Harvest (Neil Young album)

Harvest
Studio album by Neil Young
Released February 14, 1972
Recorded Jan.–Sept. 1971 at Quadrafonic Sound Studios, Nashville; Barking Town Hall, London; Royce Hall, UCLA and Broken Arrow Studio No. 2, Woodside, CA
Genre Folk rock, country rock, roots rock, soft rock
Length 37:11
Label Reprise
MS 2032
Producer Neil Young, Elliot Mazer, Henry Lewy, Jack Nitzsche
Neil Young chronology

After the Gold Rush
(1970)		 Harvest
(1972)		 Journey Through the Past
(1972)
Singles from Harvest
  1. "Heart of Gold"
    Released: 1971
  2. "Old Man"
    Released: April 17, 1972

Harvest is the fourth album by the Canadian musician Neil Young, released on February 14, 1972 on Reprise Records, catalogue MS 2032. It featured the London Symphony Orchestra on two tracks and vocals by the noted guests David Crosby, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Stills, and James Taylor. It topped the Billboard 200 album chart[1] for two weeks, and spawned two hit singles, "Old Man", which peaked at #31 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Heart of Gold", which reached #1.[2] It was the best-selling album of 1972 in the United States.[3]

Content

After Neil Young left Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, he recruited a group of country session musicians (which he christened The Stray Gators) and recorded a country rock record, Harvest. The record was a massive hit, producing a US number one single in "Heart of Gold". Other songs returned to some usual Young themes: "Alabama" was "an unblushing rehash of 'Southern Man'";[4] and "The Needle and the Damage Done" was a lament for great artists who had died of heroin addiction. The former song was also at least partially responsible (along with the aforementioned "Southern Man") for the creation of Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1973 hit "Sweet Home Alabama"; Young later wrote of "Alabama" in his autobiography Waging Heavy Peace, saying it "richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don't like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue."[5] "Words (Between the Lines of Age)", the last song on the album, featured a lengthy guitar workout with the band. It has a typical Neil Young structure consisting of four chords during the multiple improvised solos. The song is notable for alternating between a standard 4/4 time signature for verses and choruses and an unusual 11(3+3+3+2)/8 for interludes.

The album's success caught Young off guard and his first instinct was to back away from stardom. He would later write that the record "put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there."[6]

According to the Neil Young Archives, the actual release date for Harvest was February 25, 1972.

Recording

"The Needle and the Damage Done" was taken from a live performance at UCLA on 30 January.

The recording of the remainder of Harvest was notable for the spontaneous and serendipitous way it came together. The story is told in an article in Acoustic Guitar Magazine, which includes interviews with the producer, Elliot Mazer, among others.[7]

Young arrived in Nashville in early February 1971 to perform on a broadcast of Johnny Cash Show where Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor would also appear. Mazer had opened Quadrafonic Sound Studios in Nashville, and invited Young to dinner (or breakfast according to another Mazer interview[8]) on Saturday, 6 February, to convince him to record his next project at the studio. Neil admired the work of the local studio musicians known as Area Code 615 who had recorded there and was interested. Young had a batch of new songs that he had been performing on the road, as seen by the repertoire on Live at Massey Hall 1971, and told Mazer that all he needed was a bassist, drummer, and pedal steel guitarist. Young made the decision to start recording that very evening.

Since many of the Area Code 615 musicians were working on a Saturday night, Mazer scrambled to find drummer Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond (who was just walking down the street), and steel-guitarist Ben Keith. That night, they laid down the basic tracks for "Old Man", "Bad Fog of Loneliness", and "Dance Dance Dance". This version of "Bad Fog" was unreleased until its appearance on The Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972. "Dance Dance Dance" was also left off the album but had already appeared on the debut Crazy Horse album.

According to liner notes in Archives Volume 1, "Heart of Gold" was not recorded until Monday, February 8. However, other sources reported that after taping the Johnny Cash Show on the evening of Sunday 7 February, Young invited Ronstadt and Taylor to come back to the studio with him. The three sat on a couch and recorded the background vocals for "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man." Taylor picked up Young's banjo guitar (a six-string banjo tuned like a guitar) and overdubbed a part for the latter song.

"A Man Needs a Maid" and "There's a World" were recorded by Jack Nitzsche with the London Symphony Orchestra in early March in the wake of Young's appearance on the BBC and concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

"Out on the Weekend", "Harvest" and "Journey Through the Past", along with overdubs by the session musicians James McMahon (piano on "Old Man"), John Harris (piano on "Harvest"), and Teddy Irwin (second acoustic guitar on "Heart of Gold"), were recorded in another session at Quadrafonic in April.

The electric-based songs were recorded in a barn at Young's ranch in California in September. Using a remote recording system, Mazer set up PA speakers in the barn for monitors rather than have the players wear headphones. This resulted in a lot of "leakage" as each microphone picked up sound from other instruments, but Young and Mazer liked the resulting sound. "Are You Ready for the Country", "Alabama", and "Words" were recorded in these sessions with Buttrey, Drummond, Keith, along with Nitzsche on piano and lap steel. Young named this band, which would accompany him on his tour in the winter of 1973, The Stray Gators.

Background vocals by Crosby, Stills & Nash were later recorded by Mazer in New York.

Mixing was done both at Quadrafonic and at Young's house. During playback at the ranch, Mazer ran the left channel into the PA speakers still in the barn and the right channel into speakers in the house. With Crosby and Nash beside him Young sat outside listening to the mix. When asked about the stereo balance, he called out, "More barn."

According to a Rolling Stone interview, Young had wanted the album sleeve to biodegrade after the shrink-wrap was broken, but was overruled by the record company on the basis of expense and the possible product loss due to shipping accidents.. Mo Ostin mentioned Young's request at the 22nd annual ASCAP pop music awards [9]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic [10]
Pitchfork (9.3/10)[11]
Robert Christgau B+[12]
Rolling Stone (negative)[13]

Assessments by critics were not overwhelmingly favorable at the time. Rolling Stone‍ '​s John Mendelsohn called the album a disappointing retread of earlier, superior efforts by Young, writing of "the discomfortingly unmistakable resemblance of nearly every song on this album to an earlier Young composition — it's as if he just added a steel guitar and new words to After The Gold Rush."[13] A review in The Montreal Gazette gave the album a mixed verdict, calling it "embarrassing" in places but interesting lyrically, and singling out "Are You Ready for the Country?" as the record's best cut.[14]

More recent evaluations of the album have been far more positive: in 1998, Q magazine readers voted Harvest the 64th greatest album of all time. In 1996, 2000 and 2005, Chart polled readers to determine the 50 greatest Canadian albums of all time — Harvest placed second in all three polls, losing the top spot to Joni Mitchell's Blue in 2000, and to Sloan's Twice Removed in the other two years. In 2003, a full three decades removed from its original harsh assessment, Rolling Stone named Harvest the 78th greatest album of all time.[15] In 2007, Harvest was named the #1 Canadian Album of All Time by Bob Mersereau in his book The Top 100 Canadian Albums.

Reissues

On October 15, 2002 Harvest was digitally remixed and remastered for the DVD-Audio format. The new 5.1 mix was the subject of minor controversy due to its unconventional panning, with the vocals in the centre of the room and the drums in the rear speakers. Harvest was remastered and released on HDCD-encoded CD and digital download on July 14, 2009 as part of the Neil Young Archives Original Release Series. A 180-gram remastered vinyl edition was released on December 1, 2009 along with remastered vinyl editions of Young's first four albums.[16] It is also available separately.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Neil Young. 

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Out on the Weekend"   4:35
2. "Harvest"   3:11
3. "A Man Needs a Maid"   4:05
4. "Heart of Gold"   3:07
5. "Are You Ready for the Country?"   3:33
Side two
No. Title Length
1. "Old Man"   3:24
2. "There's a World"   2:59
3. "Alabama"   4:02
4. "The Needle and the Damage Done" (recorded in concert January 30, 1971) 2:03
5. "Words (Between the Lines of Age)"   6:40

Personnel

Charts and certifications

Chart positions

Year Chart Peak
Position
1972 Billboard 200[1] 1
Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart[17]

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
France (SNEP)[18] Diamond 1,127,400[19]
Germany (BVMI)[20] 3× Gold 750,000^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[21] Platinum 50,000x
United Kingdom (BPI)[22] 3× Platinum 900,000^
United States (RIAA)[23] 4× Platinum 4,000,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

Chart succession

Preceded by
American Pie by Don McLean		 Billboard 200 number-one album
March 11–24, 1972 		Succeeded by
America by America
Preceded by
American Pie by Don McLean		 Australian Kent Music Report number-one album
June 19–25, 1972 		Succeeded by
Machine Head by Deep Purple
Preceded by
Neil Reid by Neil Reid		 UK Albums Chart number-one album
11 March 1972 - 18 March 1972 		Succeeded by
Paul Simon by Paul Simon

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Harvest - Neil Young > Charts & Awards > Billboard Album at AllMusic. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  2. ↑ Neil Young > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles at AllMusic. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  3. ↑ "Year End Charts - Year-end Albums - The Billboard 200". Billboard.com. Archived from the original on 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  4. ↑ So characterized by Jim Miller in Rolling Stone; quoted in Inglis, Sam (2003), Harvest, pp. 93-94. The Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-1495-8.
  5. ↑ Young, Neil (2012). "Chapter Fifty-seven". Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream. New York, New York: Penguin Books. p. 417. ISBN 978-0-14-218031-0.
  6. ↑ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits, p. 308. Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-7677-6.
  7. ↑ Simons, David (July 2001). "Recording Harvest: The Making of Neil Young's Classic 1972 Album". Acoustic Guitar Magazine (103): 34–41.
  8. ↑ Elliot Mazer, Neil Young's Heart of Gold. In Mix, 2001-05-01, webpage found 2007-11-29.
  9. ↑ Randy Lewis (May 18, 2005). "Comes a time for a tux". LA Times.
  10. ↑ Ruhlmann, William. Harvest (Neil Young album) at AllMusic. Retrieved 2 July 2004.
  11. ↑ Richardson, Mark (December 11, 2009). "Neil Young: Neil Young / Everybody Knows This is Nowhere / After the Gold Rush / Harvest > Album Reissue Reviews". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 11 December 2009.
  12. ↑ Christgau, Robert. "Neil Young > Consumer Guide Reviews". Robert Christgau. Retrieved 9 March 2006.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Mendelsohn, John (March 30, 1972). "Neil Young Harvest > Album Review". Rolling Stone (105). Archived from the original on 13 October 2004. Retrieved 2 July 2004.
  14. ↑ Mann, Bill (March 11, 1972). "A Big Month for Home Brews". Montreal Gazette (Gazette Printing Company Ltd.): 50.
  15. ↑ Levy, Joe; Steven Van Zandt (2006) [2005]. "78 | Harvest - Neil Young". Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (3rd ed.). London: Turnaround. ISBN 1-932958-61-4. OCLC 70672814. Archived from the original on 16 March 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2006.
  16. ↑ Because Sound Matters, Retrieved September 15, 2010 (dead link)
  17. ↑ "Number 1 Albums – 1970s". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  18. ↑ "French album certifications – Neil Young – Harvest" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.
  19. ↑ "Les Albums Diamant :" (in French). Infodisc.fr. Retrieved October 1, 2012.
  20. ↑ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Neil Young; 'Harvest')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  21. ↑ "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community: Awards (Neil Young; 'Harvest')". Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  22. ↑ "British album certifications – Neil Young – Harvest". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 1 October 2012. Enter Harvest in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Platinum in the field By Award. Click Search
  23. ↑ "American album certifications – Neil Young – Harvest". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 1 October 2012. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH

External links