Sam Inglis - Neil Youngs Harvest

Harvest

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Forthcoming in this series:
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Sam Inglis

2011

Continuum International Publishing Group
80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX

www.continuumbooks.com

2003 by Sam Inglis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
other wise, without the written permission of the publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Inglis, Sam.
Harvest/Sam Inglis.
p. cm.(33 1/3)
eISBN-13: 978-1-4411-8896-0
1. Young, Neil. Harvest moon. I. Title. II. Series.
ML420.Y75I54 2003

782.42166092dc21

Printed and bound in the United States of America

Youngs search for shelter from the storm resonates like a heartbeat, concluded Rolling Stones four-star review. Its author, Greg Kot, traced the songs along a path from restlessness to reaffirmation, describing a hushed musical landscape at times populated only by a ghostly harmonica, a few spooky bass lines and Youngs cracked, lonesome tenor.

The year was 1992; the album, Harvest Moon by Neil Young. Twenty years after the release of his best-selling LP, Young had at last done what his fans had stopped expecting him to do. Hed reformed the band that had backed him on Harvest, picked up his acoustic guitar and recorded a follow-up. The resulting album was almost a remake of its predecessor. Just as on Harvest, Young fleshed out a core of country-tinged ballads with a solo live recording, and hired his old friend Jack Nitzsche to provide an orchestral arrangement. He even called up the same celebrity backing singers whod turned out all those years ago to add the finishing touches to his only major hit single, Heart Of Gold.

Had Harvest Moon been released in 1973, Young would have been accused of standing still, of degenerating into self-pastiche. In 1992, however, it was greeted as the end of a great musical journey. In the two decades that separated Harvest from its sequel, Neil Young had gone from hippy hero to reactionary redneck and back. Shocked and appalled by the stardom Harvest had brought him, hed abandoned its winsome, country-tinged style and struck out for unknown shores. In a quest to lose his newfound audience, hed produced everything from ear-bleeding rock music to experimental electronica. In the 80s, Young had gone so far out there that few thought hed make it back; but back he was, and Harvest Moon was final confirmation of one of the most remarkable resurgences in rock history. Not so much a return to form as a trip back in time, it showed Young accepting at last what everyone else knew: that the original Harvest was a classic album, and should be celebrated as such.

Its a nice story, but the truth is more complicated. In 1992, Neil Young was back in the fold, lauded as the only artist of his generation still making essential music. It seemed obvious then that his most popular record must be an essential album, but it hadnt always looked that way. Rolling Stone itself had panned Harvest on release, John Mendelssohns scathing review salted with phrases like half-assed baloney, flatulent and portentous nonsense and weariest clichs. Throughout the 70s, a succession of rock writers portrayed Harvest as an album of superficial beauty, barren of new ideas or real emotion. Stephen Holden summed up the view of many when he described it as Youngs most compromised album.

Not all critics were as negative as Rolling Stones: the British music press, for instance, accorded rave reviews to both Harvest and Heart Of Gold. Yet it would be fair to say that Harvest was a hit despite the press, rather than because of them; and its not only rock critics who have expressed distaste for Youngs most successful album. Ask serious Neil Young fans to name their favourite album of his and youll hear votes for any one of ten or so, but Harvest is unlikely to be among them. If you love Young for the searing rock n roll of Rust Never Sleeps or the raw emotion of Tonights The Night, Harvest is too safe, too bland, too popular.

In the few interviews hes given since its release, Neil Young has played along with the idea that Harvest was an aberration, and that its success drove him to seek the musical wilderness. When he compiled his triple-album retrospective Decade, he included half of Harvest, but undermined Heart Of Gold with an equivocal liner note: This song put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I met more interesting people there. When he did eventually record the sequel, he gave the impression of having suffered twenty years sustained pressure to do so: When people start asking you to do the same thing again and again, he told