“All the songs had to work completely and honestly by themselves on acoustic guitar or on piano. If they didn’t, they weren’t worth putting on the record.”
~Ryan Adams (about ‘Gold’)

“[Gold is] me not buying my own bullshit for two seconds.”
~Ryan Adams

New York, New York:

From Wikipedia:

Released	September 25, 2001
Recorded	The Sound Factory (Hollywood, California)
Genre	Rock, alternative country
Length	70:26
Label	Lost Highway
Producer	Ethan Johns

Gold is the second studio album by Ryan Adams, released September 25, 2001 on Lost Highway Records. The album remains Adams’ best-selling album, certifying gold in the UK and going on to sell 364,000 copies in the U.S. and 812,000 worldwide. Adams noted that “with Gold, I was trying to prove something to myself. I wanted to invent a modern classic.”

Adams intended for the album to be a double album, but his record label, Lost Highway, condensed the album into a single disc. According to Adams, the label “took the last five songs, made it a bonus disc and put it on the first hundred and fifty thousand copies. Fucking my fans over and making them pay extra for a record I wanted to be a double album. They counted that as one record.” This bonus disc is known as Side Four; the disc’s title reflects the fact that the bonus material makes up the fourth side of the double LP edition of the album.

The album includes “When the Stars Go Blue”, which has been covered by artists such as The Corrs and Bono, Tyler Hilton, Bethany Joy Galeotti, and Tim McGraw. “New York, New York” became a notable MTV and VH-1 favorite following the September 11 attacks. “The Rescue Blues” was featured in the end credits of the 2001 film Behind Enemy Lines.

Adams’ friend and former roommate Adam Duritz (lead singer of Counting Crows) lends background vocals to several tracks.

Adams received three Grammy Award nominations in 2002: Best Rock Album, Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for “New York, New York”, and Best Male Country Vocal Performance for “Lovesick Blues”.

Stephen King’s 2006 book Lisey’s Story includes part of the lyrics to “When the Stars Go Blue”. Also, the song “The Rescue Blues” was featured in an episode of Scrubs. In 2011, “Answering Bell” was featured in the film and on the soundtrack to Bridesmaids.

 

RollingStone.com – David Fricke:…… Gold lacks the concise ache of Adams’ indie solo prize from last year, Heartbreaker, but it is stronger on naked truth. In “Harder Now That It’s Over,” a messy tale of jealousy, gunplay and handcuffs co-written with Chris Stills, Adams sings with the straight, clear sorrow of a fool who beat doing hard time but sentenced himself to life alone. “I’m less than nothing now/I’m the one between the bars,” he admits over whispered accordion and a slender stream of steel-guitar tears — an age-old story told be a young singer-songwriter wise enough to let his heart speak for itself. read more: rollingstone.com

Andrew Gilstrap @ popmatters.com:…… Overall, though, Gold feels like a record hiding behind masks. Maybe Adams has spent so many years laying his heart out on the line that he’s trying to create a little distance. In some cases, especially on the uptempo numbers, that works just fine. However, the album’s surprisingly minimalist lyrics and derivative arrangements make it stronger on vibe than actual content. Adams recently complained that he’s sick of himself and sick of being deep, and Gold may very well be his respite from that, exercising his inner music geek rather than his soul. Or maybe he’s just trying to say what he needs to say without revealing as much as in the past. Whatever the case, most of Gold lacks the universality and the heart-wrenching beauty of much of Adams’s earlier work. read more over @ popmatters.som

 

Track Listing:

All songs written and composed by Ryan Adams unless otherwise stated.

1. “New York, New York” 3:46
2. “Firecracker” 2:51
3. “Answering Bell” 3:05
4. “La Cienega Just Smiled” 5:03
5. “The Rescue Blues” 3:38
6. “Somehow, Someday” 4:24
7. “When the Stars Go Blue” 3:31
8. “Nobody Girl” (Adams/Ethan Johns) 9:40
9. “Sylvia Plath” (Adams/Richard Causon) 4:10
10. “Enemy Fire” (Adams/Gillian Welch) 4:09
11. “Gonna Make You Love Me” 2:36
12. “Wild Flowers” 4:59
13. “Harder Now That It’s Over” (Adams/Chris Stills) 4:32
14. “Touch, Feel and Lose” (Adams/David Rawlings) 4:15
15. “Tina Toledo’s Street Walkin’ Blues” (Adams/Johns) 6:10
16. “Goodnight, Hollywood Blvd.” (Adams/Causon) 3:25

Bonus disc: “Side Four”

1. “Rosalie Come and Go” 3:54
2. “The Fools We Are As Men” 4:01
3. “Sweet Black Magic” (Adams/Johns) 2:35
4. “The Bar Is a Beautiful Place” 5:58
5. “Cannonball Days”

Firecracker – live:

When The Stars go blue – Live:

Album of the day – Gold (2001):

Other September 25:

• John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980) was an English musician and songwriter, best known as the drummer of Led Zeppelin. Bonham was esteemed for his speed, power, fast right foot, distinctive sound, and “feel” for the groove. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest drummers in the history of rock music. Over 30 years after his death, Bonham continues to garner awards and praise, including a Rolling Stone readers’ pick in 2011 placing him in first place of the magazine’s “best drummers of all time”.
  –
• Sheldon Allan “Shel” Silverstein (September 25, 1930 – May 8/9, 1999), was an Americanpoet, singer-songwriter, musician,composer, cartoonist, screenwriter and author of children’s books. He styled himself as Uncle Shelby in his children’s books. Translated into more than 30 languages, his books have sold over 20 million copies.
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• Robert Hilburn (born September 25, 1939) is a pop music critic and author. As critic and music editor of the Los Angeles Times from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays and profiles have appeared in hundreds of publications around the world. Hilburn reflects on those years in a memoir, “Corn Flakes with John Lennon (And Other Tales from a Rock ‘n’ Roll Life),” which was published on Oct. 13, 2009 by Rodale. He is a member of the nominating committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and lives in Los Angeles.

-Egil