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Speaker 1: Too Much Information is a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to Too Much Information, the show

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Speaker 1: that brings you the secret history and little known facts

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Speaker 1: behind your favorite music, movies, TV shows, and more. And

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Speaker 1: we're two guys with too much free time on our hands.

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Speaker 1: My name is Jordan run Tug and I'm Alex Hegel.

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Speaker 1: And today we're gonna take a look at Neil Young's Harvest,

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Speaker 1: which turned fifty years old in February. Now, it's a

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Speaker 1: gorgeous record and probably the one that people think of

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Speaker 1: most when they think of Neil Young, which is actually

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Speaker 1: weird because it's quite possibly the least representative Neil Young

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Speaker 1: record every Yeah, I think before Neil Young started getting

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Speaker 1: like glommed onto by the like Hitchfork Industrial Complex as

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Speaker 1: the elder you know, noisy rock hipster guy, I think

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Speaker 1: I don't know, like when you were growing up, did

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Speaker 1: you have the sense of like the godfather of grunge,

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Speaker 1: because I pretty much only got like the Glowing autumnal

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Speaker 1: Valadi Neil stuff Like. I don't even think I heard

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Speaker 1: Crazy Horse until I was well into like high school.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I definitely got him in the like Laurel Canyon,

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Speaker 1: folky hippie realm through Heart of Gold and Old Man

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Speaker 1: and everything. I mean, I almost get the impression that

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Speaker 1: he put this record out purely to screw with the

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Speaker 1: mainstream record buying public for the next fifty years. Like

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Speaker 1: every time he would put an album out, people didn't

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Speaker 1: really know him, you know, holistically, would buy and they go, oh,

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Speaker 1: is there gonna be another Herd of Gold on this?

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Speaker 1: And then it's like, oh, it's a it's a techno record.

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Speaker 1: That's weird. We gotta do trans at some point, we

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Speaker 1: absolutely gotta do trans Oh my god, or everybody's rocking,

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Speaker 1: Oh god. I love it when it almost seems like

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Speaker 1: he's trying to intentionally wrong foot the people who bought

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Speaker 1: and loved Harvest, and that was like the only thing

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Speaker 1: that they loved from him. But despite its comparatively placid sound,

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Speaker 1: Harvest was recorded during a tumultuous time in New Young's life,

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Speaker 1: between tours, surgeries, and the blossoming of a new romance.

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Speaker 1: So Jordan's why don't you talk us take us back

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Speaker 1: to a golden period in American history that I like

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Speaker 1: to think of, and I hope all of you think

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Speaker 1: of as the ass end of C. S. N. Y.

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Speaker 1: I think we need to do the Wayne's World like

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Speaker 1: time travel sound offending the spinning newspaper somehow comes flying

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Speaker 1: at people's phone that are listening to this. But I

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Speaker 1: think that was the Batman. Yeah, that it was definitely

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Speaker 1: the Batmobile sound. Anyway, prepare yourself because we're about to

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Speaker 1: dive in. You're gonna find out how Neil Young's busted

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Speaker 1: back impacted the sound of the record, which seventies icons

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Speaker 1: had secret singing cameos, and how Neil crushed his father's

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Speaker 1: spirit by divulging the true meaning of the track Old Man.

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Speaker 1: We'll also talk about how some of the songs created

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Speaker 1: a bit of tension with Bob Dylan, Leonard skinnerd and

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Speaker 1: the London Symphony Orchestra. And of course we'll explore the

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Speaker 1: true love story at the heart of this record, Neil

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Speaker 1: Young and his barn. So here we go. This is

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Speaker 1: everything you didn't know about Harvest. So not to use

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Speaker 1: this hoary old critical cliche, but Neil Young was in

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Speaker 1: a weird place at the top of the nineteen seventies.

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Speaker 1: One might even say a crossroads, perhaps a literal one,

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Speaker 1: perhaps a metaphorical one, perhaps a musical one. Certainly the

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Speaker 1: roads were crossing for Neil. I'll stop now. Um So,

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Speaker 1: Neil was in Buffalo Springfield throughout the late sixties, and

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Speaker 1: he was also tacked onto Crosby Stills A Nash, and

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Speaker 1: then he recorded one of the all time debut record

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Speaker 1: under his own name, Flops to My Mind up under

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Speaker 1: lou Reid's first solo debut with the nineteen sixty eight

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Speaker 1: self titled that even for new young completists, they seemed

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Speaker 1: to disregard this record. So I don't know you you differ.

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Speaker 1: I love this record. I mean I love that kind

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Speaker 1: of like art pop, you know. I mean for me,

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Speaker 1: all those Jack nietzsch arrangements. So like if Phil Specter

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Speaker 1: produced the Buffalo Speingfield record, I mean you could draw

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Speaker 1: a line between the amazing Buffalo Springfield track Expecting to

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Speaker 1: Fly in this record. I'm Expecting the Flies one of

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Speaker 1: my favorite Buffalo Springfield songs. And maybe it's because I

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Speaker 1: came to kneel through all the kind acoustic e folky

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Speaker 1: stuff and then hearing it with this like huge lush

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Speaker 1: the orchestrated backing, instrumental arrangements and everything, it just feels

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Speaker 1: so incongruous to me. That I kind of like it

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Speaker 1: for almost like perverse reasons. But I love that record,

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Speaker 1: but I know that's a, you know, extremely in a

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Speaker 1: minority opinion. Yeah, I don't think Neil even shares that

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Speaker 1: opinion because he follows up that self title by going

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Speaker 1: the complete opposite direction. He picks up Crazy Horse, one

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Speaker 1: of the all time sophisticated primitive groups. I love Crazy Horse,

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Speaker 1: but you know, if you want to talk about a

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Speaker 1: band of people who are very good at doing very

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Speaker 1: simple things, it's like them. It's like them in the

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Speaker 1: Stooges anyway, one of the best backhanded compliments I've ever heard.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's great, They're like, it's just there a

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Speaker 1: garage rock band who happened to sing like do wo harmonies. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: we should also talk about you know, everybody knows this

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Speaker 1: is nowhere because that record is great, but it is

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Speaker 1: a total left turn from the self title one. And

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Speaker 1: then the next year he sort of expands on that

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Speaker 1: sound with After the gold Rush, which has only Love

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Speaker 1: Can Break Your Heart, which is his sort of first

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Speaker 1: big hit under his big name, and elements of this

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Speaker 1: record I do think kind of prefigure Harvest. So I

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Speaker 1: don't know how you feel about that. I kind of

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Speaker 1: see what you're saying about that. I feel like there's

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Speaker 1: more of a sentimental heart in it than in everybody

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Speaker 1: knows this is nowhere? Is it true that only love

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Speaker 1: can break your heart? Is about when Joni Mitchell broke

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Speaker 1: up with Graham Nash. That's what I heard that was about,

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Speaker 1: which seems like, again like kind of an uncharacteristically sentimental

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Speaker 1: thing for Neil to do. I mean, Neil is you

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Speaker 1: want to talk about a study in contrast, You know,

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Speaker 1: Neil Young is one of the most sentimental, nakedly emotional

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Speaker 1: guys who can also be just a real bag of dicks,

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Speaker 1: just can be a real jerk to people. Yeah, according

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Speaker 1: to Shaky, that Jimmy McDonough book, which is like canonical,

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Speaker 1: like the error text of Neil Young that's been handed

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Speaker 1: down from Laurel Canyon to two new Young scholars. That's

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Speaker 1: what he says. It's shaky, So I believe McDonough anyway. Also,

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy and nineteen seventy one, you have CSN Wise,

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Speaker 1: A JA Vou and four Way Street, A lot of

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Speaker 1: which is a live live album called from performances that

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Speaker 1: took place in the middle of nineteen seventy, so those

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Speaker 1: come out in nineteen seventy and nineteen seventy one. But

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Speaker 1: it's actually Neil's inability to continue playing live in the

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Speaker 1: way that in the manner to which he had become accustomed,

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Speaker 1: that sort of provides the impetus for harvest. So basically,

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Speaker 1: by late nineteen seventy, as hopefully you can glean from

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Speaker 1: even this wildly digressive summary of his past few years,

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Speaker 1: Neil is very fried, and not just mentally. He had

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Speaker 1: bought this big ranch up near to San Francisco in

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Speaker 1: August nineteen seventy and he is sort of bumbling around

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Speaker 1: the ranch, tries to pick up a big old piece

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Speaker 1: of heavy wood, and in the in the spirit of thousands,

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Speaker 1: if not millions, of wealthy white people who tried to

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Speaker 1: do working class since then, he just messed up his back.

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Speaker 1: And um, you know, Neil also had polio when he

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Speaker 1: was a kid, just like Joni Mitchell. Um his childhood

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Speaker 1: friends or his teenage childhood Frannish say, yeah, Canadian buddies,

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Speaker 1: and so that had already kind of impacted his kind

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Speaker 1: of chunky the way he gets around on guitar, not

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Speaker 1: a virtuoso by any stretch, but can do all kinds

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Speaker 1: of wonderful, wonderful things, obviously, but this back injury couples

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Speaker 1: with his polio, and well, I guess we should back

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Speaker 1: up a little bit and talk about Broken Arrow Ranch

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Speaker 1: before we get into the rest of New Young's the

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Speaker 1: convalescence phase. Broken Our Ranch is one of my favorite

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Speaker 1: elements of the Neil Young, you know, myth. It was

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Speaker 1: named for the Buffalo Springfield song. And when he bought it,

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Speaker 1: it was fifteen hundred acre property, which is just gargantulan.

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Speaker 1: I think he sold some of it, some of the

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Speaker 1: property in later years, but it's still is this huge compound,

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Speaker 1: and it involves this insanely circuitous route of like Redwoodline

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Speaker 1: private roads to get to the Mayn house. And David

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Speaker 1: Crosby called that his human filtration system because it required

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Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of know how just to get to

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Speaker 1: the house. And you finally arrive at this homestead and

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Speaker 1: there's this massive complex of buildings that includes one building

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Speaker 1: just for his collection of toy trains. He loves model trains,

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Speaker 1: loves trains, loves model trains. There is another building that

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Speaker 1: just houses his extensive collection of vintage cars. There's another

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Speaker 1: that houses his master recordings for like the twenty plus

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Speaker 1: records he's recorded in the studio that he made in

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Speaker 1: his barn. And there's a great profile by the late

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Speaker 1: great David carr U about ten years ago that describes

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Speaker 1: Broken A Ranch as an open air fortress of eccentricity.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, hell right after he bought it in like

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Speaker 1: late seventy yearly seventy one, and he was screwing around

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Speaker 1: moving a hunk of walnut or something and he messed

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Speaker 1: up his back. Yeah, I think it's funny because Neil

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Speaker 1: Young sort of the rest of csn Y. You know,

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Speaker 1: Stills wears like football jerseys, and David Crosby and you

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Speaker 1: know new Young kind of look like wizards. But those

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Speaker 1: guys made so much damn money. They made so much money.

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Speaker 1: And uh, that's why you know that you can afford

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Speaker 1: a acre ranch with buildings just for your toy train collection.

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Speaker 1: All of which is to say, Neo messes up his

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Speaker 1: back and he cannot carry around his Gibson. Less Paul,

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Speaker 1: which is another part of the sacred Neal texts, is

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Speaker 1: old Black, his favorite less Paul and less Paul's are

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Speaker 1: heavy guitars. They are very heavy. Now you think of

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Speaker 1: all these like stick thin dudes playing them, like Pete

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Speaker 1: Townsend and Jimmy Page, and then you strap one of

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Speaker 1: those things on and it feels like you shoulder to Bazuka.

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Speaker 1: So he couldn't even stand up to play either. So

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Speaker 1: basically he starts playing a bunch of shows seated, which

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Speaker 1: is as God intended it. The best way to play

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Speaker 1: music standing is for Rubes. And he's playing with a

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Speaker 1: Martin d fort acoustic and this is, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: one of Martin's flagship models, one of the most famous

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Speaker 1: acoustic guitar models ever made, and the same year one

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Speaker 1: they would actually produce more of their Dwight model, which

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Speaker 1: is their other flagship, than at any other point in

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Speaker 1: their history. And this is basically because of folk and

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Speaker 1: folk rock, you know, the fallout from that scene of

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Speaker 1: the past five years, everybody went out and bought about

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Speaker 1: a Martin. So Neil is tooling around Canada in the

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Speaker 1: US doing shows, solo acoustic shows. In a late nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy and in January v one he plays two of

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Speaker 1: the most iconic Neil solo acoustic shows. There's the set

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Speaker 1: at Toronto's Massey Hall, which is perfect start to finish.

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Speaker 1: It's its own record. It's beautiful. Everyone go check out

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Speaker 1: Near Young Live at Massey Hall and a u c

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Speaker 1: l A Show, which I believe has also been released.

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Speaker 1: But that show, the u c l A Show, is

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Speaker 1: the show from which the Needle and the Damage Done

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Speaker 1: off Harvest is drawn from. And this is probably a

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Speaker 1: good point to touch on the background of the Needle

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Speaker 1: and the Damage Done, which, for those of you who

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Speaker 1: might not know, it's a fairly famous story. Uh. And

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Speaker 1: it's a haunting song because it's essentially a eulogy for

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Speaker 1: a friend written while this person was still alive, which

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Speaker 1: is really scary. Young roaded about Danny Witten, who was

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Speaker 1: one of the founding members of Crazy Horse, and he

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Speaker 1: was very influential on much of Young's work proceeding Harvest,

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Speaker 1: and Danny by seventeen seventy one was struggling with a

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Speaker 1: heroin addiction, and that's obviously what the song is about.

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Speaker 1: And Neil apparently attempted daily one on one lessons to

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Speaker 1: try to rehabilitate his friend, and that's what the song

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Speaker 1: Needle and Damage Done is about. And uh. Later After

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Speaker 1: Harvest was released in the fall of seventy two and

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Speaker 1: they were doing the tour to promote Harvest, Neil went

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Speaker 1: out on tour with Crazy Horse and he brought Whitten,

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Speaker 1: and I think he had Neil's Lofgren as a backup

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Speaker 1: guitarist because Danny Whitten really wasn't a hundred percent And

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Speaker 1: during rehearsals for that tour, Whitten was so strung out

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Speaker 1: on heroin that he couldn't even hold up his guitar.

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Speaker 1: So Neil basically fired him. He gave him fifty bucks,

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Speaker 1: you know, really just to get him back home to

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles, and I guess the day he reached Los Angeles,

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Speaker 1: Danny Whitten overdosed on the alcohol and valium. And you know,

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Speaker 1: years later, Neil was talking to his biographer Jimmy McDonough

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Speaker 1: and he said he really felt responsible for Whitten's death

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Speaker 1: and it took him years to stop him and himself.

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Speaker 1: I guess he made this this really sucinct statement about

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Speaker 1: Needle and the damage done in the lighter notes to

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Speaker 1: the compilation record Decade. I'm not a preacher, but drugs

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Speaker 1: killed a lot of great man and one of them

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Speaker 1: was his friend Danny Whitten interesting that he performed the

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Speaker 1: song at Live AID, which, yeah, that was a strange choice,

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Speaker 1: a lot more like anthemic songs. Really people chose for

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Speaker 1: that performance. But Neil loves wrecking the room. That's his

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Speaker 1: favorite thing to do. Comes in, assesses the vibe does

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Speaker 1: the opposite in his discography in actual rooms in concerts.

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Speaker 1: I love him for it. But you know in lighter news, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know. The other big thing that goes into Harvest

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Speaker 1: is an actress named Carrie Snodgrass and she sort of

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Speaker 1: kneels mused for the record. Really he saw Diary of

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Speaker 1: a Mad Housewife at the behest of his roadie Guillermo

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Speaker 1: get germ uh Germachetti. I guess jet Eddie, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I'm Italian, I shouldn't have Sicilian relatives are rolling over.

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Speaker 1: I know, I know, it's really embarrassing. Um. So this

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Speaker 1: so very on tour in d C in December nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy and Garmo says, hey, Neil, let's go take in

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Speaker 1: this movie. And this is actually about two months after

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Speaker 1: Young's first wife, Susan Assavedo, files for divorce. But you know,

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Speaker 1: I wanta talk about Carrie Snodgrass for a moment. Her

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Speaker 1: career kind of gets glossed over in the Neil story.

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Speaker 1: But I mean, she got an Oscar nomination for her

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Speaker 1: role in the Die of a Madhousewife. She was a

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Speaker 1: big deal at the time. I feel like that bears absolutely,

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Speaker 1: particularly when you get to the idea that she doesn't

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Speaker 1: know who he is. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

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Speaker 1: Neil Young is, you know, he's smitten, and so he

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Speaker 1: sends Garmo and another roadie, Bruce Berry, and they go

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Speaker 1: to the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, where Snodgrass

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Speaker 1: is performing in a play called Rose Bloom. And this

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Speaker 1: is this period of history when you could get away

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Speaker 1: with doing stuff like this. They just got to do

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Speaker 1: her dressing room and left a note that says called

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Speaker 1: Neil Young on her table. But she doesn't even know

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Speaker 1: who he is, so her roommate clues are in, Oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: Neil Young. He was in this band Buffalo spring Field

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Speaker 1: and Crosby Stills, Nash wrote a couple of songs. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: their first date does not set things up for success,

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Speaker 1: because they go to Young's room at the Chateau Marmont,

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Speaker 1: which is a famously debauched hotel that all manner of

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Speaker 1: horrible has happened at. It's where John Belushi, oh did, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's I'm sure many others that I can't think of offhand,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, it is certainly extremely haunted. We should do

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Speaker 1: an episode on the Chateau Marman actually, oh big time. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: It was a great book by I forget who wrote

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Speaker 1: it was a great history about Chateau My Mom that

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Speaker 1: came out a few years ago. I think his name

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Speaker 1: is Nick Levy. Uh, incredible book anyway. Yeah, so their

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Speaker 1: first date happens in Young's room at the Chateau mar Mom,

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Speaker 1: and he is confined to bed and wearing a neck

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Speaker 1: brace which sparks clearly flew um Nono. Grass would tell

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Speaker 1: Jimmy McDonough that her big memory from their date is

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Speaker 1: how stoned they got. They were smoking Panama Red Baby,

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Speaker 1: and she got so high that she got lost driving

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Speaker 1: home and had to pull over and go to sleep.

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Speaker 1: But despite that in auspicious beginning to use an old cliche,

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Speaker 1: things end up working out, and Snodgrass moves onto Broken

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Speaker 1: Arrow in one bringing apparently quite the entourage with her,

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Speaker 1: including her mother. And although Neil had started writing a

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Speaker 1: lot of harvest getting the material together before they met.

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Speaker 1: He wrote in ten that the bulk of this record

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Speaker 1: was written for or about Carrie Snodgrass, a wonderful actress

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Speaker 1: in person, and she would go on to give birth

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Speaker 1: to their son Zeke in two Yeah, and for years

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Speaker 1: Neil was kind of cag about her influence on a

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Speaker 1: lot of these songs. I mean, it seems really obvious

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Speaker 1: on a song like a Man Needs a Maid, with

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Speaker 1: lines like a while ago somewhere, I don't know. When

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Speaker 1: I was watching a movie with a friend, I fell

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Speaker 1: in love with the actress. She was paying a part

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Speaker 1: that I could understand. But when Jimmy McDonough, I guess

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Speaker 1: was asking him about that song, uh, and just asked

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Speaker 1: her about Carrie's influence on it, Neil just said, well,

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Speaker 1: she's in there, which is a very very neal explanation. Um.

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Speaker 1: But then it features a song like heart of Gold,

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Speaker 1: which comes from such a restless and unsettled place, and

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Speaker 1: I'm searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting old,

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Speaker 1: and even just like a brief glance at the lyrics,

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Speaker 1: it makes you wonder kind of if he was all

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Speaker 1: that committed to that relationship or if, like he says

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Speaker 1: in the song, he was still searching. I mean they

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Speaker 1: that relationship ultimately didn't pan out. They broke up a

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Speaker 1: few years later. But uh yeah, it's interesting to try

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Speaker 1: to get into the well. Getting into the Neil Young

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Speaker 1: psychology is a dangerous place to be. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: feel like we could die if we tried. But um yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, Neil is an unreliable narrator at best. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: he has been extremely open about his lifelong marijuana use,

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Speaker 1: and he also just kind of seems to get a

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Speaker 1: kick out of scream with his own legacy. So take

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Speaker 1: almost everything he says with some portion of salt. And

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Speaker 1: having said all that, we'll be right back with more

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Speaker 1: too much information right after this. So Harvest is not

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Speaker 1: even planned to be Harvest. Harvest is planned by the

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Speaker 1: label to be a double live album, and Reprise actually

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Speaker 1: went so far as to release a track list for

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Speaker 1: this proposed album. I guess yeah. Through the press um,

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Speaker 1: sam Angus writes that in the Harvest thirty three and

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Speaker 1: a third and basically his hypothesis is that the release

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Speaker 1: of C S N Y S four Way Street preempts

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Speaker 1: that they don't want to flood the zone with enormous,

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Speaker 1: bloated live albums that feature overlap between members. So by

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Speaker 1: February of seventy one, new Young is in Nashville. He's

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Speaker 1: there to tape an appearance on the Johnny Cash Show

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Speaker 1: along with fellow Folky rising stars James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt.

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Speaker 1: And this proposed live album has been sunk. It's dead

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Speaker 1: in the water. So he doesn't know what he's doing next,

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Speaker 1: but he's in Nashville, and you know, Neil Young does

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Speaker 1: kind of live a charmed life because he basically stumbles

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Speaker 1: into the core of this record. And a lot of

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Speaker 1: that story begins with a guy named Elliott Maser who

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Speaker 1: is a New York native who had relocated to Nashville

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Speaker 1: and created his own studio called Quadrophonic Sound Studios in

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Speaker 1: a little two story Victorian just off Nashville's Music Row. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, this place really pushes the definition of Holmey

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Speaker 1: to its limits. The control room was the old porch

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Speaker 1: of the house, the living room in the dining room

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Speaker 1: where the two live rooms where people played, and the

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Speaker 1: kitchen became like the drum area. And it was called

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Speaker 1: Quadrophonic as a joke because it was the quadrophonic was

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Speaker 1: the most technologically advanced sound at the time of his stereo,

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Speaker 1: which is to quadraphonic is four speakers, and this was

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Speaker 1: like the most stripped down place you could make a

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Speaker 1: record that you could imagine. It's like calling it electrically

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Speaker 1: Land that's just always filled with dudes. So Maser is

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Speaker 1: also he's a known quantity in the industry because he's

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00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:08,600
Speaker 1: cut two albums of instrumentals with I don't want to

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Speaker 1: call him a ragtag group, but they're kind of a

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Speaker 1: thrown together band of session musicians called Area Code, which

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00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:19,439
Speaker 1: is a self explanatory name. Let's explain it. I just

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Speaker 1: google it. I don't have time to come on time

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Speaker 1: as money people, It's the Nashville area Code. So these

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Speaker 1: guys have played on Blonde on Blonde, They've played on

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Speaker 1: Nashville Skyline, they have played all over on god knows

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Speaker 1: how many records, and so Maser is running in this

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Speaker 1: circle and he kind of has his eye on New

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Speaker 1: Young because he knows he's in town Johnny Cash show

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Speaker 1: taping that was a big thing. So all of these

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Speaker 1: industry guys are floating around and Maser decides to throw

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Speaker 1: a dinner party and he invites Neil with like fifty

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Speaker 1: other people. I feel like it should be said, I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is like a big group of like the who's

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Speaker 1: who of Nashville insiders. I'm reasonably certain James Taylor and

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Speaker 1: Lena Ronstad also came too. I mean, this was a

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Speaker 1: big event. At some point, Neil Young says, hey, man,

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Speaker 1: I'm into those Area Code six one five records? Is

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00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:10,760
Speaker 1: it six or six? They really are? Yeah, they are

380
00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:15,080
Speaker 1: great records, and so that's all Neil needs. As it

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00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:17,960
Speaker 1: becomes the theme in his career, he goes, I'm gonna

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00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:19,879
Speaker 1: make a record, and people are like, cool, how do

383
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Speaker 1: you want to, Like, like, let's talk about it, and

384
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Speaker 1: he's like, no, I want to make a record now.

385
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Speaker 1: So this is a Saturday night and uh, Maser just

386
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Speaker 1: decides to get as many guys as he can together

387
00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:35,719
Speaker 1: because it's a Saturday night and Nashville session players record

388
00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:38,600
Speaker 1: all during the week, eight hours a day. So on

389
00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:41,480
Speaker 1: the Saturday, what do they do? Jordan's uh, well, on

390
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:43,720
Speaker 1: the weekends they go fishing a lot. So we actually

391
00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:45,920
Speaker 1: had a hard time finding people to play with Neil

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Speaker 1: because a lot of them have gun fishing for the weekend. Apparently,

393
00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:52,280
Speaker 1: but one guy, one guy who didn't go fishing, is

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Speaker 1: bassist Tim Drummond, who Maser told b M I in

395
00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:58,520
Speaker 1: two thousand seven they literally found walking down the street.

396
00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,480
Speaker 1: I believe it's another music industry photographer who was just

397
00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:04,320
Speaker 1: out on the street and saw Tim rolling down the

398
00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:06,960
Speaker 1: stream was like, hey, you look like you can play

399
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Speaker 1: some bass, Like, come on, come on down, And as

400
00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:12,160
Speaker 1: luck would have it, they found the only white guy

401
00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:16,480
Speaker 1: who ever played in James Brown's famous flames, the only guy. Wow,

402
00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:19,040
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that is that is what I That

403
00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:21,800
Speaker 1: is what I have heard. I have not cross referenced

404
00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:25,960
Speaker 1: the entirety of James Brown's employee records, which I do

405
00:21:26,119 --> 00:21:28,920
Speaker 1: have access to through a Freedom of Information after request.

406
00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:32,040
Speaker 1: I have not cross reference that, but that is what

407
00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:36,560
Speaker 1: I've heard. So imagine again, Neil Young leads a charmed life.

408
00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:39,040
Speaker 1: Imagine you're going to make a record, you can't find

409
00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:42,479
Speaker 1: a bass player. You find the one white guy who

410
00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:47,119
Speaker 1: played bass for James Brown walking down the street. Incredible.

411
00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:49,320
Speaker 1: There's other guys in there, We'll get to them. This

412
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Speaker 1: band is christened the Stray Gators, Another and another. Neil

413
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Speaker 1: Young really knocks it out of the park with band names.

414
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Speaker 1: Um did he name Crazy Horse? I believe so. I

415
00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:02,600
Speaker 1: assume because he's got that kind of a weird Native

416
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:06,320
Speaker 1: American fixation. I assume. I don't want to reach too

417
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:09,400
Speaker 1: much into that. So this band, the Stray Gators, records

418
00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:12,600
Speaker 1: live in the house and they track harvest cuts like

419
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 1: Old Man, Bad, Fog of Loneliness, and Dance Dance Dance,

420
00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:18,439
Speaker 1: although those last two are not the versions that are

421
00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:21,600
Speaker 1: included on the record, but the second session that they

422
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:24,600
Speaker 1: cut does wind up in the basic tracks for Heart

423
00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:28,480
Speaker 1: of Gold, and Maser says that this song was recorded

424
00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:30,960
Speaker 1: in one or two takes over the course of about

425
00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:34,560
Speaker 1: two hours, with Neil just situated in the doorway between

426
00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:37,040
Speaker 1: the houses old dining room and the living room. And

427
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:38,920
Speaker 1: I mean the speed that they did this is really

428
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:41,320
Speaker 1: not out of the ordinary for these Nashville session pros.

429
00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:43,400
Speaker 1: I mean, they knew how to bash this stuff out.

430
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:45,920
Speaker 1: And it's kind of a throwback to the old analog

431
00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:48,399
Speaker 1: days when tape was expensive and it was necessary to

432
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:50,879
Speaker 1: conserve and really just kind of get it down quickly.

433
00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:53,560
Speaker 1: And also, this is not a typical for Neil Young.

434
00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:55,960
Speaker 1: He kind of doesn't give a damn, like he capturing

435
00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:57,879
Speaker 1: the moment is so much more crucial to him than

436
00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:01,880
Speaker 1: capturing a slick track, especially since doing something like Ohio

437
00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,280
Speaker 1: with cs n Y the previous spring in the spring

438
00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:06,880
Speaker 1: of seventy, which he really was kind of his dispatch

439
00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:09,240
Speaker 1: on the Kent State massacre and he really wanted to

440
00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:11,840
Speaker 1: get out immediately and like it was, getting it out

441
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:15,720
Speaker 1: like within I think a matter of weeks after the

442
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:19,560
Speaker 1: event was was crucial. So that really started him deciding

443
00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:21,600
Speaker 1: to just get in, get out, let's get these out there.

444
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:23,879
Speaker 1: He want one of the electricity and the immediacy of

445
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:25,760
Speaker 1: the room to be kind of the most important thing

446
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:28,680
Speaker 1: and getting all the notes right. Uh. So he quit

447
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,920
Speaker 1: bothering with overdubs and you know, reduced basic tracks and

448
00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:33,960
Speaker 1: just like one or two takes. So he was on

449
00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:36,400
Speaker 1: the same page with these Nashville players who basically thought

450
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:40,040
Speaker 1: that overdubbing was pretty ruinous to the recording process because

451
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:42,480
Speaker 1: it just spoiled the spontaneity. And this is a theme

452
00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:44,399
Speaker 1: that this is Neil Young has done this for his

453
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:47,040
Speaker 1: holy career. I mean you there's interviews with the Crazy

454
00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:49,119
Speaker 1: Horse guys where they're like, yeah, you know, we come

455
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:51,920
Speaker 1: in and he runs this song through like twice and

456
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 1: then he's like, Yep, that's it. Said's how he rolls.

457
00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 1: And speaking of the Stray Gators were researching this episode,

458
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:01,240
Speaker 1: did you know that members of the Stray Gators, I

459
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:04,280
Speaker 1: think Tim Drummond and Kenny Butchery the drummer played on

460
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 1: Jewels pieces of the album. I did not. Yeah, I

461
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:10,200
Speaker 1: think Spooner Oldham did too, like she had some great

462
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:13,680
Speaker 1: players on that. Spooner Spooner is the man. I love

463
00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:18,320
Speaker 1: that dude. Um So, speaking of Kenny Butchery as we

464
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,800
Speaker 1: often do, As we often do in times like these,

465
00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:26,560
Speaker 1: the mind goes to Kenny Butchery again, a guy who

466
00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:29,400
Speaker 1: played on Nashville Skyline and Blonde and Blonde incredible Bob

467
00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:32,400
Speaker 1: Dylan records for anyone not familiar, though if you've listened

468
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:36,120
Speaker 1: this far you probably are. Um And and Maser called

469
00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:39,520
Speaker 1: him the kind of drummer that eight engineers alive if

470
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:41,399
Speaker 1: they did not get a good drum sound and a

471
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 1: good earphone mix, which is so funny because on Harvest

472
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:49,120
Speaker 1: he's pretty much reduced to playing kick snare, kick kick

473
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 1: snare on almost every song, but like a high coup,

474
00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:56,520
Speaker 1: there's deceptive complexity in those drum parts, and apparently he

475
00:24:56,760 --> 00:24:59,000
Speaker 1: was seated over to Neil's right so he could watch

476
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:01,440
Speaker 1: his strumming hand to get the timing. But they just

477
00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:04,359
Speaker 1: kept telling him to play less and less, and Maser

478
00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:07,760
Speaker 1: and he have both basically said that at one point

479
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 1: he was doing so little that he either sat on

480
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 1: one of his hands or used the hand that wasn't

481
00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,960
Speaker 1: hitting the snare to keep an eighth note pulse on

482
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:19,720
Speaker 1: his thigh. I heard that Neil told him to sit

483
00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:21,639
Speaker 1: on his hand just so that he did that he

484
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,800
Speaker 1: would only play with one stick so that it would

485
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 1: force him to keep it. I mean, this is the

486
00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:28,280
Speaker 1: guy who could do anything on the kit, and he's,

487
00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:30,359
Speaker 1: like you said, he's just keeping time with one hand

488
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:34,440
Speaker 1: as per Neil's request. I mean, years later, Butttery was

489
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 1: saying that Neil kept saying less is more, less is more.

490
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,560
Speaker 1: Just that was his mantra during these sessions. I just

491
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:41,080
Speaker 1: have to throw this in there. And there's the other

492
00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 1: instance that I can remember of this is when Joy

493
00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:46,360
Speaker 1: Division was recording Unknown Pleasures. Martin Hannett, who's like their

494
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:51,120
Speaker 1: engineer and famous UK engineer, he uh wanted to get

495
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:53,680
Speaker 1: the drum parts as dry as possible, so he made

496
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:59,639
Speaker 1: their drummer Stephen Morris record each drum individually, so he

497
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:01,920
Speaker 1: it sounds like one tom at the time, like one

498
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:03,920
Speaker 1: sna Oh my god, I can't I can't imagine doing it.

499
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:08,120
Speaker 1: And so he would keep time on his like thighs

500
00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:10,760
Speaker 1: while he was just recording like just the snare part

501
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:14,080
Speaker 1: or like one tom part. Yeah, I would go insane,

502
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 1: but you know, I don't have a good segue for this.

503
00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 1: Linda Ronstad and James Tayler, we talked about them being

504
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,040
Speaker 1: in town to tape Johnny Cash Show and which have

505
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:28,600
Speaker 1: you seen? It's on YouTube and it's kind of amazing.

506
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:31,240
Speaker 1: Neil plays needle and the damage done, but it's preempted

507
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:33,960
Speaker 1: by this footage of Johnny Cash kind of like in

508
00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 1: amongst all these teenagers out in like a park somewhere,

509
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:39,600
Speaker 1: and they're throwing all these questions to him about like

510
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,320
Speaker 1: do you think that marijuana is a gateway drug to heroin?

511
00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 1: And he's given these really thoughtful, honest responses, like I

512
00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: think he says, like I learned the hard way about

513
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,680
Speaker 1: drugs like cord to death with it. For a long time,

514
00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:52,720
Speaker 1: I took my chances, and for a long time I

515
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:55,639
Speaker 1: tried anything I was able to try and he's like

516
00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:58,360
Speaker 1: really getting real with them. It's kind of an amazing

517
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:00,200
Speaker 1: bit of film. And then they go to knee all

518
00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:03,680
Speaker 1: doing that you know, incredibly heavy song, which just is like,

519
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:05,520
Speaker 1: I don't know, I mean for nineteen s it's a

520
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:08,040
Speaker 1: heavy song to have on network TV. Well, Nashville is

521
00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 1: also pretty conservative. I can imagine like a bunch of

522
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:15,000
Speaker 1: Nashville people being like, this is our anti drug episode.

523
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:17,680
Speaker 1: The fact that they get Johnny Cash to be like

524
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:21,119
Speaker 1: Johnny Cash I land Speed for four years, which is

525
00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 1: I guess, you know, he comes from a place with authority.

526
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:26,600
Speaker 1: But so ron Staton Taylor are in town. They're all

527
00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:30,560
Speaker 1: hanging out and Maser has also worked with Linda ron

528
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:34,439
Speaker 1: sat before he produced Silk Purse for her in nineteen seventy.

529
00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:38,119
Speaker 1: So they get invited over to Quadraphonic after they do

530
00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:42,600
Speaker 1: this show together. They both sing on Old Man and

531
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,040
Speaker 1: basically the way that they just did this was they

532
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:47,080
Speaker 1: were in the control room, which is on the porch,

533
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:51,880
Speaker 1: and um Mazer just drags a bunch of speakers into

534
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 1: the control room and just sticks a mic in front

535
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:56,680
Speaker 1: of them and they just sang along from the couch

536
00:27:57,440 --> 00:27:59,680
Speaker 1: and I love apparently Linda rons that years later was

537
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,880
Speaker 1: saying that she's so small, James Taylor is so tall

538
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,680
Speaker 1: that well, she had the Neil on the couch just

539
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,320
Speaker 1: to be as tall as James Taylor sitting upright, just

540
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:10,959
Speaker 1: so that they could reach the same mike, which I love.

541
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:14,280
Speaker 1: Linda runs that so much. Yeah, she's the best adorable story.

542
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 1: So they both sing on a Heart of Gold and

543
00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 1: Old Man, and then Taylor also plays the six string banjo,

544
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:23,359
Speaker 1: which is the thing that pops up on Neil's record.

545
00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:25,960
Speaker 1: It's a banjo that is just tuned like a guitar.

546
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:28,520
Speaker 1: It has six strings instead of the usual five. He

547
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:31,320
Speaker 1: plays it on four. The turnstiles on on the Beach later,

548
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:37,159
Speaker 1: and that's James Taylor's contribution to that record, But Steven Stills,

549
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:40,640
Speaker 1: David Crosby, and Graham Nash actually also all contribute vocals

550
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:44,480
Speaker 1: to this um. I had read somewhere that it was

551
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 1: these were done in New York, but I'm also reading

552
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:49,160
Speaker 1: in the thirty three and a third book that these

553
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 1: were tracked at Broken Arrow and that while Nash was there.

554
00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 1: This gets into the famous Barn story, so we'll have

555
00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 1: to pick up that later. But in the meantime, we're

556
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:01,440
Speaker 1: going to take a little detour. We're gonna take a

557
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 1: trip across the pond to get back to the recording

558
00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 1: of Harvest and one of my least favorite new Young songs.

559
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 1: The second part of that recording takes place in London.

560
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 1: Young flies in in March to perform on the BBC.

561
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:16,040
Speaker 1: And you're a big fan of this this program, Oh yeah,

562
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 1: it's called I think it's just called in Concert like

563
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:21,600
Speaker 1: BBC in Concert, and it's on YouTube. Definitely check it out.

564
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 1: I mean some really like basically every Neil Young documentary

565
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:26,920
Speaker 1: you see whenever they're going through the Harvest era pulls

566
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 1: clips from this performance. It's really amazing. I think the

567
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:32,480
Speaker 1: clips of him doing Old Man are on there. It's

568
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:35,880
Speaker 1: really incredible. But the flip side of these incredible performances

569
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,120
Speaker 1: of the BBC are two of probably the least popular

570
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:42,080
Speaker 1: tracks on Harvest, A Man Needs a Maid and There's

571
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,600
Speaker 1: a World, which saw Neil re team with uh this

572
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:48,960
Speaker 1: old producer Jack Nietzsch, who wrote the really elaborate arrangements

573
00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:51,880
Speaker 1: that I love on his first solo record, and the

574
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 1: arrangements that he did on Buffalo Springfield's Expecting the Fly.

575
00:29:56,120 --> 00:30:01,120
Speaker 1: These arrangements don't really fit as well on Harvest. I

576
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 1: don't think I'm alone in saying that. Uh. He wrote

577
00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:07,640
Speaker 1: these really elaborate orchestral parts for the London Symphony Orchestra

578
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 1: that they recorded with the Rolling Stones mobile unit at

579
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,240
Speaker 1: like a municipal town hall in this London suburb which

580
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 1: is kind of like Barking, called Barking in the London

581
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:20,880
Speaker 1: suburb of Barking. Neil Young is in this like little

582
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:23,440
Speaker 1: town hall building. I can't think of a less Neil

583
00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 1: Young environment to work in, Like that's so strange to me.

584
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: And they they laid down these, uh these tracks for

585
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 1: a Man Needs a Maid and there's a world I

586
00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:35,880
Speaker 1: think live with the orchestra, right he's playing with them, Yeah,

587
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:38,200
Speaker 1: and it's it's a nightmare. I mean we also have

588
00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:41,200
Speaker 1: to note that this is recorded by Glenn John's baby,

589
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,800
Speaker 1: Glenn John's late of the Get Back Beatles documentary The

590
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:48,480
Speaker 1: Style Icon. Glenn John's I mean, you know, one of

591
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 1: the most legendary producers of all time. I mean, who

592
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:53,480
Speaker 1: hasn't he worked with Led Zeppelin, to Who, the Stones,

593
00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 1: the Beatles, you know, so many But I didn't realize

594
00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 1: that he did that. I mean, yeah, some times a

595
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:02,360
Speaker 1: man has to go back to his roots in Barking.

596
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 1: I don't actually know that he's from Barking. I just

597
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,120
Speaker 1: wanted to say Barking again. But the members of the

598
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:11,200
Speaker 1: London Symphony Orchestra, who are perhaps gang pressed into playing

599
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 1: this um doesn't seem like anybody had a good time

600
00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:17,920
Speaker 1: doing this. There's this clip of him telling Nietzsche. He's

601
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:23,479
Speaker 1: on the Nietzsche. He's telling Friedrich Knietzsche. Um, he's at

602
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:26,440
Speaker 1: the piano and he's kind of having a having a

603
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:29,000
Speaker 1: bad time. Neo God is dead and so is this track.

604
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:34,400
Speaker 1: But you can see him on the piano and he's

605
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:37,400
Speaker 1: saying that it's obvious that the orchestra musicians like they

606
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:39,520
Speaker 1: have to hear me. He says they were playing a

607
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 1: half beat behind me all the way through the thing.

608
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,680
Speaker 1: UM which new young angry. Is so funny because it's

609
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:48,720
Speaker 1: just like he still has that like detached Canadian this

610
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 1: but he's just like swearing at the London Symphony Orchestra

611
00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:57,440
Speaker 1: from a piano. So surreal. But you know, Neil and

612
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:01,560
Speaker 1: Jack's relationship doesn't just extend to a recording studio. Yeah,

613
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,840
Speaker 1: there's a weird fact about Jack. I always pronounced Jack Niche.

614
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 1: I guess. I mean he obviously arranged A Man Needs

615
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 1: a Maid, which was inspired, as we said, by Neil's

616
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: relationship with the actor's Carrie Snodgrass, and she and Neil

617
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:15,680
Speaker 1: broke up in the mid seventies, and a few years

618
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:20,440
Speaker 1: later Jack Niche actually dated her and it didn't end well,

619
00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,480
Speaker 1: to say the least. He was later sentenced to probation

620
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 1: after he beat her with a handgun in nineteen seventy nine.

621
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 1: She's probably worth noting that Jack nich got his big

622
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:34,160
Speaker 1: break in music working with Phil Specter. So uh, I

623
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:37,160
Speaker 1: mean Phil Specter also worked with Ike Turner to for

624
00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:41,640
Speaker 1: River Deep, Mountain High with Tina, So scumbags attract scumbags.

625
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:48,360
Speaker 1: But uh anyway, Jack Nichoya, but gentlemen, Jack Niche, But

626
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:50,400
Speaker 1: on the topic of A Man Needs a Maid? Did

627
00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 1: you know I didn't realize this until researching this episode,

628
00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:55,760
Speaker 1: that that was supposed to be paired with Heart of

629
00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:59,240
Speaker 1: Gold as a medland. I am so damn glad it

630
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:01,959
Speaker 1: did not be, because can you imagine if the if

631
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:04,520
Speaker 1: Heart of Gold was grafted onto A Man Needs a Man?

632
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 1: It's pretty strange. But I think there's clips of him

633
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:11,520
Speaker 1: in early seventy live performance clips of him playing those

634
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 1: two songs together on piano and uh, I think it's

635
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:17,200
Speaker 1: on the live at Massey Hall recording and seventy one.

636
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:19,960
Speaker 1: But then halfway through these days he switches and he

637
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:22,320
Speaker 1: goes from piano to guitar, and he splits the songs

638
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 1: into two. One line that he cut after the original

639
00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:30,200
Speaker 1: song became two separate songs was afraid a man feels afraid.

640
00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 1: I actually that makes more like hearing that as the

641
00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:38,720
Speaker 1: original eric like afraid. It's so much more harrowing. I

642
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:42,200
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm in the camp of not liking this song.

643
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 1: You actually have some interesting things that you dredged up

644
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:48,840
Speaker 1: about it that maybe weow anything related to A Man

645
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 1: Needs a Maid is dredging um, But please try and

646
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,200
Speaker 1: change my mind. I mean a lot of people hate

647
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:56,480
Speaker 1: the song, not only because of the overland orchestration, but

648
00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,640
Speaker 1: the title and chorus, which you know, many people understandably

649
00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 1: view as sexist. Neo himself defended the title in later

650
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:05,400
Speaker 1: years by saying that it was written in the spirit

651
00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:09,440
Speaker 1: of Robin Hood's maid Marian. It's a great quote that

652
00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:12,560
Speaker 1: he said, Robin Hood loved the maid long before women's

653
00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:15,759
Speaker 1: liberation judges ruling on that. How do you feel about that?

654
00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:20,000
Speaker 1: It's just I mean, I love Neil and I think

655
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:27,600
Speaker 1: he writes so well on topics like loneliness and self loathing. Yeah,

656
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,120
Speaker 1: and he's he is a good at articulating like romantic

657
00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:34,000
Speaker 1: love in a way that is, but he also tips

658
00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:39,160
Speaker 1: into platitudes. And this is just a bad, lazy idea

659
00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 1: to hang a song on in my opinion, and dredging

660
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 1: it and dredging and coding it with the London Symphony,

661
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:49,359
Speaker 1: like what a wow, my God, to be a fly

662
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:51,399
Speaker 1: on the wall in that conversation, like, oh yeah, Neil,

663
00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:53,799
Speaker 1: what what else you got? Well, I've got this song

664
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 1: about how I want to be waited on and and

665
00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:02,680
Speaker 1: foot G eight. Let's get the London Symphony orchestra on

666
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 1: that one. I don't know anyway. Rolling Stone has a

667
00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:11,440
Speaker 1: great slam on you think it works? What do you

668
00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:13,879
Speaker 1: think this? Are? You think this? And there and There's

669
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:17,359
Speaker 1: a World both work. I think the arrangements work better

670
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:20,320
Speaker 1: than There's a World, which is probably the most controversial

671
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 1: song certainly on this album, if not in Neil's cannon.

672
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:25,440
Speaker 1: I think it's probably the one that people skip the

673
00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:28,040
Speaker 1: most often. On Harvest and like I said, like, I

674
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 1: like Neil Young's heavily orchestrated stuff, but this one I

675
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:35,719
Speaker 1: just think is too overblown. And Rolling Stone is a

676
00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:38,279
Speaker 1: great uh line about this song. They put it on

677
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,360
Speaker 1: their Terrible Songs by Great Artists lists. They say for

678
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 1: some reason, Young thought the London Symphony Orchestra would mesh

679
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,360
Speaker 1: with this song. The result is like a chocolate covered

680
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 1: cheeseburger boom, which fair. But Neil himself, as is so

681
00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:54,799
Speaker 1: often the case, doesn't care what the critics saying. He's

682
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 1: fine with it. Uh. He later said, Bob Dylan told

683
00:35:58,040 --> 00:35:59,840
Speaker 1: me it was one of his favorites of mine, so

684
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,399
Speaker 1: I listened closer to Bob, which I mean, I guess

685
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:04,160
Speaker 1: if Bob Dylan says that one of your songs is

686
00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:06,239
Speaker 1: his favorite, then that's kind of a good mic drop.

687
00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:10,319
Speaker 1: I don't believe him. I don't believe that. I mean,

688
00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:11,759
Speaker 1: Bob Dylan is sure as hell. I'm not going to

689
00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:14,000
Speaker 1: confirm or deny. So you're right. I guess if there's

690
00:36:14,040 --> 00:36:17,000
Speaker 1: somebody that you can just say, you know, especially if

691
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:19,120
Speaker 1: you're like, he's not gonna come out, what's he gonna do?

692
00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:21,200
Speaker 1: Come out of being a crazy old dude and like

693
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 1: disconfirm that whatever. We're going to take a quick break,

694
00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:30,280
Speaker 1: but we'll be right back with more too much information

695
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:43,279
Speaker 1: in just a moment. So now it's time for us

696
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:45,959
Speaker 1: to get into the other big love affair that really

697
00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:49,399
Speaker 1: colors all of Harvest, which is Neil Young and his barn.

698
00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:54,239
Speaker 1: Did you not see that one coming? Did you not

699
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:59,440
Speaker 1: see me set up? No? I didn't. It's it's really incredible,

700
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:03,920
Speaker 1: but it's perfect because amazed that it hasn't burned out.

701
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:06,759
Speaker 1: I mean it looks like a giant Lincoln log set.

702
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:09,160
Speaker 1: I mean there's like footage of him recording in the barn,

703
00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 1: and there's like sunlight streaming through the gaps in the logs.

704
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:15,279
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like obviously not insulated, like like what

705
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:17,640
Speaker 1: happens when it rains, there's apparently still a lot of

706
00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:20,760
Speaker 1: bird all over it. When the straight gadder straight gadders,

707
00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:23,879
Speaker 1: there was apparently still a lot of bird all over

708
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:26,920
Speaker 1: the barn. When the stray gators showed up at Broken

709
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:30,880
Speaker 1: Arrow to reconvene recording sessions, which happens after Neil has

710
00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:35,600
Speaker 1: surgery in August and he gets his disks fixed, um

711
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 1: and there's hey, every I mean it's a barn. It's

712
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:42,360
Speaker 1: a barn. It's not it's not like a bougie recording studio.

713
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:45,080
Speaker 1: We can you know, it's a barn. But to the

714
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:48,520
Speaker 1: hay works is like sound absorbtion on stuff and maybe

715
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:52,400
Speaker 1: like the bird droppings are like organic echo plates or something.

716
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 1: I don't know, like is that how it works? Yes? Absolutely,

717
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:00,920
Speaker 1: And you know this gives way to probably really one

718
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:04,560
Speaker 1: of the other r texts of New Young Lore where

719
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,600
Speaker 1: graham Nash recalls this. It's in shaky, it's in the

720
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:10,759
Speaker 1: hearts and minds of New Young fans everywhere young and

721
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:15,279
Speaker 1: Maser rigged up the barn and the house with a

722
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:18,760
Speaker 1: bunch of speakers and amplifiers to act as separate channels

723
00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:22,600
Speaker 1: of a monitor system. And incidentally, Maser also used the

724
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:25,720
Speaker 1: natural echo and reverb created by the way the barn

725
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 1: nestled up against the hills. That's part of the sound

726
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:32,440
Speaker 1: on Harvest. He you know, dragged microphones out back and

727
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:35,880
Speaker 1: used the barn as a playback monitor, and then the

728
00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:39,360
Speaker 1: cap showed captured the echoes out in the hills. It's wild.

729
00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:42,399
Speaker 1: But this set up results in you know, graham Nash

730
00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:44,920
Speaker 1: is there, He's layed on vocals. He's listening to rough mixes,

731
00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:47,920
Speaker 1: and Neil Young rose him out into the middle of

732
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:51,560
Speaker 1: the lake and Graham's looking around, and all a sudden,

733
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:55,680
Speaker 1: the playback of Harvest comes blasting out across the lake

734
00:38:56,280 --> 00:39:00,160
Speaker 1: from the house and from the barn, and those us

735
00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:04,319
Speaker 1: technologically inclined the barn and the house have become two

736
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:08,400
Speaker 1: giant speakers, a barn size speaker and a house size speaker,

737
00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:11,280
Speaker 1: just filled with monitors and stuff out front. The sound

738
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:14,799
Speaker 1: is absolutely deafening. I mean, the lake is pretty far

739
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:19,000
Speaker 1: from those structures being in the house. I mean, I'm

740
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:21,800
Speaker 1: sure that your drums were probably bleeding. Yeah, and so

741
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:23,360
Speaker 1: there and so Nash and Young are out in the

742
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:25,800
Speaker 1: middle of the lake and they're listening to playback and

743
00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:29,719
Speaker 1: at one point Neil's note is more Barn. This is

744
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:31,800
Speaker 1: just one of the favorite one of the It's like

745
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 1: a secret handshake for New Young fans. And it got

746
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:36,360
Speaker 1: to the point where there's this guy named Brad Brando

747
00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:39,320
Speaker 1: who created a line of shirts that have this like

748
00:39:39,640 --> 00:39:43,600
Speaker 1: sort of airbrush style cartoon rendering of New Young yelling

749
00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:46,439
Speaker 1: more Barn out in a rowboat. It's a great shirt.

750
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:47,640
Speaker 1: You should look it up. I don't know if they're

751
00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:50,720
Speaker 1: still making them. This it's the joke that keeps on giving.

752
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:53,000
Speaker 1: I mean, it seems like it was a mix. It

753
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:54,360
Speaker 1: seems like one of those things that you would just

754
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:57,440
Speaker 1: say about Neil Young. But Neil actually confirmed it in

755
00:39:57,480 --> 00:40:00,320
Speaker 1: a two thousand six interview with the Huffington Post. But

756
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:03,120
Speaker 1: he confirmed it in the most Neil Young way imaginable.

757
00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:05,800
Speaker 1: So yeah, I did say that I thought it was

758
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:09,480
Speaker 1: a little house heavy, but you know, I mean we're

759
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:11,760
Speaker 1: talking about all the different places he recorded this record.

760
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:15,120
Speaker 1: It's kind of amazing that the record sounds as coherent

761
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:18,399
Speaker 1: as it does. I mean, these are very distinct sessions here.

762
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:20,239
Speaker 1: I mean, going from you know, the London sit of

763
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,239
Speaker 1: the orchestra in a small London suburb town hall to

764
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:26,280
Speaker 1: a bunch of Nashville dudes in a restored nineteenth century

765
00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:29,360
Speaker 1: country barn. It's that's kind of a jump, and I

766
00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:31,680
Speaker 1: think it's a testament to Neil and Maser, I guess,

767
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:34,040
Speaker 1: to making a record that sounds so you know, of

768
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:36,680
Speaker 1: a piece. Yeah. Absolutely. And the other thing that this

769
00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:43,640
Speaker 1: record does is um continue Neil's not feud with Lenard Skinner,

770
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:46,000
Speaker 1: which is like another giant thing that's it was like

771
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:50,200
Speaker 1: part of both of those artists legacies. Um So Alabama

772
00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:53,920
Speaker 1: is part two in things Neil Young has to say

773
00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:57,880
Speaker 1: about the American South. Yeah, this is kind of his

774
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:00,960
Speaker 1: sequel to Southern Man from after the gold Rush, and

775
00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:05,680
Speaker 1: famously both tracks really piste off Leonard SKINNERD who wrote

776
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:09,600
Speaker 1: Sweet Home Alabama in part as a response to those songs,

777
00:41:09,719 --> 00:41:11,439
Speaker 1: And of course it has the lie you know, Neil

778
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:14,400
Speaker 1: Young will remember Southern Man don't want them around anyhow,

779
00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:17,680
Speaker 1: which started there non feud. It was more of a

780
00:41:18,719 --> 00:41:23,160
Speaker 1: respectful dialogue between two artists who I guess they're probably

781
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:26,960
Speaker 1: more alike than they are different, despite their difference of opinion.

782
00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:29,920
Speaker 1: But in any event, Neo himself doesn't really care much

783
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 1: for that song these days. In his um autobiography Waging

784
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:39,120
Speaker 1: Heavy Piece, which might be the most boomer biotitle I've

785
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:42,000
Speaker 1: ever heard, Neil said this of the song, I don't

786
00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 1: like my words when I listened to it today. Their

787
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:47,520
Speaker 1: accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy

788
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:51,360
Speaker 1: to misconstrue, which is all fairly true, that's fair, But

789
00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:54,600
Speaker 1: still he did inspire a Southern rock classic out of

790
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:57,080
Speaker 1: those songs, So something good did come of it. There's

791
00:41:57,080 --> 00:41:59,879
Speaker 1: another tune on here that sort of a deep cut

792
00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:03,920
Speaker 1: is words between the lines of Age. It's interesting because,

793
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:09,759
Speaker 1: befitting its ponderous title, uh words, is Neil's only real

794
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:14,239
Speaker 1: stab at mixed meter stuff. I mean, he has Waltz's

795
00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:19,160
Speaker 1: and he has kick snare kick kick snare, but this

796
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:21,920
Speaker 1: tune you can either count it as having a bar

797
00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:25,319
Speaker 1: of eleven eight or two bars one of five eight

798
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:27,800
Speaker 1: and one of six eight. And it is so bizarre

799
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:29,759
Speaker 1: because I don't think he does this anywhere else in

800
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:33,040
Speaker 1: his discography. I'm sure someone on Steve Hoffman forums or

801
00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:35,960
Speaker 1: Jimmy McDonald's somebody can tell me I'm wrong here, But like,

802
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:39,120
Speaker 1: he does not do mixed meter stuff. And it's my

803
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:41,840
Speaker 1: personal theory about this is that it was either a

804
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:45,200
Speaker 1: mistake that he was like I like that, we're keeping

805
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:47,680
Speaker 1: it and it's so difficult that they never did it again,

806
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:51,560
Speaker 1: because to be honest, he sounds outclassed on his own

807
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 1: song here when he's trying to play lead over it

808
00:42:53,719 --> 00:42:56,160
Speaker 1: and he cannot figure out where the bars. So my

809
00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:58,319
Speaker 1: theory is that it was a mistake that he liked

810
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:01,759
Speaker 1: and wrote a song around it, which fine or the

811
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:04,480
Speaker 1: Grateful Dead around this time had a song in their

812
00:43:04,520 --> 00:43:07,040
Speaker 1: Lives set called the eleven that is actually a great

813
00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:10,319
Speaker 1: song in eleven eight, and it just it sounds really cool.

814
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:11,839
Speaker 1: So my other theory is that he saw the dead

815
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:13,320
Speaker 1: at some point it was like, I can write a

816
00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:16,399
Speaker 1: song in eleven which, no, you can't. I've been keeping

817
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:22,879
Speaker 1: my New Young impressions admirably in check. I think, um,

818
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:25,719
Speaker 1: but this seems like a good time to throw to

819
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:31,160
Speaker 1: Jordan's bit about Dana Carvey song. Yeah, I mean, you know,

820
00:43:31,239 --> 00:43:33,320
Speaker 1: speaking of the name of the song's words between the

821
00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:36,560
Speaker 1: lines of age. On the topic of Neil Young's words,

822
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:40,080
Speaker 1: Dana Carvey is a bit in a stand up special

823
00:43:40,239 --> 00:43:42,839
Speaker 1: call every Neil Young song You've ever heard, and it's

824
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:44,800
Speaker 1: this great parody song. It is a pretty dead on

825
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:47,919
Speaker 1: Neil Young impression and he's singing lyrics like dead Dog

826
00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:51,000
Speaker 1: line in the ditch, Cigarette Smoker has an itch? Can

827
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:52,160
Speaker 1: you can you do it? You can do a great

828
00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:57,000
Speaker 1: New Young impression. Can you sing that dead dog lying

829
00:43:57,160 --> 00:44:01,200
Speaker 1: in the ditch like Adam Sandler sigre? I can't do

830
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:05,560
Speaker 1: his vibrato. Smoker has an age. I don't know this song.

831
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:08,400
Speaker 1: I gotta look it up. It's pretty good, but uh

832
00:44:08,840 --> 00:44:11,239
Speaker 1: at the time when Harvest was released, And we'll talk

833
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:14,120
Speaker 1: more about the contemporary reviews later, but early reviews are

834
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:17,239
Speaker 1: really turned off by its kind of impenetrable lyrics, and

835
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:20,759
Speaker 1: Rolling Stone in their review thought the words for are

836
00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:24,280
Speaker 1: you ready for the Country? Seemed like an in joke throwaway.

837
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:27,080
Speaker 1: This is a quote intended for the amusement of certain

838
00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:30,440
Speaker 1: of Neil's superstar palells. I just thought it was already

839
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:32,520
Speaker 1: ready for some football. That's all I can think of

840
00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:36,239
Speaker 1: New Young being like all my rowdy friends are coming

841
00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:38,960
Speaker 1: over tonight. No, I don't know, there's a very like

842
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:41,440
Speaker 1: there's a book in me that I don't have or

843
00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:43,719
Speaker 1: someone else has probably already written about, like the way

844
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:48,719
Speaker 1: that Canadians see the American South, because like Candians and yeah,

845
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 1: like Canadian boonies are kind of similar to like American boonies.

846
00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:54,719
Speaker 1: I mean, like Rick Danko grew up on like a

847
00:44:54,800 --> 00:44:58,879
Speaker 1: tobacco farm, but Canadians seem to have this like maybe

848
00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:02,400
Speaker 1: because it's more cold, old rural versus hot rural, but

849
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:06,560
Speaker 1: they have this weird fixation on like American country music

850
00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:09,480
Speaker 1: in the South and like the ante Bellum South and

851
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:11,960
Speaker 1: everything I don't know, it's weird. Do we know any Canadians?

852
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:13,680
Speaker 1: Do you know any Canadians? Maybe we can get a

853
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:16,880
Speaker 1: Canadian on the show to talk about that. Wait at us,

854
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:20,400
Speaker 1: We're not going to do that. But now let's get

855
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:23,000
Speaker 1: to some of the real Let's shut up and play

856
00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:26,440
Speaker 1: the hits. Let's get to an Old Man, which what

857
00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:29,160
Speaker 1: a what a devastating track, which will become even more

858
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:33,480
Speaker 1: devastating when you hear the story about it. New Young

859
00:45:33,560 --> 00:45:39,080
Speaker 1: murders people. He stabs people in their heart and their mind,

860
00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:43,680
Speaker 1: and that extends to people he's worked with and members

861
00:45:43,719 --> 00:45:46,800
Speaker 1: of his own family. So Old Man, as many people know,

862
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:49,680
Speaker 1: was not written about his Dad's written about the guy

863
00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:52,319
Speaker 1: who kind of came with the Ranch, the guy who

864
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:56,040
Speaker 1: like came with Broken Arrow. His name man Ranch had

865
00:45:56,120 --> 00:46:00,400
Speaker 1: named Louis of Villa, and I guess you know met

866
00:46:00,520 --> 00:46:03,400
Speaker 1: him and wrote a song about him. And Neil Young's

867
00:46:03,480 --> 00:46:08,040
Speaker 1: dad was just Scott Young, blithely going through life talking

868
00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:11,080
Speaker 1: about how much he loved this hit that was presumably

869
00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:13,960
Speaker 1: written about him. And he he has an autobiography called

870
00:46:14,040 --> 00:46:17,680
Speaker 1: Neil and Me that he wrote, and he talks about

871
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:21,840
Speaker 1: the moment that he tells Neil he says, like, you know,

872
00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:24,320
Speaker 1: I really love that song that you uh that that

873
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:27,879
Speaker 1: old man that you wrote about me? And Neil tells

874
00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:31,400
Speaker 1: him to his face, Nope, not about you. It's about

875
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:38,439
Speaker 1: the guy who looks after my ranch, my handyman. Sorry, dad,

876
00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:40,959
Speaker 1: Like what why do you do that to your father?

877
00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:45,400
Speaker 1: Don't you just lie to him? Yeah? And so Scott

878
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:48,720
Speaker 1: Young caps this recollection in the autobiography by just writing

879
00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:55,239
Speaker 1: the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. So Neil

880
00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:58,319
Speaker 1: met Lewis when he was he was getting a tour

881
00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:03,520
Speaker 1: of the ranch, and um, Louis quite rightly asks him,

882
00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:07,920
Speaker 1: you know you are twenty five years old, although new

883
00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:10,719
Speaker 1: Young never looked twenty five. Neil Young was born at

884
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:14,800
Speaker 1: forty and has only gotten older since. But Louis, this

885
00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:17,120
Speaker 1: guy says, you know, like I said, quite rightly, how

886
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:21,160
Speaker 1: can you afford a three hundred and fifty thousand acre ranch?

887
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:25,000
Speaker 1: And Neil says, just lucky, Louis, just real lucky. Just

888
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:28,160
Speaker 1: just admit you made more money than God and you

889
00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:33,319
Speaker 1: blew it all on trying to launch Pno, that's right.

890
00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:34,920
Speaker 1: He did have to sell some of the ranch in

891
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:37,600
Speaker 1: recent years, and he I guess daving car piece he

892
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:39,320
Speaker 1: was talking about like, yeah, I need some money. I

893
00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:42,720
Speaker 1: wonder if it was Pono. I mean, his passions bankrupt

894
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:44,839
Speaker 1: him constantly. It's what kills me so much about him.

895
00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:46,560
Speaker 1: I think it is so funny. He spends all of

896
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:49,680
Speaker 1: his money on trains and trying to get Old Lincoln's

897
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 1: to like run on corn fuel and audio file qualities streaming,

898
00:47:54,840 --> 00:47:56,440
Speaker 1: and then he's just like, wow, now I don't have

899
00:47:56,480 --> 00:47:58,200
Speaker 1: any money and I have to go out to tour,

900
00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:01,960
Speaker 1: and like, well, Jesus, you guys made more money than

901
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:08,279
Speaker 1: God invests. You should have invested some of it. Anyway. Anyway, um,

902
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:12,120
Speaker 1: I mean back to old man man. As much as

903
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:13,719
Speaker 1: you sound like an old man right now, back to

904
00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:16,520
Speaker 1: old man. I mean, when you think about it, it's

905
00:48:16,560 --> 00:48:19,160
Speaker 1: really kind of an astonishing topic for a song, because

906
00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:22,160
Speaker 1: you know, Neil's coming out of this long period of

907
00:48:22,360 --> 00:48:26,799
Speaker 1: deep suspicion towards adults. You know, this is nineteen seventy one,

908
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:29,279
Speaker 1: at the time of the famous Generation gap, and you

909
00:48:29,320 --> 00:48:31,840
Speaker 1: know they're pippies wearing pins that say don't trust anyone

910
00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:34,080
Speaker 1: over thirty and all that. And you know, when Neil

911
00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:35,960
Speaker 1: Young was in Buffalo Springfield, he had you know, his

912
00:48:36,320 --> 00:48:39,399
Speaker 1: fellow l A clubmates the doors singing the end, which

913
00:48:39,480 --> 00:48:42,040
Speaker 1: as you know, father, I want to kill you, etcetera, etcetera.

914
00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:45,040
Speaker 1: And that sense of suspicion towards your parents. It had

915
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:47,440
Speaker 1: dissipated a bit by the dawn to the seventies, but

916
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:50,320
Speaker 1: it's still kind of hard to grasp how not cool

917
00:48:50,400 --> 00:48:52,360
Speaker 1: it was for you to look up to, you know,

918
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:55,239
Speaker 1: in quote, grown ups at this time, and it really

919
00:48:55,320 --> 00:48:56,880
Speaker 1: kind of seemed to fly in the face of this

920
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:00,040
Speaker 1: really rapidly fading kind of hippie ideal. And it's not

921
00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:04,080
Speaker 1: even it's not even the only Neil young parents, I mean,

922
00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:06,080
Speaker 1: not his parent, but it's not even the only parent

923
00:49:06,239 --> 00:49:09,920
Speaker 1: track on Harvest. Yes, that that's true. Speaking of crushing parents.

924
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:13,800
Speaker 1: The title track of Harvest has a really interesting and

925
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:19,359
Speaker 1: just emotionally devastating backstory. It's weird to me how overshadowed

926
00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:22,160
Speaker 1: Harvest the song is by other songs on this record,

927
00:49:22,239 --> 00:49:24,719
Speaker 1: because I mean, Neil apparently considers it one of his

928
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:26,719
Speaker 1: best songs that he ever wrote, and he's quoted as

929
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:29,960
Speaker 1: saying it's the best thing on Harvest. But the inspiration

930
00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:33,120
Speaker 1: is really brutal, and it maybe reveals some of Neil's

931
00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:37,719
Speaker 1: sadistic tendencies um According to account given by Carrie Snodgrass

932
00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:41,160
Speaker 1: in Jimmy McDonough's Shaky Book, she and Neil were tripping

933
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:45,000
Speaker 1: on LSD and he kept repeatedly asking her to describe

934
00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:48,759
Speaker 1: her mother, Caroline, who is a severe alcoholic, who would

935
00:49:48,760 --> 00:49:51,880
Speaker 1: I guess regularly feigned suicide in order to test the

936
00:49:51,960 --> 00:49:56,440
Speaker 1: love of her children. Which let's pause and reflect on

937
00:49:56,520 --> 00:49:58,839
Speaker 1: that for a moment, and also just side note how

938
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:03,279
Speaker 1: terrifying must an LSD field Neil Young b That must

939
00:50:03,360 --> 00:50:06,840
Speaker 1: be somebody that I do not want to cross paths with.

940
00:50:07,239 --> 00:50:09,600
Speaker 1: Have you ever done LSD Jordan's I have not, No,

941
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:12,760
Speaker 1: I have, And I'll tell you one thing you don't

942
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:18,359
Speaker 1: want to do is think about your parents and your

943
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:21,319
Speaker 1: past trauma. You have to do that in therapy now,

944
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:23,800
Speaker 1: like when you do like m D m A assisted therapy,

945
00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:27,640
Speaker 1: like people very gently guide you into like talking about

946
00:50:27,680 --> 00:50:29,640
Speaker 1: your past pain and stuff. And Neil Young is just

947
00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:33,720
Speaker 1: like they're doing like Owlsley Stanley acid like the purest

948
00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:37,200
Speaker 1: acid that's ever been invented, and he's probing her about

949
00:50:37,239 --> 00:50:41,480
Speaker 1: her parents, like her mom. That is dark, good god,

950
00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:44,360
Speaker 1: I mean, also it's worth noting that her mom, I

951
00:50:44,440 --> 00:50:47,279
Speaker 1: think lived with them on this. Yes, she was living

952
00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:49,120
Speaker 1: with him at the time, so she she doesn't even

953
00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:51,400
Speaker 1: really need to describe her. Yeah. So, I mean, I

954
00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:53,040
Speaker 1: guess when you put it that way, there's really I

955
00:50:53,120 --> 00:50:54,640
Speaker 1: was gonna try to give him the benefit of doubt

956
00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:56,000
Speaker 1: and be like, tell me about you know what your

957
00:50:56,040 --> 00:50:58,960
Speaker 1: mom was like. But I guess he knows exactly what

958
00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:02,520
Speaker 1: her mom was like because here and uh so. Yeah,

959
00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:07,000
Speaker 1: so it's kind of a troubling backstory. Apparently Neil played

960
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:08,840
Speaker 1: the song for her when he was working on the album,

961
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:11,040
Speaker 1: and when she heard it, she broke down in tears.

962
00:51:11,520 --> 00:51:13,680
Speaker 1: Uh so, I guess on some level. I don't know

963
00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:16,520
Speaker 1: if he told her explicitly, but it definitely resonated with

964
00:51:16,680 --> 00:51:21,919
Speaker 1: the inspiration behind the song. But grim, grim, Neil, come on, man,

965
00:51:22,360 --> 00:51:30,279
Speaker 1: that's unnecessary roughness. Onto a lighter topic, record record company finances. Yeah,

966
00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:33,760
Speaker 1: I mean, with the possible exception of the London Symphony

967
00:51:33,880 --> 00:51:38,239
Speaker 1: Orchestra John Harvest is like a bone cheap affair. They

968
00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:42,000
Speaker 1: paid to those Nashville guys session rates. They recorded in

969
00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:44,440
Speaker 1: a house and a barn. And with the exception, like

970
00:51:44,480 --> 00:51:47,000
Speaker 1: I said, of the London Symphony, Orchestra stuff. That's a

971
00:51:47,160 --> 00:51:52,200
Speaker 1: pretty cheap set of dates, and Maser estimated that thanks

972
00:51:52,239 --> 00:51:54,919
Speaker 1: to all of these aspects of its recording, it only

973
00:51:55,040 --> 00:52:00,640
Speaker 1: cost Warner Brothers fifty grand and it blew everybody's sales

974
00:52:00,680 --> 00:52:03,280
Speaker 1: predictions out of the water. I mean, two of Neil's

975
00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:06,759
Speaker 1: three career top forty hits Heart of Gold, Old Man

976
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:11,000
Speaker 1: are from this record. And what other famous records did

977
00:52:11,080 --> 00:52:14,880
Speaker 1: Harvest Murder? Oh yeah, I mean this outsold led Zeppelin,

978
00:52:14,960 --> 00:52:18,279
Speaker 1: This outsold Rolling Stones, Excelent on Main Street, Simon and

979
00:52:18,320 --> 00:52:22,560
Speaker 1: Garfuncle's Greatest Hits Record, which is a huge record, Ziggy Stardust,

980
00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:27,040
Speaker 1: Elton John, even Cheech and Chong, which I mean, I

981
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:28,600
Speaker 1: know it sounds like a joke now, but that was

982
00:52:28,640 --> 00:52:31,759
Speaker 1: a huge seller then too. The second place that year

983
00:52:31,880 --> 00:52:34,759
Speaker 1: was Tapestry, Carol King's Tapestry, and that was in the

984
00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:36,960
Speaker 1: second place for the second year in a row. But

985
00:52:37,120 --> 00:52:39,120
Speaker 1: it was the biggest seller of nineteen seventy two, and

986
00:52:39,320 --> 00:52:41,239
Speaker 1: Part of Gold, as you said, went to number one.

987
00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:46,000
Speaker 1: It was Neil's I imagine, only number one. Pretty insane,

988
00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:48,000
Speaker 1: you know, you don't really think of it as being

989
00:52:48,400 --> 00:52:51,440
Speaker 1: a tapestry size smash, or at least I don't. I

990
00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:54,239
Speaker 1: knew a guy who used to tell you he was

991
00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:56,880
Speaker 1: a record store clerk, and I was talking to him

992
00:52:56,880 --> 00:52:58,360
Speaker 1: about prices, and he was like, you know what I

993
00:52:58,480 --> 00:53:00,320
Speaker 1: used to tell if a record store is ripping me

994
00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:04,360
Speaker 1: off is Harvest. There are so many damn copies of

995
00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:06,200
Speaker 1: that record floating around out there. And then if I

996
00:53:06,280 --> 00:53:09,560
Speaker 1: go into a record store and somebody's asking, like above

997
00:53:09,680 --> 00:53:12,439
Speaker 1: ten dollars for a used record of Harvest, they're full

998
00:53:12,920 --> 00:53:16,200
Speaker 1: and they're gouging you. Which it's to continue to be

999
00:53:16,320 --> 00:53:19,960
Speaker 1: my barometer of record store price fairness. Well, there was

1000
00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:23,880
Speaker 1: very nearly a lot fewer copies of Harvest because apparently

1001
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:27,959
Speaker 1: Neil originally wanted the cover of the record to disintegrate,

1002
00:53:29,160 --> 00:53:31,879
Speaker 1: which is a very Neil thing. He wanted to cover

1003
00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:35,239
Speaker 1: to basically biodegrade after the shrink rap was broken, but

1004
00:53:35,560 --> 00:53:38,800
Speaker 1: was understandably overruled by the record company based on not

1005
00:53:38,880 --> 00:53:43,040
Speaker 1: only the expense of coming up with a biodegradable record sleeve,

1006
00:53:43,080 --> 00:53:46,280
Speaker 1: which is insane, but also just you know, possible product

1007
00:53:46,400 --> 00:53:50,359
Speaker 1: loss due to shipping accidents. The record company also said,

1008
00:53:50,440 --> 00:53:52,680
Speaker 1: you know, Neil, we'd love to have a picture of

1009
00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:55,160
Speaker 1: you for this, because you're you're not on the cover. No,

1010
00:53:55,600 --> 00:53:57,440
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't want to do that. Yeah, I

1011
00:53:57,480 --> 00:53:59,799
Speaker 1: don't want to do that. So in response to their

1012
00:54:00,080 --> 00:54:02,520
Speaker 1: us for a picture, he sent a blurry photo of

1013
00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:05,879
Speaker 1: his own reflection in a door knob. In some ways,

1014
00:54:05,920 --> 00:54:09,040
Speaker 1: Neil Young is like that guy from your college dorm

1015
00:54:09,200 --> 00:54:12,920
Speaker 1: who's just like, has the worst ideas about everything and

1016
00:54:13,160 --> 00:54:15,799
Speaker 1: is like a major pill to deal with. But then

1017
00:54:15,880 --> 00:54:18,840
Speaker 1: we'll like sit down and break your heart with a

1018
00:54:19,440 --> 00:54:22,680
Speaker 1: little acoustic ballot. I mean, god, dealing with him must

1019
00:54:22,680 --> 00:54:28,040
Speaker 1: be such a unique hell, you know, Like it's someone

1020
00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:31,440
Speaker 1: like David Crosby, Like he's motivated by like drugs and sex,

1021
00:54:31,600 --> 00:54:35,839
Speaker 1: like Stephen Steeles is motivated by like ego. Graham Nash

1022
00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:41,040
Speaker 1: is motivated by being English, and what the for Neil

1023
00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:46,040
Speaker 1: Young's motivations. He wants to cause psychic pain, turn people

1024
00:54:46,200 --> 00:54:53,080
Speaker 1: off of hard drugs, and and what I'd say, go green,

1025
00:54:53,320 --> 00:54:55,520
Speaker 1: I don't, Oh my god, what a what? I'm fascinating.

1026
00:54:55,560 --> 00:55:01,000
Speaker 1: Two of those three are not, are you know, very legitimate? Yea, Waters, Yeah,

1027
00:55:01,160 --> 00:55:03,600
Speaker 1: that's fair, that's fair. So we talked a little bit

1028
00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:08,200
Speaker 1: about Bob Dylan earlier, and Bob Dylan has thoughts about

1029
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:10,200
Speaker 1: a heart of Gold. You have to remember at the

1030
00:55:10,280 --> 00:55:14,120
Speaker 1: time that Bob Dylan has basically been midwifing his career

1031
00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:20,600
Speaker 1: transition from speed adult garage rocker to autumnal long haired

1032
00:55:21,160 --> 00:55:23,680
Speaker 1: you know, country rock, Troubadour. I mean, he's he's even

1033
00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:27,520
Speaker 1: singing differently, like on Nashville Skyline. He quit smoking and

1034
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:30,479
Speaker 1: his voice is completely changes, and which is weird because

1035
00:55:30,480 --> 00:55:33,000
Speaker 1: he sounds like he's smoking more. Yeah, yeah, is so

1036
00:55:33,120 --> 00:55:35,520
Speaker 1: much lower. But by the time that Harvest comes out,

1037
00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:37,920
Speaker 1: he had just done self portrait, he had done New Morning,

1038
00:55:38,640 --> 00:55:42,279
Speaker 1: and apparently many people were asking him what he thought

1039
00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:46,000
Speaker 1: of Harvest and specifically what he thought of Old Man

1040
00:55:46,200 --> 00:55:48,920
Speaker 1: around this time period, because you know, we mentioned that

1041
00:55:49,040 --> 00:55:52,799
Speaker 1: Young says that Dylan liked a man needs a maid.

1042
00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:56,359
Speaker 1: But Dylan is talking to spin In. He's talking about

1043
00:55:56,360 --> 00:55:58,520
Speaker 1: people who sounded like him. He said, the only time

1044
00:55:58,560 --> 00:56:00,680
Speaker 1: it bothered me that someone sound like me was when

1045
00:56:00,719 --> 00:56:03,520
Speaker 1: I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, in about seventy two,

1046
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:07,520
Speaker 1: which I have questions about that, and the big song

1047
00:56:07,600 --> 00:56:10,320
Speaker 1: at the time was Heard of Gold. Dylan says, it

1048
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:13,360
Speaker 1: seemed to me somebody else had taken my thing and

1049
00:56:13,520 --> 00:56:16,359
Speaker 1: had run away with it. You know, and I never

1050
00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:19,040
Speaker 1: got over it, which is weird a because what was

1051
00:56:19,080 --> 00:56:22,040
Speaker 1: Bob Dylan doing in Phoenix And I don't I don't

1052
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:23,840
Speaker 1: even know if I want to know that story. But

1053
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:26,440
Speaker 1: he also covers it. He covered it in two thousand two.

1054
00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:31,040
Speaker 1: So Jordan's let's contextualize all of this for me, right.

1055
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:33,920
Speaker 1: I mean, not that Bob Dylan needs any more credit

1056
00:56:34,080 --> 00:56:37,200
Speaker 1: for anything, but he really signaled the beginning of these

1057
00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:39,759
Speaker 1: you know, rock stars and rock with the Capitol are

1058
00:56:40,160 --> 00:56:42,200
Speaker 1: who had gotten their start in the folk world and

1059
00:56:42,320 --> 00:56:44,600
Speaker 1: had grown tired with the kind of amped up psych

1060
00:56:44,719 --> 00:56:47,480
Speaker 1: rock and which is not super far removed from what

1061
00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:49,479
Speaker 1: you mentioned about, you know, the kind of garage rocky

1062
00:56:49,520 --> 00:56:51,960
Speaker 1: stuff he was doing with the group will become the

1063
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:54,680
Speaker 1: band and in sixty six with the Blonde Blonde era

1064
00:56:54,840 --> 00:56:59,200
Speaker 1: stuff kind of reverting back to their Americana roots, and

1065
00:56:59,560 --> 00:57:02,359
Speaker 1: many would follow suit. I mean, you've got, as I said,

1066
00:57:02,440 --> 00:57:04,160
Speaker 1: you know, his old backing group, the band or a

1067
00:57:04,239 --> 00:57:07,040
Speaker 1: great example, and they would release uh songs from Big

1068
00:57:07,160 --> 00:57:11,640
Speaker 1: Pink soon after Dylan's John Wesley Harding album in sixty seven.

1069
00:57:12,160 --> 00:57:15,359
Speaker 1: And you know, in California, many ex Folkeys were congregating

1070
00:57:15,360 --> 00:57:18,240
Speaker 1: at places like the Troubadour and the Ash Grove and

1071
00:57:18,320 --> 00:57:21,360
Speaker 1: they would integrate country music into their folk influences and

1072
00:57:21,560 --> 00:57:25,000
Speaker 1: rock roots. And this was kind of a radical move

1073
00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:28,040
Speaker 1: in the mid to late sixties because country music at

1074
00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:29,800
Speaker 1: that time was kind of seen as having kind of

1075
00:57:29,880 --> 00:57:33,160
Speaker 1: a dirty name, kind of a conservative you know. Musical

1076
00:57:33,160 --> 00:57:35,400
Speaker 1: at that point was sort of seen as being this

1077
00:57:35,520 --> 00:57:39,000
Speaker 1: very forward thinking of people like Brian Wilson and the Beatles,

1078
00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:42,080
Speaker 1: all about pioneering, all about the future. Like people didn't

1079
00:57:42,120 --> 00:57:45,720
Speaker 1: really look backwards that much until you have John Leslie

1080
00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:48,560
Speaker 1: Harding the band Big Pink and their self titled album

1081
00:57:48,600 --> 00:57:51,120
Speaker 1: and some of like Graham Parsons encouraging the Birds to

1082
00:57:51,200 --> 00:57:53,880
Speaker 1: go to Nashville and make Sweetheart of the Rodeo. You know,

1083
00:57:53,960 --> 00:57:56,600
Speaker 1: they're covering like the old Luven Brothers songs and Luke

1084
00:57:56,680 --> 00:57:59,520
Speaker 1: McDaniel and stuff like that. And you know, because I

1085
00:57:59,600 --> 00:58:01,160
Speaker 1: was saying, that kind of show that after years of

1086
00:58:01,240 --> 00:58:04,520
Speaker 1: looking forward as studio pioneers, there was a lot to

1087
00:58:04,560 --> 00:58:07,400
Speaker 1: be learned from looking backward too. And Neil Young had

1088
00:58:07,400 --> 00:58:09,640
Speaker 1: grown up in Canada, whereas you were saying earlier, the

1089
00:58:09,720 --> 00:58:14,320
Speaker 1: relationship between folk and country was really strong and um

1090
00:58:14,960 --> 00:58:17,880
Speaker 1: being really intimately involved in the southern California scene with

1091
00:58:18,040 --> 00:58:21,080
Speaker 1: you know his time Buffalo Springfield and Crosby Stills. Nash

1092
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:24,800
Speaker 1: you get Poco, you get Flying Burrito Brothers, you get

1093
00:58:24,840 --> 00:58:27,880
Speaker 1: all these kind of country influence groups at the dawn

1094
00:58:27,920 --> 00:58:31,440
Speaker 1: of the seventies. So you know Neil's shift from these

1095
00:58:31,560 --> 00:58:35,680
Speaker 1: kind of like wall of sound expecting to fly stuff

1096
00:58:35,720 --> 00:58:37,760
Speaker 1: that he was doing with Jack Nietsche and the Buffalo

1097
00:58:37,800 --> 00:58:41,040
Speaker 1: Springfield to even his first solo record that everybody hates

1098
00:58:41,080 --> 00:58:43,200
Speaker 1: that I love, so then moving into this kind of

1099
00:58:43,320 --> 00:58:47,040
Speaker 1: Nashville based country tinge stuff. It wasn't that extreme of

1100
00:58:47,120 --> 00:58:48,960
Speaker 1: a shift as a lot of people might think. A

1101
00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:50,520
Speaker 1: lot of people were doing it at that time in

1102
00:58:50,560 --> 00:58:53,240
Speaker 1: the early seventies. It's also funny that he went to

1103
00:58:53,880 --> 00:58:58,360
Speaker 1: Nashville for this because the other big sound from country

1104
00:58:58,440 --> 00:59:01,760
Speaker 1: music in this era is the baker Field sound, and um,

1105
00:59:01,920 --> 00:59:05,240
Speaker 1: when you think about Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, like

1106
00:59:05,360 --> 00:59:10,280
Speaker 1: those guys were basically the diametric opposite of Nashville, I

1107
00:59:10,320 --> 00:59:12,800
Speaker 1: mean Nashville. At this point, he's like your Patsy Kleines

1108
00:59:12,880 --> 00:59:16,480
Speaker 1: with like orchestra and pop music. It's country pop. And

1109
00:59:16,520 --> 00:59:19,520
Speaker 1: then you get guys like Buck Owens and Merl Haggard.

1110
00:59:19,760 --> 00:59:23,200
Speaker 1: The Bakersfield sound. He's like got a backbeat, electric guitars,

1111
00:59:23,800 --> 00:59:27,320
Speaker 1: and that's an influence on guys like um, John Fogerty

1112
00:59:27,440 --> 00:59:30,000
Speaker 1: is like a huge Merle Haggard fan. And and so

1113
00:59:30,160 --> 00:59:33,120
Speaker 1: it's funny to me that Neil picked Nashville because the

1114
00:59:33,160 --> 00:59:35,320
Speaker 1: stuff that he had done on everybody knows and like

1115
00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:38,560
Speaker 1: the Crazy Horse stuff seems so much more akin to

1116
00:59:38,760 --> 00:59:42,479
Speaker 1: Bakersfield Country than it does Nashville. That's just my two cents.

1117
00:59:42,680 --> 00:59:44,160
Speaker 1: It was probably a mix of him not only just

1118
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:46,760
Speaker 1: actually being there to do the Johnny Cash, but also

1119
00:59:46,840 --> 00:59:49,360
Speaker 1: I mean Dylan recorded Blond blon there. I mean it

1120
00:59:49,440 --> 00:59:51,840
Speaker 1: was good enough for him, and you know, he clearly

1121
00:59:51,880 --> 00:59:54,800
Speaker 1: admired Dylan a great deal. So I'm sure just you know,

1122
00:59:55,320 --> 00:59:57,560
Speaker 1: ease of just happy to be here at this moment

1123
00:59:57,640 --> 01:00:00,440
Speaker 1: and have a great opportunity. Plus you know, fact that

1124
01:00:00,880 --> 01:00:03,920
Speaker 1: somebody who was a really influence on him probably explains

1125
01:00:03,960 --> 01:00:06,400
Speaker 1: how he wound up there. But you know, regardless of

1126
01:00:06,600 --> 01:00:09,920
Speaker 1: how this record has come to be thought of in

1127
01:00:10,000 --> 01:00:13,680
Speaker 1: the cannon of like mid century American rock and folk,

1128
01:00:13,800 --> 01:00:16,520
Speaker 1: and regardless of how well it's sold, it was not

1129
01:00:16,680 --> 01:00:21,240
Speaker 1: a big critical slam dunk. John Mendelsohn wrote in Rolling Stone,

1130
01:00:21,440 --> 01:00:23,720
Speaker 1: which has become one of the most famous pans, he

1131
01:00:24,920 --> 01:00:27,760
Speaker 1: ripped it and he used, I mean, it's like the

1132
01:00:27,840 --> 01:00:31,760
Speaker 1: spinal tap reviews bit he uses the phrase half asked,

1133
01:00:31,880 --> 01:00:38,280
Speaker 1: bologny and flatulent and portentous nonsense. I think he used

1134
01:00:38,320 --> 01:00:41,880
Speaker 1: the word flaccid in there too, and he said it

1135
01:00:41,960 --> 01:00:46,200
Speaker 1: was a disappointing retread of earlier, better Young releases. That

1136
01:00:46,320 --> 01:00:51,280
Speaker 1: seems unfair. It's not inaccurate, but it's like two, it's virile,

1137
01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:53,680
Speaker 1: I mean, that's new Young. Yeah, he plays the same

1138
01:00:53,760 --> 01:00:57,520
Speaker 1: six chords in different and beautiful ways like it's whatever,

1139
01:00:57,640 --> 01:01:00,400
Speaker 1: it's fine, but yeah. Rolling Stone would be verse their

1140
01:01:00,440 --> 01:01:05,320
Speaker 1: course later and joined the throng of supporters for Harvest,

1141
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:10,840
Speaker 1: including Chart magazine, which pulled readers to determine the fifty

1142
01:01:10,880 --> 01:01:14,959
Speaker 1: greatest Canadian albums of all time. Harvest took number two

1143
01:01:15,320 --> 01:01:20,440
Speaker 1: in polls that were conducted in two thousand, two thousand five.

1144
01:01:20,720 --> 01:01:23,440
Speaker 1: It was stuck at number two all three of those times. Yes,

1145
01:01:23,760 --> 01:01:26,320
Speaker 1: what was number one? Was this something by like Rush

1146
01:01:26,520 --> 01:01:29,280
Speaker 1: or like Gordon Lightfoot's greatest hits? Like what the hell?

1147
01:01:29,520 --> 01:01:33,880
Speaker 1: Tragically was it? Really? No? What was number one Bare

1148
01:01:33,960 --> 01:01:43,040
Speaker 1: Naked Ladies. See No. Number one was Blue. Oh okay, alright,

1149
01:01:43,160 --> 01:01:45,760
Speaker 1: and see Harvest taken a backseat to Blue. Yeah, I

1150
01:01:45,880 --> 01:01:50,000
Speaker 1: stand corrected. Yeah. And so one of the defining statements

1151
01:01:50,080 --> 01:01:51,880
Speaker 1: on the record comes from Neil himself. You know, he

1152
01:01:52,200 --> 01:01:56,160
Speaker 1: wrote the liner notes to his career Retrospective Decade, and

1153
01:01:56,280 --> 01:01:58,960
Speaker 1: he wrote, of Heart of Gold, this song put me

1154
01:01:59,040 --> 01:02:02,000
Speaker 1: in the middle of the ode. Traveling here soon became

1155
01:02:02,040 --> 01:02:05,040
Speaker 1: a bore, so I headed for the ditch, a rougher ride,

1156
01:02:05,200 --> 01:02:08,320
Speaker 1: but I met more interesting people there. So he writes this,

1157
01:02:08,480 --> 01:02:12,440
Speaker 1: and then he goes on to make three perversely trashy

1158
01:02:12,960 --> 01:02:16,440
Speaker 1: and like heavier records. Um he does on the Beach,

1159
01:02:17,000 --> 01:02:20,760
Speaker 1: he does Tonight's the Night, and he does what's the

1160
01:02:20,840 --> 01:02:23,600
Speaker 1: third one? Well. He follows up Harvest with Time Fades Away,

1161
01:02:23,680 --> 01:02:26,560
Speaker 1: which is a live album of new material, and it

1162
01:02:26,960 --> 01:02:29,840
Speaker 1: obviously doesn't do anywhere nearly as well as Harvest. And

1163
01:02:29,920 --> 01:02:31,919
Speaker 1: he would later say it was a quote people thought

1164
01:02:31,960 --> 01:02:34,160
Speaker 1: that I had failed with that record, but I knew

1165
01:02:34,200 --> 01:02:37,760
Speaker 1: I'd succeeded because I had succeeded in moving on. I

1166
01:02:37,960 --> 01:02:40,520
Speaker 1: wasn't dragged down by success, which I think you know

1167
01:02:40,600 --> 01:02:42,720
Speaker 1: you're getting on like what motivates Neil. I mean, I

1168
01:02:42,760 --> 01:02:45,560
Speaker 1: think that's a pretty good indicator. It kind of encapsulates

1169
01:02:45,600 --> 01:02:48,920
Speaker 1: a lot of his m right there. Uh. Later, he

1170
01:02:49,120 --> 01:02:51,560
Speaker 1: was later asked if he enjoyed the Harvest sessions, and

1171
01:02:51,640 --> 01:02:53,800
Speaker 1: he said, I don't know if I enjoyed it. I

1172
01:02:53,960 --> 01:02:56,920
Speaker 1: was just experiencing it. I mean, it was very intense.

1173
01:02:57,400 --> 01:02:59,720
Speaker 1: People saw something in me that I didn't see in

1174
01:03:00,800 --> 01:03:02,880
Speaker 1: classic Neil. You know, as you said, he always talked

1175
01:03:02,920 --> 01:03:04,760
Speaker 1: about how this record put him in a box, but

1176
01:03:04,840 --> 01:03:07,120
Speaker 1: he immediately wanted to get out of and hence his

1177
01:03:07,240 --> 01:03:09,920
Speaker 1: famous move into the ditch. But you know, as you

1178
01:03:10,000 --> 01:03:13,160
Speaker 1: also said, he looked back at it with affection in

1179
01:03:13,240 --> 01:03:16,960
Speaker 1: a very Neil kind of way. And you know, I mean,

1180
01:03:17,040 --> 01:03:18,840
Speaker 1: he would also admit that he would never really be

1181
01:03:18,920 --> 01:03:22,160
Speaker 1: able to return to that emotional place again. And there's

1182
01:03:22,160 --> 01:03:24,600
Speaker 1: a great BBC documentary on Neil. I think it's from

1183
01:03:24,640 --> 01:03:27,480
Speaker 1: like two thousand seven. It's on YouTube. And he'd say,

1184
01:03:27,880 --> 01:03:30,600
Speaker 1: you know, about Harvest, how many sensitive songs can you

1185
01:03:30,680 --> 01:03:33,160
Speaker 1: write before you're just writing a sensitive song and then

1186
01:03:33,200 --> 01:03:35,960
Speaker 1: it's not sensitive because it's not real. You can't live

1187
01:03:36,040 --> 01:03:39,640
Speaker 1: up to expectations. I was very open and expressive I

1188
01:03:39,720 --> 01:03:41,720
Speaker 1: still try to be that way, but I'm not twenty

1189
01:03:41,760 --> 01:03:43,840
Speaker 1: two or whatever I was at the time. It's like

1190
01:03:43,960 --> 01:03:46,240
Speaker 1: Bob Dylan says he doesn't know who it was that

1191
01:03:46,320 --> 01:03:48,240
Speaker 1: wrote Blowing in the Wind. He's not sure where that

1192
01:03:48,360 --> 01:03:51,240
Speaker 1: person is. That was a long time ago. That's how

1193
01:03:51,280 --> 01:03:54,040
Speaker 1: I feel about Harvest. That was us, it was proven

1194
01:03:54,120 --> 01:03:56,200
Speaker 1: it was me, but I'm not sure I could recreate

1195
01:03:56,280 --> 01:03:58,760
Speaker 1: that feeling. It asked to do with how old I was,

1196
01:03:59,040 --> 01:04:01,320
Speaker 1: what was happening in the war, old, what I'd just done,

1197
01:04:01,720 --> 01:04:04,320
Speaker 1: and what I wanted to do next. And I thought

1198
01:04:04,360 --> 01:04:05,800
Speaker 1: that was I don't know, one of the more honest

1199
01:04:05,840 --> 01:04:09,640
Speaker 1: and clear eyed descriptions of an artistic peak from the

1200
01:04:09,720 --> 01:04:13,200
Speaker 1: vantage point of many decades later. I mean, regardless of

1201
01:04:13,200 --> 01:04:15,360
Speaker 1: whether or not he feels that he can't access the

1202
01:04:16,240 --> 01:04:19,760
Speaker 1: emotions that let him create Harvest, or whether it's become

1203
01:04:19,840 --> 01:04:22,520
Speaker 1: a kind of albatross around his neck. He's also called

1204
01:04:22,560 --> 01:04:26,840
Speaker 1: it probably the finest record I've ever made, So that's

1205
01:04:26,880 --> 01:04:30,720
Speaker 1: a good defining statement. And whatever his thoughts are, it's

1206
01:04:30,720 --> 01:04:35,920
Speaker 1: still better than trans. Well, we'll get into trans on

1207
01:04:36,000 --> 01:04:40,880
Speaker 1: a future episode, but there are definitely too well. Uh,

1208
01:04:41,160 --> 01:04:43,600
Speaker 1: I think that's about all we got for harvest. What

1209
01:04:43,640 --> 01:04:48,000
Speaker 1: do you think I'm ready to head to the ditch. Well,

1210
01:04:48,080 --> 01:04:49,680
Speaker 1: it's been great talk to you. I hope you all

1211
01:04:49,720 --> 01:04:53,439
Speaker 1: enjoyed listening. My name is Jordan's and I'm Alex. Thank

1212
01:04:53,480 --> 01:04:55,080
Speaker 1: you so much for listening. We'll catch you next time.

1213
01:05:01,240 --> 01:05:03,720
Speaker 1: Too Much Information was a production of I Heart Radio.

1214
01:05:04,000 --> 01:05:07,200
Speaker 1: The show's executive producers are Noel Brown and Jordan Runtalk.

1215
01:05:07,360 --> 01:05:10,560
Speaker 1: The supervising producer is Mike John's. The show was researched,

1216
01:05:10,720 --> 01:05:13,760
Speaker 1: written and hosted by Jordan Runtalk and Alex Heigel, with

1217
01:05:13,880 --> 01:05:16,840
Speaker 1: original music by Seth Applebaum and the Ghost Funk Orchestra.

1218
01:05:17,360 --> 01:05:19,360
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave

1219
01:05:19,440 --> 01:05:22,320
Speaker 1: us a review. For more podcasts on iHeart Radio, visit

1220
01:05:22,320 --> 01:05:25,200
Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you

1221
01:05:25,320 --> 01:05:26,440
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.