Harvest sits at the foundation of
Neil Young's legacy, a blockbuster that turned the singer/songwriter into a superstar in his own right. He had already received a boost from being recruited into
Crosby, Stills & Nash, with
After the Gold Rush climbing into the Top Ten months after
CSN&Y's
Deja Vu went to number one, but
Harvest was something different, simultaneously slicker and more eccentric than its predecessor. Its overwhelming success -- thanks to the number one hit "Heart of Gold," a sun-bleached country-rocker that opened up the highway for the likes of
America, and becoming the biggest-selling record of 1972 -- camouflages its slightly misshapen structure. Much of the music does indeed fulfill the rural promise of its title, either by relying upon the studio polish of Nashville cats or the ragged ramble of
Young's jerry-rigged California barn. These are complementary approaches, with the raw immediacy of "Are You Ready for the Country," "Alabama," and "Words" contrasting nicely with the burnished, mellow simmer of "Out on the Weekend," "Harvest," and "Old Man." Where
Harvest gets a bit odd is on "A Man Needs a Maid" and "There's a World," where the
London Symphony Orchestra plays bombastic arrangements by
Jack Nitzsche -- arrangements so overwhelming they threaten to knock the entire album off of its axis. "The Needle and the Damage Done," a lament for the late
Crazy Horse guitarist
Danny Whitten that was recorded in concert, helps bring
Harvest back to earth, offering open-hearted empathy that loses none of its poignancy over the years. At first, "The Needle and the Damage Done" doesn't quite seem to jibe with the rest of
Harvest -- it's a solo acoustic number recorded live in concert, an aesthetic that's far away from either the slick studio craft or downhome country-rock of the rest of the record -- but its inclusion underscores how
Harvest touches upon everything
Neil Young had done to that point. Here, he's heard as a folk troubadour and a shaggy rocker, a protest singer and an old soul, a hippie who wants to get back to the country -- all personas he'd continue to explore and expand over the course of his career, and all presented here in a way that's welcoming, not alienating.
Young notoriously bristled at this accessibility, writing in the liner notes of
Decade that "'Heart of Gold' put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch," but that doesn't erase the fact that
Harvest is a remarkable accomplishment, turning
Young's idiosyncrasies into something commercial without sacrificing their substance. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine