This one says to me that relationships are more important than material things. You could take a look at me and say I was really full of it, because I have so many possessions it's ridiculous. But it's dawning on me how useless most of them are. Neil Young Reprise Silver & Gold promotional piece 2000

[before the song] Here's a song, a song I wrote, back there somewhere, that I never made a record of it. [after the song] Now we've got a couple more of these kinds of songs. [...] I was thinking about some songs that we tried to record over the years that we never did get. That was one of them there and here's another one [Ways Of Love]. You'll kind of recognize from - they might have been on an album you might have heard that you never heard before. We're gonna do a Restless version here. Neil Young Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington, USA February 21, 1989

It's always a kind of song do you do the first time, it's fine, it sounds great. And then you do it a second time and it's like, you know, why are you do we need again? [...] I really recorded, I think a total of 11 times with different people in all kinds of different configurations. And we got all of 'em, none of them are worth listening to. But this one here, I finally got back to the roots a bit and just sat down with my guitar and played it and said, "That's it." Neil Young Uncut - The Ultimate Music Guide - Neil Young / Jon Dale May 2021 (quoted from an unspecified c.2000 radio interview)

When I got back from doing the HORDE tour with Crazy Horse, I had written a couple of songs. So when I got home I figured the best thing to do was to record them right away. So I went into the studio a couple of days after I got home and recorded three or four - i think Silver & Gold, Without Rings and three or four others that I didn't use. And then I was going to make an acoustic album called Acoustica which I worked on developing ideas for, and I did a lot of recording for, where I was using tiny little instruments that I wanted to mic really well and make them really loud. And try to get in really close to get a different texture in the music. But I never could get what I was looking for. I'm going to try again sometime later. Neil Young Neil Young Words + Music promo release for Silver & Gold May 2000

I think Silver & Gold is from 1980. I wrote it in 1980. I recorded Silver & Gold about 11 times before I finally just came back to just doing it with acoustic guitar. I did it with everybody I ever met and it never worked. It only works when I do it by myself. So I finally just let it be the way it was. Relationships are more important than material things is what the song says, but if you take one look at me you can tell I must be full of it because I've got so many possessions that it's ridiculous. But it is dawning on me how are useless most of them are. Neil Young Neil Young Words + Music promo release for Silver & Gold May 2000