In the early 1970's, Neil Young was white hot. His solo career was a critical and commercial success. Still, I remember several girls in college (for some reason it was always the female types) complaining that their roommates kept playing HARVEST over and over: "I really like HEART OF GOLD; but what's all that other stuff?" Many pulled into a holding pattern with AS TIME FADES AWAY. But ON THE BEACH is where a lot of people got off the boat. This is where Young's penchant to "head out to a different part of the frontier" with each new record became most apparent. Anticipation of the "next" Neil Young record became something of a mixed bag because there was no way to know what to expect. Promised albums could suddenly disappear from his record company's upcoming releases list because Young would change his mind and direction frequently.
Young's audience would roughly break down four ways from this point on.
1.) There are those who liked his early material but are ill disposed toward anything after AFTER THE GOLD RUSH or HARVEST. I suppose there is no anger like a love spurned; but the tenacity of this group to hang around to throw brickbats is something to behold.
2.) The second group is a comparatively fluid group that consists of fans of one particular album of Young's and practically nothing else. I have met, for instance, those who absolutely love THIS NOTE'S FOR YOU but have no interest in anything else Young has or will have done.
3.) A third group basically blows either hot or cold on individual pieces of Young's outré. Likes and dislikes usually are not confined to a particular album or period. Rather on a song-by-song basis they either love it or hate it-no in-between. Sometimes you can find some consistency in what a person likes in Neil Young; but more often what a fan in this group will like defies logical analysis.
4.) Then there is that small but dedicated group of die-hards that likes just EVERYTHING Neil does. Whatever twists and turns our man Neil makes is totally cool with them. One acquaintance in the record business maintains that they count on this group for the block of sales to follow any new release. Fans in this group seem to process not just a love of the music as much as a specific sensibility they believe they share with Neil Young himself. They see Young as the very embodiment of "cool". It is as if Young is the living incarnation of the free spirit the late 1960's held as ideal. As you might expect, this group is totally imbalanced.
I myself am a "recovering" number four. When I get some distance from my enthusiasm for anything Neil Young I can see it for what it is and accept the fact that there are other types of fans out there and there are perfectly reasonable and sane people who don't care for Neil. But I fall off the wagon on a fairly regular basis. Even so, although you would have to pry any and all my Neil Young records out of my dead cold hands, I must admit some are better than others. Some are a whole lot better.
If you assume ARC and LANDING ON WATER are at the low end and HARVEST, COMES A TIME and RUST NEVER SLEEPS are at Young's absolute best, ON THE BEACH falls somewhere around the lower middle. Rather than reaching for some rock and roll "high" ON THE BEACH just meanders. Most of its songs belong to a large class of "stream of consciousness" songs Neil has a habit of writing now and then. The word "blues" in three of the eight songs is a tip off we are getting into some pretty bizarre territory where Neil is sorting some things out.
This has not stopped some from proclaiming ON THE BEACH as rock classic. Young actually wanted to release TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT but Reprise didn't want to foul the pool with that black and depressing work. So we got ON THE BEACH instead and it is bleak enough. Since the advent of romanticism in the last 19th century, dark moods and emotions have been legitimate subjects for artistic expression. Rock is nothing if not a grandchild of romanticism and so ON THE BEACH followed by TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT have entitled Young to his perminent gold membership card in the "authentic artists club" ever since.
"Walk On" : A small hit in 1974. Humorous ditty most at the time thought was about the insults Lynyrd Skynyrd threw at Neil in "Sweet Home Alabama". It has since been accerted that "I hear some people been talkin' me down" refers to his former band mates in CSNY. Anyone who has moved on from their partying days before some of their friends can relate.
"See The Sky About The Rain": This is an exceptionally picturesque song that The Byrds did much better. I have always been puzzled why Young does such a minimalist version here and in his concerts. Yeah, its his song-but I would like to have heard Young's grungy electric guitar workout rather than the weenie Playskool piano sound here.
"Revolution Blues": The Rolling Stones explored the mind of a rapist in "Midnight Rambler". Young goes to the mind of Charlie Manson and family here. Written too close to the Tate/Sebring/Folger/Parent/Frykowski murders for comfort, "Revolution Blues" was roundly shunned at the time. Now every pizza face teenager who can pick and choose his own black clothes thinks he's audacious pretending he's Charles Manson.
"For The Turnstiles": An important song in many's Neil Young canon. Naked singing over a picked banjo. Seems to be about the bitter realities of fame.
"Vampire Blues": Could be about environmental disaster. Could be a premonition of dark and violent days ahead. Off shore drilling just honks off Californians.
"On The Beach": Seems to be deliberately evoking the movie ON THE BEACH in which a small group of people survive a nuclear war only to realize that while the rest of the world is dead they too were doomed to die from resulting poisoning of the earth. In Young's case, it may be fame and the failure of the 1960's "revolution" that is poisoning life. Young wants to "head for the sticks" and "get out of town".
"Motion Pictures (For Carrie)": Carrie Snodgrass was a movie star (Diary Of A Mad Housewife) and Young's girlfriend/living partner. Seems to be a vision in which Young steps out of his rock and roll role and Snodgrass stepping out of her movie business life and going to a life of quiet togetherness "in the mountains".
"Ambulance Blues": This song is a mishmash of various thoughts. At one point it seems to be about Young's early days of performing before joining Buffalo Springfield, his divorce from his first wife, the Patty Heart kidnapping, the harangue of the critics, and somebody lying right and left. As Young himself sings, "It's hard to say the meaning of this song."
Albums written while the artist is in a funk are either exceptionally beautiful or pretty much a drag. Depression, as odd as it sounds, does have a beautiful aspect apparent only to the sufferer. It is a small crumb compared to the black feast on one's table; but it is there. Some can communicate something of this beauty; but most don't have the "stuff" to do it. Hints of it glimpses through ON THE BEACH.
Still, there is better Neil Young elsewhere. Neil Young junkies like me eat this stuff up but for the love of Pete don't start here. Buy several of his best (at least all of the below) before tackling this wonderful, difficult album.
1.) Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
2.) After The Gold Rush
3.) Harvest
4.) Decade
5.) Zuma
6.) Comes A Time
7.) Rust Never Sleeps
8.) Freedom
9.) Harvest Moon
10.) This Note's For You
Sand Through The Hourgalss
WHO CAN TELL YOUR STORY
8 tracks
