[ ]   [ ]   [ ]                        [ ]      [ ]   [ ]
Natalie Merchant — After the Gold Rush (Live)
Album: Live in Concert
Avg rating:
6.4

Your rating:
Total ratings: 1575









Released: 1999
Length: 3:37
Plays (last 30 days): 2
Well, I dreamed I saw the knights
In armor coming,
Saying something about a queen.
There were peasants singing and
Drummers drumming
And the archer split the tree.
There was a fanfare blowing
To the sun
That was floating on the breeze.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.

I was lying in a burned out basement
With the full moon in my eyes.
I was hoping for replacement
When the sun burst thru the sky.
There was a band playing in my head
And I felt like getting high.
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.

Well, I dreamed I saw the silver
Space ships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun,
There were children crying
And colors flying
All around the chosen ones.
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun.
They were flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home in the sun.
Flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home.
Comments (185)add comment
 surfrider4life wrote:
Natalie covering Neal

Whip crème on a sundae


Both are unnecessary 
When the cover surpasses the original. Bravo!
This one is nice, i´m starting with a 7. I really miss a rock cover of this song from a good Rockband!
Oh no, please let this be sung by Neil...
can we please retire these soulless 90s coffee house acts? 
I like Natalie  and I like Neil  and I like both versions.  
Strangely - I've always wanted to hear Sinead OConner or what ever she/it  calls her/itself  now.      and if we had to have a dude do it   Adam Lambert can really build some emotion into those pipes  -    
 BCarn wrote:

I thought Neil Young's horrific whine was bad. Sorry Natalie, you drone on in this one.
(Okay, not a fan)


Some may think these personal opinion comments are unnecessary, but this one is just too funny to down vote. Thanks for the laugh!
 surfrider4life wrote:
Natalie covering Neal

Whip crème on a sundae



Oh I love what you just wrote here :)
Natalie covering Neal

Whip crème on a sundae

I'm liking this girls voice more every time I hear something from her. Thanks to RP.
Beautiful.
 Edweirdo wrote:


By which I assume you mean she sings in tune ... 
 ... on average. A duet with Eddie Vedder would be awesome (or aw-something)

Such a nice voice...
 Stephen_Phillips wrote:
There is singing out of tune... and then there is Natalie Merchant!
 

By which I assume you mean she sings in tune ... because her intonation is fine (and I have absolute pitch).
No. Just no.
I think this is the fourth Natalie Merchant song on this otherwise fine Wednesday morning. Groan...
With the volume low and me coming out of a nap, I thought, for a moment, that this was - after Rockin' in the Free World -- a second Neil Young song. Not a good thing, in the scheme of things, chez RP.

Fortunately, it was Natalie mailing it (in).
2018 Summer highlight.  Visiting friends in Skibbereen.  It was the week of the annual arts festival.  Our friends got us tickets to hear Lunasa, "the biggest name in Irish folk music" we were told.  The venue was the old church. Seats maybe 250 or so.   Lunasa ripped through a short set their instrumental folk.  Then they said they'd just finished an album featuring a vocalist, a departure for them, and that the vocalist just happened to be in the country and would perform.  Out comes Natalie Merchant and they played all the songs on the album.   
Neil Young songs sound so much better when he is not singing them.
 weavus wrote:
love her voice, wish it would have been Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Merchant. (sacrilege for some, I know)

 Inconceivable!


 gtfodero wrote:
You know who does a really really great version of this song?  NEIL YOUNG.
This sounds like someone stepping on a  goat.
Just one man's opinion, mind you.


Couldn’t agree more.... what does this provide that the original didn’t?  Just depressing slow tempo....  


This kinda works for me...
There is singing out of tune... and then there is Natalie Merchant!
Great song.  But I've heard only true singer for it, and she is not he. 
love her voice, wish it would have been Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Merchant. (sacrilege for some, I know)
 BCarn wrote:
I thought Neil Young's horrific whine was bad. Sorry Natalie, you drone on in this one.
(Okay, not a fan)
 
I don’t think Neil really cares what you think
Love u!!🌹🌹🌹🌹
Why bother?
Took the sting out the bee and now its just a flying furry bug
I thought Neil Young's horrific whine was bad. Sorry Natalie, you drone on in this one.
(Okay, not a fan)
Not bad, but as this is my favorite Neil Young song, I much prefer his version.
You know who does a really really great version of this song?  NEIL YOUNG.
This sounds like someone stepping on a  goat.
Just one man's opinion, mind you.
Elevator music. 
haters gonna hate
{#Dancingbanana_2}
 thewiseking wrote:

lol
actually, I still get coffee from the Diner! 

 
This is not a surprising revelation.
 westslope wrote:

Or somebody, somewhere drinks indonesian cat-crap coffee.

 
Cat-crap coffee.  One of the first big hits for Ted Nugent.
 westslope wrote:

Or somebody, somewhere drinks indonesian cat-crap coffee.  Oh.  Never heard of that.  
 
It's a real thing. The most expensive coffee there is, on account of the complicated (and IMO disgusting) fermentation process...
 h8rhater wrote:

OH NO.  Those "others" are just not as cool as the OP, who gave up the Starbucks for indonesian cat-crap coffee ages ago.  Before it was cool, of course.  Talk about yuck.

thewiseking wrote: Strung out with no emotion for the Starbucks crowd. 
 
Clearly there are some sub-cultural references I have missed.  Starbucks crowds are strung out and have no emotion?  Really?

Or somebody, somewhere drinks indonesian cat-crap coffee.  Oh.  Never heard of that.  

————————————————————-

On a different subject.... this cover fits well with NY's live version of Like A Hurricane.   Another deep bow to the DJ.    
 h8rhater wrote:

OH NO.  Those "others" are just not as cool as the OP, who gave up the Starbucks for indonesian cat-crap coffee ages ago.  Before it was cool, of course.  Talk about yuck.

 
lol
actually, I still get coffee from the Diner! 
 thewiseking wrote:
OH NO. Here we go again with the ennui version, the Cowboy Junkie treatment. Strung out with no emotion for the Starbucks crowd. Yuck.

 
OH NO.  Those "others" are just not as cool as the OP, who gave up the Starbucks for indonesian cat-crap coffee ages ago.  Before it was cool, of course.  Talk about yuck.
OH NO. Here we go again with the ennui version, the Cowboy Junkie treatment. Strung out with no emotion for the Starbucks crowd. Yuck.
 Typesbad wrote:
On paper this cover should work.  Replace Neil's high, thin unsteady voice with the Natalie's smooth pipes, bring in an equally smooth arrangement, what could go wrong?  Yet go wrong it does.  All the tension and distress of the original is gone.  It sounds soft and loving, except this is no love song.  It always invokes the conclusion of Childhood's End to me, though I don't know if that was the intent.

 
I agree with everything you say but for some reason I still like it enormously?
"All in a dream..."

That's what it all feels like these days.
She's got a great voice, and it's a fantastic song. Surprising that the combination of the two is so mediocre.
She's SO Good.

Well I heard Mister Young sing about it.
Well I heard old Neil wrote it down.
Well, I hope Neil Young will be proud of Natalie's
PSD asap. I'll take this stellar version by Emmylou, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt:

https://youtu.be/tHTuxSzUacg
yup, bad  (those background keyboards are borrowed from an adult diaper commercial right?)
{#Arghhh} Arrrrghhhh.......
On paper this cover should work.  Replace Neil's high, thin unsteady voice with the Natalie's smooth pipes, bring in an equally smooth arrangement, what could go wrong?  Yet go wrong it does.  All the tension and distress of the original is gone.  It sounds soft and loving, except this is no love song.  It always invokes the conclusion of Childhood's End to me, though I don't know if that was the intent.
If I hadn't read all the negative reviews, I would have enjoyed this more.  Having just seen Neil sing this song, I was really enjoying Natalie's version.  Not sure where all the hate comes from - though I have a similar reaction to Suzanne Vega, who also gets quite a bit of airtime on rp.  But folks, that is what the PSD button is for. 

 Yep

 

stub30 wrote:

I really do like Natalie Merchant, but this is really a Musak version of Neil's classic.  Not good at all.

 


In the same league as this horrible cover by Nana Mouskouri:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tm85uu1zig 
Nice version!  I hadn't heard this one before.


 Kokoloco53 wrote:

 I totally agree with lathyris below. This world has enough, I said, enough negative vibes to go around these days. I just don't understand why people feel the need to express the negative all the time. Another great cover of this same Neil Young composition was cut by K.D. Lang. I like 'em all. It's all good. Peace brothers and sisters.

 

lathyris wrote:

Guys, really? Why so much Natalie hate? Beautiful voice + beautiful song = winner in my book. Not going to say I like it more than the original, but I'm still digging it!

 

 
Agreed.
 lathyris wrote:
Guys, really? Why so much Natalie hate? Beautiful voice + beautiful song = winner in my book. Not going to say I like it more than the original, but I'm still digging it!

 
I don't ride the Hate Natalie bus, but if there were a queue for people who believe that she botched this cover, I'd be at the head of it.

 I totally agree with lathyris below. This world has enough, I said, enough negative vibes to go around these days. I just don't understand why people feel the need to express the negative all the time. Another great cover of this same Neil Young composition was cut by K.D. Lang. I like 'em all. It's all good. Peace brothers and sisters.

 

lathyris wrote:

Guys, really? Why so much Natalie hate? Beautiful voice + beautiful song = winner in my book. Not going to say I like it more than the original, but I'm still digging it!

 


She needs to stick with ruining her own songs, rather than other people's songs.
 stub30 wrote:
I really do like Natalie Merchant, but this is really a Musak version of Neil's classic.  Not good at all.

 
This is a prime example of why an artist shouldn't cover another singers work {#Eek}
Guys, really? Why so much Natalie hate? Beautiful voice + beautiful song = winner in my book. Not going to say I like it more than the original, but I'm still digging it!
 stub30 wrote:
I really do like Natalie Merchant, but this is really a Musak version of Neil's classic.  Not good at all.

 
Agreed!
I really do like Natalie Merchant, but this is really a Musak version of Neil's classic.  Not good at all.
Nope. Nope nope nope. 

I like a lot of stuff she does but not this.  
God Awful!

And a sacrilege.
Just....NO!!
Absolutely NOT!!! 
I just threw up in my mouth a little bit...

(I'll take The Flaming Lips, for $600, Alex.)
I have defended NM repeatedly on RP. (Yeah, I did make petty rant about her dreadful fashion taste.)
But this, this is awful. Musically.   She should have been offered a large Classic Coke before it started.  And she shudda taken it. The producers didn't tell it needed to be canned? No good friend helped out?  Next time - the PSD button.
Regardless of how one feels about Neil Young,Very nice version of a great song.
Never heard this version. Pretty good!!

Natalie Merchant doing a Neil Young song, are you tying to make ‘The Haters’ apoplectic Bill. Now if you can just find Morrissey doing Southern Man you’ll finish them off.


She not know the other notes?
 gjr wrote:


im thoroughly convinced that the only reason for the absolutely inexplicable plethora of natalie merchant songs played on RP is that she's a part owner.  

this woman's voice is as soothing as sand paper on a sunburn.  please, god, please stop playing her.........{#Frustrated}

 
Wah, wah,... waaaaaahhh!!  Cry babies cry.
 ScottN wrote:
Doesn't seem to add a bit of innovation to her lifeless cover of NY's song.  She has said she hates irony.....go figure.

 
World Class droning..not in flight whatsoever
This version leaves me stuck in that metaphorical basement..
Doesn't seem to add a bit of innovation to her lifeless cover of NY's song.  She has said she hates irony.....go figure.
Hearing this voice makes me want to destroy musicians with bad voices.  Yuck. {#Frustrated}
Love this ! 
 gjr wrote:


im thoroughly convinced that the only reason for the absolutely inexplicable plethora of natalie merchant songs played on RP is that she's a part owner.  

this woman's voice is as soothing as sand paper on a sunburn.  please, god, please stop playing her.........{#Frustrated}

 
I second and THIRD that sentiment....

Feels like I'm listening to KFOG in SF sometimes....  
I gotta say I'm shocked Natalie's got some Neil in her vinyl collection.
Nice cover, Natalie!
I'm with Bill, I think it is a pretty nice version
 HomeTuner wrote:
PPPPPLLLLLLLEEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEEE stop playing this song... She can't even sing in tune.

 
I and Bill disagree.  She sings fine.  Good cover.
PPPPPLLLLLLLEEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEEE stop playing this song... She can't even sing in tune.
{#Motor}
 

Bring ME MY NEIL !!! 
 junebaby65 wrote:
Please stop playing this singer.  Please? 

 

im thoroughly convinced that the only reason for the absolutely inexplicable plethora of natalie merchant songs played on RP is that she's a part owner.  

this woman's voice is as soothing as sand paper on a sunburn.  please, god, please stop playing her.........{#Frustrated}
yo, Bill, you can play any neil squeal coveer  NAT does as far as i'm concerned....{#Dance}
I agree with RP on this - love this version - live it would have sent shivers down my spin.

Thanks! 
 woodchuk wrote:
I usually like Natalie Merchant, but this rendition of Neil Young's classic just doesn't do it for me.  It seems to lack passion.  Who knows, it may grow on me.  6 for now.

 
Languid, perhaps.  Lacking passion, I think not. 

Bill got this one right.

This was a great tour back in '99.  Natalie was at the top of her game as a solo artist touring Ophelia.  I do wish that she'd produce some more music like the stuff she was doing back then.  It seems as though she has dropped off since she did Motherland in '01.  That said, she's following her own star which is what the best artists do.  More power to her.
I'm falling asleep.

Take not a brilliant song, but perfect for it's time, and make it dull as ditchwater. 
Please stop playing this singer.  Please? 
This version is horrible!  Can I rate it a 0?

I loved it.
My fav. song from Neil! This version...not my taste!
Great, with this unique voice and her own emotional kind for rendition{#Clap}
I usually like Natalie Merchant, but this rendition of Neil Young's classic just doesn't do it for me.  It seems to lack passion.  Who knows, it may grow on me.  6 for now.
One of Neil's all time greats, and this is a beautiful rendition.  I bet Neil loves it
 ScottishWillie wrote:

I like this version but I’m one of the few listeners who don’t find her voice irritating.

 
A nice tune from a favorite gal.  Good choice!
I believe her beautiful voice finally gives these lovely lyrics their moment in the sun.
Very accomplished cover a real pro
I liked this!
She has taste in music, I will give her that.
I am with you Bill... this is a wonderful cover!
Great guitar solo in the middle
leave it to Neil next time please
Thanx for great great music!!!{#Daisy}

I like this version but I’m one of the few listeners who don’t find her voice irritating.


Love Natalie's voice and love this song, but this cover?

Not so much. Wholly uninspiring.
I like this version. And hats-off for playing Natalie Merchant in the first place. Question is, do you have the balls to play Hateful Hate (10k)?
I absolutely hate this cover. She slaughters this song.
I can't say I care for merchant's singing at all - especially on this classic track.

Lang's version of Neil's song is soooo much better.
 shelt wrote:
I don't get it.  I'm normally right int he thick of the RP reviews.  Sorry, but this song is spectacular!  Her version of Space Oddity is also great.  Listen again if it doesn't gel!
 
Shelt: I will give your advice a shot, as I prefer the original greatly over this version, but this was the first time I heard this version.  On that note, I do have to say the comment directly below yours, by xarlos, if I recall correctly, did make me laugh out loud in my office upon reading it.
I like it too Bill!
did she do it in the exact same key? - her voice actually sounds lower than Neil's
I don't get it.  I'm normally right int he thick of the RP reviews.  Sorry, but this song is spectacular!  Her version of Space Oddity is also great.  Listen again if it doesn't gel!
Natalie Merchant has a voice like a big tall glass of Pepto-Bismal - all thick and pink and makes me want to take a dump not long after.
Kind of a dreamy rendition. Very nice, brings the song home for me.

But IMHO, it's hard to beat the instrumental that the duo of Michaels (Hedges and Mannering) created.
Whoa boy ...
Gack.  Oh yuuuuuccccchhhhhh.  No way.   Blecccchhh.....
 whtahtefcuk wrote:
Bill I am with you... This is a wonderful version!!!!
 
  Yeah, not a big Natalie fan, and a huge Neil fan, and I REALLY like this.  I'm sure I'd never have heard it if not for RP.
simply horrible.
I like Natalie, and not a bad cover, but really just sounds like she needed to fill out a set. Nothing new, nothing special.
this is the best cover I've heard from her in years...but then again, I'd like this song even if Elmo were singing.