In this video, we’re comparing the Neil Young Harvest US Original with the Chris Bellman Cut 2009. Which version of the album is better?
Neil Young was 26 when he landed the biggest success of his career. “Harvest” is a masterpiece
Neil Young already had three solo albums behind him when he released the album “Harvest” in February 1972. With “Harvest” Neil Young hits the heart of the masses. It becomes the best-selling album of 1972 in the U.S. and contains his only Billboard number one hit ever: “Heart Of Gold”. In total, the album has sold over 7 million copies to date.
His fellow musicians on the album are Linda Ronstadt, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Jack Nitzsche, James Taylor, Ben Keith and others.
Harvest is the fourth studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released February 1, 1972 by Reprise Records, catalogue number MS 2032. It featured the London Symphony Orchestra on two tracks and vocals by noted guests David Crosby, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Stills, and James Taylor. It topped the Billboard 200 album chart[2] for two weeks, and spawned two hit singles, “Old Man”, which peaked at No. 31 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and “Heart of Gold”, which reached No. 1.[3] It was the best-selling album of 1972 in the United States.[4] The album has since remained Neil Young’s signature album as well as his best selling.[5][6]
In 2015, Harvest was inducted into the
After the members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young went their separate ways in 1970, Young recruited a group of country session musicians (which he christened The Stray Gators) and recorded a country rock record, Harvest. The record was a massive hit, producing a US number one single in “Heart of Gold”. Other songs returned to some usual Young themes: “The Needle and the Damage Done” was a lament for great artists who had been addicted to heroin, including Crazy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten; “Alabama” was “an unblushing rehash of ‘Southern Man'”;[8] to which American southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote their 1973 hit “Sweet Home Alabama” in reply, stating “I hope Neil Young will remember, a Southern Man don’t need him around, anyhow”. Young later wrote of “Alabama” in his autobiography Waging Heavy Peace, saying it “richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don’t like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue.”[9] “Words (Between the Lines of Age)”, the last song on the album, featured a lengthy guitar workout with the band.
The album’s success caught Young off guard and his first instinct was to back away from stardom. He would later write that the record “put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there.”[10]
According to a note posted on Young’s official website on May 1, 2019, much of Harvest “was written about or for Carrie Snodgress, a wonderful actress and person and Zeke Young’s mother.”[11]
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Hey Michael it may interest you to know that Neil himself is quite famous for slight remixes and remasters even way back in the day.
A few examples would be his first self titled lp which was changed and 4 songs remixed and remastered shortly after release.
After the Gold Rush got an un talked about remaster by Neil himself around 1975.
So with Neil it might be worth a little extra time to research older lps to see if the man himself changed anything.
I want to say Everybody Knows this is Nowhere may also have gone through that process as well. Id need to check that one.
Anyway good video as always!
I have 3 og copies. I'll now have to ,listen to them. Btw the jackets all look the same. They aren't that dark.
Hello Michael,
Any plans of doing the comparison of Clapton Unplugged Mofi vs Bellman’s cut?
The issue is availability of reliably good quality originals. If I have my own copy, well looked after for 45 years I’m good. But if its a title I don’t already have I will go with a quality label reissue.
Michael your videos are becoming addictive. I have both the original is the better sounding.
Second hand records like Harvest should cost 5 eur in flea markets. Keep your euros to purchase gas…
Been a fan of Neil young since High School however I was never a big fan of his voice way back. It reminded me of the sound a cat would make if someone was pulling a cat by its tail and head! Never stopped me from buying his albums.
Great video again Michael! BTW, Revolver Deluxe Vinyl Boxset is available for pre-orders now…:) And on some streaming services an advance of 'Taxman' 2022 remix is out to listen o now, the one I've got is at 96khz.
Hasn’t Neil kept our wallets busy with the reissue of CSNY Deja Vu? Also a Chris Bellman.
Hi Michael. Back again after a good nights sleep listening to Zuma on the headphones. Bliss. I agree with Manfred Stock's comment below – but at least Michael did not suggest that Neil might be British! Funnily, enough I have many hundreds of original UK pressings as that is where I grew up. And back in the day we listened to the songs and the music for what they were and a remaster or repress was not an option. A REPRESS maybe sure, but we took what we could get. I must say though, NY is well known for his attention to quality and his sourcing of master tapes etc. and the Harvest remaster for example sounds damn good and if it doesn't sound exactly like the original (why the UK anyway? NY and Reprise are American aren't they? Surely the original source tapes did not originate in a small town in England) then that is because NY took the opportunity to fix it 50 years later. He is the ARTIST taking control of his output; if that's not good enough then what is? Stick with the NY Masters is my advice. And to Manfred's main point finally; I moved to Berlin in 1997 and guess what? Yes, most of my LPs since then are German pressings. And guess what's wrong with them? Absolutely nothing. They are fine and I can prove to anyone that German pressings are just as good as an 'original' UK or USA pressing. Honestly, if you see the German pressing plant 'ALSDORF' stamped in the dead wax you know you have that famous 'Made In Germany' quality in your hand. I think we make to much of this object sometimes and I mentioned it before but (almost) ANY new version of an LP has a head start over my 50+ year old copy. Keep up the good work and don't forget Blondie are NOT British neither are the Monkees nor The Velvet Underground but The Beatles are 🙂
101ST comment. mike is spot on yet again. chris bellman knows his way around the console and is g8 at cutting discs. RKS as well. if one likes thie NY LP a lot, then one should go for both the OG and the CB
Harvest war die dritte Platte überhaupt, die ich mir gekauft habe. Unterprima, 1972. 🎶
Has Linda Ronstadt 👍🏻
Hi Michael 👋 you need to hear 🦻 1st pressings of Neil Young Harvest Leo Hulko Stirling sound pressing I have many different versions.
I'm a Neil Young nutter I much perfer the Hulko ✂️ cut it's very hard to find Neil Young went to record shops buying as many of the Leo Hulko Stirling pressing back from retailers because he didn'tnot like the live feel…
I personally like it very much indeed such Grail copy to own as the story goes!
Neil lined these copies up in his barn and shot a crates of this pressing to destroy as many he could find….
The Leo Hulko Stirling pressing is a live music feel you can hear the recording room presence and air with Neil's fingers scraping guitar strings you can hear with in the recording session with all musician's this is a amazing find this pressing such a grailin nm conditionnot many surviving from Neil's buy back….
So say it is the Grail of all Neil's album's I have to agree I found two Leo Hulko Stirling pressings lucky me…
Michael you Neil Young fan you need this copy it is a true Icon mate happy hunting 👍 🇦🇺
I have that 2009 issue – it’s the only copy I have: it was a Neil Young album I never got when I was younger as it was ‘the commercial one’. Not so of course. Anyway it was quite expensive in the shop – about £30 but it sounds fantastic. I got my Blondie box set yesterday and what a thing of beauty it is.
Michael, love this format. Engaging content that's unique to your channel and gives viewers a reason to come back. So much more interesting than the constant streams discussing reissues coming from this source or that. I always appreciate and seem to reach for my originals more than my spendy audiophile releases (I do buy them and listen to them). It's a more pure experience for me – almost feels as if it's a closer connection the to story the artist and engineers where telling at that time. Also more gratifying to have had them for so long or find them out there in the wild. Thanks M – keep 'em coming.
P.S. my German language Kraftwerk albums arrived. Thanks for putting me on to them
Unless the artist was very unhappy with the original at the time it was released and it was not his/her vision, I always stick with originals not matter how much "better" the remixed, remastered, better pressings, etc, reissues are.
Great video and comments on Neil Young—totally agree on your comparisons of reissue v. Original. But note- true original has kind of a speckled oatmeal paper textured cover— with L.H. for Lee Hulko in deadwax. Check it out, maybe you can do a part II— these pressings slay the re-issue!
The Bellman is likely more true to the tape. Added analogue compression on the original? Different cutting chain and different EQ choices. The aim of a reissue is not to replicate the original vinyl pressing. I think Bellman sounds better but originals have the attraction of being the historic artifact.
Hi Michael, the original cover you have is how it should be (it's not faded). When I first saw the cover of the 2009 remaster I thought it looked tacky (I still do think that). – Ian
I still believe that the original is almost always better. The tapes were fresh, you know for sure it was all ANALOG and the pressing plant technology was at the height of its dominance. This is of course relative to 1960s-1990s
The original jacket is a highly textured paper product. Yours is a later pressing. I have several.