I'm becoming concerned that I'll never listen to a Neil Young album I won't love from start to finish. More concerning when the artist himself hates it so much it goes out of print. Setting aside the mystique that comes with rarity, so many of these tunes are rough enough around the edges to imagine concertgoers with puzzled looks. Young pushes his range on the rowdy "Yonder Stands the Sinner" and strains the band's muscle on the appropriately named "Last Dance," the mellow sounds of Harvest inadequate preparation for this kind of music. I'm a sucker for the well-timed quiet ballad, and "The Bridge" is up there with the best of them. It peels the veneer off Harvest and leaves no doubt Young is most at home it the ditch. Just the thought of a symphony orchestra at one of his live performance borders on full belly-laugh.
9
1973, Reprise