Editing Harvest (Neil Young album) (section)

==Recording==
The album was recorded across several different sessions in multiple locations in 1971. "The Needle and the Damage Done" was taken from a live solo performance at UCLA on January 30 during a solo acoustic tour. Multiple sessions in February and April were held in Nashville with established local studio musicians, produced by Elliot Mazer. "A Man Needs a Maid" and "There's a World" were recorded with the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] with [[Jack Nitzsche]] on March 1. The album's electric tracks were recorded at Young's ranch in September.

Young engaged in a solo acoustic tour in North America and the United Kingdom in January and February 1971. During the tour, he played several new songs inspired by life on his new ranch or the beginnings of his romantic relationship with Carrie Snodgress. Several of the shows were recorded for potential release as a live album. Young arrived in [[Nashville]] in early February 1971 to perform on an episode of the ''[[The Johnny Cash Show (TV series)|Johnny Cash Show]]''. [[Linda Ronstadt]] and [[James Taylor]] were also slated to appear on the broadcast.

While in Nashville, Young met record producer Elliot Mazer. Mazer had recently opened [[Quadrafonic Sound Studios]] in Nashville in a converted house. Mazer remembers: "The control room was the old porch. The living room and the dining room became the two live rooms, and the kitchen became a drum area. We called it 'Quadraphonic' as a joke, although it did have four speakers in the control room."<ref name="guitar.com">The Genius Of Harvest by Neil Young. Michael Leonard. May 12, 2021. Guitar.com. Accessed November 15, 2023. https://guitar.com/reviews/album/the-genius-of-harvest-by-neil-young/.</ref> Eager to record his new songs, Mazer helped Young assemble a band of local Nashville musicians. Young remembers: {{blockquote|I went on to Nashville at the end of the tour to do the [[Johnny Cash]] television show, which was new and really hot at the time. [[Bob Dylan]] had just done the first one, and everyone wanted to do it. James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt were doing the second show, and so was I. Everyone loved Johnny Cash; he was the real thing. The show was all about music, and it was cool, very real. While I was there I met Elliot Mazer, the record producer, and we went into the studio to try some studio versions of all my new songs. [[Tim Drummond]] was there, and he put together a great band, with [[Kenny Buttrey]], John Harris, [[Ben Keith]], and another guitarist who played some tasty things like the harmonics on "Heart of Gold." This was a great-sounding band. James and Linda came in and added some vocals; James even played banjo on "Old Man." That session was a solid beginning for ''Harvest''.<ref name="Young, Neil 2012">Young, Neil. 2012. ''Waging Heavy Peace''. Penguin Publishing Group.</ref>}}

Young would continue to work with Mazer and Drummond on several subsequent projects. Ben Keith would become one of Young's most frequent collaborators until his death in 2010. Several of the musicians had performed with Nashville bands [[Area Code 615 (band)|Area Code 615]] and [[Barefoot Jerry]]. At these first sessions in early February the band was able to capture "Heart of Gold", "Old Man", "[[Bad Fog of Loneliness]]", and "Dance Dance Dance". Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor also visited the studio to contribute to the sessions with Young. The three sat on a couch and recorded the background vocals for "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man". Taylor overdubbed a part for the latter song on Young's [[banjo guitar]]. Ronstadt remembers the session in a ''Mojo'' interview: "We were sat on the couch in the control room, but I had to get up on my knees to be on the same level as James because he's so tall. Then we sang all night, the highest notes I could sing. It was so hard, but nobody minded. It was dawn when we walked out of the studio."<ref name="longlivevinyl.net">Neil Young's Harvest – in Depth. 2017. Long Live Vinyl. June 2, 2017. https://longlivevinyl.net/2017/06/02/classic-album-neil-young-harvest/.</ref> Mazer recalls Young's drive and the magical atmosphere: {{Blockquote|Neil was very specific about what he wanted. When Neil Young plays a song, his body language dictates everything about the arrangement. Neil sat in the control room of Quadrafonic and played "Heart Of Gold". Kenny and I looked at each other, and we both knew it was a number one record. We heard the song and all we had to do was move Neil into the studio and get the band out there, start the machine and make it sound good. It was incredible!<ref>Elliot Mazer: Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, Janis Joplin. Bren Davies. July/August 2009. Tapeop.com. Accessed November 15, 2023. https://tapeop.com/interviews/72/elliot-mazer/.</ref>}}

At the end of February, Young traveled to London record a performance for [[BBC Television]] and to perform a concert at the [[Royal Festival Hall]]. While there, he recorded two more songs for the album with orchestra accompaniment. "[[A Man Needs a Maid (song)|A Man Needs a Maid]]" and "There's a World" were recorded by [[Jack Nitzsche]] with the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] March 1 at [[The Broadway (theatre)|Barking Town Hall]]. Young recalled the sessions in ''Waging Heavy Peace'': "I was in London and recorded "A Man Needs a Maid" and "There's a World" with the London Symphony Orchestra, produced and arranged by Jack Nitzsche. After hearing the playback in [[Rolling Stones Mobile Studio|Glyn Johns's truck]], where the pieces were recorded outside the Barking Town Hall, Jack said, 'I think it's a bit overblown.' We knew it was over-the-top, but we had done it and we loved it."<ref name="Young, Neil 2012">Young, Neil. 2012. ''Waging Heavy Peace''. Penguin Publishing Group.</ref> In the liner notes to ''[[Decade (Neil Young album)|Decade]]'', Young remembers Bob Dylan reacting favorably to the production.<ref>''Decade'' liner notes. Neil Young. 1977</ref>

In April, Young returned to Nashville to record "Out on the Weekend", "Harvest" and "Journey Through the Past" with Mazer at Quadrafonic.<ref name="Young, Neil 2012">Young, Neil. 2012. ''Waging Heavy Peace''. Penguin Publishing Group.</ref> Mazer recalls Young being specific about what sound he wanted from the musicians during the sessions: "At one point, Neil said to Kenny that his hi-hat was too busy, so Kenny said, 'Fine. I'll sit on my right hand.' He played the whole take (for "Out on the Weekend") sitting on his right hand.<ref name="longlivevinyl.net"/><ref name="guitar.com"/> Buttrey elaborates on his experiences playing with Young in ''Shakey'': {{Blockquote|Basically every drum part that I ever did with Neil are his drum parts, not mine. He said, 'I don't want any right hand' — no cymbals — which was really tough for me, because I was havin' to think about what I was playin' instead of lettin' it come natural. 'Less is more' is the phrase he used over and over. Only lick I ever came up with on my own is the high-hat on the "Heart of Gold" verse. Neil tells everybody what to play, note for note. If you play somethin' he doesn't like, boy, he'll put a look on you you'll never forget. Neil hires some of the best musicians in the world and has 'em play as stupid as they possibly can. It's just ultra-, ultra-simple, a laidback kinda thing nobody but Neil does, and if you're right with him it sounds great, and it sounds awful if you're not. If I can't see Neil's right hand when he's playin' guitar, then I'm not playing. His rhythm playing is just perfect—it'll feel like he's slowing down, but it's just the Neil Young feel. No drummer should ever hold Neil to a certain tempo, because if you put a metronome on it, you kill the Neil Young feel.<ref name="mcd">{{cite book |last=McDonough |first=Jim |author-link=Jimmy McDonough |title=Shakey: Neil Young's Biography |year=2002 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |isbn=978-0-224-06914-4 }}</ref>}}

On August 11, Young went in for successful back surgery which allowed him to resume playing electric guitar with a band.<ref name="mcd">{{cite book |last=McDonough |first=Jim |author-link=Jimmy McDonough |title=Shakey: Neil Young's Biography |year=2002 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |isbn=978-0-224-06914-4 }}</ref>

The electric-based songs were recorded in a barn at Young's ranch in California in September. Using a [[remote recording]] system, Mazer set up PA speakers in the barn for monitors rather than have the players wear headphones. This resulted in a lot of "leakage" as each microphone picked up sound from other instruments, but Young and Mazer liked the resulting sound. "Are You Ready for the Country", "Alabama", and "Words" were recorded in these sessions with Buttrey, Drummond, Keith, along with Nitzsche on piano and lap steel. Young named this band, which would accompany him on his tour in the winter of 1973, [[The Stray Gators]].

Background vocals by [[Crosby, Stills & Nash]] were later recorded by Mazer in New York.

Mixing was done both at Quadrafonic and at Young's ranch. Young invited Graham Nash to review playback of the album as it was being completed. Graham Nash recalls the experience in his 2013 memoir, ''Wild Tales'': {{Blockquote|I remember the day that Neil asked me to listen to the record. No big speakers, but a boat. That's right, he asked me to get into a small boat and he rowed us both out into the middle of the lake. Once there he asked his producer Elliot Mazer to play the record. Neil was using his entire house as the left speaker and his huge barn as the right speaker. What an incredible record it was, and after the music stopped blaring, Elliot came down to the shore of the lake and shouted, 'How was that, Neil?' and I swear this is true, Neil shouted back, 'More barn!' That's Neil, no doubt about it.<ref>Nash, Graham. 2013. ''Wild Tales''. Penguin UK.</ref>}}

During the production of the album, Young hired filmmaker [[David Myers (cinematographer)|David Myers]] to film the sessions.<ref>Doggett, Peter. 2019. ''Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: The Biography''. London: The Bodley Head.</ref> The footage was used in two documentaries, the 1973 film ''[[Journey Through the Past (film)|Journey Through the Past]]'' and the 2022 documentary ''Harvest Time''. ''Harvest Time'' shows much of the recording process in Nashville, London, Los Angeles and New York. Dutch director [[Wim van der Linden]] also recorded footage of the artist at his ranch and in concert during the era for the ''Swing In'' German television documentary series.<ref>Linden, Wim van der, and Neil Young. Neil Young. IMDb. April 23, 1971. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13835904/.</ref>