How Neil Young Introduced His Classic 1972 Album Harvest to Graham Nash

[M. Montaigne]

Great Story: How Neil Young Introduced His Classic 1972 Album Harvest to Graham Nash

"The man is totally committed to the muse of music. And he’ll do anything for good music. And sometimes it’s very strange. I was at Neil’s ranch one day just south of San Francisco, and he has a beautiful lake with red-wing blackbirds. And he asked me if I wanted to hear his new album, “Harvest.” And I said sure, let’s go into the studio and listen.

Oh, no. That’s not what Neil had in mind. He said get into the rowboat.

I said get into the rowboat? He said, yeah, we’re going to go out into the middle of the lake. Now, I think he’s got a little cassette player with him or a little, you know, early digital format player. So I’m thinking I’m going to wear headphones and listen in the relative peace in the middle of Neil’s lake.

Oh, no. He has his entire house as the left speaker and his entire barn as the right speaker. And I heard “Harvest” coming out of these two incredibly large loud speakers louder than hell. It was unbelievable. Elliot Mazer, who produced Neil, produced “Harvest,” came down to the shore of the lake and he shouted out to Neil: How was that, Neil?

And I swear to god, Neil Young shouted back: More barn!"

[Hayseed Brown]

Love Neil Young. He does his own thing and is principled, which is all you can ask of a man, whether you agree with him or not.

And he has some unbelievable music. I listened to his interview on Howard Stern recently. It's hilarious when Neil talks about David Crosby.

[gnuyork]

I did read that somewhere a while back too. Pretty cool.

[RayMac]

Prior to heading to Nashville to record "Harvest", Neil performed a classic acoustic concert at Massey Hall in Toronto. The album is out there and well worth a listen.
Neil did some of his Buffalo Springfield standards plus test drove a fair bit of the "Harvest" material.

[CanadianStraps]

Neil Young is a bit of a bone of contention, but I love him. Saw him do a live solo act at the Horseshoe in my 20s, one of those shows you just don't forget.

Similar experience with Burton Cummings as well, another amazing artist. Saw him with nothing more than his piano in a somewhat impromptu situation, but what a great show it ended up being.

[Nokie]

I saw him in RedRocks Amphitheatre near Denver once. Great show, great musician.

[Strange]

Only ever seen him twice, once at the Bill Graham memorial in Golden Gate Park and once at a Bridge Concert back in the early 90s. Not really a fan of his music but I have a lot of respect for his principles and his adherence to them.

IIRC he's a survivor of the polio epidemic that swept Canada during his youth. That's gotta count for something.

[RayMac]

Of course any Canadian boy who grew up 50+ years ago knew of Scott Young the writer long before we ever heard of Neil. This novel "Scrubs on Skates" was one of three that were staple reads of my boyhood.

[hayday]

I saw him play (with Crazy Horse) at a music festival a coupla years ago. Heard Black Keys, Decembrists, Florence + the Machine, Band of Skulls, Mumford & Sons. He was amazing. He had the stage presence of "ok, now that you've seen the young folks play, I'll show you how it's supposed to be done." The really cool thing is that he managed to pull off that attitude without sounding like a pretentious prick. Pretty neat trick for a self-declared crank.

Long story short: Neil Young is a god.

-hayday

[RayMac]

Another favorite of mine is Neil's session with Pearl Jam in 1995. He hung in there pretty well with the younger guys.