Harvest
Neil Young famously wrote that \"Heart of Gold,\" *Harvest*\'s monster country-rock smash, \"put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch.\" A smoother album than most of what Young doled out for the rest of the \'70s, *Harvest* nonetheless has its own charms. \"Out on the Weekend,\" and \"Heart of Gold\" itself are lonely country ballads; so is the orchestrated \"A Man Needs a Maid,\" in spirit. The album also warily peered at a world beyond Young\'s ranch: \"Alabama\" might have been an even better take on \"Southern Man,\" and \"The Needle and the Damage Done\" was a no less aching precursor of \"Tonight\'s the Night.\" *Harvest* was one of the things that won him the freedom to drive in the gullies, but it\'s also a good trip in itself.
Harvest sits at the foundation of Neil Young's legacy, a blockbuster that turned the singer/songwriter into a superstar in his own right.