More from Neil Young
(1969) Neil Young
(1969) Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
(1970) After The Gold Rush
(1972) Harvest
(1974) On The Beach
(1975) Tonight's The Night
(1975) Zuma
(1976) Long May You Run
(1977) American Stars 'N Bars
(1978) Comes A Time
(1979) Live Rust
(1979) Rust Never Sleeps
(1980) Hawks & Doves
(1981) Re-ac-tor
(1983) Everybody's Rockin'
(1983) Trans
(1985) Old Ways
(1986) Landing On Water
(1987) Life
(1988) This Note's For You
(1989) Freedom
(1990) Ragged Glory
(1992) Harvest Moon
(1993) Unplugged
(1994) Sleeps With Angels
(1995) Mirror Ball
(1996) Broken Arrow
(1996) Dead Man
(2000) Silver & Gold
(2002) Are You Passionate?
(2003) Greendale
(2005) Prairie Wind
(2006) Live At The Fillmore East
(2006) Living With War
(2007) Live At Massey Hall 1971
On The Beach
by Neil Young (1974)
Written by zuma06 (2)
I first heard On The Beach in the early 80's (can't quite remember because the early 80's are kind of fuzzy for me) when the 8-track tape purge began. The 8-track tape purge was a time when record stores were dumping all 8-track tapes for the smaller and better sounding cassette tape. So I picked up a lot of stuff then. Purchasing a piece of music for a starving college student was a big purchase that was not done lightly. Luckily I lived in a place that had an FM Progressive Rock station that played "deep cuts" or tracks that were not pushed by record companies. Hell, sometimes they played the whole sides of albums!
Anyway, armed with my growing collection of 8-tracks, a few comrades, and some artificial mind opening substances, we experimented with leaving the same 8-track in the player for hours and days. It really helps a song and an album to get inside your head. And this album got in my head big time.
In later years I learned the order that Neil recorded this album and some of the inspiration, but we were on our own back then. Trying to figure out what the hell some of the lyrics meant, and grooving on his ability to play so damn slowwww. Plus the content was like, about just stuff. Existential stuff, about statues and seagulls out of reach and rain.
Like wow, man.
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Neil Young — On The Beach: Track-by-track review
1. "Walk On"
Some get stoned, some get strange.
Indeed they do. At least in Neil's world. Here we find Neil ruminating about how other people view him and how he accepts that they might think he's kind of wierd and how it's ok with him and he's just gonna keep walkin on. Keep doing his own thing. Which in spite of much resistance from collaborators, record labels, maybe even family, he has kept doing. It's sort of Neil's philosphy put into music.
NERDLETS — One-sentence impressions of this song
"Walk On" is about as good an incentive to keep movin´as you'll find... by ant (24)
"Walk On" is a great way to start this album. by zuma06 (2)
2. "See The Sky About To Rain"
Look up at the sky. Something is about to happen that you don't want to miss. Just raining? Yes, and a train is coming through.
Trains figure into Neil's music from time to time. Like Transformer Man from the album Trans. But here it sets an atmosphere of fog and clouds and rain and a train coming through and the lonesome whistle blowing.
And then Neil is in Dixieland playing a silver fiddle which someone breaks because he plays it too loud.
Go figure.
Plus, it has some great electric piano and steel guitar in it.
NERDLETS — One-sentence impressions of this song
"See The Sky About To Rain" is a song that highlights Neil playing electric piano with his usual (for this era) obtuse lyrics. by zuma06 (2)
3. "Revolution Blues"
Some black humor from Neil. Apparently inspired by a chance meeting with Charlie Manson. I didn't know about that when I listened to this in the 80's. It just seemed paranoid and violent.
I love the line "..I see bloody fountains. And ten million dune buggies coming down the mountain."
Damn, that's wierd stuff.
Listen for Neil whining like a dog.
NERDLETS — One-sentence impressions of this song
"Revolution Blues" is a good rocker with a healthy dose of black humor. by zuma06 (2)
4. "For The Turnstiles"
Some nice pickin in this song. Neil sings it at the top of his range giving it a desperate quality.
It seems like another rumination on his days with Buffalo Springfield.
It also seems to me to be about the fickle nature of fame. How when you succeed they build a statue of you and when you fail they scatter for the turnstiles to get away from you.
NERDLETS — One-sentence impressions of this song
"For The Turnstiles" is a song that could be referenced when mentioning Neil's "reedy" voice. by zuma06 (2)
5. "Vampire Blues"
Nice slow blues with an almost non-existent guitar solo. It follows the usual verse structure of blues.
Seemingly a light hearted jab at the petroleum industry.
NERDLETS — One-sentence impressions of this song
"Vampire Blues" is , like the industry which it derides, 'crude'. And equally devastating. by ant (24)
"Vampire Blues" is an indictment of the oil industry or something like that, with a really minimalistic guitar solo. by zuma06 (2)
6. "On The Beach"
A haunting song. Really depressing. Lots of bad things happening. Pictures falling off the wall. The world is turning away from him. Going down a road and not knowing where it's going. Needing people but not being able to face them every day.
And those damn seagulls are STILL out of reach. I know that feeling.
NERDLETS — One-sentence impressions of this song
"On The Beach" is a song that has haunted me for years with the line "...but the seagulls are still out of reach." by zuma06 (2)
7. "Motion Pictures"
Not sure what this song is about. His marriage. His career.
Very understated. Nice rhyming.
NERDLETS — One-sentence impressions of this song
"Motion Pictures" is fitting for the mood of this album. by zuma06 (2)
8. "Ambulance Blues"
This song is definately about Neil's early career. How the air was magic when they played in tiny clubs. But who is Mother Goose?
And someone in here lied to Neil. Maybe a producer or record company hack.
But ultimately, there's nothing like a friend who can tell you you're just pissing in the wind.
NERDLETS — One-sentence impressions of this song
"Ambulance Blues" is definitely inspired by a few doobies and I don't mean the brothers. by zuma06 (2)
A classic Neil album to be sure. Lookin' forward to the review, sittin' here watchin' the sky about to rain...
Sounds like you were as fuzzy as I was while getting into OTB in the 80s as Neil was when getting it together in the 70s ...
He and the band were subsisting on a diet of 'honey slides' (marinaded marijuana) while they recorded the album, which pretty much accounts for its moodswings:
Playful in some areas. Outright bizarre in others.
Nicely put!
Neil's recent split with Corrie Snodgrass also had a big effect on its tone(s). Maybe that's why it was deleted for so long? Oh yeah, the live and still deleted Time Fades Away is the other part of the 'Ditch Trilogy', together with TTN. Zuma, as they say, is another story...
I guess that, just as fuzziness inspired it, a degree of fuzziness is required to really get into it: like all of Neil's stuff back then (and much of it still now). Here's to fuzzy clarity — Long May You Run!
zuma06 Jan 21, 2010 10:58 AM Quote ↓
On The Beach is one of a loose trilogy of albums by Neil to comment on his disatisfaction with fame following his success with Harvest and other personal issues. Not as dark and dismal as Tonights The Night, not as varied or guitar jam filled as Zuma. Playful in some areas. Outright bizarre in others. Overall he seems to be in a light mood.
The songs seem grouped by their common lethargy and almost sound like they were recorded on one speed and mixed on a slower speed. Some musicians say it is hard to play slow and stay "in the pocket." If so, this was a hard album to make. The Cowboy Junkies must have grown up listening to this album.
Neil has gone through many changes in his life and his music. Although younger fans may like his Harvest Moon and Unplugged era and extend it to the 21st century, his earlier 70's albums are much more real and poetic than his later output.
(It could be said that his later material is more to the point. But I prefer the obtuse lyrics of his earlier material)