Harvest - Neil Young

After three critically well received albums for Reprise, along came 1972's Harvest. This is the album that altered Neil Young's position in the music world to an unimaginable degree. Harvest reached number one on both sides of the Atlantic and produced a radio staple and chart topping single in Heart of Gold. Young moved into a new level of fame momentarily greater than Crosby Stills & Nash. Harvest may have done more to popularise country-rock than any other album. It also fixed an image of Young in many minds (except his own) as a benign, home on the range, hippie songwriter. The album was a painful year in gestation, especially for Young who underwent ...  Read the complete review

Neil Young: writer of songs, scarer of children (both with his voice and his head, really) and maker of some of the best folk\rock songs ever. Harvest is full of these songs, and is my personal favourite of Neil Young's albums. I have a lot of respect for Neil Young, mostly because of his attempts to piss off his record company by being as uncommercial as possible, but also because being one of the freakiest looking beasts that ever hatched on this planet (if it was on this planet) hasn't stopped him becoming a great songwriter. So, about those songs... The album starts off with Out On The Weekend, which begins with a solid drumbeat and lazy ...  Read the complete review

Neil Percival Young was born on November 12, 1945 in Ontario, Canada to Scott Young, a sportswriter and novelist and Edna-Ragland (Russy). His parents decided to part ways when he was 12. her mother moved to her family home in Winnipeg, Manitoba and here young Neil began his distinguished music career. Neil Young is a true artist, a very highly gifted singer, song-writer, musician who was at ease with number of musical instruments like piano, harmonica and of course who can forget his claw-hammer acoustic guitar. With his electric guitar solos he drove his fans to frenzy. I cann't but say the selection of songs in the album couldn't been better just ...  Read the complete review

I am in all truth, no great fan of rock critics, many of whom either rely upon flattering their own ego to produce a piece of musical criticism that usually falls into simply stating faults and then adding a couple of lines relating to positives. This though can also be reversed, with the positives given and the negatives pushed under the rug, and yet even though I do admit that I would do much the same in many cases, the review that Rolling Stone Magazine, (previously) one of the most respected rock magazines around, gave for Harvest by Neil Young seems to me more self-indulgence than criticism. The rock critic who rated this review panned this album on far too many ...  Read the complete review

From the delicate opening bars of "Out on the Weekend" till the closing sunrise of "Words", Harvest paints an emotional portrait of the post 60's world as seen through the eyes of Neil Young, godfather of alternative rock and grunge. Harvest is Neil Young's biggest selling album that still resonates today. It is a must have album for Neil Young fans and fans of alternative music across the world in this post grunge post britpop era. It is an unashamed alternative country album with contributions from notable country singers James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, with further involvement of NY stalwarts David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. ...  Read the complete review