Last Updated on 25 February 2026 by Massimo M.
It was 1972 when Neil Young, who is now a beloved singer-songwriter on the world music scene, released Harvest, his fourth studio album.
Harvest has an unique story that is worth telling.
At the 1970 end, after publication of After the gold rush and having enjoyed all the success resulting from this album, Neil Young found himself going through a long period of ill health. In fact, in this period the singer-songwriter had a back problem which forced him, among other things, to wear a brace.
Despite this, or perhaps because of it but we will never know, Young decided to perform on a solo acoustic tour which exclusively involved small venues. The choice to perform without any backing band was also due to his recent departure from Crazy Horse, the group that had always accompanied him on tour until then, mainly caused by guitarist Danny Whitten’s drug problems.
During this solo tour, which ended in February 1971, Young played the acoustic guitar or piano exclusively sitting down and during these performances he tested some completely unreleased songs in front of the audience which would later be included in Harvest such as Old Man, The Neddle and the Damage Done, A Man Needs a Maid, and Heart of Gold.
Once the tour is over and after received favorable feedback regarding the new songs, the Canadian singer-songwriter goes to Nashville to take part in the Johnny Cash show. On this occasion he met Elliot Mazer, a well-known record producer, who had recently opened Quadrafonic Sound Studios in Nashville. The producer asked Neil Young to record the new album in his studios and Young, impressed by some recordings made in those studios, decided to accept. Linda Ronstandt and James Taylor also participated in the same Johnny Cash show and were invited by Young to participate in the recording of the new album.
For the recording of the album Neil Young asked for a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer and these were identified in Kenny Buttrey , Tim Drummond, both former collaborators of Bob Dylan, and Ben Keith. The band thus formed was called The Stray Gators.
Shortly after entering the studio the basic instrumental tracks for the songs Heart of Gold, Old Man, Harvest, and Dance Dance Dance, which will be excluded from the album, were ready.
Backing vocals were done by Linda Ronstandt and James Taylor. Taylor also played the 6-string banjo in Old Man.
The songs, which also included an electric part, were all recorded in an old barn converted into a recording studio on Young’s ranch in California. The space within which the recordings took place is the one reproduced in the image on the back cover of Harvest. The recording took place with the band playing as if live without the use of headphones or other accessories.
The choice to record live caused a certain lack of sound clarity but this, overall, pleased both Young and Mazer who decided to use these tracks for the album.
This is how bassist Tim Drummond, during an interview, recounted the experience: “ We finished the album in this old barn covered in bird shit, with holes in the ceiling beams and with a mobile studio in a truck parked in the back. “
With Harvest Neil Young reaches his greatest sales success by creating an authentic pearl. In 1972, a year, as we have already seen, very fertile from a musical point of view, the country and typically “on the road” atmospheres, the sweetness of the acoustic ballads, the energy of the electric pieces made Harvest prevail in the competition against authentic master pieces as Thick As A Brick by Jethro Tull and Machine Head by Deep Purple.
In the end this album was certified 4 times platinum in the USA, 3 times in the UK and became gold in many other European countries.
The tracklist of Harvest includes almost all songs that have become classics from Young’s repertoire. Among these stand out Heart of gold, which was also released as a single, reaching first position in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, The Needle and 
the Damage Done, in which the singer-songwriter denounces the damage caused by the heroin addiction experienced by the guitarist of Crazy Horses, and Alabama. In this last song Neil Young lashes out against the state of Alabama, denouncing the racism that was still strongly rooted there at that time. This song evidently hit the mark because Lynyrd Skynyrd felt compelled to write, in response to the song written by Young, their most successful song, Sweet Home Alabama. This was then followed by a bit of skirmishes but in the end there was a reconciliation between Neil Young and the band from Alabama. Indeed, Young himself subsequently performed the cover of the famous Lynyrd Skynyrd song several times.
Harvest has been remastered several times and always marketed with excellent results. The latest version on 180g vinyl. is from December 2009 and is part of a series of reissues that covered the first four solo albums produced by Neil Young.
Harvest Track list
Side A
Out On The Weekend
Harvest
A Man Needs A Maid
Heart Of Gold
Are You Ready For The Country
Side B
Old Man
There’s A World
Alabama
The Needle And The Damage Done
Words (Between The Lines Of Age)
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