Artist: Neil Young
Album: On The Beach (1974)
Rating: 16/20
Best Song: Revolution Blues, or Walk On

Neil Young's On The Beach was only released on CD very recently, as late as 2004 I believe. It was the second in Young's infamous "Doom trilogy" - sandwiched in between the as-yet unreleased (on CD) Time Fades Away and his critically acclaimed Tonight's The Night. It is hard to figure out just why Young took so long to release this album on CD. Apparently, he hates CDs, so some speculate that he is waiting for the next best format to come along. Others say that he wants to shut out this dark period of his life, where he was wasted physically and emotionally, and struggled to deal with the death of his friends. Then, of course, there's the possibility that Young looks back with disdain at these efforts; he's publicly stated that Time Fades Away is his worst album. I can't say anything about that, but I do know that this here is one of Young's most perplexing albums, yet it is ultimately up there with anything else he put out.

It is remarkable to think about the fact that these melancholy albums came out just after Harvest got really popular; Young would go to concerts, and while the fans eagerly awaited "Heart Of Gold", he'd give them these numbers, about junkies and being wasted and revolutionaries killing of celebrities. It makes me wonder whether such a thing is possible in this day and age - will we ever see such a lack of interest by a major artist over the public opinion of his work? If not, what has changed in all these years?

The album starts off with the upbeat rocker "Walk On", with some fantastic guitar work. It does, however, paint a rather different picture to the rest of the album, and therefore runs the risk of being dismissed as lightweight. But darn it, it has so much charm - the chorus is wonderfully executed, with the "Some get stoned / Some get strange / Sooner or later it all gets real" line always getting stuck in my head after I listen to it. The song was apparently a reply to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama", where they bluntly state

Well, I heard mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ole Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don't need him around anyhow

This was of course because of Young's "Southern Man" on After The Goldrush. Of course, I am curious as to whether the song is directed at his music colleagues in general - the chorus in particular seems to be warning these people that they cannot escape reality, be it by becoming a drugged-up mess or by just going plain crazy. In fact, this sort of ties in with the last song, but more on that later.

"See The Sky About To Rain" is simply wonderful, and that's all I have to say about it. Not enough? Well, the image itself is one of the best Neil ever picked out of that wonderful little head of his - I can just imagine him sitting on top of the hill, quietly waiting for the storm to come. Yes, this song is like the calm before the storm - the soft instrumentation and vocal delivery perfectly contrast the rather sad lyrics. In particular, I love this part:

Some are bound for happiness,
Some are bound to glory,
Some are bound to live with less,
Who can tell your story?

Ahh, bravo my friend, bravo. I think that before I die, I want to be able to speak this line out somewhere. As a matter of fact, it is rather cloudy right now - I suppose the spirits are favouring me today.

Next is one of the starkest songs in Young's catalogue, "Revolution Blues". Sung through the eyes of a member of the Mason cult, this paints a vivid picture and leaves you wondering how much of the narrator is this persona Young has created, and how much is Young himself. Young viciously plows through the lyrics as the song maintains a fierce tempo. You can just feel the chaos and confusion lying under the surface! Heck, the song ends with the ominous lines

I got the revolution blues,
I see bloody fountains,
And ten million dune buggies
Comin' down the mountains.
Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon
Is full of famous stars,
But I hate them worse than lepers,
And I'll kill them
In their cars.

Wow, this ain't your typical rock song!! I can just imagine the crowd's reaction to this song - stunned disbelief. Is this the man who softly crooned "Reach out, reac out / Let me fill your cup / With the promise of a man"? What a transformation.

The next two numbers aren't my favourites (ever notice how I like lumping so-so tracks together in these "reviews"?), but have something going for them. The banjo-backed "For The Turnstiles" used to be one of my least favourite songs ever, but it sort of grows on you I guess. In fact, the chorus is downright catchy, albeit in a strange Neil Young sort of way. "Although your confidence may be shattered / It doesn't matter"? I can't figure out what that means, but Young's delivery is something else. And "Vampire Blues" is a short but somewhat uninteresting number. It is about these large oil companies who "suck blood from the earth". But it doesn't feature anything to keep me particularly interested, apart from the amusing "Good times are coming / But they sure are coming slow".

The title track, "On The Beach", is a stellar number. Soft and slooow is the way to go, it would seem. In many ways, it captures the mood of the album - tired, depressed but ultimately from the heart (it just so happens that his heart happens to be in a bad place). It features perhaps my favourite line from the whole album:

Though my problems are meaningless,
That don't make them go away

So if you thought Young was wallowing in self-pity and too concerned with whining, there you go. The perfect response! It features a subtle guitar line that, funnily enough, reminds me of "Presence Of The Lord" - but it definitely feels "right" in this song, adding to the atmosphere Young's wailings create.

"Motion Pictures" is the only number that I can never remember too much about when it's done. At least "Vampire Blues" has that string that sounds like it's broken cropping up during the guitar sections, but this one I can only remember Young's gentle delivery, and that's about it. On the final track, "Ambulance Blues", we get a 9 minute epic with some pretty surreal lyrics. Young admits "It's hard to say the meaning of this song", but follows with the reverberating

It's easy to get buried in the past
When you try to make a good thing last

Backed by a harmonica and a fiddle (of all instruments!), this seems to be trying to capture the magic of the "old folky days", and for the most part, it works. The first couple of times, it sounds a bit repetitive, but it will definitely grow on you. The fiddle in particular is what creates the unique atmosphere - it conjures up some wonderful images, and it ain't everyday that an instrument conjures up images. There is another allusion to his colleagues here, with the lines

And I still can hear him say:
"You're all just pissin' in the wind"
You don't know it, but you are

Interesting - is Young telling his fellow rock stars that they are fighting a losing battle, and for all their efforts they are just "pissin' in the wind" (quite blunt, no?). Perhaps not, but the uncertainty makes it all the more interesting.

I can't say that this is my favourite Young album. That would probably still be Rust Never Sleeps. Nor can I say that it is my favourite depressed man's album. That would probably be Tonight's The Night (although I haven't heard it in a while..). But this is great stuff, and definitely should have been released on CD a looong time ago. I'd say it's next in line behind Rust Never Sleeps and Tonight's The Night, if only because of "See The Sky" and "On The Beach", two classics in his catalogue. This may not be the easiest of listens, but it does reveal a lot about a very rough period of Young's life - "All my pictures are falling", as it were. Some of Young's greatest lyrics and imagery, and while the guitar playing is mostly understated, there are a couple of notable exceptions (like "Walk On"! Did I mention how fantastic the guitar is on that song?). I'd recommend people to listen to it on a cloudy day, or at night in the rain, because that has to be the best way to hear the album (unfortunately, I can't say that I've listened to it this way).