"Harvest Live": Rust For Glory Neil Young Tribute | 2023 Tour Promo

"Harvest Live": Rust For Glory Neil Young Tribute | 2023 Tour Promo

 

For UK rustie grains, check out "Harvest Live": Rust For Glory Neil Young Tribute | 2023 Tour Promo.

  

From PR:

Rust For Glory - Harvest - 50th anniversary shows 

Rust For Glory are the world's rustiest Neil Young tribute band, playing to great acclaim for over a decade. 2022 marks 50 years since the release of Neil Young's classic 'Harvest' album. An album beloved of fans and critics alike, Harvest contains some of Young's best work, some of his greatest hits, and is still his most commercially successful long-player. 

Selling over 8 million copies worldwide & featuring the US number one hit 'Heart of Gold', its masterful mix of country, rock and orchestral arrangements has made it one of Neil's most enduring releases. In recent years, Neil Young himself reports he was offered "millions of dollars" to tour Harvest - but turned this down. In 2022/23, Rust For Glory are excited to bring you Harvest, performed live in its entirety. In this stunning 2-part show, audiences will hear each classic track played 100% live, so authentically you'll swear you were back in the barn.

Then, the second half of the show will see the band move from the middle of the road, and head straight for the ditch as the band perform classics from the critically acclaimed 'Ditch trilogy' of mid-70s albums, as well as classic later material. 

The Harvest shows are an absolute must for any Neil Young fan wanting to experience these classics performed live in an intimate environment. 

Booking enquiries: info@rustforglory.com / +44 0786 191 7628

 Have fun UK rustie grains checking out "Harvest Live" by Rust4Glory!

---

---

Comment of the Moment: Neil Young - Alone Together With The Loner

Neil Young
Illustration by Mike Faille, from Kiim Kong photo
(Click photo to enlarge)  

The Loner.

Neil Young has many, many nicknames like "Shakey", "Mr. Soul", "Godfather of Grunge", etc.  And then there is "The Loner".  

In the film "Harvest Time"  (see ANALYSIS: What "Harvest Time" Reveals About Neil Young), a side of  Neil Young is seen -- yet unseen -- that many fans identify with in a comfortingly relatable manner.  As in, literally, see the lonely boy out on the weekend trying to make it pay.

Neil Young's Harvest Time Film

(see ANALYSIS: What "Harvest Time" Reveals About Neil Young)

 

In listening to Neil Young's extensive lyrics, the theme of "loneliness" quite often hovers about many of his songs.  A theme which is very prevalent, pervasive and persistent over the decades.  Thus, the TW Comment of the Moment on ANALYSIS: What "Harvest Time" Reveals About Neil Young by Dionys:

The Loner Alone, a Lonesome List 

• Bad Fog Of Loneliness
• Campaigner (“I am a lonely visitor”)
• Everybody’s Alone
• Four Strong Winds (“Four strong winds that blow lonely…”)
• Give Me Strength (“The lonely man I make myself to be”)
• Hard Luck Stories (“Now she’s gone and you’re alone…”)
• Harvest (…and was some black face in a lonely place…)
• Hello, Lonely Woman
• Hold Back the Tears (Single life really has its fine points…”)
• Like An Inca (There’s a bridge I have to cross alone…”)
• Lotta Love (“Cause my heart needs relating not solitude”)
• Mellow My Mind (”lonesome whistle on a railroad track”)
• Misfits (“On the Needles Highway there is a lone red rider…”)
• Oh, Lonesome Me
• Out on the Weekend (“See the lonely boy out on the weekend”)
• Roll Another Number (“though I long to see that lonesome hippie smile”)
• Sample and Hold (“But not the lonely one…”)
• Sunny Inside (From now on I ain’t scared of lonely nights...”)
• Tell Me Why (”I am lonely but you can free me)
• The Loner
• The Losing End (When You’re On) (“Before I wandered off alone”)
• There Goes My Babe
• The Wayward Wind (“In a lonely shack by the railroad track…”)
• Too Lonely
• When You Dance I Can Really Love (While the lonely mingle with circumstance”)
• When Your Lonely Heart Breaks
• Will to Love (“But I won’t turn back with this lonely tide)
• Wonderin’ (I am wondering if I’ll be alone”)

Sure I missed out on a few songlines

UPDATE:

+ Down By The River ("It's so hard for me staying here all alone..") (Thanks Abner!)

+ Old Man  (live alone in a paradise) and (but I'm all alone at last) (Thanks Nobody knows!)

+ Last Trip to Tulsa (Sure it's not a case of being lonely we have here...)

+Music Arcade - ("Have you ever felt all alone") (Thanks Sancho!)

Thanks Dionys, Abner, Nobody Knows, Sancho & Still Young and everyone on the thread.

Step aside, open wide.

And the ultimate irony here is that watching Neil in "Harvest Time" write the song “Out on the Weekend” -- apparently spontaneously -- while happily laughing away and surrounded by friends and lovers is most incongruously surreal.

You folks out there make us feel never alone as long we have friends digging the music.

More on ANALYSIS: What "Harvest Time" Reveals About Neil Young.

 

Neil Young Gets Back “Out on the Weekend”

(see ANALYSIS: What "Harvest Time" Reveals About Neil Young)

 

 

More on Comment of The Moment: "Alabama" & Neil Young's "Harvest Time" Film. 

 

Also, see Neil Young's Ditch Trilogy -- Or is it a Quadrilogy? Or Quintology?

 

Neil Young's "Ditch Quadrilogy":
"Time Fades Away", "Tonight’s the Night", "On the Beach" & "ZUMA"  

  "Alabama" & Neil Young's "Harvest Time" FilmNeil Young - Sept 10, 1971
Photo by Joel Bernstein

---

---

ANALYSIS: What Harvest Time Reveals About Neil Young | Rock and Roll Globe

 

Neil Young's Harvest Time Film

 

Here is a highly recommended analysis of the just released documentary presenting a fuller look at the landmark album  "What Harvest Time Reveals About Neil Young | Rock and Roll Globe" by Pat Daly:

Neil Young acolytes, notably loyal and reliably obsessive, took the Decade blurb and constructed a parable that is now part of the gospel according to Neil freaks. The three records that followed Harvest – Time Fades Away, Tonight’s The Night, and On the Beach – are now enshrined as “The Ditch Trilogy.”  

The one slight problem here is that Harvest is every bit as ditchy as the records that followed, maybe ditchier. 

It starts with what could be the bleakest, most depressive utterance of Neil Young’s career, which is saying something. “Out On the Weekend” surveys the inner life of its lonely protagonist, who is getting ready to abandon his present circumstances, and just “pack it in.” He “can’t relate to joy.” It is foreign to him. He’d explain it, but his depression has rendered him incapable of speech. “He can’t begin to say.”

Surely the middle of the road beckons as the record goes on, and the ride is uphill from here, right? Well, kind of. The two songs that give Harvest its mainstream reputation – “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man” – are testaments to want, yearning, and more loneliness. 

The former is about the search for love, by all accounts futile to date, and time is running out on our 24-year-old artiste. Inability to articulate persists. “It’s these expressions I never give, that keep me searching for a heart of gold – but I’m getting old.” 

The picture painted in “Old Man” is not much rosier. Love has not been kind to our lonely boy, and he sorely needs someone to love him the whole day through. His lyric does not exude optimism. “Love lost, such a cost. Give me things that won’t get lost.”

These three numbers – can I propose we refer to them henceforth as The Loneliness Trilogy? – constitute less than a third of the album. The rest of the album surely must contain the soothing “Sweet Baby James”-ish folk pop that explain its mellow reputation and enduring popularity. 

A few quick notes on this highly recommended analysis. First, we rustie grains don't really like the label "obsessive" and prefer "passionate" instead. Second, here at TW, we have been a major proponent of the “The Ditch Trilogy” theory.  In fact, this  “The Ditch Trilogy” theory has been expanded to a  quadrilogy, or possibly even a quintology.

Neil Young's "Ditch Quadrilogy":
"Time Fades Away", "Tonight’s the Night", "On the Beach" & "ZUMA"

 

Last point, on this analysis is the stream of consciousness composition of “Out on the Weekend” which rivals anything from the much ballyhooed Peter Jackson documentary "The Beatles: Get Back" scenes. The ever so elusive "The Muse" is seen in full force display on her majestic, creative, channeling journey. So, get back to that John & Paul, literally and figuratively.

 

 

Neil Young Gets Back “Out on the Weekend”

 

Full analysis @ "What Harvest Time Reveals About Neil Young | Rock and Roll Globe" by Pat Daly. 

 

More on Comment of The Moment: "Alabama" & Neil Young's "Harvest Time" Film.

  "Alabama" & Neil Young's "Harvest Time" FilmNeil Young - Sept 10, 1971
Photo by Joel Bernstein

---

---

Comment of The Moment: "Alabama" & Neil Young's "Harvest Time" Film

 "Alabama"Neil Young - Sept 10, 1971
NYA Vol #1 Boxset Photo by Joel Bernstein 

In the film Neil Young's 'Harvest Time', there are extensive scenes from The Barn of the recording of the song "Alabama", as well as, Neil discussing the song as "not a political statement" but a song "about himself".

In other words, Neil Young is downplaying the whole "Southern Man" and "Alabama"  

This statement by Neil Young is downplaying the whole politics of "Southern Man" and "Alabama" in 1971 is obviously well before it became a legendary myth feud with Lynyrd Skynyrd's iconic "Sweet Home Alabama". 

Ronnie Van Zant with Neil Young "Tonight's The Night" T-shirt
Oakland Coliseum, July 2, 1977 - Photo by Michael Zagaris
Neil Young with Lynyrd Skynyrd/Jack Daniels Whiskey T-Shirt
Verona, Italy 7.9.1982 - Photo by Paolo Brillo on Flickr(via Thrasher's Wheat @ http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2022/12/comment-of-moment-alabama-neil-youngs.html )

In fact, the quotes in the film make it sound like Neil could of picked the State of Mississippi randomly, but probably found just that Alabama worked much better lyrically.  Neil Young (paraphrased from memory):

“I just wanted to use the name of a state in the American South. Because that’s where the guy is coming from in that song. It’s not necessarily about Alabama.” And then, “I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

Which brings us yet again, to another TW  Comment of The Moment on the post  REVIEW: Neil Young's Harvest 50th Anniversary Edition (CD/DVD) | All About Jazz by Tomatron:

Given the insight added by the Harvest Time quote regarding Alabama, the song can be seen in, if not a brand new light, a more complex one, where it is elevated above its status of Southern Man II. It seems like the self-referential lines begin to incorporate more nods to Southern and country culture as the verses add up.

At first, the subject is primarily Neil himself, dropping minor allusions to keep that country tone going (“the devil fools with…” “swing low,”) as he expresses his personal feelings at the end of March ‘71 [NYA manuscript caption]. “You got the spare change, you got to feel strange” is his ambivalent mood about being a “rich hippie.” “And now the moment is all that it meant” sounds like a critique of a hippieism itself. In the original manuscript, Neil put the word “moment” in quotes, tellingly.

Where Southern Man was a straightforward social commentary and political statement, Alabama is a metacognitive meditation, a critique/questioning of self. 

Here the singer sings to himself, playfully naming himself “Alabama.” He recognizes that he is affecting an American style, all the while an outsider. This perspective will be developed in a later line, so let’s look at that chorus first. Rusties will recognize the references to self right out the gate. “…weight on your shoulders that’s breaking your back,” was written between Neil’s major back injury and the resultant surgery. We know he was in physical pain during this time and would hardly stand up with an electric guitar until months later. 

“Your Cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch and a wheel on the track.” Know anyone with a fondness for big old cars and ditches? [note: The first Caddy I could find in Special Deluxe was the limo he bought in ‘74 when he and Zeke were on the road with the CSNY tour.]

The next verse names Alabama as the person/subject and, separately, as the place itself (“broken glass windows down in Alabama”) The irony of banjos playing through these broken windows but that also “take you down home” speaks to the personal conflict already established and connects it to the character’s namesake state. The chorus returns, reinforcing the pain and strife of the singer/his subject. The final verse brings back Neil’s discomfort with fame living in the States. “Oh Alabama, can I see you and shake your hand?” is followed by the wry “make friends down in Alabama.” These lines bring to mind Neil’s comment in Harvest Time regarding his new famous life, where people’s eyes don’t look right when they talk to him. [Again sorry for the lack of direct quotes, I’m paraphrasing from memory of the screening last weekend.]

“I’m from a new land, I come to you and see all this ruin, what are you doing?” Another enigmatic line, but following the lyrics above, it seems he is stepping out of the Alabama identity and into the world of Southern Man, having established his own voice as full of contradiction and self-doubt. This seems to add the weight of credibility based in humility to the critical observations first laid out with “see the old folks tied in white ropes.” In fact, that particular line can be read not just as “them Southern folk are KKK,” but that they themselves are tied up, bound by the shameful side of their own heritage, unable to change. The ropes themselves are white, after all.

After asking “what are you doing?” Alabama closes with another question: “You got the rest of the union to help you along/ What’s going wrong?” A mere Southern Man retread would have left this line a reaching throwaway. It doesn’t quite make sense posed directly to the state of Alabama. But given a double meaning whose main purpose is an inward questioning, the line lands hard. We can easily see “the rest of the union” as CSN, Crazy Horse, or even the Stray Gators, from all of whom Neil has begun to isolate himself. He knows they support him, so why is he struggling? It’s worth noting that Neil had expected to be finished with Harvest by April [an offhand remark heard in the movie]. Alabama was written on March 30th, 1971 and no more recording was done until September. 

When Alabama was penned, it wasn’t quite Harvest Time yet.

Many thanks for the CotM Tomatron.  Man, this is right in our strike zone here @ TW.

As everyone knows, this whole subject of the Southern Man/Northern Man is what propelled this site from obscurity to relative prominence and then back to semi-obscurity. 

We had always suspected that Neil distanced himself from this whole fraught subject just because of the challenge of discussing and defending in the climate extremes we face. So, frankly, it is very good to understand that this apparent backtracking -- so to speak -- occurred in the early 70's and isn't a more modern revisionist thinking/justification. In his autobiography "Waging Heavy Peace", Neil Young writes that "Alabama" was "condescending" and "not entirely thought out". 

But, we ask, are the "politics" of today really any dicier than the 60's?

"Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth."

(see  The Legendary Myth Feud between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young)

---

---