I am venturing to tackle this list, “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. I’ve listened to many, many of them before, but in an effort to really pay attention, I’m starting all over. I had originally planned to start at the end of the list, but I realized how much I really don’t want to listen to some of those. Then I thought about starting at the beginning, but I didn’t want to get stuck in certain musical eras. This is going to be completely random, meaning I open the spreadsheet that I made and click on a random square while not looking. I don’t think I can get more random than that.
The first album that was selected is Neil Young’s Harvest.
People hated on this album because of it’s commercialization, often criticizing Young for essentially selling out and going mainstream. I think this is one of his best works, but it is not without flaws. Sometimes it flows, sometimes it doesn’t (for example, the orchestra was not needed for “There’s a World,” but it was a perfect fit for “A Man Needs a Maid”). It can definitely symbolize the “coming of age” of sorts of the generation that left the San Francisco movement behind and grew up.
This album was intended to be a country album. “Out On The Weekend,” the opening track, is complete merger of country and folk music, and I find it glorious. The use of a slide guitar in some music tends to be borderline annoying, unless they do it right. On this album, it was done right. It definitely has it’s country music influence that is obvious, but I don’t think it should really be classified as a country album.
“Alabama” was probably the end all of the whole Neil Young vs. Lynyrd Skynard feud – they popularized the musical battles way before that whole East Coast/West Coast hip hop debacle. Completely facetious and I love it.
The tracks average about 3 minutes long, so if you’re looking for something you can lose yourself in, you have about an hour to do it. You’ve all heard “Heart of Gold,” Young’s best-selling single. If you like that one, do yourself a favor and listen to this entire album. It’s not the best well-balanced album out there, but when you’re listening, you tend to not pay attention to that. “Harvest” reaffirms the musical genius that is Neil Young.
