latest album, Americana. They also discussed Neil's upcoming memoir, Waging Heavy Peace, which he described as more of a diary than a memoir. Patti says to Neil about WHP, “It’s not chronological, but memory is not chronological.”

“When were you aware of the impact that the song [Ohio] made?” Smith asked, referring to the Viet Nam protesters of that era who took up “Ohio” as their anthem. The question prompted Young to reveal his discomfort that he had profited financially from the upheaval, declaring, “You didn’t want to become that which you were separating yourself from.” Smith, who recalled working at a New York City bookstore at the time the song was released, praised him for “translating that picture,” and for “making us more aware of what was going on in our world.”

Neil revealed that he was reading Smith’s memoir about her relationship to Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids. “I’m the highway and landscapes. You are cities,” Young said, praising her book as effusively as she had previously praised his. “We’re on similar paths, but in different geographic places. Our [books] represent that.”

Neil Young: “If a song happens, it happens.

If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. It doesn’t matter. That’s why I will write a lot of material, and why I’ll suddenly not write any material — because there is no reason to write it. It has to come to me — and if it doesn’t come to me, I don’t want it. I don’t want to have anything to do with it. I don’t want to see it, I don’t want to look for it.”

...

"I really hate things that people work on.

There’s nothing about music that should be working on it, nothing about lyrics that should be working on it — trying to be something that you’re not, trying to act like somebody that you think is good.”

...

“I had to avoid all Dylan records, because I am such a sponge.

If I listen to it too much, I would start being that. I knew that that would disturb what I was doing. I admired what he did so much — the lyrics, and the way he sang, and the melodies, and the groove and the band that he played with — especially (the late guitarist Mike) Bloomfield. There were all of these great musicians that supported him. I had to ignore it. I just had to stay away from it.”

...

"Writing a song is like catching a rabbit. You hang out by the rabbit hole, waiting for it to come. "

...

"Guitars talk. If you really want to write a song, ask a guitar."

Patti Smith & Neil Young
Photo by The New Yorker
More on Patti Smith Interviews Neil Young at BookExpo America in New York City.

---

---

VIDEO: Patti Smith Covers Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” on The Tonight Show w/ Jimmy Fallon

Patti Smith covered Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, Jan 9, 2020.

Before Patti began singing, she started with a poem from her new memoir Year of the Monkey: “Yet I still keep thinking that/Something wonderful is about to happen/Maybe tomorrow/A tomorrow following a whole succession of tomorrows.”

Patti Smith Performing “After the Gold Rush”
via The Tonight Show w/ Jimmy Fallon - Jan 9, 2020

With Tony Shanahan on the keyboard, Patti ended the song by emphasizing the lyrics “Look at mother nature on the run”.

"Year of the Monkey" by Patti Smith

More on Patti Smith and Neil Young below:


Patti Smith & Neil Young
BookExpo America in New York City - 2012
Photo by The New Yorker

• FULL INTERVIEW: Patti Smith Chats w/ Neil Young - June 2012
• "Don’t Chase the Rabbit", Neil Young Says To Patti Smith
• LIVE BLOG: Patti Smith Interviews Neil Young at BookExpo America in New York City

Patti Smith Opening For Neil Young
Philadelphia, 11/29/12
Photo by thrasher
Patti Smith covers "It's a Dream" @ Patriot Center, Fairfax, Va on 11/30/12.

Patti Smith: "People Have The Power"
(Dedicated to Neil's Old Black Guitar)
Philadelphia, 11/29/12
Photo by thrasher
Patti Smith's "People Have The Power" To Keep on Rockin' In The Free World

Neil Young and Patti Smith - 1976?

Other artists covering Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush”:

• Billy Corgan Covers Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush”: CBC Radio q
• Charles Bradley Covers Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" | The Strombo Show

---

---

FULL INTERVIEW: Patti Smith Chats w/ Neil Young - June 2012

Here's the complete video of the lunch conversation at BookExpo America 2012 with Neil Young and Patti Smith , who sat down to discuss their processes for writing songs and writing a book.

Neil Young: “If a song happens, it happens.

If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. It doesn’t matter. That’s why I will write a lot of material, and why I’ll suddenly not write any material — because there is no reason to write it. It has to come to me — and if it doesn’t come to me, I don’t want it. I don’t want to have anything to do with it. I don’t want to see it, I don’t want to look for it.”

...

"I really hate things that people work on.

There’s nothing about music that should be working on it, nothing about lyrics that should be working on it — trying to be something that you’re not, trying to act like somebody that you think is good.”

...

“I had to avoid all Dylan records, because I am such a sponge.

If I listen to it too much, I would start being that. I knew that that would disturb what I was doing. I admired what he did so much — the lyrics, and the way he sang, and the melodies, and the groove and the band that he played with — especially (the late guitarist Mike) Bloomfield. There were all of these great musicians that supported him. I had to ignore it. I just had to stay away from it.”

More on Patti Smith Interviews Neil Young at BookExpo America in New York City.

---

---

Patti Smith Covers "It's a Dream" @ Patriot Center, Fairfax, Va

Patti Smith covers "It's a Dream" @ Patriot Center, Fairfax, Va on 11/30/12.

This goes out to Mr. Henry! Be sure to arrive in time for opening acts. We think Patti might have picked up some new fans on this tour. ;)

Patti Smith
Philadelphia, 11/29/12
Photo by thrasher
(Click photos to enlarge)
More on Neil Young & Crazy Horse Concert Reviews in Fairfax, VA.

---

---

AUDIO: Patti Smith & Neil Young at BookExpo America in New York City

Prior to their lunch conversation at BookExpo America 2012, Neil Young and Patti Smith sat down to discuss their processes for writing songs and writing a book.

More on Patti Smith Interviews Neil Young at BookExpo America in New York City.

---

---

LIVE BLOG: Patti Smith Interviews Neil Young at BookExpo America in New York City

Patti Smith & Neil Young
Photo by The New Yorker

UPDATE:

Neil Young and Patti Smith! #BEA12 #bookexpo twitter.com/penguinusa/sta…

— Penguin Books USA (@penguinusa) June 6, 2012

Penguin Books USA (penguinusa) on Twitter:
Penguin Books USA ‏@penguinusa
Live tweeting from the Neil Young lunch. Beginning soon! #BEA12 #bookexpo

"What I love about the book is there is no barrier between you and your reader. It felt like you were talking to me." Patti to Neil #BEA12

— Penguin Books USA (@penguinusa) June 6, 2012

From BEA 2012: Neil Young and Patti Smith Perform for Booksellers by Claire Kirch:

But like every rock concert, things got started a little later than advertised: Smith and Young came on stage at 12:20 and bonded for the next hour in front of a packed hall of more than 1,100 booksellers and other fans, as they discussed their music, their books, dreams; the impact of technology upon their art; life itself, and even their love of trains.

It was no surprise that Smith and Young would immediately launch into a discussion about his music, beginning with Young’s latest album, Americana, which was released yesterday.

“We’ll move on,” Smith at one point assured her audience, after questioning Young about his original intent in writing the song, “Jesus Chariot.” “But I just can’t resist talking about the record.”

As the conversation segued into a discussion of his memoir, Waging Heavy Peace, scheduled for release by Blue Rider Press in October, Young described it as more of a diary than a memoir. “I would write what I was thinking,” he told Smith, who agreed with him, adding, “There’s no barrier between the reader and you. I really felt you were talking to me. You were, right?”

Smith also praised Waging Heavy Peace for its nonlinear narrative structure, telling Young, “It’s not chronological, but memory is not chronological.”
The conversation veered back to music, with a discussion of one of Crosby, Still, Nash & Young’s most seminal songs, “Ohio,” written and composed by Young in 1970. Asked by Smith about the backstory to the song, Young disclosed that “Ohio” was written far from the Midwest, while he was staying with fellow singer David Crosby at a cabin in northern California. The song was sparked in response to a Life magazine cover, the iconic photo of the young woman kneeling over the prone body of a young man shot at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard.

“When were you aware of the impact that the song made?” Smith asked, referring to the Viet Nam protesters of that era who took up “Ohio” as their anthem. The question prompted Young to reveal his discomfort that he had profited financially from the upheaval, declaring, “You didn’t want to become that which you were separating yourself from.” Smith, who recalled working at a New York City bookstore at the time the song was released, praised him for “translating that picture,” and for “making us more aware of what was going on in our world.”

Although she wasn’t always successful, Smith did try at various points to turn the conversation back to books, in between her questions about Young’s music and his songwriting process. Her question to Young on his reading preferences revealed that he is reading Smith’s memoir about her relationship to Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids. “I’m the highway and landscapes. You are cities,” Young said, praising her book as effusively as she had previously praised his. “We’re on similar paths, but in different geographic places. Our [books] represent that.”

From Neil Young's book is more a diary than a memoir, he says – USATODAY.com by Bob Minzesheimer:

Young said he and David Crosby (then part of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) were visiting friends in the Redwoods in Northern California where he saw a magazine cover — either Time or Newsweek— and "the photo of the girl bent over a dead student. It was unbelievable. I still get chills just thinking about it."
He picked up a guitar and a song came to him. "It took about a minute."
His lyrics begin: "Tin solders and Nixon coming … Four dead in Ohio."
Young said Crosby said " 'OK. Let's go.' And we got in a car and drove to a recording plant in L.A. The next day, we recorded it."
But later, Young told Smith, "I didn't want to do it anymore. I didn't want to take advantage. I didn't want to make money from something like that. It gets complicated on a consciousness level."

Go Kent? RT @penguinusa: Neil Young wrote "Ohio" in "about a minute." Immediately after hearing about Kent State. Unbelievable. #BEA12

— jen_k (@jen_k) June 6, 2012

Writing a song is like catching a rabbit. You hang out by the rabbit hole, waiting for it to come. - Neil Young #BEA12 #bookexpo

— Penguin Books USA (@penguinusa) June 6, 2012

"Guitars talk. If you really want to write a song, ask a guitar." -Neil Young #BEA12 #bookexpo

— Penguin Books USA (@penguinusa) June 6, 2012

"We will embrace technology so long as we can maintain feeling. We don't want our work to be reduced to information." -Patti Smith #BEA12

— Penguin Books USA (@penguinusa) June 6, 2012

Patti Smith: "What do you read?" Neil Young: "Right now I'm reading you. I'm reading Just Kids and I love it." #BEA12

— nationalbook (@nationalbook) June 6, 2012

Neil Young's dad called him Windy because he always had so many ideas! Can't wait to read his memoir, Waging Heavy Peace, in October! #BEA12

— NatGeo Books (@NatGeoBooks) June 6, 2012

Neil Young and Patti Smith at #BEA12 instagr.am/p/Lin0EeiAnx/

— Jason Boucher (@Bouchermedia) June 6, 2012

Patti Smith & Neil Young
Date: ?

---

Today, Patti Smith will host a lunchtime interview of Neil Young at BookExpo America in New York City and discuss his upcoming book 'Waging Heavy Peace'.

In the video above, Patti Smith discusses recording a cover of Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" for her new album Banga.

"The last song on the record, I performed live with my son, Jackson, and my daughter, Jesse," says Smith. "I wanted the album to end like dawn breaking, and I thought of the type of song that I wanted to write. But then I was in a café and I happened to hear Neil Young's 'After the Gold Rush,' and I thought, 'Neil's already written it.'"

More on “Waging Heavy Peace”: Neil Young's Upcoming Book.

More on Patti Smith and Neil Young.

---

---

Waging Heavy Peace: Excerpt, Patti Smith Will Interview Neil Young

'Waging Heavy Peace' by Neil Young
(Click photo to enlarge)


Some new developments on Neil Young's upcoming autobiography Waging Heavy Peace.

There is now a fascinating excerpt to read and news that Patti Smith will interview Neil Young at BEA.

The book excerpt can be downloaded from Amazon.com: Buzz Books 2012: Exclusive Pre-Publication Excerpts from Over 30 New Books. Even if you do not have a Kindle device, you should be able to read in the cloud format.

The excerpt is quite fascinating and a nice preview of the book. In the excerpt, Neil talks about Pegi giving him a gift of a Lionel train, his "train barn", recording American Dream with Crosby, Nash & Stills, and the "Feelgood Garage" of amps & cars.

The book promises to take us "from the snows of Ontario through the LSD-laden boulevards of 1966 Los Angeles to the contemplative paradise of Hawaii today."

Book is available to pre-order on Amazon.com: Waging Heavy Peace (9780399159466): Neil Young: Books and set for release on October 2, 2012.

In other Waging Heavy Peace news Patti Smith will host a lunchtime interview of Neil Young at BookExpo America in New York City on June 6th according to GalleyCat.

More on “Waging Heavy Peace”: Neil Young's Upcoming Book.

---

---