The fall of 1970 was a period of broken pieces for Neil Young. He released his third album, After the Gold Rush, divorced his wife, and purchased Broken Arrow Ranch. He injured his back while renovating his new home, limiting his guitar playing to acoustic music.
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Hospital visits consumed Young in the years between After the Gold Rush and Harvest. With one side of his body weakened, he performed shows while seated, too frail to hold up a guitar. His defining album, Harvest, was born from pain.
He began a new relationship with actress Carrie Snodgress, who starred in Diary of a Mad Housewife in 1970. With new love and a new home, Young was inspired to write.
Good Luck and a Heart of Gold
Young’s new ranch in Northern California was a place to heal, and it inspired one of his signature songs. An old couple lived on the ranch and cared for the property. The older gentleman, Louis Avila, took Young for a ride around the property in his Jeep and asked, “How does a young man like yourself have enough money to buy a place like this?” Young answered that he was “Lucky, I guess.”
Old man, look at my life
24 and there’s so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of two
Success is measured subjectively by career, fame, joy, health, or family. Young directs the following stanza to his audience. Life on the road blurs from one city into the next, and the high from a concert is fleeting—it isn’t a replacement for true happiness. The one constant is: time evaporates.
Lullabies, look in your eyes
Run around the same old town
Doesn’t mean that much to me
To mean that much to you
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The Man in Black
The album sessions for Harvest began in Nashville, where Young had arrived in 1971 to perform on Johnny Cash’s TV show. He met producer Elliot Mazer, who had opened a studio in a converted house called Quadrafonic Sound. He worked in the studio with drummer Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond, and pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith. This collection of country musicians was named The Stray Gators and helped bring Young’s sound to a place that was more accessible.
Buttrey was instructed by Young not to play his hi-hat, and he begrudgingly performed his drum part by sitting on his right hand. James Taylor joined the sessions on banjo and backing vocals. Linda Ronstadt also sings backing vocals on the track—a reminder of the importance of having talented friends.
Young’s Commercial High Defined by Tragedy
Rehearsals began for the upcoming Harvest tour, and Young invited Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten to join The Stray Gators as his backing band. Whitten was struggling with a heroin addiction and couldn’t keep up with the rest of the band. Young fired him and paid for his plane ticket to return to Los Angeles. That night, Whitten died from a drug overdose. Young had written “The Needle and the Damage Done” for Harvest about musicians like Whitten, whose lives were ruined by heroin.
The success of Harvest surprised Young, whose instinct was always to pull away from the mainstream. Yet, he had a No. 1 album and two huge hit songs, “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man.” Young told Billboard he became bored with the “middle of the road” and instead headed for the ditch, where he found more interesting people.
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Young Beck
Decades later, Beck was recovering from a severe back injury of his own when he made one of his defining albums, Morning Phase. This album, like Harvest, was an acoustic collection born from Beck’s physical limitations while recovering from a spine injury.
Beck covered “Old Man” in 2022 for Sunday Night Football on NBC. The old man in this version referred to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 45-year-old quarterback, Tom Brady, who was facing off against the future of the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes. Brady and Mahomes had each won their first Super Bowl at age 24, relevant to Young’s lyric, 24, and there’s so much more.
Young has stubbornly refused to allow his songs to appear in ads, but he did sell a portion of his catalog to Hipgnosis in 2021. The catalog sale opened the door for Beck to record a cover of “Old Man” for the NFL on NBC. Young softly protested by posting a clip from the video to his anti-sellout song “This Note’s for You” on Instagram. His catalog sold for a reported $150 million.
Though Young doesn’t allow his catalog on Spotify, Beck’s version does appear on the streaming platform. The fraction of a penny Spotify pays per stream will help Hipgnosis recoup its $150 million investment.
The Godfather of Grunge made his defining work with an acoustic guitar. One of his descendants, Kurt Cobain, recorded his final work with an acoustic guitar, but tragically, he died at age 27. Young’s classic endures because although aging is a timeless theme, not everyone is guaranteed the time.
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