Harvest Moon

Original by Neil Young, Cover by Poolside

There’s a saying amongst songwriters and music producers that goes something like “if the song sounds good with just guitar & vocal, then it’s a good song”. This would explain why most singer/songwriters pull from the same songbook when starting out performing in coffee houses and beer bars. The songs people want to hear are the simple, memorable songs that sound good when played by just a singer with their guitar.

Neil Young’s classic song Harvest Moon certainly fits that description. Harvest Moon is the title track to Young’s multi-platinum 1992 release, which was also his 19th studio album at the time.

Most people, including artists such as Pearl Jam and Ben Gibbard, who cover Harvest Moon perform the song as a simple acoustic guitar and vocal or at most emulate the minimal production elements of the original track. The song doesn’t need anything else. It’s a truly great song just as it is. So it was a curious choice when Poolside, the LA-based electronic duo of Jeffrey Paradise and Filip Nikolic, released a cover of Harvest Moon in 2011.

Poolside is perhaps the most appropriately named band in existence. Their music is self-described as “daytime disco”, which is even more accurate than the already existing genres of nu-disco, chillwave, and synthpop where they are typically slotted. If you were going to spend an afternoon with friends sipping cold beverages by the pool, Poolside’s music would be the perfect soundtrack.

Poolside’s cover of Harvest Moon was included on their 2012 debut album Pacific Standard Time. What’s interesting is how the song doesn’t necessarily stand out production-wise among the other songs. The cover is certainly recognizable as a great song and a cover of the classic Neil Young song, but the band plays it in the same laid back and groovy style that they play all the tracks on the album. I find it very impressive that they could take such an established classic rock song and include it on their album without disrupting the flow or the vibe of the album. Poolsides’s cover of Harvest Moon fits right into the well-curated playlist that is Pacific Standard Time.

Poolside recognized Harvest Moon as a great song and had the confidence to cover it in their own style. In doing so, Poolside got a lot of exposure and gained fans as well as introduced a great song to an audience who might have not heard the original by Neil Young.

When covering such a great classic as Harvest Moon, I believe many artists feel they should respect the original arrangement and play the song as written. But I always love hearing a band as unique as Poolside taking a song as great as Harvest Moon and not being afraid to play it in a “daytime disco” style. Sometimes that contrast is what makes a perfect cover song.

I urge you to listen to the album Pacific Standard Time and hear what Poolside did with Harvest Moon. You just might become a fan of daytime disco too.