Reviews of Neil Young AlbumsIn 2004 Rustie, Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova posted a series of articles on his experience listening to all of Neil Young's albums in chronological order. Here is one in the series. For a complete listing, see Albums in Order reviews.
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:51:36 -0800 (PST) Harvest Moon is an interesting one. Along with lots of
other Neil Young fans, I was introduced to this album in
phases. For me, the first time I heard one of the songs on
this record (well, really a small snippet) was back in the
mid 70's when I found that a friend had a vinyl bootleg of
I think the Dorothy Chandler Pavilian show from '71 [I
copied it onto cassette for myself] in which Neil sings,
before I Am A Child, "I was thinking 'bout you and me,
making love beneath a tree, and I wonder could it be." So,
I was pretty surprised to hear this on this 1992 record
for sure, now as a full song.
In early 1992, I taped Farm Aid 5 on the television in
which Neil and a re-formed Stray Gators (with Nils Lofgren
and Nicolette Larson) performed three new songs and a
couple of old ones. The new ones were Harvest Moon,
Unknown Legend, and Old King. Most of Unknown Legend was
cut by commercials but I must say I was not totally
enthralled by the other two...
On 6-27-92 (I went with my friend then and current friend
and also rust-crew offical Deb the Re-Writer Of Rules plus
some other folks) to see Neil's solo show near Pittsburgh,
PA. I had a chance to hear lots of good songs performed
solo including some HM tunes.
Finally, the album came out in the fall of '92. Pretty
good record, not bad. The style of most of the album and
the inclusion of many singers and musicians and the
similar title had many dubbing it (maybe even Neil
himself) as a sort of sequel to Harvest. It had it's own
thing to say and it's own way of saying it though.
Standout tracks for me are Unknown Legend, One Of These
Days, Dreamin' Man, and Natural Beauty. Regarding NB, I
used to have a cat that absolutely flipped out when she
heard the animal sound-effects at the end. One Of These
Days is kind of sad, very autobiographical. I feel when
I'm listening to the song that Neil should stop singing
and start writing! The mention of that old country fiddler
mentioned in the tune must be Rufus. Other nice things
about the album are vocals by Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette
Larson who are together here with Neil I think for the
first time since ASnB.
I don't play this one a whole lot, but it is a good
record. I very much enjoyed listening to Harvest Moon
today.
Mike - Expecting To Fly
From: Mike Cordova
To: rust@rustlist.org
Subject: Albums in order: Harvest Moon
For more of Expecting To Fly's reviews, see the Albums in Order series.
Neil Young - Thrasher's Wheat Archives