When I was 22 years old I was playing music in a duo with a very good friend named Kent. We had been invited to play at Indiana University and Kent and I spent the weekend there at the home of one of Kent's friends. His friend was an archeology professor. We stayed Friday and Saturday and played both nights and left for home on Sunday.

I had been on vacation that entire week. By the time I arrived at my apartment I was itching all over my body. I broke out in a rash. I slept on the couch so I would not infect my pregnant wife. I was miserable. I had to call into work the next day. My doctor was out of town. The fellow that was replacing him didn't have a clue, said he didn't know what my trouble was and hoped that I would please leave so I wouldn't give him leprosy. The next day I went to a dermatologist. I had contracted scabies, a nasy parasite that burrows under the skin. The first thing I thought of was the professor's house. His sofa covering was made from woven saddle bags that were used on donkeys. He had brought these back from Egypt where he had made tracings of the art on the walls of the pyramids.

As I lay in my misery on my own sofa I had the radio on softly. They played this strange, strange song over and over.

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.

The song is After The Gold Rush by Neil Young. Mr. Young says it was based on a science fiction screenplay by Dean Stockwell and Herb Berman. The accapella version I heard was done by a British group called Prelude.