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A couple years back we published a We've Got A File On You interview with Dale Crover from Melvins, occasioned by his solo album Glossolalia. This allowed us to ask Crover about the time he starred as a young Neil Young in the 1992 "Harvest Moon" video. Here's what he told us:
Did people always tell you looked like Neil Young?
CROVER: A few people had mentioned that before. I remember seeing my picture, I think it was like a paper in the Pacific Northwest, where it said something about me looking like Neil Young. It said something about Neil Young being in Melvins. That was pretty funny.
I was in San Francisco in the early '90s. The Oliver Stone Doors movie, some of it was shot in San Francisco, and they had a call for extras for that movie. I went down with my girlfriend at the time and we were extras in the Doors movie for this concert scene. I remember she had called this hotline for people looking for extras, and on this message it said that they're looking for people for a Neil Young video. I remember almost not going, because we had moved that day and I was too tired. The Doors movie was kind of grueling, it was like this overnight shoot.
I almost didn't go, but we ended up going to this casting call, and when I walked in, they were like, "Did you know that we're looking for somebody that looks like Neil Young to play the young Neil Young?" So they did a screen test, and I got the part. When I met Neil Young, I was dressed just like him. That was very odd.
Now Crover is bringing things full circle by covering "Harvest Moon." That cover, merged with his new take on Melvins' "The Bit," kicks off Crover's forthcoming Get Yer Ba-Ba's Out EP, and he's released the track today along with the EP announcement. In a press release, he explains why he decided to cover "Harvest Moon" after all these years:
Years ago I played Young Neil Young in the video for Harvest Moon. It was quite a surreal experience! When I met Neil, I was made up to look just like him. Not that I didn’t already look a bit like him. That is how I got the part, after all. When I meet Neil, he starts explaining to me that he has this pair of pants that he wants me to wear for the video, and the mechanics of how the zipper works since it was broken! Not only did I play his younger self, but I also doubled for him. When he’s seen on stage playing, I’m dancing with his wife and when he’s dancing with her, I’m on stage.
There’s a scene where I’m driving with young Pegi Young and I’m not looking where I’m driving because I’m paying attention to her. I had to drive off the side of a skinny country road into a ravine, not looking where I was driving. The first few takes were fine but on the last shot, I jammed the rear fender of Neil‘s actual 1955 Cadillac into a stump. That stump saved me from rolling the car off the side of the hill, surely killing us both!
I thought it would be fun to cover this song and combine it with Melvins “The Bit”, a song I co wrote with Buzz Osborne, since both songs share the same guitar tuning. I started performing the songs live and knew right away that I wanted to record them, making it the spur for this new EP."
The EP also has acoustic versions of three Glossolalia tracks (“Doug Yuletide,” “Rings,” and “Jane”), one from 2021’s Rat-A-Tat-Tat! (“I Can’t Help You There”), and the title track, which is new. Hear "Harvest Moon/The Bit" below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Harvest Moon/The Bit"
02 "Doug Yuletide"
03 "Get Yer Ba-Ba's Out"
04 "Rings"
05 "I Can't Help You There"
06 "Jane"
Get Yer Ba-Ba's Out is out 9/4 on Joyful Noise. Pre-order it here.
Sarah Linton
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