“After the Gold Rush” by Neil Young, Album: After the gold rush (1970)

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.

A song that has three verses/parts telling something different in a different history time (past-present-future) and has puzzled many funs about theit meaning, especially in the first verse

but we think that all three visions have something common. The first verse is a medieval vision of knights and queens, and an archer splits a tree. Then we come to present in 70s (or in every next decade Young has sung this song and changed the year). We think that he wants to say that man has been hostile to Mother Nature, during the ages, but only nowadays has thwe technological power to eliminate Her.

Nearly all agree that the second verse is about a battlefield and the last about escaping from the destroyed earth by pollution and war to other planets.

You can read some efforts of song interpretation here

You can hear this song in youtube