Harvest is an album that perfectly evoked both the dying optimism of San Francisco's counterculture movement and the burgeoning cynicism of the Watergate generation, the album stands as a commercial pinnacle of the West Coast country-rock scene, a U.S. and UK No. 1. Yet its relevance was almost pre-empted by both The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield.
Harvest, though, undoubtedly augured Young's 1970s creative peak, utilizing harmonies by Linda Rondstadt and James Taylor to strike commercial paydirt on the hit single "Heart Of Gold". The song's success would daunt Young for the next three decades, and he has purposely omitted it from live sets since. "This song put me in the middle of the road," he wrote. "Traveling there soon became a bore and I headed for the ditch".
That song aside, Harvest contains some of the most arresting imagery of Young's career to date, from the slow-burning scorn of "Alabama," an acerbic denunciation of corruption in America's Southern beltway, to the haunting and personal "The Needle And The Damage Done" and the touching if sentimental "Old Man", written as a homage to the caretaker of Young's ranch. Harvest often threatens to descend into country mawkishness, but ultimately shines with its creator's songwriting strengths.
Unsurprisingly, Young would soon retreat from the runaway success of this album. And the majority of his Seventies work would veer toward a more insidious realization of America via explorations in the realm of punk and the blues. Harvest, though, stands as the coming-of-age of the Baby Boomer generation.
TRACKS :
Out On The Weekend (4:35)
Harvest (3:03)
A Man Needs A Maid (4:00)
Heart Of Gold (3:05)
Are You Ready For The Country (3:21)
Old Man (3:22)
There's A World (3:00)
Alabama (4:02)
The Needle And The Damage Done (2:00)
Words (Between The Lines Of Age) (6:42)
FULL ALBUM :
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