Cripple Creek Ferry by Neil Young

Album: After The Gold Rush (1970)

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Songfacts®:

This is the final track on the After The Gold Rush album. At 1:34, it's also the second-shortest song on the album, trailing only "Till The Morning Comes" (1:17).
The album was intended as a soundtrack for a film of the same name that was never made. To Young's memory, the only tracks that were immediately inspired by the script were this one and "After The Gold Rush."

The script that the song was written for has been lost to the dusts of time, with only a few people remembering vaguely (and possibly inaccurately) what it was about. Young himself barely recalls much about it. So, we'll likely never know what scene or situation this song was written to accompany.
If there's any deeper meaning to the song, it's too buried in subtext to tell. Lyrically and musically it's just a trip on the Cripple Creek ferry. Presumably, it's talking about Cripple Creek, Colorado - an old gold mining camp that's now preserved as a historic site. This could also be the location of the Band's "Up On Cripple Creek."

Comments: 3

John Ryan from Colorado Springs, CoOne can simply step across any creek near Cripple Creek, CO. I did some online research awhile back and read that it was a reference to a no longer existing ferry that was in the San Frencisco bay area.
Robin Shumaker from Victoria, BcI wrote a couple more verses for Neil's song, but I didn't realize Cripple Creek was in Colorado. When I think of river boats I think of the Mississippi. Creeks just aren't big enough.
Nozza from West Sussex Always loved this close to side two and it’s a shame it wasn’t longer..likewise til the morning comes on side one. We were shortchanged Neil !

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