Great Story: How Neil Young Introduced His Classic 1972 Album Harvest to Graham Nash

Image by F. Antolín Hernán­dez, via Wiki­me­dia Com­mons

Gra­ham Nash, of Cros­by, Stills, Nash & Young, has a new book out, Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life. And that means he’s doing inter­views, many inter­views. A cou­ple of weeks ago, he spent an excel­lent hour on The Howard Stern Show (seri­ous­ly). Next, it was off to chat with the more cere­bral Ter­ry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air.

In the midst of the inter­view (lis­ten online here), Gross asked Nash to talk about his friend­ship with Neil Young, a man Nash has called “the strangest of my friends.” Just what makes him strange? Nash explains:

The man is total­ly com­mit­ted to the muse of music. And he’ll do any­thing for good music. And some­times it’s very strange. I was at Neil’s ranch one day just south of San Fran­cis­co, and he has a beau­ti­ful lake with red-wing black­birds. And he asked me if I want­ed to hear his new album, “Har­vest.” And I said sure, let’s go into the stu­dio and lis­ten.

Oh, no. That’s not what Neil had in mind. He said get into the row­boat.

I said get into the row­boat? He said, yeah, we’re going to go out into the mid­dle of the lake. Now, I think he’s got a lit­tle cas­sette play­er with him or a lit­tle, you know, ear­ly dig­i­tal for­mat play­er. So I’m think­ing I’m going to wear head­phones and lis­ten in the rel­a­tive peace in the mid­dle of Neil’s lake.

Oh, no. He has his entire house as the left speak­er and his entire barn as the right speak­er. And I heard “Har­vest” com­ing out of these two incred­i­bly large loud speak­ers loud­er than hell. It was unbe­liev­able. Elliot Maz­er, who pro­duced Neil, pro­duced “Har­vest,” came down to the shore of the lake and he shout­ed out to Neil: How was that, Neil?

And I swear to god, Neil Young shout­ed back: More barn!

To that we say, more Neil Young! Find more Neil right below.

Neil Young Busk­ing in Glas­gow, 1976: The Sto­ry Behind the Footage

‘The Nee­dle and the Dam­age Done’: Neil Young Plays Two Songs on The John­ny Cash Show, 1971

The Time Neil Young Met Charles Man­son, Liked His Music, and Tried to Score Him a Record Deal

Neil Young on the Trav­es­ty of MP3s