Harvest (1972)

My life is changing in so many ways / I don't know who to trust anymore

(Neil Young, “A Man Needs a Maid”)

Just as Neil was finishing up After the Gold Rush, the CSNY road manager showed him a piece of property up in the Santa Cruz mountains. He bought it in cash and moved up there in the same month that album was released. His wife Susan did not make the trip with him and she filed for divorce a month later. With Neil’s growing fame came a lot of complications that made his marriage suffer, a common enough story in the music industry. Of course, another common story in the music industry is that heartache and loss result in some of our most enduring music. Harvest would be the start of that phase of songwriting for Neil. It wouldn’t be the end. The next few years of Neil’s career are amongst his most fruitful and fascinating, albeit in a number of sad ways. On the happier end reflected in some of these songs, he fell in love with the actress Carrie Snodgress while still recovering from a back injury. By the time Harvest would emerge, she was pregnant with Neil’s first child Zeke. His relationship with Carrie would inspire many enduring songs, but it also wouldn’t last through the hard years ahead.

Harvest’s genesis was during a rescheduled appearance on the Johnny Cash Show in Nashville. There he would meet record producer Elliot Mazer at an after-party and mention he had some songs to record. Mazer rounded up some innaresting characters from the Nashville scene and they would immediately cut “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold” at this sudden session, coincidentally the singles. First was Area Code 615 member Kenny Buttrey, an in-demand session player who drummed for Elvis. Next was bassist Tim Drummond, the only white guy in James Brown’s Famous Flames. Rounding out this core was Ben Keith, a pedal steel player who worked with Patsy Kline and would go on to be one of Neil’s most enduring collaborators and friends. Neil dubbed this band the Stray Gators after Drummond described watching the Famous Flames get high and stare at imaginary gators in the sky.

Drummond’s silky bass drops us into “Out on the Weekend,” a song that Neil has described as being a happy song, but that comes across as being sad. This has become a favorite of mine in recent days. The lyrics are so strangely conflicting, describing someone who is happy but can’t experience joy. In interviews, he himself was puzzled and wondering why the song is sounds so down but that he thinks he’s happy in it. The slow country sound of the song does a lot to contribute to that feel, as well. Sadness, regret, loneliness, are all common themes in country. Neil’s twist is that in his mind, it’s actually a happy song. A more purely naked love song follows with “Harvest,” one of Neil’s prettiest compositions. Filled with evocative imagery and set to a quasi-waltz, it’s a plea to someone love him as much as possible. While the first impression is certainly Neil talking to Carrie, there’s also some lines that evoke Carrie’s relationship with her mother, who frequently had suicidal thoughts that Carrie was witness to.

Carrie’s breakthough film was Diary of a Mad Housewife, in which she played a woman plagued by abusive men in her life that gaslit her at every opportunity. “A Man Needs a Maid” is a perplexing song that directly references this film. When you combine lines about not knowing who to trust anymore and understanding the role the actress played, this seemingly sexist song becomes a criticism of sexism instead. Neil criticizes sexism by relating his own experiences at a tumultuous time in his life with the horrible experiences of the titular housewife. The overblown Jack Nitzsche orchestration is meant to evoke the feeling of cinema. While that works and gives this song an epic quality, I admit the fragile solo versions Neil performed on tours prior to recording Harvest captivate me more.

When the band were recording “Heart of Gold” during that first weekend in Nashville, drummer Kenny Buttrey raised a single finger, indicating to producer Elliot Mazer that this was a #1 hit. For an in-demand session drummer who played on Elvis songs, he would know. It’s a good song, there’s no denying it. It’s the bain of every Neil fan, though. Every conversation about Neil is related to “Heart of Gold” in some way. It’s the song people know, it’s the song that die-hards dislike, but it’s also the song that lead to the die-hard favorite Ditch Trilogy and one of Neil’s most prodigious songwriting periods. Would the Times Fades Away/On The Beach/Tonight’s the Night period exist if Neil hadn’t made a drastic swerve in response to “Heart of Gold”’s popularity? We will never know, of course, but it’s worth thinking about every time this #1 hit comes on the radio.

Much of Harvest was recorded in the first quarter of 1971, but the Stray Gators convened at Neil’s Broken Arrow ranch at the end of September to record three songs in his barn. Elliot Mazer parked a mobile recording truck outside the barn and the band let loose. One of the coolest things that they left the barn doors open and Mazer put a big mic there to record the natural echo coming off the surrounding valley. “Are You Ready For The Country?” is the slightest of these three songs, but gives us the first taste of Neil’s electrified country take. For much of 1971 he couldn’t played his electric guitars due to the back injury. He chose the big white Gretsch for this and it’s unique stereo pickups are on full display. While not as memorable as the two other barn tracks, this is a good transition to that part of the album.

While the second single from Harvest wouldn’t be as successful as the first, “Old Man” is an enduring song in Neil’s catalog. His own father thought it was about him at first, but Neil clarified the song sprung from a conversation with the foreman of the ranch he just bought. Louis Avila didn’t understand how a 27 year old hippie could afford to buy the ranch. My favorite part of this song is James Taylor’s banjo, an instrument he didn’t play until Neil handed it to him. “There’s a World” is the strangest song on the album, and the least successful. Another hugely overblown Nitzsche arrangement accompanies forgettable lyrics.

Another barn recording, “Alabama” has frequently been called redundant to “Southern Man.” I can understand that, but it’s still a great song, with manic piano by Nitzsche that really adds to the song. There’s an interview with Neil where he hints that the song isn’t really about Alabama and is more personal to him, but disguised. He could be talking about himself, he could be talking about his experience in Nashville, it’s an intriguing puzzle. I love the sound of the Gretsch on the main riff. It evokes that great “Ohio” riff in all the right ways. Neil sure loves naming his songs after US states.

My relationship with “The Needle and the Damage Done” has changed a lot over the years. I would always skip it and just couldn’t understand it’s appeal. Diving more into Danny Whitten while reading Shakey turned me around a lot on it, though (as well as just generally growing up). This isn’t a great revelation, but it’s unbelievably tragic. Whitten was still alive at this point and Neil was clearly trying to warn his friends about the dangers of heroin. “Milk blood to keep from running out” is…I don’t have the words to describe how horribly sad this line is. This is the earliest recorded song on Harvest and was recorded live at UCLA and we can hear the entire performance on the Royce Hall official bootleg.

I love “Words (Between the Lines of Age)” despite it having the most perplexing and potentially nonsensical lyrics of Neil’s career. What is happening in this song? Well, I don’t care, because the mood this piano and guitar lead masterpiece elicits is gorgeous. It’s an epic jam with a top notch band. It would have been just as great without lyrics. The only thing I can figure with this one is Neil is struggling with rising fame and how to deal with the sycophants crowing around him. And it only got more fevered during 1971 as the romance with Carrie picked up steam in the press.

Top 3:

1. Words (Between the Lines of Age)
2. Out on the Weekend
3. Alabama

Cut song: There’s a World

The 50th anniversary of Harvest brought us a decent boxset it’s worth mentioning. The BBC concert had been available to watch on Neil Young Archives for awhile now, but it’s nice to have the audio separated and in other formats. Unfortunately, the entire performance was recorded a little hot, and the included DVD was mastered incorrectly, making it impossible to enjoy for the moment (replacements in the works). That said, the performance is a great look into Neil on stage at this auspicious time. I particularly love the extended bit about carrying different harmonicas in his pocket for every key. He slowly loosens the crowd up with his banter. That banter is one of his underrated talents.

For some reason, Neil broke three outtakes into a separate disc. Fans were a bit bewildered by the selection given that 2/3 were previously available. After a bit of outcry, Neil added another one to his website. Out of everything here, the real gem is “Bad Fog of Loneliness,” a fantastic song that’s never officially appeared on a studio album. It’s debut release was on Massey Hall in 2007. What a lot of us would really like are the “Gator Jams” that are shown in the wonderful Harvest Time film that is the third major part of this 50th anniversary set. I was luckily enough to see that in theater last year and wrote about it here. It certainly hints at a lot more music than what we got on the album.

Thanks for reading Only Castles Burning! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.