The Johnny Cash Show is deep into its second season when Neil Young pulls into Nashville. Lauded for its healthy cross-pollination of styles, freely pitching together a diverse collection of artists, the weekly US TV show has previously attracted big hitters such as Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Roy Orbison, Ray Charles, Loretta Lynn, Louis Armstrong and Eric Clapton.
It’s early February 1971, and Young’s star is rising fast. Not only has he enjoyed success as a quarter of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, America’s foremost supergroup, but also After The Gold Rush, his third solo album, is about to go platinum. Plus he’s fresh from a sell-out acoustic tour of the States and his native Canada. An appearance on The Johnny Cash Show, filmed at the legendary Ryman Auditorium, is already overdue. He’s in good company too, sharing a bill with James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and Tony Joe White.
Introduced by Cash as a “brilliant mind”, Young plays two striking new songs: The Needle And The Damage Done and Journey Through The Past. “It was an opportunity to perform with my peers, but I felt I didn’t do as well there as I might have, for whatever reason,” the ever self-critical Young wrote in his 2012 memoir Waging Heavy Peace. “But something extraordinary came out of this trip.”
Keen to get down to some recording while in town, Young is introduced to Elliot Mazer, a local producer who also owns Quadrafonic Studios on Music Row. Mazer’s first-choice musicians are booked elsewhere that weekend, so he hastily brings in bassist Tim Drummond, drummer Kenny Buttrey and steel guitar player Ben Keith. Young invites Taylor and Ronstadt along too. The impromptu songs they record in Nashville would form the basis of Young’s next album, Harvest.
Purely by chance, Young had found his next great band. The instant chemistry he shared with Drummond, Buttrey and Keith – quickly dubbed the Stray Gators by Young – gave Harvest its signature charge, placing Young’s songs at a porous intersection of folk, country and 70s rock. The Stray Gators would remain by his side for the next two years.
Released in February 1972, became – and remains – the biggest-selling album of Young’s career. It was prefaced by a monster hit, whose easy-going, lilting melody propelled it to the top of singles chart. Young was fêted as a superstar, especially in his
