•
Rating: Portrait of the Artist as an Adult, Part One.
Paraphrasing Joyce, this might be the most fitting definition for “Harvest Moon.” Commonly defined as the successor—exactly twenty years later—of that “Harvest” which carved Neil Young's name into music history, this album is actually a much more complex work.
The first part, indeed, of a project aimed at addressing the myths that have dotted the Canadian’s career, and whose conclusion will be found in the subsequent, painful “Sleeps with Angels.” In this sense, “Harvest Moon” represents the sunny side of this quest. Young arrives there in 1992 by turning down the volume, bringing back steel guitar, poignant harmonicas, and sensual female backing vocals after “Ragged Glory” and “Weld” had closed another circle—the search for the perfect guitar sound, cacophonous and distorted, serving as a seal for the return of the most authentic rock to the center of contemporary music during the grunge season.
The return to the sounds of “Harvest” is also certified by the reunion with musicians who collaborated on that album, like James Taylor, Nicolette Larson, or Linda Ronstadt, and it’s no coincidence at all. Another account with the past to settle. Young has always had a love/hate relationship with his most famous album, fearing to be trapped in its clichés and which he repudiated at the time of “Tonight's the Night,” even going so far as to parody its styles. Even live, rare are the reprises of the sweet country-rock classics, except of course for “The Needle and the Damage Done,” which its author has always considered among his most personal compositions.
What are the myths that Neil unravels in this “journey through the past”? The myth of “Harvest,” certainly. “Old Man” cited in a bucolic “You and Me” that sends shivers, the creation of heavenly and dreamy melodies in scream-inducing folk ballads like “From Hank to Hendrix,” “Dreamin’ Man,” and “Unknown Legend,” or in a “Such a Woman” that seems like an ideal continuation of “A Man Needs a Maid.” The legend of “Harvest” as the seal of a season where the best minds in music collaborated with each other, putting the dream of a better world into music, before the '70s, with their load of drugs and oppressive despair, broke those magical threads.
In this sense, the dedication to those days in “One of These Days” is splendid, with Neil emotionally declaring “I never tried to burn any bridges / though I know I let some good things go”, a clear message to old friends Crosby and Stills, the same ones that were once “lost in a crystal canyon,” as once recited in “Thrasher.” The pinnacle of pathos, however, is reached in the closure, with the ethereal 10 minutes of “Natural Beauty.” Heir to the epic closings of Young’s albums such as “Ambulance Blues” or “My My, Hey Hey (Into the Black),” it doesn’t pale in comparison to those masterpieces. A shiver runs down the spine when listening to a Young as serene as never before, he who wrote the darkest pages in the entire history of rock. “Natural Beauty” is his acme of maturity, a divine ballad, where female voices provide a unique magical touch.
A disenchanted and poetic journey through life’s disillusions (We watched the moment of defeat / Played back over on the video screen / Somewhere deep inside / Of my soul) or (One more night to go One more sleep / upon your burning banks A greedy man never knows What he's done) and the perennial warning to combat the rust (Don't start yourself too short, my love / Or someday you might find / your soul endangered A natural beauty should be preserved / like a monument to nature).
Poet of Ontario, traveling among us.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Unknown Legend (04:33)
She used to work in a diner
Never saw a woman look finer
I used to order just to watch her float across the floor
She grew up in a small town
Never put her roots down
Daddy always kept movin', so she did too.
Somewhere on a desert highway
She rides a Harley-Davidson
Her long blonde hair flyin' in the wind
She's been runnin' half her life
The chrome and steel she rides
Collidin' with the very air she breathes
The air she breathes.
You know it ain't easy
You got to hold on
She was an unknown legend in her time
Now she's dressin' two kids
Lookin' for a magic kiss
She gets the far-away look in her eyes.
Somewhere on a desert highway
She rides a Harley-Davidson
Her long blonde hair flyin' in the wind
She's been runnin' half her life
The chrome and steel she rides
Collidin' with the very air she breathes
The air she breathes.
02 From Hank to Hendrix (05:17)
From Hank to Hendrix
I walked these streets with you
Here I am with this old guitar
Doing what I do
I always expected
That you would see me through
I never believed in much
But I believed in you
Can we get it together
Can we still stand side by side
Can we make it last
Like a musical ride
From Marilyn to Madonna
I always loved your smile
Now we're headed for the big divorce
California-style
I found myself singing
Like a long-lost friend
The same thing that makes you live
Can kill you in the end
Can we get it together
Can we still stand side by side
Can we make it last
Like a musical ride
Sometimes it's distorted
Not clear to you
Sometimes the beauty of love
Just comes ringing through
New glass in the window
New leaf on the tree
New distance between us
You and me
Can we get it together
Can we still walk side by side
Can we make it last
Like a musical ride
10 Natural Beauty (10:23)
On the roller coaster ride
That my emotions have to take me on
I heard a newborn baby cry
Through the night.
I heard a perfect echo die
Into an anonymous wall of digital sound
Somewhere deep inside
Of my soul.
A natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature
Don't judge yourself too harsh, my love
Or someday you might find your soul endangered
A natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature.
Amazon
You had so much and now so much is gone
What are you gonna do
With your life?
What a lucky man.
To see the earth before it touched his hand
What an angry fool
To condemn.
One more night to go
One more sleep upon your burning banks
A greedy man never knows
What he's done.
A natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature
Don't start yourself too short, my love
Or someday you might find your soul endangered
A natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature.
Went to the rodeo today
I saw the cowgirls lined up on the fence
A brand new Chevrolet
A brand new pair of seamless pants.
We watched the moment of defeat
Played back over on the video screen
Somewhere deep inside
Of my soul.
A natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature.
Loading comments slowly
