On this day in 1972, the Neil Young LP “Harvest” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Album Chart at #12 (March 4) Young’s fourth studio album, featuring the London Symphony Orchestra on two tracks, and vocals by noted guests David Crosby, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Stills, and James Taylor, was the best-selling album of 1972 in the US. It provided timeless classics like “Heart of Gold”, and “Old Man”. Another gem is “The Needle and the Damage Done", which is a lament for the great artists Young knew who had been addicted to heroin, including Crazy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten. "Alabama" was "an unblushing rehash of 'Southern Man'"; to which Lynyrd Skynyrd famously wrote their 1973 hit "Sweet Home Alabama" in reply, stating "I hope Neil Young will remember, a Southern Man don't need him around, anyhow". 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. I don't like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue." The album's success caught Young off guard and his first instinct was to retreat from the attention. He would later write that the record "put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there." According to a note posted on Young's official website on May 1, 2019, much of Harvest "was written about or for Carrie Snodgress, a wonderful actress and person and Zeke Young’s mother." The record was a #1 hit around the world, in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and Norway. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked “Harvest” #72 in the list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2015, Harvest was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Click on the link below to watch a stunning live version of “Old Man”: https://youtu.be/An2a1_Do_fc