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Rating: It is certainly among my favorite records, this masterpiece by the great Canadian. There is something magical and dreamy in the atmospheres of Out On The Weekend, Harvest, Heart Of Gold, something that takes you to the middle of a peaceful country house or perhaps makes you remember past loves with that extra touch of harmonica that makes you travel or just dream.
Harvest consists of ten songs, not all of them the same. We have country, piano atmospheres, and an orchestra conducted by Jack Nietzsche in A Man Needs A Maid and There's A World, the amusement of Are You Ready For The Country?, hence a musically varied record but also in its themes. It talks about bucolic love but also about "heavy" themes like the drugs that were slowly taking away dear friend Danny Whitten, who would truly leave soon in The Needle And The Damage Done, or like Alabama which raises the political and racial issue of past injustices perpetrated by the Southerners. The record closes with the long and extremely intense Words, embellished by particular tempo changes and a truly touching solo by the Stray Gators. Certainly, the "flaws" are not lacking: some of Nietzsche's orchestrations are too pompous, especially in There's A World, in my opinion the weakest (but pompous) song on the record.
In essence, even though it is very intricate and a bit inconsistent, it's still among my favorites, perhaps for that tone of voice so fragile and close to breaking of the great Neil.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Out on the Weekend (04:35)
Think I'll pack it in and buy a pick-up
Take it down to L.A.
Find a place to call my own and try to fix up.
Start a brand new day.
The woman I'm thinking of, she loved me all up
But I'm so down today
She's so fine, she's in my mind.
I hear her callin'.
See the lonely boy, out on the weekend
Trying to make it pay.
Can't relate to joy, he tries to speak and
Can't begin to say.
She got pictures on the wall, they make me look up
From her big brass bed.
Now I'm running down the road trying to stay up
Somewhere in her head.
The woman I'm thinking of, she loved me all up
But I'm so down today
She's so fine she's in my mind.
I hear her callin'.
See the lonely boy, out on the weekend
Trying to make it pay.
Can't relate to joy, he tries to speak and
Can't begin to say.
02 Harvest (03:11)
Did I see you down in a young girl's town With your mother in so much pain?
I was almost there at the top of the stairs With her screamin' in the rain.
Did she wake you up to tell you that It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup With the promise of a man.
Did I see you walking with the boys Though it was not hand in hand?
And was some black face in a lonely place When you could understand?
Did she wake you up to tell you that It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup With the promise of a man.
Will I see you give more than I can take?
Will I only harvest some?
As the days fly past will we lose our grasp
Or fuse it in the sun?
Did she wake you up to tell you that It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup With the promise of a man.
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup With the promise of a man.
04 Heart of Gold (03:07)
I want to live
I want to give
I've been a miner for a heart of gold
It's these expressions I never give
That keep me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
I've been to Hollywood,
I've been to Redwood
I've crossed the ocean for a heart of gold
I've been in my mind
It's such a fine line
That keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keep me searching for a heart of gold
Keep me searching and I'm growing old
Keep me searching for a heart of gold
I've been a miner for a heart of gold.
05 Are You Ready for the Country? (03:23)
Slipping and sliding
and playing domino
Lefting and then Righting,
it's not a crime you know.
You gotta tell your story boy,
before it's time to go.
Are you ready for the country
because it's time to go?
Are you ready for the country
because it's time to go?
I was talkin' to the preacher,
said God was on my side
Then I ran into the hangman,
he said it's time to die
You gotta tell your story boy,
you know the reason why.
Are you ready for the country
because it's time to go?
Are you ready for the country
because it's time to go?
06 Old Man (03:24)
Old man look at my life,
I'm a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
I'm a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
Twenty four and there's so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of two.
Love lost, such a cost,
Give me things that don't get lost.
Like a coin that won't get tossed
Rolling home to you.
Old man take a look at my life I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes and you can tell that's true.
Lullabies, look in your eyes,
Run around the same old town.
Doesn't mean that much to me
To mean that much to you.
I've been first and last
Look at how the time goes past.
But I'm all alone at last.
Rolling home to you.
Old man take a look at my life I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes and you can tell that's true.
Old man look at my life,
I'm a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
I'm a lot like you were.
08 Alabama (04:02)
Oh Alabama
The devil fools with the best laid plan.
Swing low Alabama
You got spare change
You got to feel strange
And now the moment is all that it meant.
Alabama, you got the weight on your shoulders
That's breaking your back.
Your Cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch
And a wheel on the track
Oh Alabama
Banjos playing through the broken glass
Windows down in Alabama.
See the old folks tied in white ropes
Hear the banjo.
Don't it take you down home?
Alabama, you got the weight on your shoulders
That's breaking your back.
Your Cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch
And a wheel on the track
Oh Alabama.
Can I see you and shake your hand.
Make friends down in Alabama.
I'm from a new land
I come to you and see all this ruin
What are you doing Alabama?
You got the rest of the union to help you along
What's going wrong?
09 The Needle and the Damage Done (02:03)
I caught you knockin' at my cellar door
I love you, baby, can I have some more
Ooh, ooh, the damage done.
I hit the city and I lost my band
I watched the needle take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done.
I sing the song because I love the man
I know that some of you don't understand
Milk-blood to keep from running out.
I've seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie's like a settin' sun.
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Other reviews
By R2061478
He molests it. He squeezes it, forcing it to purge every residue of its soul.
Restless but not confused, of someone who doesn’t know where he will end up but knows which direction to go.
By joe strummer
"Harvest is a constant yearning for perfection, a search for ecstasy, which is often captured with depth by Mr. Young's magical singing."
"Heart of Gold is simply beautiful, a tableau of the sun setting behind the hill, while a gentle wind tousles our hair."
By Deneil
An indispensable album that if it had been released in its time, today we would surely find it alongside Harvest and After The Gold Rush among our classics.
For me every time I get to the end it feels like waking up. It’s sad to let go of the dream.
By amoBORGES
"Harvest IS the music, just as much as other celestial tales of its kind."
"Each note corresponds to a color, an irrecoverable memory, a heartbeat of a faraway submerged world and countless traversed miles."
