Cover Songs

“Are You Ready for the Country” Between a Rock and a Country Place

randydafoe12 Comments

Given the title, you may have expected this song to come from a Country Artist but “Are you Ready for the Country” was written and recorded by Neil Young and appeared on the 1972 album Harvest. All ten of the tracks on this album have been covered, including “Heart of Gold”(128) and “Old Man”(77). The ‘Country’ in the title does not reference Country Music in this case, and which ‘Country’ is not specified.

Waylon Jennings was the third cover version of 17 recordings and his charted #7 on the Country Chart in 1976. Jennings changed up a few words in his rendition to countrify the song.

12 thoughts on ““Are You Ready for the Country” Between a Rock and a Country Place”

  2. I love Neil Young and “Harvest”, even though he quickly hated it once he realized how successful it was.

    Neil’s an interesting character. He concluded he need to go from the “middle of road” into “the ditch.” The result was what became known as the ditch trilogy. He partially succeeded. None of these three albums did as well in the charts as “Harvest”. They still became favorites among many of his fans. I guess Neil was okay with that.

    While I also like Waylon Jennings’ cover, I think I prefer Neil’s original! 🙂

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    • I think that is a very good observation on Neil and I actually had not heard the term ‘ditch trilogy’. Neil is nothing if he’s not unpredictable. The man who wrote a song about selling out was one of the first to sell his catalogue. Don’t we all change our views over time.

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  5. I know the Young version well…I never heard the Waylon version. He makes any song his when he sings it. Such a strong voice and character. I would have thought he wrote it. It’s a coin flip between these two versions…apples and oranges.

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