Harvest - Neil Young

Harvest. Possibly the most classic of all classic albums.

This album turned Neil Young into an icon for hippies, civil rights activists and progressives everywhere. Young wrote protest songs without Dylan's irony. He is earnest, angry and downhome country.

The album sidles into the lounge room with two lackadaisical country stomps. It sounds as if Young and the Stray Gators sat around in a barn, sparked something up and let the tunes flow. And the reason it sounds like that is because that's exactly what they did.

Overwrought orchestral arrangements give A Man Needs a Maid a sophistication and melodrama that now sound eccentric. The song is brilliant for its unusual conclusion - after a break up, Young decides that he should give up on love and hire a maid to fulfil the domestic share of the relationship.

Heart of Gold kicks you in the guts with every listen. It remains one of the most powerful songs ever written. At its essence is a sincere and heartfelt hope for communalism, justice and equality. This is also the essence of the album.

Old Man was the other hit single from the album. It's a beautifully naive lament about growing up and getting old, breaking out into an anthemic chorus.

The album sometimes feels disjointed - but, somehow, not in a bad way. The difference in sound between the songs recorded in the studio and those recorded in Young's barn is stark.  Young dragged musician friends (like Linda Ronstandt and James Taylor) into the studio late at night to record tracks like Heart of Gold and Alabama, overlaying lead guitar later.

The loose group singing backing vocals on Alabama are perfect for its indictment of southern prejudice. The indignant young musicians gathered around a microphone and sang their disdain and hope for change.

Check out Rolling Stones' savaging of the album at the time, describing the lyrics as banal and the tunes insipid. It's worth reading not only as an historical curiosity but for its dreadful writing, so convoluted and pretentious it makes our writing seem understated.

The review is wrong in thinking Young's earnestness and hope is naive and glib.  The album just turned 40; its enduring popularity is testament to its sincerity and power.