By 1993, Neil Young had written a sequel to his 1972 album Harvest. Some similarities between both albums were there. Guest musicians who appeared on Harvest, resurfaced on Harvest Moon, including James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. Moving from the conversation of a young man talking to his elder on Harvest classic “Old Man,” Young sang about his hound dog named Elvis, who spent several years on the road with him on the similarly titled Harvest Moon track, “Old King.”
Like Harvest, which went to No. 1 in the U.S., Harvest Moon was another success for Young. It reached No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and went Gold and Platinum in 1993, and multi-platinum by 1997.
Videos by American Songwriter
The Moon and the Meaning
On the title track, featuring Ronstadt, Young returns to his recurring motif of the moon or the moonlight, which has appeared in more than two dozen of his songs, including “After the Goldrush”—I was lyin’ in a burned out basement with the full moon in my eyes—along with “Cinnamon Girl,” “Sweet Joni,” “Berlin,” “Don’t Let It Bring You Down,” among many others.
“I respect people who are dedicated to organized religion, and I respect their way of life, but it’s not mine,” said Young of his spiritual connection to nature, and the moon. “My faith has always been there, it’s just not organized, there’s no doctrine. There’s no book I follow.”
He added, “To me, the forest is my church. If I need to think I’ll go for a walk in the trees, or I’ll go for a walk on the prairie, or I’ll go for a walk on the beach. Wherever the environment is most extreme is where I will go. If there’s a moon, I’ll try to get out and walk under the moon.”
[RELATED: Remember When: Neil Young Was Sued for Not Being Commercial Enough]
Much like its predecessor “Harvest,” “Harvest Moon” circles back to love but it’s not as perilous as the first, more hesitant nature.
Where Young sang about someone who didn’t know how to “harvest” love, in his 1972 song “Harvest Moon” has rest assured. It follows a more celebratory night shared between two lovers dancing—under the full moon, of course.
Come a little bit closer
Hear what I have to say
Just like children sleepin’
We could dream this night away
But there’s a full moon risin’
Let’s go dancin’ in the light
We know where the music’s playin’
Let’s go out and feel the night
Because I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon
Pegi
It is also presumed that Young may have written “Harvest Moon” about his second wife, Pegi, whom he was married to from 1978 to 2014. “Harvest Moon” could have been a recollection of their earlier, more carefree days.
A Sequel?
Making a sequel to Harvest was never intentional for Young. “People had been asking me to do it for twenty years, and I never could figure out what it was in the first place,” said Young of Harvest Moon in 1993.
Young continued, “It just happened again, whatever it was that happened back then. But only because the songs made me do it.”
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images
