90. Neil Young, After the Gold Rush (1970)

Art just is whatever speaks to other art. Put it all together and there's just one ongoing conversation.

Neil Young knows this. It's the reason he knew exactly what to say to one drunken fan who called out at one of his shows.

"All your songs sound the same," the drunken fan shouted.

"It's all one song," Neil riposted.

That's right. All one song.

You couldn't think that sort of thing unless you were a person whose spiritual instincts were foremost to your being. Neil is one of those people. It's written all over After the Gold Rush.

In the title song, he sings

I was lying in a burned out basement

With the full moon in my eyes

I was hoping for replacement

When the sun burst through the sky

 

There was a band playing in my head

And I felt like I could cry

I was thinking about what a friend had said

I was hoping it was a lie

Thinking about what a friend had said

I was hoping it was a lie

I wonder what his friend had said. Something that opened his eyes.

Pardon the cheesiness, but it reminds me of our conversations. Often, you say something and I'm caught off guard by some truth, and I think, Now, how am I going to process this? Am I going to let this truth work on me or brush it under the rug?