Big Country - Harvest Home (Stuart and Bruce, 1981)

When Stuart Adamson first got together with Bruce Watson and started writing songs in May and June of 1981, a room in the Townhill Community Centre in Dunfermline was used as a makeshift studio. There as just a duo and armed with guitars, drum machine, keyboard and a Tascam 4 track portastudio, they wrote and recorded the first 9 songs that would set the foundation of the new collaboration that would come be known as Big Country.
Harvest Home, Heart and Soul, Angle Park, Wake, Lost Patrol, We Could Laugh, Echoes, The Crossing and Inwards were those first 9 songs written and recorded.
Officially, only Harvest Home, Angle Park and We Could Laugh have been released. (The Crossing 30th Anniversary Deluxe CD)
Harvest Home: The original version which Bruce once described as having a "sexy bossanova beat" and you'll hear why just after the intro. I get Blondie 'Heart of Glass' vibes from it, maybe you will too.
Harvest Home was one of the first two songs (along with Angle Park) written by Stuart and Bruce when they got together so it holds a special place in the Big Country History Book for that alone. That it would go on to be chosen, nearly 18 months later than this recording, to be the band's debut single elevates it even further in my opinion.
This version is also the only one that is true to the lyrics that appeared with all versions of The Crossing's original printed inserts.
"Our home's on fire, my wife has fled" added a really dark overtone to the song. Stuart said that Harvest Home was written as a reflection of the things he saw going on in Scotland in (then) current times but used lyrical imagery of the battle of Culloden and the Highland Clearances. The verse was subsequently dropped from all versions of the song recorded later, replaced with "In a harvest home - yoh"
(nets will "shatter" turned into nets will "tatter" in subsequent versions as well - which reads a little more clearly in the verse)
This version is, as you'd expect, raw and rough but it was so important for the band, what they were trying to do and how they were going to forge their own path.
Enjoy this little piece of grand history from Stuart Adamson and Bruce Watson - it all started from this.
Celebrating 41 years of Big Country - 1981 to 2022.
Stay Alive!

[@tamalero2011]

Thank you for sharing this beautiful song. Big Country is better than any band in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[@carlangas977]

Totally agree. My favourite band👌🏻🤘🏻

[@mattleyland453]

Great song brings back happy memories. First got into BC when I saw them perform this on The Tube. Glad I turned the telly on that day.

[@parkendsoundservices9861]

Fascinating insight this. While some late Skids material could arguably also have seen the light in Big Country tracks, Harvest Home is as you say unique to Big Country's sound. Thanks for sharing .

[@kippen64]

Thanks for all the awesome videos.

[@poppyhimbo]

thanks

[@cement8103]

ANOTHERR

[@ROOKTABULA]

That electronic beat playing underneath sounds like it was lifted directly from Heart Of Glass by Blondie. Doh. I just read your text box and you wrote the same thing!

[@tommiethatcher7265]

Nothing comes close to Big Country

[@johnmalone4373]

Have you ever come across a version of Song of the South played live?

[@BC1000Stars]

Hi John, no it was never played live unfortunately. A shame because it would have been so good to hear.

[@elvia5935]

@@BC1000Stars Hi Andy, are you truly confident when stating that SOTS has not ever been performed live? I am too reluctant my memory serves me right for that I can not claim to be 100 percent confident. Yet I do believe to have witnessed a live performance.

[@BC1000Stars]

@@elvia5935 hi! Yes, 100% confident. I made a list a while back of all the songs that had been played live by the classic line up and those songs that hadn’t been. Some songs from the album The Seer were never even played live and probably would have been considered before Song of the South. It was considered for the album but it was felt its theme was too out of step with the rest of the songs. Still a classic though and another Robin Millar song that escaped the clutches of Walter Turbitt's remix so is almost as pure as the Look Away 7” single remix, sonically. Just no live version.

[@elvia5935]

@@BC1000Stars Thank you for your ever so swift reply. I really believed to have heared it during a concert. But then I might only dreamed it to have happened. Oh no no no wait it must have been during a soundcheck. And you posted it! 😘

[@BC1000Stars]

You’re not thinking of Freedom Song are you? That was also never played live but the riff was played in a soundcheck in one of my clips.

[@geoffreyziegler9773]

I am a new subscriber and need help finding a video that was recently made unavailable, Big Country - Tower Theater, Philadelphia - Aug 26, 1986 (complete). My friend of 30+ years who passed away last January is seen closeup in the audience as an absolutely elated kid loving the show. A musician himself, he told me a few years ago that this was the best concert of his life. I’d planned to share the video with his widow and kids this Christmas and was so disappointed it is no longer there. Any help would be truly appreciated.

[@BC1000Stars]

Hi there, you will find him in this video link in the next comment. The tower theater show was audio only but used the video from The Seer Live in New York. Hope this helps!

[@BC1000Stars]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5OsiWBrorl6oZY

[@owenmcgee8496]

Why would they release this demo on Crossing Deluxe & never release the original single version of Harvest Home on CD?