Neil Young’s Harvest was the unexpected best selling album of 1972 in the United States; 40 years on, it’s still immensely influential, the inspiration for successive generations of singer-songwriters and alt-country musicians.
What is it about the album that has struck a chord with successive generations of music lovers? There isn’t any single reason, one senses. Winsome melodies and heartfelt lyrics (Old Man) may have something to do with it; or perhaps it’s the uncomplicated sentiment of the album – take Heart of Gold, for example – that continue to resonate today. The album was an oasis of calm in the middle of a turbulent period in America, but was anything but sentimental escapism. One only need listen to the sad lament of The Needle and the Damage Done and remember that not-long-gone Summer of Love left the grim legacy of drug overdose in its wake.
Young – a bluff and often contrary Canadian – has never been quite at ease with the album’s success. He once complained about the album “putting him in the middle of the road”; as he put it, he preferred to be in the ditch, which was “a rougher ride, but (he) saw more interesting people there. But over the years, his grumpiness about the album has softened enough to allow him to record a sequel,1992’s Harvest Moon.
Harvest is 40 on Valentines Day this year; to mark the event, Tnuma Theatre will be celebrating with a tribute concert on February 13, 2012, hosted by 88FM’s Roni Wertheimer. Performers will include: Sagi Eiland, Natalie Geva, Yaniv Horovitz, Tal Cohen Shalev, Ronen Kohavi, Tali Magory, Alon Eder, Amos Zimmerman, musical producer of the evening, Shirley Kones, Dan Toren, Sun Tailor, and Roy Aji – drums, Amitai Ladin – bass, Yuval Yaakov – piano, Omri Barel – lap steelguitar.
Neil Young – Harvest Tribute, Monday, February 13th at 22:00, Tmuna Theatre, 8 Soncino Street, Tel Aviv. Tickets: 03- 5611211.
