We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago….
In Nashville to do the Johnny Cash TV show, Neil Young was ready to record some of the songs he’s been singing in concert for a few months. He told producer Eliot Mazer all he needed were a bass player, a drummer and a pedal steel player. Most musicians were working on a Saturday night but he found noted session dummer, Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond who reportedly was just walking down the street by the studio and pedal-steel ace Ben Keith. Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor, also appearing on the Cash show would come to the studio and make some nice contributions. The songs they recorded would become the “hits” off of “Harvest”, the LP that made Neil Young a superstar and also made him rebel from that label.
Let’s start with two songs that were recorded but did not get on the LP…Bad Fog Of Loneliness and Dance Dance Dance which had appeared on the first Crazy Horse LP the previous year.
Good stuff (Dance has that Love Is A Rose vibe to it)…
But the recordings of Heart Of Gold and Old Man were simple but beautiful…Young, Ronstadt & Taylor sitting on a couch recording the background vocals for both songs and Taylor later adding an overdub on a banjo-guitar.
The other acoustic numbers were recorded at a later session with different studio cats includng Paul Harris doing the piano part on the song Harvest.
The two songs recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra may or may not be you cup of tea. We had heard Young work with strings before…both with CSNY and Buffalo Springfield, and, as at those times, it was Jack Nitzsche who got it done while Young was a on a tour in England. A Man Needs A Maid (not really as sexist as it sounds if you listen to the lyrics) and ‘There’s a World” are Ok but I prefer the acoustic Young to the symphonic one.
The electric stuff was recorded in the barn of Young’s ranch in California. “Alabama” was really a re-make of ‘Southern Man” and is probably more important for inspiring Sweet Home Alabama from Lynyrnd Skynryd. “Are You Ready For The Country” and “Words” both have their moments with the latter delivering some biting guitar solos. Buttrey, Drummon and Keith were back and along with Nitzsche would become the Stray Gators and accompany Young on his tour.
“The Needle & The Damage Done” , Young’s heart breaking ode to his lost friends , was recorded live at a solo gig at UCLA.
David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash recorded some background vocals later in New York. And there is a funny story of the mixing of the record. They did some of the mixing at Neils home studio at the ranch and would run one channel into speakers in the barn and the other channel into other speakers in the house, The story goes that Young was sitting with Crosby & Nash, or just Nash, outside and was asked about stereo balance, he yelled back to the studio “More Barn”.
Critic were mixed, some calling it a rehash of previous ideas. Most of them have revisited their critiques and have come around to how solid this record is. It was the best-selling LP in America in 1972 and as we know, Young had always been a reluctant rock “star” and the sudden success led him to, as he called it, ‘drive into the ditch from the middle of the road”. He said he met more interesting people there
For me the title track, the heartbreaking quaver of his voice during the performance of “Needle” beautiful harmonies on Old Man & Heart of Gold, more than make up for the excesses elsewhere. Right place, right time during the burgeoning singer-songwriter era but you still have to deliver the goods…and sometimes simple is best.
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