Neil Young Recorded His Biggest Album Wearing A Back Brace
What a career Neil Young has had! Since his solo debut in 1968, he’s released 46 studio albums, 12 live albums, and countless archive and best-of collections. Of all of them, his 4th solo work Harvest, still stands as his most successful. The album was a largely acoustic work, and that was because Neil Young recorded his biggest album wearing a back brace.
Broken Arrow Ranch
By 1970, Neil had hit it big with the likes of CSN&Y, and he had some cash to spend. While flying out of San Francisco, he gazed out the airplane window and fell in love with the land he saw. It was a section of the Santa Cruz Mountains, south of San Jose, and it wasn’t long before Neil found his sanctuary in those mountains. He bought a 1000 acre property there, and named it after a song by his old band Buffalo Springfield, Broken Arrow Ranch.
Neil Young’s Accident At Broken Arrow
Young was at his ranch, moving a very heavy piece of walnut (one of the heavier woods), when his back gave out. According to Young, he spent the next two years in and out of hospitals, undergoing several operations. As a result of the accident, he could not stand for any long period of time, which meant his electric guitar playing ability was quite limited. That’s why many of the songs he wrote for Harvest are acoustic.
Acoustic Harvest
Recording sessions for Harvest began in January, 1971. At the same time, Young embarked on his Journey From The Past solo acoustic tour. After the tour ended, he was asked to appear on the Johnny Cash Show, which taped in Nashville. On the show, he performed “The Needle And The Damage Done,” on acoustic, and “Journey Through The Past,” on piano. Also appearing on the Cash show were Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor. Young’s producer, Elliot Mazer, was at the taping and invited Ronstadt and Taylor to join Young at Quadrafonic Studios (where Young was making Harvest), which they did. Both Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor sang background vocals on two songs: “Heart Of Gold” and “Old Man,” with Taylor adding some nice banjo to the latter track. All the while, Neil Young worked while wearing a back brace from that accident at Broken Arrow. By August, 1971, Neil’s surgery on his back was successful to the point that he could play electric guitar again.
The Success Of Harvest
The remainder of Harvest was recorded mostly at Neil’s Broken Arrow Ranch, with one live track coming from his acoustic tour, at Royce Hall at UCLA, and two songs recorded in London with a live orchestra. It was released on February 1, 1972 and, initially, didn’t get very good reviews. The fans, however, loved the record and it quickly climbed the charts. It hit the top spot in March, 1972, and became Neil Young’s only #1 album. In addition, “Heart Of Gold” also peaked at #1, and was Young’s only chart-topping single.
Success Bored Neil Young
As Neil noted in the liner notes to his Decade compilation, he became bored with mainstream success. He could easily have replicated Harvest over the course of his next few albums, and they likely would have been hits. That is not, and has never been, how Neil Young works. The scope of the success of Harvest was too much for him. He retreated, personally and professionally, and released a series of live and studio albums that were as unlike Harvest as could be possible.
Harvest Moon: The Sequel
Over time, Young became more comfortable with the scope of that album’s success, and even released a beautiful sequel, Harvest Moon, in 1992. Young says people had been asking him to release a followup to Harvest for a long time, but it was only when the songs came to him that it was possible.
