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An unofficial news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat with concert and album updates, reviews, analysis, and other Rock & Roll ramblings. Separating the wheat from the chaff since 1996.
Neil Young reflects on this past weekend's Harvest Moon Benefit Concert for The Painted Turtle & The Bridge School on The Painted Turtle | NYA.
Everyone is urged to read Neil's thoughts on the importance of children and family as a "life gift". The special benefit concert featured Father John Misty, Norah Jones, and Neil Young performing over the Harvest Moon weekend.
Neil Young - Bridge School and Painted Turtle Benefit - FULL SHOW 09-14-19
"Harvest Moon" by Neil Young w/ Norah Jones and her band, & Father John Misty
2019-09-14 - Painted Turtle Camp, Lake Hughes, California, USA
via rjrjr8
"I Am A Child" by Neil Young
2019-09-14 - Painted Turtle Camp, Lake Hughes, California, USA
via rjrjr8
Setlist via Sugar Mountain Neil Young
2019-09-14
Painted Turtle Camp, Lake Hughes, California, USA
Harvest Moon - A Gathering
Solo
1. Sugar Mountain (acoustic guitar)
2. I Am A Child (acoustic guitar)
3. Comes A Time (acoustic guitar)
4. Heart Of Gold (acoustic guitar)
5. Old Man (acoustic guitar)
6. Rainbow Of Colors (acoustic guitar)
7. I Do (acoustic guitar)
8. Eternity (piano)
9. Green Is Blue (piano)
10. Only Love Can Break Your Heart (acoustic guitar)
11. Tell Me Why (acoustic guitar)
12. War Of Man (acoustic guitar)
13. New Mama (acoustic guitar) (first time played since Aug 12, 1977)
14. Harvest Moon (acoustic guitar; accompanied by Norah Jones and her band)
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15. The Losing End (acoustic guitar; accompanied by Norah Jones)
Neil Young - Bridge School and Painted Turtle Benefit - FULL SHOW 09-14-19
"Harvest Moon" by Neil Young w/ Norah Jones and her band, & Father John Misty
2019-09-14 - Painted Turtle Camp, Lake Hughes, California, USA
via rjrjr8
And in other Harvest Moon news, today is Friday The 13th/#FridayThe13th. For the first time since 2000, a full moon falls on Friday The 13th and the next full moon to land on Friday The 13th won't happen until 2049. Only about 1% of full moons fall on a Friday the 13th. This one is even rarer occurring near apogee, the furthest point in the Moon's orbit. This last happened in 1832 and won't happen again for more than 500 years. So enjoy the night!
Neil Young's 1992 "Harvest Moon" is the followup to his most commercially successful album "Harvest" - 20 years later.
"Harvest Moon" was recorded with many of the same original musicians who appeared on "Harvest", such as Ben Keith, on pedal steel guitar, and Linda Rondstadt and James Taylor on backing vocals. The intentional sequel nature of "Harvest Moon" created high expectations which for the most part were fulfilled. The album was accompanied with music videos and extensive interviews. All indicators of both the record label Reprise's support and even the normally reticent Young himself.
On a Canadian radio interview, Young denied that 'Harvest Moon' was a sequel to 'Harvest':
"The whole idea of following up the 'Harvest' album is something that's contrived more from the standpoint of record companies, and mostly questions. You know, people see the correlation between the two, and it's kind of a plus to be able to refer back 20 years and see the same people and do that. But the thrust of the albums is different, even though the subject matter is similar, so I tend to shy away more from comparisons between them - they're reference points for one another. I mean, people who have never heard of 'Harvest' may really like Harvest Moon and may end up referring back to 'Harvest' because of all this conversation about how the two of them go together..."
So why is a Harvest Moon so special to Neil Young fans?
So we here at Thrasher's Wheat hold the song and this night very dearly. 3 fans that we've never met, on 3 continents touched by Harvest Moon magic. We know that some of you may not understand.
But there's a full moon risin'
Let's go dancin' in the light
We know where the music's playin'
Let's go out and feel the night.
Some instructions for best viewing: "Keep an eye on the Moon as it creeps above the eastern skyline. The golden orb may appear strangely inflated. This is the Moon illusion at work. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging Moon appears much wider than it really is. A Harvest Moon inflated by the moon illusion is simply gorgeous."
"Harvest Moon is the quintessential down-home-mom's-apple-pie American folk album. It's one of the few Neil Young albums that you can share with the one you love, along with a bottle of something nice, without having to apologetically hit the fast forward button or move the tracking arm forward.
But not all fans agreee that "Harvest Moon" is one of Neil's finest albums. Dave Sigler writes in a Harvest Moon album review :
"In my opinion, there is not a single cut on 'Harvest Moon' that does not sound better in its 'original state: solo acoustic. Neil has always said he prefers simplicity. Always the advocate of live recording whether it be in the studio or the concert hall, Neil has always been able to capture the essence of his music at its most spontaneous. There is nothing on 'Harvest Moon' that strikes me as spontaneous...or even close. It is the kind of slick, overly produced product that record companies dream about. Reprise must certainly be happy with it. With its heavy country sound, 'Harvest Moon' arrives just in time to (hopefully) capture a share of the market in the current country/western music fad/phase we seem to be in the midst of. "
"'Harvest Moon' is often regarded as the follow-up to 'Harvest' but I hardly think it is a clear-cut affair. It is less ambitious in its scope (after Young's genre confusion in the eighties) but its modesty is also the key to its success. I guess the fact that the Stray Gators return to the fore echoes 'Harvest' but the arrangements on here are mainly acoustic based and only at times sound like his unfairly critically savaged watershed release. 'Comes a Time' is a more accurate comparison, if you ask me, although the musical themes on this album are more varied. The songwriting is certainly as strong as Comes a Time although not every song is a veritable masterpiece."
"The 'simple man' image of Harvest Moon may become a tad overplayed at times -- especially on songs like 'Dreamin' Man' and 'One Of These Days' -- but it never seems to become overbearing. Neil Young often misrepresents himself as a plain man, but this album proves his more simple approaches to songwriting can often yield his most perfectly enjoyable results."
"Simplicity has always been one of Young's greatest strengths and weaknesses, so while he occasionally merely re-creates the moon-eyed dreamer of yore, he has surrounded his meditations in some of his simplest, most gorgeous melodies in years. This is Young taking stock, recalling old friends in One Of These Days, paying tribute to a departed hound in Old King and apparently re-evaluating his marriage in a succession of heartwarming, sometimes troubled love songs.
Best of all are the opening Unknown Legend and the title track, tender shuffles with celebratory choruses that rekindle old flames while acknowledging the passing of time. Nostalgia is often the last resort of scoundrels but Harvest Moon is ultimately not content to be Harvest 2, even as it re-affirms and re-examines Young the naif romantic, still dreaming after all these years."
From RollingStone.com on comparing "Harvest Moon" and "Harvest":
"Harvest Moon, on the other hand, is a chronicle of survival, focusing on loss and compromise and the ultimate triumphs of being a married father approaching fifty. It's full of bittersweet tributes to lost friends, dead hounds and love grown old. 'What this album is about is this feeling, this ability to survive and continue and grow and get higher than you were before,' says Young. 'Not just maintain, not just feel well. Not just 'I'm still alive at forty-five.' You can be more alive.'"
Harvesting wheat crop under a harvest moon near Cremona, Alta., Canada
Photo by Jeff McIntosh
Also, here's a collection of album reviews and commentary of Neil Young's Harvest Moon.
Harvest Moon review in FUNHOUSE! by Uncle Dave and track listing
In Neil Young's post on Times-Contrarian | NYA, he says that the idea behind the song is "that we all belong together. Separating us into races and colors is an old idea whose time has passed."
We couldn't agree more Neil.
The divide and conquer approach by leaders has been quite effective over the millennia. Only now has the technique been perfected by social media tools that allows for precise profiling in order to optimize fear, distrust and anger. A new civil war for the mind if you will.
RAINBOW OF COLORS -- on our 1st listen -- seems to be a perfect song for this date today: September 11, 2001. While many are unable to re-visit this anniversary and what those events unleashed, there are many more who will never forget and continue to seek justice. But just because the truth is ugly and very hard to handle, so it will be that the truth will ultimately prevail.
COLORADO by Neil Young & Crazy Horse Release Date: October 25, 2019 - Pre-order now (Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking this link. Thank you!!!)
9-11, "Imagine", + 18 Years Later: Lennon, Young and Why Heroes Are Still So Hard To Find
It was -- without a shred of doubt whatsoever -- Neil Young's finest hour ... ever. On September 21, 2001, just days after the 9-11 terror attack on the United States, Neil Young performed John Lennon's "Imagine" on the worldwide broadcast musical benefit telethon "America: A Tribute to Heroes". Simulcast live from London, New York and Los Angeles on the four major TV networks, international networks and globally streaming via the Internet, the program was seen by an estimated 89 million viewers and netted roughly $230 million in donations.
For many, Young's performance was emotionally wrenching and heart felt. Surrounded by burning candles, performing on a grand piano and accompanied by a small orchestra of violins, Young's rendition of Lennon's "Imagine" spoke to many of us who were suffering from the terrible tragedies in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Notably, Young changed the lyrics from "imagine no possessions, to "I wonder if *I* can". (thanks Marilyn) Those in the studio that night, reported that Young appeared to be on the verge of tears upon completing the song. Pulse Magazine wrote that Young's performance of "Imagine" on the Benefit telecast was "one of those moments you never forget."
One Neil Young fan put it this way: "It's such a heartfelt moment, so universal. It doesn't pander, just touches on a deep, timeless level. I love the facial expressions, and subtle emphasis that Neil gives during the last verse and refrain." (Thanks Greg "AFOY") From an interview (Pulse Magazine, April 2002) with Neil Young in which he was asked about "Imagine" and the night of "A Tribute to Heroes":
Neil Young: Well, first of all, I guess it was the night before that we first practiced it. So we ran through it about 10 times, until finally it started to gel and we knew what we were doing. We used the original charts from the original record, and did everything we could to do justice to the original version--we weren't trying to do anything other than that.
Just trying to make it like John Lennon, basically. It was just such a great song for the moment. Pegi, my wife, got an email from a friend of hers after the 11th with the words to "Imagine" on it. And it was at the same time as I was trying to figure out what to play, because we only had two-and-a-half, three days' notice to do the show. And that seemed to be a good sign to me. So we went ahead and got the lyrics, the ones I couldn't remember, and I just learned it, practiced it, and when we did it that night everything just came together. And obviously, those are the nuts and bolts, but the real emotional part ... Well, it's just so obvious why it was the way it was.
That's one of the things about being a musician or a singer or a songwriter--when these things come up, it's a chance to do your job, to do what you do and have it really be what it's supposed to be.
"Long Road" - Eddie Vedder w/ Neil Young & Mike McCready
Neil Young then made a second performance on the live broadcast a short time laterr in the next segment.
Eddie Vedder and Neil Young
Eddie Vedder with Neil Young and Mike McCready perform "Long Road" on the worldwide broadcast musical benefit telethon "America: A Tribute to Heroes". Young's next response to 9-11 came as he was writing "Let's Roll" for the Are You Passionate? (title references Jimi Hendrix's 1967 album "Are You Experienced?") album. The song tells the story of a passenger's (Todd Beamer) heroics on a hijacked Flight 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers stormed the cockpit. Young reportedly made a donation to the Todd M. Beamer Foundation. From an interview (Pulse Magazine, April 2002) with Neil Young in which he was asked about the song "Let's Roll":
Neil Young: Obviously, watching the whole thing unfold on television, I'm doing what everybody else is doing. Then I heard the wife of one of the passengers --Lisa Beamer--talking about the phone call that her husband made to the operator, and the operator relaying that he said "Let's roll." And she was talking about how he always used to say that with the kids when they'd go out and do something, that it's what he said a lot when he had a job to do.
And it's just so poignant, and there's no more of a legendary, heroic act than what those people did.
With no promise of martyrdom, no promise of any reward anywhere for this, other than just knowing that you did the right thing. And not even having a chance to think about it or plan it or do anything--just a gut reaction that was heroic and ultimately cost them all their lives. What more can you say? It was just so obvious that somebody had to write something or do something. I think it's a legendary story that's gonna go down through the ages--it'll never be forgotten. So I was very surprised that I didn't hear any songs. And I'm thinking, "I can hear this song in my head, nobody else has written it when I thought everybody was gonna write it." So I just wrote it. I couldn't stop it anymore.
The events of 9-11 continued to haunt Young through the following decade. With 2003's Greendale , Neil sounds the alarm that something had gone terribly wrong on a number of fronts. 2006's Living With War was a direct confrontation of the need for a call to action. And, 2009's Fork in the Road -- the 3rd installment of the post 9/11 trilogy -- reveals Neil coming to grips with the fact that first you recognize a problem, then you call out the need to address it, and finally you do something about it. You can make a difference if you try really hard, if you will...
It's a perfect message for all the world and all peoples. It is pro-spiritualism...beyond religious confinements. Freedom = love, truth and beauty. A vision of an ultimate utopian idea of where we should be striving for.
I remember watching this live then and it blew me away-the fact that Neil wanted to contribute by performing and instead of using the platform to play one of his own compositions he played Imagine- perhaps the MOST appropriate of songs for the occasion, at a time when we were being inundated with little American flag stickers and cries of bloodshed in the name of patriotism. Not to open a can of worms but in the weeks and months following 9-11 it seemed even the most staunch of Doves became blood thirsty Hawks (myself included). We were pissed man- and with good reason. This was a terrible tragedy for the people, but I believe our sorrow, anger and confusion was taken advantage of (my opinion). Imagine receiving radio air-play did not go along with the required post-911 mindset, but I think this performance was a simple gesture reminding us to not lose sight of that idyllic promised land that is always within reach- if we want it.
And speaking of finding the REAL truth, the question is whether folks can handle the truth? We know we can handle the wheat, wherever it takes us. Because as the saying goes, if you don't love the truth, then you can't love anything. In conclusion, we leave you with the words Neil Young fan Greg "AFOY": "Call me a "dreamer", but I have faith that the truth of this song will come to pass, not through the efforts of any wolf in sheep's clothing secular or non-secular world organization, but by the earth itself, by Life protecting Itself, and by Creation being true to It's eternal promise. Another conversation, I know, but that's my faith. In the meantime, songs and performances like this, and the fact that "I'm not the only one", help to sustain me." Thanks Greg "AFOY". It all gives new meaning to "open up the tired eyes..."
Neil Young has "unearthed" a major Crazy Horse Archives discovery per recent Subscriber News on NYA.
A complete multi-camera video (6 cameras?!) has been discovered in the NYA vaults. Produced and Directed by the late LA Johnson, the Neil Young & Crazy Horse concert was filmed on November 11, 1990 at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, California. (See Sugar Mtn for more details). Consisting of 3 sets, plus encore, the video is titled WAY DOWN IN THE RUST BUCKET.
Just a reminder of the contest we're running in celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the filming of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on The Music Scene TV program on Sept. 22, 1969.
Photographer Jeff Allen | InstaGram has generously offered up a free photo print to a Thrasher's Wheat reader.
1. Out On The Weekend
2. Distant Camera
3. War Of Man
4. Old King
5. Green Is Blue
6. Don't Let It Bring You Down
7. Journey Through The Past
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8. Rockin' In The Free World
9. Danger Bird
10. Wonderin'
11. The Losing End
12. Roll Another Number (For The Road)
13. Winterlong
14. Cortez The Killer
15. F*!#in' Up
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16. Like A Hurricane
17. Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
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