Harvest

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Proclaiming his intentions with "Are You Ready for the Country?", Young detoured briefly to the Nashville mainstream. On this 1972 album, even the singer's acquired-taste voice comes across smooth and beautiful--the smash "Heart of Gold", with steel guitars and Linda Ronstadt's backup vocals, is by far Young's most commercial-sounding song. His usual dissonant touches, like the otherworldly guitar in "Out on the Weekend", are less spooky in this new context. The last two tracks, the deceptively gentle "The Needle and the Damage Done" and the hypnotic rocker "Words (Between the Lines of Age)", predict "Tonight's the Night", Young's haunted 1975 classic. --Steve Knopper

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-04-14 rating:
Peerless Genius.
Okay. Pub argument Number 120. Who is the greatest song-writer ever? Dylan, Lennon and McCartney are all in with a shout. Brian Wilson, Kurt Cobain, Roger Waters, the list goes on. But seriously, how could anyone take this title other than Neil Young. I mean it, this guy is so good, it defies belief.

I did try to collect a few Neil Young albums a few years back. In time they disappeared or got sold, and I continued to listen to all sorts of mindless rubbish (what the hell was I supposed to know, I was only a punk kid). But over the last few years i've come to the conclusion that not only is Neil Young far better than even people think he is, but even amongst the elite, he's virtually untouchable.

Don't believe me? Then listen again. Every single song on 'Harvest' is masterful. Honestly, not a single note is wasted anywhere. My favourites are probably 'A Man Needs A Maid', a touching ballad about then-girlfriend Carrie Snodgress, 'Needle And The Damage Done', concerning heroin addicted rock musicians and 'Old Man', a song about old and young lives being similar.

But whatever the merits of the rest of the album, it's 'Heart Of Gold' that remains Young's masterpiece. His only number one single and the fan's firm favourite, a beautifully soft ballad that for me, is endlessly re-listenable.

If there's one thing I hate, it's hyperbole. But for 'Harvest' i'll make an exception. And if William Blake was a rock star, he'd be Neil Young. He really is that good.

So to conclude, there are great song-writers, and then there's Neil Young. And anyone who wants to disagree had better step outside.

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review by: petersteward date: 2008-04-11 rating:
Golden Harvest
I'm sure many people waited eagerly for this release and I was certainly one of them. The fear was that it would be a huge disappointment after Goldrush - well it wasn't. Harvest has taken on almost a mythical feel over the years.

Many consider it his best work and certainly it met with critical acclaim and is still talked of today. When Young releases a low key, tuneful album it is always described as "The New Harvest" and the composer also references the album many times in his subsequent offerings.

It was more progressive than Goldrush. To me the songs aren't quite so effective but there is no denying the power and beauty of an album that once again contained some outstanding music with the likes of "Harvest", "A Man Needs a Maid" "Heart of Gold" (I can hear you singing it now and two songs with much stronger messages "Old Man" and a foray into drug culture "The Needle and the Damage Done."

The only question on the lips of Young fans were "where does he go from here and can he produce a trio of essential albums?"

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review by: Thom Stephens date: 2007-07-27 rating:
Nothing like a good sweeping generalisation to start the day!
What a knowledgeable expert on Neil Young the previous reviewer is! And there's me thinking that Neil Young alongside Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell is one of the greatest living songwriters alive. Well thank you Mr Johnson I can now safely cast aside everything Young recorded after Harvest and bin 30 years of one of the most startling careers in music.

Thankfully not all of us found ourselves disconnected from the mains power supply in the early 70s and have followed the great man with increasing fascination since. Harvest is wonderful example of Young's music particularly the gentler country acoustic side. I love the title track and there are superb versions of many of these songs on the newly issued "Live at Massey Hall 1971". Perhaps our friend should also invest in the dark classics forming the "Ditch" trilogy namely "On the beach" or Tonight the Night" And please come on Reprise Records reissue "TIME FADES AWAY" on CD AND I will buy shares in the company, scouts honour. Finally anyone who invests in "Zuma" "Rust Never Sleeps" "Ragged Glory" "Freedom" "Weld" and the excellent revisit of this territory in "Harvest Moon" will be mightily rewarded with Young's best work. More recently his recent broadside against Bush and Iraq with "Living with War" showed Young prepared again to stick his neck out and do the right thing. When I read the cavalier comment from the previous reviewer that Young "lost his way musically" after Harvest I nearly required a Heimlich manoeuvre! There are a number of poor albums especially from his dubious 80s period but Young has never been predictable and long may he run.

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review by: date: 2007-05-22 rating:
Neil Young at his best ....
'Harvest' and 'After the Goldrush' represent the very best of Neil Young. They both contain outstanding songs and musicianship. Forget the albums that followed ... Neil's attack and precision were lost by then, and he lost his way musically. (Such a pity.)

But, hey, two gold star CD's that are full of the talent of a musical innovator and genius ... what's the problem? Enjoy ....


review by: date: 2006-10-26 rating:
A BLUEPRINT FOR LATE 20th CENTURY ROCK MUSIC
"Think I'll jack it in and buy a pickup; Take it down to LA."

So begins one of the half-dozen-or-so greatest albums in the history of rock music - with a prosaic reference to teenage escapism sung over a laid-back country groove. But forty minutes later it's grungy distorted guitars that accompany the more metaphysical verdict:

"It's only words, words, Between the lines of age."

Thus Neil Young sets out his credentials as philosopher and prophet to the hippy generation. He foresees, and in less than three quarters of an hour he foretells, the future history of the children of freedom: Financial independence - lack of responsibility - search for belonging - divorce from reality - alienation - drug dependency - and finally a kind of uneasy reconciliation as experience supplants idealism.

Behind the lyrical journey there is a stylistic journey: from country to grunge via lush orchestration and rock'n'roll, that charts the future history of popular music. No wonder late `90's rockers saw Young as a creative godfather: they saw with hindsight how music had followed the agenda he had first set out a quarter century earlier.

But the most wonderful thing about "Harvest" is that even at it's most harrowingly prophetic, it is still sweet on the ears. Prophesy isn't usually this much fun: listen to Stravinsky or early Dylan or punk or early rap for evidence that in music (as in all areas of life) good medicine often leaves a bad taste. "Harvest" must be one of the most important landmarks in rock to have tasted good at the time and still to taste good nearly three decades on. Most impressively of all (and unlike some of Young's later work), the message still rings true.

I think this record is probably an indispensable part of any modern record collection, but it's not just an important museum piece . . . it's fine music that can be listened to over and over again without ever losing its appeal.

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