After the Gold Rush

Neil Young wrote it and recorded it on March 12, 1970 at Redwood Studios in Topanga, California, for the title track of After the Gold Rush, released August 31, 1970. His 2012 autobiography links it to an unproduced screenplay by Dean Stockwell and Herb Bermann about California destroyed by flood. Parton said she did not know what the song meant, guessing the Second Coming or an alien invasion.

The Trio version runs 3:31 and is track four of Trio II. Mix reports that Parton brought it to the sessions and that Harris and Ronstadt felt her voice had the eeriest quality, so she sings lead. Ronstadt arranged the strings, which David Campbell wrote out, and Dennis James plays glass harmonica. Two lyric lines were changed after vocals were tracked, one a drug reference and one a decade reference, so the vocals had to be matched carefully. The single went to country radio in April 1999 and did not chart; its video was filmed on March 25, 1999 in New York and premiered April 13 on Great American Country.

It won the Grammy for best country collaboration with vocals at the 42nd ceremony, and Parton later sang it at the 61st Grammys with Maren Morris and Miley Cyrus. Ronstadt remixed it without Parton for Feels Like Home (1995). The trio sang it on Late Show with David Letterman on March 24, 1999. Other versions include Prelude's a cappella take (1974, 22 in the US), Michael Hedges (1984) and k.d. lang (2004). We presume our upload is the Trio II recording but have not verified that.