Neil Young - Harvest
Released: 1972
Purchased: 1978
Album Rating: 4 1/2 Stars
Album Art Rating: 4 Stars
Tidbits: Harvest reached #1 on Billboard's Pop Album chart in 1972. Singles released were Heart Of Gold, which reached #1, and Old Man, which only plowed up to #31 on the Pop Singles chart, both in 1972. Guest players on the recording include Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, Linda Ronstadt, David Crosby, James Taylor, and The London Symphony Orchestra. Neil's backing band on this release is The Stray Gators (Ben Keith, Kenny Buttrey, Tim Drummond, Jack Nitzsche, and John Harris.) Recorded in Nashville, London, and California.
Most critics and fans would pick Rust Never Sleeps, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, or After The Goldrush as the top 3 Young releases, and it is tough to argue with any of those. They are all superb works from Young's early catalog. Harvest was his fourth solo record, and he called upon his old friends, Crosby, Stills, and Nash for vocal backing on 3 songs, though they are teamed up differently in each song. Crosby and Nash harmonized in the country-tinged Are You Ready For The Country, Crosby and Stills help out in Alabama, and Stills and Nash back up in Words/Between The Lines of Age.
His L.A. pals, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, vocally backed him on the two songs that climbed the singles charts, Heart Of Gold and Old Man. Seems fitting to me, since both of those songs espouse a more sentimental tone, and Taylor and Ronstadt were two of the core players in that early 70's CA singer/songwriter movement. Young used them effectively, as little flourishes in the chorus of Old Man, and with just the right counterpoint to himself at the very end of Heart Of Gold.
And then there's the London Symphony, beautifully rounding out the sound in Man Needs A Maid. It was sort of unexpected to hear a symphony playing on an album full of country/folk/rock music. They also appear in There's A World, though I feel that song is overproduced and doesn't quite fit in with the rest of Harvest.
Harvest's music is melodic and sort of melancholy, and the steel and slide guitars and the whiney harmonica lend themselves to the mood. Neil plays acoustic and sings about an unnamed friend's descent into heroin addiction in the harrowing The Needle And The Damage Done. It's sort of funny that people didn't get the message here (every junkie's like a setting sun) and went on to abuse cocaine and other drugs later in the 70's. There's no needle, so there must be no damage.
I bought the album several years after its release, along with After The Gold Rush, in a fit of "I need more Neil Young in my collection." I was already a fan and had heard both of them many times at friend's houses. Don't ask me to explain why I bought freakin' Barbra Streisand's Lazy Afternoon before I bought those two Young albums. Perhaps Neil's weren't available from my Columbia House record club, which I joined because I had a steady babysitting job and a penny. Anyway, is it my favorite Young album? No, but it is one of the favorite albums in my vinyl collection, so I'm featuring it here. Some day, I'll get to my favorite, After The Gold Rush.
The album was packaged in a gatefold cover, and contained a lyric sheet, which was a bonus for me, the sometimes lyrically-challenged listener. It's a lovely package, too, featuring a suitable old-timey country font, featuring the album title and Young's name partially blocking a lovely golden harvest moon. The back cover is a sepia-toned photo of the band, jamming in a barn. You can spot hay on the barn floor and light peeping through the spaces between the barn board walls. Young, who was a long hair, is dressed in his pre-grunge flannel shirt and jeans, and you can catch only a glimpse of his nose and forehead in the shot. One thing that always pissed me off when I was a record shopper was a cover that did not reveal the song titles on the outside. Back then, we didn't have iTunes or allmusic to clue us in to what we were buying, so it was a blind purchase if the cover didn't list the songs. Luckily, I already knew what was on the record. The inside gatefold contains the song list and credits, and another cool photo, which is Young's reflection on a shiny doorknob. Nice touch.
Here are my favorite songs on the record, along with Old Man, which is overplayed on classic rock stations:
Neil Young - The Needle And The Damage Done
Neil Young - Are You Ready For The Country
Neil Young - Alabama
His L.A. pals, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, vocally backed him on the two songs that climbed the singles charts, Heart Of Gold and Old Man. Seems fitting to me, since both of those songs espouse a more sentimental tone, and Taylor and Ronstadt were two of the core players in that early 70's CA singer/songwriter movement. Young used them effectively, as little flourishes in the chorus of Old Man, and with just the right counterpoint to himself at the very end of Heart Of Gold.
And then there's the London Symphony, beautifully rounding out the sound in Man Needs A Maid. It was sort of unexpected to hear a symphony playing on an album full of country/folk/rock music. They also appear in There's A World, though I feel that song is overproduced and doesn't quite fit in with the rest of Harvest.
Harvest's music is melodic and sort of melancholy, and the steel and slide guitars and the whiney harmonica lend themselves to the mood. Neil plays acoustic and sings about an unnamed friend's descent into heroin addiction in the harrowing The Needle And The Damage Done. It's sort of funny that people didn't get the message here (every junkie's like a setting sun) and went on to abuse cocaine and other drugs later in the 70's. There's no needle, so there must be no damage.
I bought the album several years after its release, along with After The Gold Rush, in a fit of "I need more Neil Young in my collection." I was already a fan and had heard both of them many times at friend's houses. Don't ask me to explain why I bought freakin' Barbra Streisand's Lazy Afternoon before I bought those two Young albums. Perhaps Neil's weren't available from my Columbia House record club, which I joined because I had a steady babysitting job and a penny. Anyway, is it my favorite Young album? No, but it is one of the favorite albums in my vinyl collection, so I'm featuring it here. Some day, I'll get to my favorite, After The Gold Rush.
The album was packaged in a gatefold cover, and contained a lyric sheet, which was a bonus for me, the sometimes lyrically-challenged listener. It's a lovely package, too, featuring a suitable old-timey country font, featuring the album title and Young's name partially blocking a lovely golden harvest moon. The back cover is a sepia-toned photo of the band, jamming in a barn. You can spot hay on the barn floor and light peeping through the spaces between the barn board walls. Young, who was a long hair, is dressed in his pre-grunge flannel shirt and jeans, and you can catch only a glimpse of his nose and forehead in the shot. One thing that always pissed me off when I was a record shopper was a cover that did not reveal the song titles on the outside. Back then, we didn't have iTunes or allmusic to clue us in to what we were buying, so it was a blind purchase if the cover didn't list the songs. Luckily, I already knew what was on the record. The inside gatefold contains the song list and credits, and another cool photo, which is Young's reflection on a shiny doorknob. Nice touch.
Here are my favorite songs on the record, along with Old Man, which is overplayed on classic rock stations:
Neil Young - The Needle And The Damage Done
Neil Young - Are You Ready For The Country
Neil Young - Alabama
