Neil Young – Harvest – Yesteryear Vinyl
Harvest is the fourth studio album by Canadian/American musician Neil Young being released in February 1972 on Reprise Records. It featured the London Symphony Orchestra on two tracks and vocals by noted guests; David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, and James Taylor. It made number 1 in both the Billboard 200 and UK Album charts, and spawned two hit singles, “Old Man”, which peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Heart of Gold”, which reached No. 1. It was the best-selling album of 1972 in the United States going 4x platinum and 3x platinum in the UK.
The album was recorded January-September 1971 at Quadrafonic Sound Studios, Nashville, Barking Town Hall, London, Royce Hall, UCLA and Broken Arrow Studio #2, Woodside, CA.
This 108gram folk rock album is the original 1972 release by Reprise Records K54005.
Tracks:
Side 1:
- Out On The Weekend
- Harvest
- A Man Needs A Maid
- Heart Of Gold
- Are You Ready For The Country
Side 2:
- Old Man
- There’s A World
- Alabama
- The Needle And The Damage Done
- Words (Between The Lines Of Age)
With the current release of Homegrown: Never Known To Fail, an all analog album that was recorded between 1974/75 but put on the back burner, and is considered by Neil Young to be the “unheard bridge” between Harvest and Comes A Time. I felt a quick look back at Harvest would be in order.
Another amazingly lightweight (108gram) yet flat and concentric mass produced pressing from my wives collection. After a quick clean with my Nitty Gritty the album looked pristine and shinny, with not a mark on it. Unfortunately while their were virtually no pops or clicks the vinyl surface noise was quite high rating a 4 and at times a 4- as it became intrusive due to low cut levels like on S1T3.
While the mix was clean and simple with low levels of reverb used to fill out the vocals and instruments like the slide guitar, it wasn’t very impactful having a ‘muffled’ sound. It wasn’t that the sound lacked dynamics it just sounded dull and hollow. Neil’s vocals were clean and natural varying from being front dead center to being a little recessed. They never showed any signs of sibilance but nor did he ever appear in my room! All other vocals were clean and rather recessed with the backing vocals on S2T1 really leaping to the front of the mix.
Being a folk album, the kit never really took center stage or showed too much life. The snare was well damped with a short ring, while the hi-hat and cymbals were rarely present being rather lifeless and having little sparkle and detail. Toms had a short tight decay, only really appearing in a couple of tracks. The kick drum on side 1 providing a solid deep thump, seemingly heavily damped with little beater noise. Side 2 was very different in that it had a much more solid smack, showing occasional beater noise. In both cases its integration with the well detailed and prominent bass line was solid.
All other instruments, the slide guitar, guitar, banjo, piano and harmonica sounded clean, open and natural, all providing acceptable dynamics. Each getting a solo/break opportunity, with the harmonica driving several tracks and some nice extended reverb from the slide guitar. The orchestral backing on S1T3 and S2T2 providing a good stereo image but with minimal depth of field. The strings, harp, tubular bells, kettle drums and flute all providing natural sounding performances with acceptable detail.
The recording tended to sound like a group of musicians that got together for a good time to make music but with little attention to the technical details. Stereo imaging rated a 4, depth of image a 4- and dynamics a 4-. The sound had a ‘hollow’ or muffled quality, especially side 1, and together with the surface noise and lack of top end detail and sparkle wasn’t too inspiring technically, even though musically it was enjoyable.
Great music and lyrics? Clearly yes, but an audiophile recording? Sorry that’s a no.
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