Neil Young's most popular album, Harvest benefited from the delay in its release (it took 18 months to complete due to Young's back injury), which whetted his audience's appetite, the disintegration of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Young's three erstwhile partners sang on the album, along with Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor), and most of all, a hit single. "Heart of Gold," released a month before Harvest, was already in the Top 40 when the LP hit the stores, and it soon topped the charts. It's fair to say, too, that Young simply was all-pervasive by this time: "Heart of Gold" was succeeded at number one by "A Horse with No Name" by America, which was a Young soundalike record. But successful as Harvest was (and it was the best-selling album of 1972), it has suffered critically from reviewers who see it as an uneven album on which Young repeats himself. Certainly, Harvest employs a number of jarringly different styles. Much of it is country-tinged, with Young backed by a new group dubbed the Stray Gators who prominently feature steel guitarist Ben Keith, though there is also an acoustic track, a couple of electric guitar-drenched rock performances, and two songs on which Young is accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra. But the album does have an overall mood and an overall lyric content, and they conflict with each other: The mood is melancholic, but the songs mostly describe the longing for and fulfillment of new love. Young is perhaps most explicit about this on the controversial "A Man Needs a Maid," which is often condemned as sexist by people judging it on the basis of its title. In fact, the song contrasts the fears of committing to a relationship with simply living alone and hiring help, and it contains some of Young's most autobiographical writing. Unfortunately, like "There's a World," the song is engulfed in a portentous orchestration. Over and over, Young sings of the need for love in such songs as "Out on the Weekend," "Heart of Gold," and "Old Man" (a Top 40 hit), and the songs are unusually melodic and accessible. The rock numbers, "Are You Ready for the Country" and "Alabama," are in Young's familiar style and unremarkable, and "There's a World" and "Words (Between the Lines of Age)" are the most ponderous and overdone Young songs since "The Last Trip to Tulsa." But the love songs and the harrowing portrait of a friend's descent into heroin addiction, "The Needle and the Damage Done," remain among Young's most affecting and memorable songs.
I came across this video the other day and wasn't expecting to be blown away. I like Neil Young ... who doesn't? But seeing the young Young in this high-quality video is amazing. A lot of singer-songwriter types would love to unveil a new song as good as this one.I believe this is a February 1971 performance recorded by the BBC. "Harvest" would come out the following year. Here is "Old Man," wh...
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Who would’ve guessed that Neil Young is a funny guy. Even during his two set, double encore show at New York City’s United Palace – the final in a run of six shows – Young joked to the audience, “I’m really happy to be here. You wouldn’t know it from these songs.” Sarcastic words his own music would later reiterate when he played “Love Art Blues” with the lyrics My songs are al
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In mmy ongoing attempt to tag the 10 cd's in my collection that I would consider to be my favorites, I attempted to tackle my "classic rock" section last night. I was not sure how to classify my classic rock section, seeing bands like U2 are now being played on classic rock radio stations. I went with the bands if they made music before I was 7 years old. That would be the first time I can real...
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What the hell does "milk blood to keep from runnin' out" mean?
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Who would’ve guessed that Neil Young is a funny guy. Even during his two set, double encore show at New York City’s United Palace – the final in a run of six shows – Young joked to the audience, “I’m really happy to be here. You wouldn’t know it from these songs.” Sarcastic words his own music would later reiterate when he played “Love Art Blues” with the lyrics My songs are al
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In mmy ongoing attempt to tag the 10 cd's in my collection that I would consider to be my favorites, I attempted to tackle my "classic rock" section last night. I was not sure how to classify my classic rock section, seeing bands like U2 are now being played on classic rock radio stations. I went with the bands if they made music before I was 7 years old. That would be the first time I can real...
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To start things off...I certainly don't think so. I came across "this article":http://crawdaddy.wolfgangsvault.com/Article.aspx?id=6660 today on Crawdaddy.com that basically compares My Morning Jacket and their frontman Jim James to Neil Young. How flattering, considering James in a recent "Spin cover story":http://www.spin.com/articles/james-gang explained how much Young's Harvest influenced h...
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The Neil Young Archive is finally under way. It's been promised for at least 20 years ... Neil doesn't rush! ... and will give official release to the more than 200 stored up songs and many concerts recorded since the late 1960s. Most of it is already available on bootleg, but when the last note of feedback has died ragged in your ears, do you want the bootleg or the one that Neil has polished ...
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Talk about a bang for your buck! The country may be in a recession, but this show makes it all seem like a bad dream. Neil Young has lassoed two of the alternative world's finest bands to open for the North American leg of his fall tour. While Wilco works on their new album, due this spring, Death Cab for Cutie opens the tour October 14 while Wilco jumps on November 29.In the meantime, Young is...
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In which the 24 year old Young, appearing unaccompanied, previews Harvest for a small intimate audience in the BBC studio and a much larger one watching on TV, almost all of whom are agape and astounded at the sheer creativity flowing out of the man like water from a fountain. My lifelong devotion to Young which had started with After the Goldrush kicked up into overdrive around about here.
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Our rendition of the Neil Young classic Old Man with my friend Jane singing harmony vocals on the choruses:
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In the spirit of Neil Young today...if you haven't heard - stop reading my post immediately and check out Neli's new video "Get Around" brought to you exclusively by MOG. I'm so pumped to say that MOG is premiering the video for Neil Young - it's a good for Moggers!http://mog.com/mogtv/neil_young As for my video, this is one of my favorite Neil Young songs called Old Man. I'll let him explain...
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My cover is solo acoustic inspired by the Massey Hall version:
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What the hell does "milk blood to keep from runnin' out" mean?
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I came across this video the other day and wasn't expecting to be blown away. I like Neil Young ... who doesn't? But seeing the young Young in this high-quality video is amazing. A lot of singer-songwriter types would love to unveil a new song as good as this one.I believe this is a February 1971 performance recorded by the BBC. "Harvest" would come out the following year. Here is "Old Man," wh...
More >
"I hit the city and I lost my bandI watched the needle take another manGone, gone, the damage done.I sing the song because I love the manI know that some of you don't understand"--??"The Needle And The Damage Done"?? by Neil Young(Day 4 of 7: Seven Days Of Neil Young Lyrics)
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Album cover designers are like most non-performing songwriters. They are responsible for some of the most familiar pieces of art but nobody knows their names.Tom Wilkes was one such person. He was a Grammy Award winning art director and cover designer, responsible for some of the great album covers of the rock era. Wilkes passed away in his home in Pioneertown, California on June 28 from a h...
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 "Harvest")
