Nothing Gold Can Stay? These 4 Excellent “Gold” Songs Suggest Otherwise

You’ve heard of gold records before, right? But what about “gold” records? We’re talking about those songs with the word “gold” in their titles.

We took a look back through history to find some examples. And we were strict, meaning we didn’t allow any “golden” songs. (Which means, no “Golden Years”, no “Golden Age”, etc.) Here are four songs as precious to listeners as the metal included in the title.

“After The Gold Rush” by Neil Young

Writer’s block gets the best of everybody at one point or another. Neil Young suffered that dreaded malaise just as he looked for material for a crucial 1970 album. Young was coming off a popularity boost that emanated from his collaboration with Crosby, Stills, & Nash. Searching for answers to his problem, he started reading a movie script he’d been given, a kind of sci-fi parable written by actor Dean Stockwell. Suddenly, Young found his inspiration. The book led to “After The Gold Rush”, a song that combined environmental concerns with personal lyrics about a man deep in despair. Stockwell’s movie never got made. But Young’s forlorn, French horn-drenched track became one of his classics.

“Your Gold Teeth” by Steely Dan

Steely Dan proved they were no fluke with Countdown To Ecstasy, their sophomore album. Released in 1973, the LP came at a point when the band was still a five-man unit. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker hadn’t yet gone the route of hiring session players for each track. But the complexity of the arrangements and instrumental interplay was very much in place anyway. “Your Gold Teeth” displays their brand of musical excellence. In many ways, it recalls “Do It Again”, another song with a hint of a Latin sway in the rhythm that also utilized some gambling metaphors. Highlights here include Fagen’s frenzied keyboard soloing and Denny Dias’ thick guitar lines.

“Gold” by Stevie Nicks

By 1979, John Stewart, formerly of The Kingston Trio, had been plying his trade as a singer-songwriter for quite some time. He inherently understood the ups and downs of trying to pitch your music to the right ears at the right times. Stewart channeled all of that experience into “Gold”, a song that details the struggles of those trying to make it big in the music world. Ironically, he nabbed the assistance of Stevie Nicks, someone who had indeed ascended to the pinnacle with Fleetwood Mac. Nicks’ backing vocals are instantly recognizable, and no doubt helped this song break out from the pack in ’79. But Stewart’s own lived-in observations ultimately set the song apart.

“Love Over Gold” by Dire Straits

Mark Knopfler likely knew that he wasn’t going to do as well commercially with Love Over Gold as he’d managed to do with Making Movies, the 1980 album that was a breakthrough of sorts for Dire Straits. There are only five songs on the entire record, released in 1982. As such, it gives Knopfler and his band plenty of room to stretch out the arrangements and the musical sections, a strategy that wasn’t exactly ideal for radio airplay. At one point, “Private Dancer”, which Knopfler eventually donated to Tina Turner, was part of the running order. “Love Over Gold” shares a little bit of the same DNA as that track. It’s a kind of after-hours, jazzy lament that would pop up with regularity on Dire Straits albums from that point forward.

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