34. Silver and Gold (Silver and Gold, 2000; written in 1981; first performed in 1984)
I love this song so much that it was the first dance at our wedding. I didn't make many requests as far as wedding planning went, aside from asking for this as the first dance. I couldn't use Harvest Moon because it was my father and stepmother's song. I couldn't use Heart of Gold because been there, done that.
I was drawn to this when I first heard it on a bootleg in the '90s. It's one of Neil's few straightforward love songs, written for his wife Pegi, and is arguably his most heartfelt one. It has always pulled my emotional heartstrings.
Neil felt so strongly about this song that it took 19 years for him to record a version that he was happy enough with to release officially. It was originally penned in 1981 for Island in the Sun, a laid-back folk-rock album that Geffen rejected (a few of its songs ended up on Trans; can you imagine this on Trans?). It made its live debut in International Harvesters sets in 1984; one of these versions was what I first heard. It returned on the 1992 acoustic tour that preceded Harvest Moon. For those sessions, Neil worked up a version with Crosby and Nash on harmony vocals but still wasn't satisfied with it.
Sometime in between 1992 and 2000, Neil recorded a version at his barn that he loved -- but the engineer was new and not familiar with Neil's rule that the tape must always be rolling. When informed that the performance went unrecorded, Neil bellowed "Are you kidding me? I've been trying to get that one right for years!"
The song returned to the live rotation on Neil's 1999 solo acoustic tour, and later that year when he went to record a new album, he finally got a version he liked well enough to release. And I'm glad he did because it would have been awkward playing a bootleg recording for a spotlight dance.
I love this song so much that it was the first dance at our wedding. I didn't make many requests as far as wedding planning went, aside from asking for this as the first dance. I couldn't use Harvest Moon because it was my father and stepmother's song. I couldn't use Heart of Gold because been there, done that.
I was drawn to this when I first heard it on a bootleg in the '90s. It's one of Neil's few straightforward love songs, written for his wife Pegi, and is arguably his most heartfelt one. It has always pulled my emotional heartstrings.
Neil felt so strongly about this song that it took 19 years for him to record a version that he was happy enough with to release officially. It was originally penned in 1981 for Island in the Sun, a laid-back folk-rock album that Geffen rejected (a few of its songs ended up on Trans; can you imagine this on Trans?). It made its live debut in International Harvesters sets in 1984; one of these versions was what I first heard. It returned on the 1992 acoustic tour that preceded Harvest Moon. For those sessions, Neil worked up a version with Crosby and Nash on harmony vocals but still wasn't satisfied with it.
Sometime in between 1992 and 2000, Neil recorded a version at his barn that he loved -- but the engineer was new and not familiar with Neil's rule that the tape must always be rolling. When informed that the performance went unrecorded, Neil bellowed "Are you kidding me? I've been trying to get that one right for years!"
The song returned to the live rotation on Neil's 1999 solo acoustic tour, and later that year when he went to record a new album, he finally got a version he liked well enough to release. And I'm glad he did because it would have been awkward playing a bootleg recording for a spotlight dance.
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