This month’s pick earns the spot for three reasons

1.  It’s a great album, a bona fide classic.  Usually that alone would be enough but….

2.  We (that’s myself and Jennifer) just celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary this November 11th and, while the album is one that we both love in pretty much it’s entirety, Heart of Gold has a special place in our hearts as both the song I proposed to her to and the soundtrack to our first dance.

3.  It gives us an opportunity to retell Graham Nash of Crosby Stills and Nash’s story about the first time he heard the album.  Sure, we install audio systems in bespoke pieces of furniture, Neil Young apparently went a step further;

“I was at Neil’s ranch one day just south of San Francisco, and he has a beautiful lake with red-wing blackbirds. And he asked me if I wanted to hear his new album, “Harvest” And I said sure, let’s go into the studio and listen.

Oh, no. That’s not what Neil had in mind. He said get into the rowboat.

I said get into the rowboat? He said, yeah, we’re going to go out into the middle of the lake.

Now, I think he’s got a little cassette player with him or a little, you know, early digital format player. So I’m thinking I’m going to wear headphones and listen in the relative peace in the middle of Neil’s lake.

Oh, no. He has his entire house as the left speaker and his entire barn as the right speaker. And I heard “Harvest” coming out of these two incredibly large loud speakers louder than hell. It was unbelievable. Elliot Mazer, who produced Neil, produced “Harvest,” came down to the shore of the lake and he shouted out to Neil: How was that, Neil?

And I swear to god, Neil Young shouted back: More barn