Music Review by Bill Rendall

Harvest - Neil Young

"He used to pick up my guitar and sing a song with a shaky voice that was real as the day is long." Neil Young wrote these lyrics about one of his roadies but he could well have been describing himself. Nobody conveys more emotion in his voice. There is a direct line from Young's soul to his voice.

Harvest features Young's only number one single 'Heart of Gold.' It also features the classic anti-drug song 'The Needle and the Damage Done' inspired by some of Young's associates who overdosed.

'Old Man' is a catchy song. It includes banjo and steel guitar in the instrumentation which gives it a country sound. The title track is also very country sounding and was recorded in Nashville.

'A Man Needs a Maid' stands out for its emotional vocal delivery and its lushly orchestrated backing. It was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra in contrast with the sparse backing instrumentation elsewhere on Harvest.

Young has always been an ornery customer and isn't afraid to step on people's toes. 'Alabama' continues the attack on southern USA which was launched with 'Southern Man' from After the Goldrush. This inspired a riposte from those good old southern boys, Lynyrd Skynyrd. After Lynyrd Skynyrd's tragic plane crash Young sang 'Sweet Home Alabama' in concert as a tribute.

Following the commercial success of Harvest and 'Heart of Gold' Young deliberately veered from the middle of the road to the ditch with his next three albums. I do not subscribe to the notion that a rough recording is more real or authentic than one that has been laboured over.

The double live album Live Rust recorded in the late seventies is a welcome return to form. It starts with Young playing solo with his acoustic guitar. Later on his electric backing band Crazy Horse joins him. He moves on to the electric guitarfests 'Like a Hurricane', 'Cortez the Killer' and 'Powderfinger.' One of the interesting things Young does is to interpret his own songs in different styles. Live Rust contains a fine example of this with 'Hey, hey, my, my.' Early in the album there is a solo acoustic version of the song and later on there is an electric version with heavy distortion.

Young has had a long career and has produced many albums in a wide variety of styles. In the eighties he got way off track, including a foray into electronic music. His frustrated record company sued him for making unrepresentative albums.

I recommend Harvest with some reservation. It contains the most consistently strong material Young has put on a studio album but it leans too much towards country for my taste. A good option is a live album with Crazy Horse and Live Rust gets my recommendation.

Another good option is to get Decade which is a 2 CD compilation covering most of Young's best stuff in the first decade of his recording career.