Monday, May, Neil Young, and Harvest Moon
Dull, dreary, Monday, May, Neil Young, and Harvest Moon.
The harvest moon is later in the year. A true harvest moon comes near the autumnal equinox. I worked in agriculture in my teen sand early twenties having been spawned and reared in north of Seattle in Mount Vernon. The Skagit Valley has rich soil, is famous for tulips, peas, strawberries, lots of seed crops, the Skagit River, and the gateway to the San Juan Islands.
I operated a pod stripper, a pea combine, working nights 545pm til 545 am for 3 college summers. Seen some beautiful large harvest moons…while harvesting. So this song has always been dear to my heart.
In that combine I learned to smoke cartons of cigarettes, drink coffee, eat bulk chocolate getting heartburn so bad that you could not fall asleep, and sing Harvest Moon start to finish even bellowing out the harmonica portions.
While I did not sound quite like Neil I kept myself awake, and entertained. I also sang tons of Jazz Standards, my favorite nighttime tune being Misty. Attempting to sound like the silver fog, Mel Torme.
The Silver Fog. Great nickname. Mine for years before coming to Craig was Sparky. Only a few know that here in Craig. Very few. I did like the nickname Sparky.
Now Squeeky Oar Lock will have to do. Or Mark. Mark is fine as well.
Wet weather ahead of us and is kind of clammy this morning. The flows at 10K. May or may not see movement this week. Not terribly warm nor is it terribly warm in the evenings in the mountains. The snow melt stops in the hills if it drops below 40F at night. So not too much movement this week ahead.
Play Harvest Moon in your office today several times. Watch the vid, listen closely. Then play it again, close your eyes, and superimpose your Harvest Moon memories to this beautifully pleasant tune.
5 Comments.
Great post! I’ve been a fan since back in the day…I love… After the Gold Rush…Everybody knows this is nowhere…Live Rust…and …Comes a time.
One of my favorites.
Best description I ever heard of Neil Young’s voice:
“Sounds like a Vienna Choir Boy who just bought his first ounce of pot and smoked the whole thing”.
Mark, Neil has always been an inspiration to me. Didn’t know you were a big fan. I guess we never discussed it on our fishing trips. Anyway, I saw Neil play this song at the Red Rocks in 1992. I don’t think the album was out yet. He timed Harvest Moon perfectly with a harvest moon rising to the east. Thanks for bringing that memory back. See you one of these days.
Thanks Jeff, hope to see you up here soon!
For a youngin’ you have older/”experienced” taste in fine music. Mel, hey now that ’50’s/60’s crooner was better/different than Sinatra, IMHO. Now at 68, you’re aware I grew up Lovin’ Neal, before during and after CSN*. “Our Time” was “THE” time for what they called Rock. My time spent in Craig last year was some of the best Trout fishing in a long time. This year I’m headed to Dillon, but may swing back up just to fish a day or 2 before heading home to Spokie. My last Navy duty station was Whidbey NAS, so very familiar with Mt. Vernon & the Skagit steel, Dollies (Sauk) & Salmon back just before the “decline” (’98-’00). Thank you for this video, brought back memories of seeing these 4 in concert back on Long Island when I was ~20.