Harvest Moon (1992)

After the sonic assault of Weld and the intensity of the tour it documented, Neil started suffering from hearing issues. He couldn’t listen to loud sounds, so he focused on quiet, gentle music. While it’s common to think of Harvest Moon as a sequel to Harvest, they are very different albums. Harvest is in keeping with his early 70s folk but given a slight country veneer. Harvest Moon is a somewhat overproduced and maudlin collection of songs that feel cheesy to my ears nowadays. It’s a bit like taking the Stray Gators and having them play CSNY songs. It was a hit record, garnering Neil some of his best sales in years. At the time, I was still a rabid Neil fan and ate this album up. My dad and I saw the tour that preceded this album’s release when it came to Cleveland Music Hall, and it was a welcome treat that the setlist that night was heavy on non-album tracks. Too bad the 2009-released live record Dreamin’ Man Live ‘92 is only the album tracks (although that live album is better to me than Harvest Moon. More on that below.) I’ll say right up front that “Old King” is my favorite song here, although I’ve found myself singing “One of These Days” in my head the past week.

“Unknown Legend” was written around the time of Comes a Time and shares some of that album’s rounded corners. Extremely pleasant with a simple structure, for me it’s the kind of song that goes in one ear and out the other, impressive songwriting but not especially memorable (I know that’s an uncommon opinion). It’s about the women in Neil’s life, melding Pegi’s motorcycle riding and Susan’s diner waitressing. The next song “From Hank to Hendrix” is classic Neil lyricism, weaving a tapestry of tributes to musical heroes of his as he serenades his love (Pegi). I like the chorus a lot more than the rest of the song, despite not loving the harmonizing on it (Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor). Like many songs on this album, it features long time collaborator Ben Keith’s lovely pedal steel guitar. That particular sound is the theme of this album to me. Harmony, harmonica, and pedal steel. It coats almost every song.

One of Neil’s highest falsetto performances is on “You and Me,” and the instrumentation reminds me of early 70s Neil (After the Gold Rush and Harvest, for example, with it even having a slight retread of “Old Man.”) It’s one of the better songs on this album and I think the sparse instrumentation is the reason why. Probably one of the only songs to have a featured broom player on it (on again, off again bass player Tim Drummond), “Harvest Moon” is like “Unknown Legend” in that it has a bit of a “that’s nice” quality with nothing super interesting to it beyond that. Like most songs here, the chorus is the best spots. That said, “War of Man” has a great recurring guitar breakdown and a more interesting vocal performance from Neil. The lyrics are also more substantive and less saccharine. “One of These Days” has a great cadence and is the rare time in which Neil pays tributes to his bandmates in song. Oblique mentions of Crazy Horse, Stray Gators, etc. He takes blame for letting people down and expresses regret for things he’s done to ruin those relationships. By the mere fact of the song title, he’s not exactly making good on that promise, of course.

That was a pretty good couple of songs there…so of course it’s time for Jack Nitzsche to come along and ruin the entire vibe of the album with the overblown and kinda gross “Such a Woman.” Neil takes the blame for the simplistic lyrics, but Nitzsche just compounds the problem by making the song bigger than it warrants and giving those lyrics too much elevation. The sentiment is harmless and could have been a worthwhile song, but stretched out and backed by a full orchestra? Neil is forced to match that grandiosity and it just fails. The only good thing about this song is that “Old King” comes after it.

“Old King” is an insanely great banjo tribute to Neil’s dog. It has one really bad lyric in it (don’t kick dogs, Neil!), but it’s so catchy and charming, so endearing to have a dog tribute on your album surrounded by odes to people. It puts that all important relationship on the same level. Something interesting that Shakey author Jimmy McDonough related was that Neil’s nonverbal son Ben is who Neil tells everything to. There’s a parallel to Neil’s “I told the dog about everything.” He only truly confides in people who can’t repeat what he tells them? Easy favorite song. “Dreamin’ Man” can’t recapture that magic but it’s a lovely, if slightly creepy song. I really like the melody on this and some of the lyrics are just so evocative. It’s just like Neil to setup a nice vista and then slide in a mention of a loaded gun to make sure you are paying attention. What is going on here? Is Neil playing a character again? This time a stalker or serial killer?

He caps off the album with the almost ten minute live recording of “Natural Beauty” which I like quite a bit. The outro of nature sounds is fitting on this environmental ode. Neil’s acoustic guitar work is fantastic as ever and recalls solo Neil tours like the one that produced Massey Hall. It’s a special song all told and I’m glad it’s the finale.

Top 3:

1. Old King
2. Natural Beauty
3. War of Man

Cut song: Such a Woman

In typical Neil fashion, he played all of Harvest Moon’s songs on a series of solo tours in 1992 before the album ever debuted. He recorded an MTV Unplugged before the album was released, as well. I was always confused by Unplugged since I saw the solo 1992 tour and Unplugged didn’t resemble it at all. That’s a fraught recording that I’ll cover next time, but in 2009 he released a curious live album called Dreamin’ Man Live ‘92. It contains live renditions of every song from Harvest Moon (and no other albums) in a different order. It’s the better album. By stripping away the harmonies and backing instrumentation, he gives the songs poignancy they were lacking, not to mention the intimacy they really deserved.

Everything feels closer here. “Dreamin’ Man” is less atmospheric, more pointed. He seems to address the oddness of the lyrics with his intro rap: “just a feeling behind this, nothing literal in here,” heading off the questions about a loaded gun. His guitar is so lovely here. Just immaculate playing. The piano forward version of “Such a Woman” is an improvement on the album version, but it’s still so unnecessarily drawn out. If there was a bit more substance behind these lyrics, I would get it, but he’s falling into a bit of a pedestal trap with this. I like the more jangly, loose “One of These Days.” It feels more like a lament here, which seems more fitting than the happy go lucky album version.

Likewise, the title track strips out the sweetness for some wistfulness when its pared back to just Neil and an acoustic. “You and Me” is much more forceful here, less falsetto, and giving even more of an “Old Man” vibe. Neil swaps in guitar to replace Ben Keith’s pedal steel, and I gotta say I like it more. This is a great performance of this song and really cements the quality of the live renditions over the studio versions. This feels more like Neil than the Top 40s soft rock production of Harvest Moon (I know that’s blasphemy but give me live solo Neil any day over big budget studio time). “Unknown Legend” is still a bit of a snoozer here, though.

Sometimes you get funny moments in live recordings and Neil’s sniffs on the razor sharp “Old King” are one of them. I wish I had seen this happen, though.

(addressing someone in the crowd) "I'll get to the point when I'm ready to get to the point!"(collective laugh from the crowd)

"Get to the point, he says. What a dickhead! I'm tellin' a dog story. 'Get to the point.' Am I in LA, or what?"

Don’t interrupt Neil’s raps! Kinda too bad he didn’t put that whole rap on Dreamin’ Man Live ‘92. It’s such an interesting juxtaposition between Neil’s lively banjo and the sad remembrance of his companion.

“Natural Beauty” is pretty close to the album version, minus the nature sounds, and it’s still beautiful. I like this song the more time I spent with it. It doesn’t need to be 10 minutes long, though.

Top 3

1. You and Me
2. War of Man
3. Natural Beauty

Cut song: Unknown Legend (“Such a Woman” just barely edging it out based on Neil’s piano alone. But “Unknown Legend” is so boring to me.)