What if you were just following your muse and you became a cultural icon? 
What would you do?

Artists fight for fame and fortune, and when they get it, it fucks them up. 
Or maybe it’s that today’s artists fight for fame and fortune first and
artistic expression second.  So they’re sold out from the beginning.  If you’ve
already tied in with major corporations how can your soul be affected by success? 
You don’t HAVE a soul!  Neil Young had a soul.  He even sang about the
concept when he was in Buffalo Springfield.

But that band didn’t work out.  So the man went solo.  And nobody noticed. 
I’d argue strongly that the very first Neil Young solo record is the best. 
There’s really only one other candidate, "After The Gold Rush".  Cognoscenti will
whisper about "Rust Never Sleeps".  And "Tonight’s The Night".  And maybe
even "Ragged Glory".  And those records all have moments.  But they’re artifacts,
they’re not transcendent, they don’t define the genre.

All these years later "The Loner" has been elevated to a recurrent. 
Deservedly.  Occasionally you’ll hear "I’ve Been Waiting For You", almost as magical
and more heartfelt than the follow-up album’s opener, "Cinnamon Girl".  But
I’ve never heard "Emperor Of Wyoming" on the radio.  And "The Last Trip To Tulsa"
has been forgotten.  Maybe the twentysomethings who don’t get Neil would if
they just heard this almost nonsensical album closer.  Maybe they’d understand
1969.  When optimism died and pessimism set in.

But only fans seem to know the debut.

"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" survives because of the aforementioned
"Cinnamon Girl".  And "Down By The River".  And, even "Cowgirl In The Sand" is now
well-known.  But the big breakthrough was "After The Gold Rush".

People just started paying attention.  Having been alerted to Neil as a
result of his addition to Crosby, Stills & Nash.  They’d grown accustomed to his
high-pitched nasal whine.  They were ready for him.  And he delivered.  I’m not
going to put down "Southern Man".  But I’ll tell you that "Don’t Let It Bring
Me Down" is my favorite.  That guitar downbeat.  God does it set a mood.  And
"When You Dance I Can Really Love"…  Is that rock and roll abandon or what. 
And next I’ll go to "Cripple Creek Ferry" and "Till The Morning Comes".  Just
trifles, but their inclusion draws you to the overall record.  It wasn’t in
your face only.  This was a three dimensional artist.  With a sense of humor.

Music fans noticed Neil.  He was part of the firmament.

And then he released "Harvest".  Was it luck?  Or did he know it would turn
him into a superstar.  That it would break through from hard core fans to
casual fans.  It all started with "Heart Of Gold".

You heard "Heart Of Gold" on the radio so much you hated it.  You’re not
going to find a hard core Neil Young fan who says "Harvest" is his favorite album.
 That’s the opinion of those not in the know.  But all these years later, you
hear tracks from that record and they feel so right.  What are we to make of
an album that wasn’t commercial that turned out to be?  It was a moment in
time.  When the left field was embraced.  Something like "Harvest" couldn’t
dominate the chart today.

The laconical "Out On The Weekend" draws you in.  With those lyrics you want
to disown, because they’re you.

See the lonely boy out on the weekend
Trying to make it pay

College is one of the loneliest experiences of one’s life.  You’ve left your
cocoon behind.  You’re still discovering who you are.  You’ve got all new
friends, but can you truly COUNT ON THEM?

Turns out you can, but you’re not sure of that.

All you know is you’re hot for love, sex and highs.  In whatever order.  You
go to the bar.  Take a pull from your beer as you hold up the wall.  You drink
with your buddies while eyeing the woman across the room you can never get up
the nerve to talk to.

Can’t relate to joy, he tries to speak and
Can’t begin to say

Maybe the true loneliness kicks in during the latter half of your sophomore
year.  When you realize this is it.  This is life.  It may not get better than
this.  And you can’t tell your parents, because they’re paying.  And nobody
else cares.  Because life sucks.  Everybody would rather just get fucked-up and
ignore it.

And that’s why "Out On The Weekend" struck such a chord.  It was tired.  Just
like we were in 1972.  The sixties were over.  We were no longer in it
together, we were individuals.  Could we find our way?

How Neil got away with "A Man Needs A Maid" at the height of feminism I’ll
never know.  There wasn’t a shred of backlash.

"Alabama" has a tiredness lacking in "Southern Man", but it seems a sequel. 
And we always respect the original more.

"Needle And The Damage Done" is almost too heavy.

"Are You Ready For The Country" is the "Cripple Creek Ferry" and "Till The
Morning Comes" of "Harvest".  A trifle.  But longer than the snippet length of
the preceding two.

"Words" works.  The same way the opener, the aforementioned "Out On The
Weekend", does.  That exasperation, that represented our state of mind.

But all these years later the reason you can’t dismiss "Harvest" is that song
right in the middle, "Old Man".

It seemed poignant then.  A conversation between us and our elders.

But, suddenly, WE’RE the elders.

"When I’m Sixty-Four" is a joke.  Everybody keeps concentrating on that as
evidence of our aging.  Hearing "Old Man" creeps us out more.  Because it’s
life.  OUR life.

Old man look at my life
I’m a lot like you were

You’ve got to understand.  We’d just lived through the generation gap.  The
generations couldn’t have been more different.  To have a cultural icon say we
were similar was heretical.  And you could not ignore the lyric, the music
wasn’t loud enough.  You caught every word.  And debated.  Was it true?

Old man look at my life
Twenty four and there’s so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of two

Can it be a paradise if you’re there alone?

Why don’t we ask those old buddies of ours.  You know, the ones who lost
their loves and couldn’t handle being alone and ended their lives.  They couldn’t
see going on.

We were bred for achievement.  Women didn’t get married, for fear of fucking
up their careers.  What if it was all bullshit.  And life never changed.

Now we know life never changes.  Our kids get married young.  Women want to
take time off to have babies.

Still, what is shocking is the age of the protagonist.  Twenty four sounds
like a baby.  Shocking as it seems, you were once twenty four, and you thought
it was OLD!  You were sophisticated, you knew EVERYTHING!  Only as you got
older did you realize you didn’t know shit.

"Old Man" is laden with reflection and truth.  Aphorisms like "Give me things
that won’t get lost".  But what eats us alive is that one couplet:

Old man take a look at my life I’m a lot like you
I need someone to love me the whole day through

It’s sung not with resignation, but a low key ELATION!  Like the singer has
finally discovered his goal, and is on a mission to find companionship and love.

All these years later, Neil Young seems to have found this.

As for us, I’m not so sure.  So, every time we hear this song, we’re reminded
of who we were and must take stock of who we now are.  Did we follow the path
delineated by our parents or forge our own.  Did we waste decades pursuing
worthless goals.  Is this really all there is, you live, love and die?

Great music sounds good.  This is the defining criterion.  "Old Man" scores
on this basis.  But it’s the way the words are sung, world-weary, with recent
discovery providing enlightenment, that infects us.  You see we’re looking for
truth.

You don’t find truth in entertainment today.  It’s a commodity.  Made to be
consumed and discarded.  It’s not made to stick with you, it’s fodder for
corporations to sell their wares.  Truth sells purely on its merits.  To think that
you’d have to sell a record solely on the music, not the image, not the
marketing campaign, that’s too scary.  But that’s the way it used to be.

Neil Young still plays by these rules.  "Harvest" was made when Neil was at
the peak of his powers.  It was so good that despite it being inherently left
field, it was mainstream.

Disillusioned with its success, Neil went on a tour where he played almost
only new music.  And put out a live album of these raucous rock tunes as his
follow-up to "Harvest".  We love this.  That he could reject success, get close
to the flame and steer away.  But, in the process "Harvest" itself has become
tarnished.  By its success.

If "Harvest" had not broken through, it would eclipse all the alt.country
icons.  It would be the lost album that everybody talked about.  The Gram Parsons
and Son Volt of its day.  But, neither of those acts, as good as they were,
were as good as Neil Young.  And the public recognized this.  And turned him
into a star.

We don’t need a thirty fifth anniversary celebration.  "Harvest" needs no new
accolades.  But, go back and play it.  Although not Neil’s best work, it was
great.  Its mix of disillusionment and optimism was emblematic of our
generation.