BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 5th August 2020
It's a love song about growing old. Neil Young's Harvest Moon released in 1992 is a nod to the 1970s country rock loved by music blogger Alyson Young. It's also a grown up song about love says singer-songwriter Ricky Ross. How do you make the magic last and how do you keep love alive? People tell their stories about what the song means to them: jazz singer Maureen Washington danced to the song with her late husband. Amanda Legere played it to her premature baby daughter when she went to see her in the ICU. She knows the baby responded to that song. Mary Divine and her husband were serenaded on their wedding anniversary during lockdown. The whole neighbourhood came out to watch a teenage neighbour play Harvest Moon for them. Margy Waller drove to work at the White House on the final days of Bill Clinton's Presidency listening to Harvest Moon because she needed to cry. For her it's a song about loss. She is still touched by it today during the pandemic in what she describes as another period of great loss.
Versions include Harvest Moon by:
Neil Young
Cassandra Wilson
Maureen Washington
Nils Lofgren
Neil Young Unplugged
Produced by Maggie Ayre
Alyson's music blog is Jukeboxtimemachine.com
Ricky Ross presents Another Country on BBC Radio Scotland.
Maureen Washington is a jazz singer based in British Columbia.
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