A Wish For Harvest Moon

As we sift through our inbox here at Thrasher's Wheat, it sometimes is hard to keep up with all of our correspondence.

But then every once in awhile we come across a letter that just stops us in our tracks and forces us to think about what we're doing here at TW.

Here's one such letter from Steve in Brisbane, Australia:

Hi,

First of all thanks for reading this. I don’t know if my efforts will be in vain but I have to give it a try.

Several months ago, my girlfriend’s father, Peter, was given only a few months to live, on the day I bought my tickets to Neil Young’s concert in Brisbane, Australia on the 21st January 2009. My girlfriend and I had hoped that he would be able to come to the concert with us.

In early September I spoke with him about our appreciation for Neil Young’s music. I told him how I love Rust Never Sleeps, he said how much he loved Harvest etc etc He was an enormous music fan. One of his favourite things was music trivia. Only a couple of weeks later, his health had descended quite rapidly, due to cancer. The night before he died, as he lay gravely ill, my girlfriend and I put Harvest on the CD player in the hospital room and listened to the album, start to finish. We sang along to the music and shared a special moment.

As we left the hospital that night, I turned the car on and the next song to come on the stereo, randomly, was Harvest Moon. My girlfriend mentioned how much her father loved that song, especially for the fact that Linda Ronstadt sang the backing vocals (another favourite). We resolved to take a CD into the hospital the following day and play that album for him also.

The next morning, we arrived quite early, my girlfriend had a strange feeling about what was going to happen that day. After about half an hour, we decided to put the CD on. We both sat there thinking the same thing, although we didn’t know it at the time. We were desperately hoping that my girlfriend’s mother would arrive in time to hear the fourth track on that album, Harvest Moon. We kinda didn’t want to pause it or anything, we sorta had a feeling it might work out.

Anyway, about 30 seconds into Harvest Moon, she walked in with her other daughter, the whole family was there. We both felt pretty happy about that. My girlfriend’s aunt, who was there also but didn’t know about the song, said she could feel something special happening.

A couple of hour later, he died. Harvest Moon was the last album he ever heard.

Later in the week, after the funeral, at which, Harvest Moon was played. My girlfriend was ‘Googling’ the meaning of ‘Harvest Moon.’ She was unaware that it referred to the full moon in September and the equinox that happens twice a year, where the moon’s axis crosses the equator and that it refers to the official start of Spring in the Southern Hemisphere etc. This year, the Harvest Moon, or vernal equinox occurred at 1144am on the 22nd September.

Her father took his last breath at 1130am on the 22nd September 2008.

Basically, I would love to get this message to Neil Young and his band. It would mean a lot to my girlfriend, Danielle and her sister, Shannon, who I am going to the concert with, to hear that song performed live. I realise Neil must get a million song requests for every concert but I can only try can’t I?

Thanks for reading this. Feel free to cut and paste this and forward it on to any Neil Young forum or fan site. Hopefully, Neil may end up seeing it and even better, he might end up playing the song in Brisbane on the 21st of January. If you do, Neil, I’d be eternally grateful.

Thank you.

Steve

Steve and Danielle, so sorry about your loss. Hopefully, your wish comes true later this month in Brisbane.

Thanks for sharing and enjoy the show.

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UPDATE: 1/21 - Learn what happened last night at Brisbane, Australia Neil Young Concert, 1/21/09.