Neil Young's album Harvest has gone down in history as one of the greatest albums of all time, never mind Canadian albums. But if you listen closely to a couple of songs on the record, you don't just hear the genius of Neil Young - you hear two of the decades' biggest rock stars joining him on his couch to sing along.
In 1971, Neil Young went down to Nashville to appear on the Johnny Cash TV show, and he had with him a bunch of new songs he had debuted ath the now legendaqry concert at Massey Hall.
Neil was smitten by with Nashville and he had a feeling he wanted to make his next record in Nashville. Elliot Mazer, who owned Quadrophonic Sound Solutionsin Nashville, convinced Neil to make his next record in Nashville and actually gave him studio time for free. So the two of them set on down the road, picking up musicians as they saw them walking down the street. Those sessions eventually spawned the now legendary Harvest record.
Though he was in the land of some of the best musicians on earth, Neil still had a problem. He couldn't find the right backup singers, and he'd tried everyone in Nashville. So he was playing the Johnny Cash show and it just happened that Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor were on the show too. He heard them sing separately and realized that their voices would sounf perfect together - and behind his. So he invited them over to his studio, sat them down on the couch and got ready to make music history.
The first time you listen to "Old Man" and "Heart of Gold," heck, the 40th time you listen to them, it's hard to focus on anything because A) you're blindsided by Neil's phenomenal songwriting and B) You're too busy singing along to really listen anyway. But if you listen closely on the chorus, you can hear the two distinct voices of Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor singing back up on the chorus.
Listen to Neil Young with Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor doing "Heart of Gold" to refresh your memory...if you need to. It's a classic sound!
posted by
Tom Power
on Feb 02, 2012