A Golden Oldie

My father was a stationary engineer at the Cold Storage Plant in Saint John, NB .. it was part of the  CPR ... in West Saint John ... the West Side .. you usually worked for the railroad or were a long shoreman on the docks. I knew he worked for the CPR directly before moving to the cold stoarge operation ... but how I knew that ... I don't know ... he obviously got his engineer's ticket somewhere alomg the way and transferred but he never said and I never asked.

I worked there for 2 summers and part of a third. I worked with a general handy man who did odd jobs around the plant keeping things in shape ... the plant mangers son worked there as well .. the old man tolerated the plant manager but couldn't stand the crew foreman .. who was always turning the screw into him .. I am sure it reminded him of home.

The Plant Manager's son also worked there but doing his own thing .. he was a go getter and he and his older brother .. who worked in the office .. had rented a blueberry cleaning machine and were operating that to clean the berries before they went into stoarge to freeze and distribute. The machine was located in a metal frame structure that the handy man and I were closing in ... so that put me in close contact with the youngest son of the manager.

One day we got talking about music and after a while he asked me if I was a fan of the latest album by the singer with the 'squeaky' voice ... that puzzled me until I ventured ... you mean .. 'Neil Young' ... yeah .. that's it. I was boarding at university and completley missed the fact that Young had new album out ... holy shit ... I was really out of touch ... I will come back to how I lost that complete year ... so let's carry on .. the album came out in August 1970 .. and I am hearing about it almost a year later in summer 1971 ... I couldn't believe it ... I was a huge fan ... 

Of course ... off to Ben Goldsteins ... I bought it ... but I have no strong memory of doing so like I do with most albums .. not sure why ... because that record was absolutely huge for me ... the songs were all 'important' ... the guitar playing .. the melodies .. the voice .. the lyrics ... and the fact that I could quickly playt some of the songs on guitar ... to  me .. it was like nothing before.

To this day ... if I could only have one album on a desert island ... this would be it. 

There is a line in the song, 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' ... that could pretty well thematically sum up the reason for this blog exisiting at all ... 'I have a friend I've never seen ... he hides his head inside a dream' ... 

The 50th Anniversary Edition of 'After The Gold Rush' was just released yesterday ... and in typicial Neil Young fashion ... not on the exact anniversary of the release date ... which was 19 September 1970 ... but on 11 December 2020 ... folks .. he's complicated ... :-) ...

That album has been a solace to me through the best and worst times ... it has helped me celebrate .. and mourn ... it was my bible ... and Neil Young played God to my Moses .. and like Moses my anger and my erratic behaviour and immaturity would deny me what I took for granted and made 'After The Gold Rush' more meaningful still ... but .. I am not ready to talk about that ... just yet ...


Phil (12 December, 2020 - San Patricio de Melaque - 8:19 PM)


Krome Koan - 'Vinyl - for people with ears'




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