Harvest

Neil Young

By 1972, Neil Young had already experienced the highs and lows of stardom with Buffalo Springfield and CSNY. The enticement didn't exactly float his boat; rather, it inspired him to reach down within himself and write even more personal songs. Eventually, he ended up in Nashville, bumped into James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, and decided to round up some local musicians for a few sessions. With CSNY on hold and Crazy Horse waiting in the wings, Young put an impromptu band together with bassist Tim Drummond, drummer Kenny Buttrey, and steel guitarist Ben Keith. They called themselves the Stray Gators. They would be the core musicians on what was to become Neil Young's biggest selling album, Harvest.

Even as Young invited David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and the late Jack Nitzsche to lend a hand on the new album, the singer-songwriter was suffering from a bout of inner turmoil. Most of the songs on Harvest transcend any number of distressing themes — loneliness, loss, despair and longing. The title track may find Young singing "let me fill your cup with the promise of a man," but the mood shifts suddenly with "A Man Needs A Maid." Here, Young, who once declared he belonged to no one but himself, evokes some odd strain of emotional detachment from the woman he loves — in this case, his girlfriend at the time, actress Carrie Snodgress -- with role-playing and meandering inadequacy. Young's first and only number one single "Heart of Gold" is yet another plea for redemption. With Taylor and Ronstadt singing backup, it's certainly a convincing appeal.

With Ben Keith's pedal steel gliding alongside the chorus, "Old Man" is a tender melody about a young man pondering over his own mortality. Recorded live at UCLA's Royce Hall, "The Needle And The Damage" is frank and direct — a sordid overview of a junkie's wasted life, as it pertains to the heroin overdose of Danny Whitten, the late guitarist and vocalist for Crazy Horse. Somehow, Young's voice rises above the din, and delivers a chilling vocal. While Harvest veers off course with an occasional over orchestrated misfire like "There's A World," it more often rebounds with a classic rant like "Alabama," a torrential downpour in the "Southern Man" vein. Critics of the day dissed it as a sell-out; today, it continues to stir and influence its way into the hearts and minds of ensuing generations. Just to prove that the form wasn't dead, Young gathered up the same musicians and made Harvest Moon 20 years later. This time, he was in a much better place with himself.

~ Shawn Perry

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