Summary
It's a love song about growing old. Neil Young's Harvest Moon released in 1992 is a nod to the 1970s country rock.
It's 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 of Harvest Moon include those by: Neil Young Cassandra Wilson Maureen Washington Nils Lofgren Neil Young Unplugged
Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact
Producer: Maggie Ayre
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2020.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others. |
| 0:05.2 | My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland. |
| 0:11.3 | It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here, |
| 0:16.3 | but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world. |
| 0:19.6 | And because the team is such a diverse |
| 0:21.2 | range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through |
| 0:26.0 | archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if |
| 0:31.8 | you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories |
| 0:37.1 | from all around the UK. BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK. |
| 0:39.9 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:47.9 | The moons here can be fantastic. |
| 0:52.9 | Growing up, we had a cottage that I would always go to on Lake Charlotte, Nova Scotia, |
| 0:58.0 | and some of the moons down there were just absolutely stunning. |
| 1:02.0 | Orange and yellow, just incredible. |
| 1:06.0 | I can remember lots of evenings sitting on the dock at my cottage, |
| 1:13.3 | just enjoying the moons and the stars and the peacefulness down there. |
| 1:20.5 | Hello, my name is Amanda Lejeure, and I am from Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada. |
| 1:32.3 | My husband and I have always loved the Harvest Moon song. We love music in general, but this one has always stood out to us. |
| 1:36.3 | We've always loved autumn, so this song had always kind of stood out from us in general, |
| 1:43.3 | and that type of music is just always something that we always have on. |
| 1:47.0 | Neil Young has always been our favorite of ours, and that song has just always stood out. |
| 1:51.0 | Come a little bit closer, hear what I have to say. Just like children sleeping, we could dream this night away. |
... |
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