CoronaVinyl Day 319 (Y): Harvest by Neil Young

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "Y," and my last album by a "Y" artist is a classic:  Neil Young's fourth solo studio album, 1972's Harvest.

I've already featured three other Neil Young album during this lovely pandemic, so I won't bore you with the details of his legendary music career.  Instead, we'll just dive right into Harvest, which is considered by many to be his best album.  For the album, Young assembled a group of country sessions musicians to back him, calling them The Stray Gators.  The result was a melding of country rock with the folk rock Young was known for.

The Stray Gators performed on seven of the ten tracks on the album.  Of the other three songs, two were performed with the London Symphony Orchestra ("A Man Needs a Maid" and "There's a World")," while the other ("The Needle and The Damage Done") is a live track.  In addition to The Stray Gators, Young had some help from some music legends.  All three of his former CSNY bandmates sing backing vocals on two songs -- though never all three at the same time, and the combination is different on each song:  Crosby and Nash on "Are You Ready for The Country?," Crosby and Stills on "Alabama," and Stills and Nash on "Words."  Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor sing backing vocals on the two biggest hits from the album, "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man."

Harvest is Young's only #1 album on the Billboard album chart, and it also topped the album charts in Australia, Canada, France, The Netherlands, Norway, and the UK.  It ended up as the best-selling album in the U.S. in 1972.  The album is Young's best-selling in the U.S. (triple platinum) and the UK (quadruple platinum).  It also spawned Young's two highest-charting songs on the Billboard Hot 100.  "Heart of Gold" went to #1, and "Old Man" went to #31.

Harvest has received various accolades over the years, including being ranked #72 on Rolling Stone's most recent edition of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Are You Ready for The Country?"
This one is definitely country rock, and it's a little more upbeat than some of the other songs on this side.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Alabama"
"Alabama" is kind of the sequel to "Southern Man," and I like it not only because it calls out the South, but also because it rocks a little harder than the other songs on the album.