Harvest is the fourth studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released on February 1, 1972, by Reprise Records, catalogue number MS 2032.

It featured the London Symphony Orchestra on two tracks and vocals by guests David Crosby, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Stills, and James Taylor.

In the fall of 1970, Young released After the Gold Rush, divorced his wife Susan Acevedo, and purchased Broken Arrow Ranch in Redwood City, California, where he would live for the next four decades.

While renovating his new home, Young injured his back, limiting his mobility and ability to perform electric guitar.

While picking up a slab of walnut, Young injured his back, which prevented him from standing up while performing, limiting him to playing acoustic music.

Young explains in an August 1975 interview with Cameron Crowe for Rolling Stone: I was in and out of hospitals for the two years between After the Gold Rush and Harvest.

A performance on The Johnny Cash Show led to collaborations with record producer Elliot Mazer and Nashville studio musicians.

In Nashville, Young recruited a group of country session musicians, whom he would dub The Stray Gators to record his new songs.

"[11] In a radio interview, Young specifically cites "Heart of Gold", "Harvest" and "Out on the Weekend" as being inspired by his then blossoming love.

At a Philadelphia concert in October 2014, Young shared that the song was also inspired by a light switch in a hotel he stayed at while touring with CSNY: Now maid is a word that's been hijacked.

Louis stood a little off-center due to an injury he sustained while walking through a field one day when he stepped in a deep hole and put his back out.

Young later wrote of "Alabama" in his autobiography Waging Heavy Peace, saying it "richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record.

[20] The song was also inspired by several artists Young had seen fall to heroin, as he explained to a January 1971 audience: I got to see to see a lot of great musicians before they happened.

Multiple sessions in February and April were held in Nashville with established local studio musicians, produced by Elliot Mazer.

"[22] Eager to record his new songs, Mazer helped Young assemble a band of local Nashville musicians.

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."

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.

"A Man Needs a Maid" and "There's a World" were recorded by Jack Nitzsche with the London Symphony Orchestra March 1 at Barking Town Hall.

After hearing the playback in Glyn Johns's truck, where the pieces were recorded outside the Barking Town Hall, Jack said, 'I think it's a bit overblown.'

Using a remote recording system, Mazer set up PA speakers in the barn for monitors rather than have the players wear headphones.

"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.

Graham Nash recalls the experience in his 2013 memoir, Wild Tales: I remember the day that Neil asked me to listen to the record.

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.

[26] According to a Rolling Stone interview, Young had wanted the album sleeve to biodegrade after the shrink-wrap was broken, but was overruled by the record company on the basis of expense and the possible product loss due to shipping accidents.

The new 5.1 mix was the subject of minor controversy due to its unconventional panning, with the vocals in the centre of the room and the drums in the rear speakers.

Rolling Stone's John Mendelsohn called the album a "disappointing retread" of earlier, superior efforts by Young, writing of "the discomfortingly unmistakable resemblance of nearly every song on this album to an earlier Young composition – it's as if he just added a steel guitar and new words to After The Gold Rush.

"[40] A review in The Montreal Gazette gave the album a mixed verdict, calling it "embarrassing" in places but interesting lyrically, and singling out "Are You Ready for the Country?"

[41] Reappraising the record in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote: Anticipation and mindless instant acceptance made for critical overreaction when this came out, but it stands as proof that the genteel Young has his charms, just like the sloppy one.

Rhythmically it's a little wooden, and Young is guilty of self-imitation on "Alabama" and pomposity on the unbearable London Symphony Orchestra opus "There's a World."

But those two excepted, even the slightest songs here are gratifying musically, and two of them are major indeed—"The Needle and the Damage Done" and the much-maligned (by feminists as well as those critics of the London Symphony Orchestra) "A Man Needs a Maid.