Harvest Moon (Neil Young song)

Last updated
"Harvest Moon"
Harvest Moon single.jpg
Single by Neil Young
from the album Harvest Moon
B-side "Old King"
ReleasedNovember 2, 1992
RecordedSeptember 22, 1991
Studio Redwood Digital
Genre
Length5:03
Label Reprise
Songwriter(s) Neil Young
Producer(s) Neil Young
Neil Young singles chronology
"War of Man"
(1992)		"Harvest Moon"
(1992)		"Unknown Legend"
(1992)
Music video
"Harvest Moon" on YouTube

"Harvest Moon" is a song written by Canadian and American singer and songwriter Neil Young, released in November 1992 by Reprise Records as the first single from his 19th album bearing the same name, Harvest Moon (1992). The song was both written and produced by Young, reaching No. 36 on the UK Singles Chart, [1] and Rolling Stone ranked it his 30th best.

Contents

Background and composition

The song uses a moon motif, which Young has mentioned as being very important to him and having quasi-religious undertones. Linda Ronstadt provides the backing vocals. [2] The song is composed in the key of D Major, with Young's guitar in Drop D tuning and his vocal range spanning from D3 to F#4. [3]

Reception

Rolling Stone ranked "Harvest Moon" in 2014 as the 30th-best Neil Young song of all time. [4] AllMusic's Matthew Greenwald strongly praised the song, stating that the song epitomized the album and "the power of nature and music, as well as a feeling of celebrating lifetime love are the focal points here, and Young captures it all in his typically literate, artless style." Greenwald praised the melody as "positively gorgeous, and it's one that could have easily framed a heavier song." [2] "Classic Rock Review" called it an "absolute masterpiece of a title song" that "celebrates longevity in relationships and love affairs with a flawless melody backed by a perfect music arrangement." They went on to say that "from the upfront acoustic riffing to the picked steel guitar, subtleties of ethereal sounds, soft brush strokes on the drums, and beautiful background vocals, this song captures the essence of beauty and romance as well any song ever." [5]

Pitchfork said, "Young lets his guitar summon a vast distance—detuning the lowest string and letting it reverberate through the central riff, fingerpicking the harmonics high up the fretboard during the verses. The sound itself seems to conjure eternity, and the words do, too." [6] The music critic Alexis Petridis wrote that Harvest Moon was a "genuinely beautiful hymn to marriage and enduring love". [7] The British critic Sam Inglis wrote that if Harvest Moon had been released in 1973, Young would have been accused of artistic stagnation as the song sounded too similar to the songs on his album Harvest, but in 1992 the song was celebrated as the "end of a great musical journey", a refreshing return to Young's musical style of the early 1970s. [8] Inglis wrote that much of the popular success of Harvest Moon in the fall of 1992 was due to a backlash against grunge music, which dominated the charts in first half of 1992. [9] Grunge music tended to feature angry and/or depressing lyrics, and the romantic "gentleness" of Harvest Moon was felt to be a refreshing contrast to grunge when it debuted in November 1992. [9] Harvest Moon was widely seen as a sequel to Harvest, which added to it's appeal. [10]

Music video

The music video for the song was filmed during the night at the Mountain House, a restaurant situated inside a redwood forest at Skyline Boulevard, Woodside, California. [11] The video featured Young and his wife attending a night-time dance at the Mountain House in 1992 where Young is somehow also the lead singer in the band playing at the Mountain House. [11] The video then moves back in time to 1967 where a younger Young (played by Melvins drummer Dale Crover [12] [13] ) and his girlfriend/future wife dance at the same location when it was known as Alex's, again with Young as the lead singer in the band playing, showing the enduring love between the couple over successive harvest moons over the years. [11] Young's girlfriend drops a matchbox labelled Alex's in 1967 during her dance, which is still on the floor in 1992, which again shows the enduring love between over the decades.

Charts

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI) [17] Gold400,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

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References

  1. ↑ "Harvest Moon by Neil Young". Songfacts. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Greenwald, Matthew. "Harvest Moon - Song Review". AllMusic . Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Digital Sheet Music – Neil Young – Harvest Moon". Musicnotes.com. Sony/ATV Music Publishing. April 5, 2004. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  4. ↑ "The 100 Greatest Songs". Neil Young. Rolling Stone. 2014. p. 89.
  5. ↑ "Harvest Moon by Neil Young". Classic Rock Review. 25 June 2012. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  6. ↑ Sam Sodomsky (27 September 2022). "The 250 Best Songs of the 1990s". Pitchfork .
  7. ↑ Petridis, Alexis (5 November 2016). "Neil Young – every album ranked!". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  8. ↑ Inglis 2003, p. 2.
  9. 1 2 Inglis 2003, p. 5.
  10. ↑ Inglis 2003, p. 72.
  11. 1 2 3 "Remembering Neil Young's Amazing 'Harvest Moon' Video". www.audacy.com. 2019-09-13. Retrieved 2023-05-25.
  12. ↑ "Dale Crover". IMDb.com. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  13. ↑ "Protonic Reversal Ep230: Dale Crover (Melvins, Redd Kross, Dale Crover Band)". protonicreversal.com. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  14. ↑ "RPM Top 100 Singles - February 13, 1993" (PDF).
  15. ↑ "Top 50 Airplay Chart" (PDF). Music Week . March 13, 1993. p. 12. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  16. ↑ "RPM 100 Hit Tracks of 1993" (PDF). RPM . Retrieved November 23, 2017.
  17. ↑ "British single certifications – Neil Young – Harvest Moon". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved July 19, 2024.

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