Neil Young: On the Beach

Original Release Date: July, 1974

Rerelease Date: 2003

Musicians:

CODE

Neil Young: guitar, organ, harmonica, banjo, vocals
Rusty Kershaw: dobro, fiddle
Ben Keith: pedal steel, dobro, vocals
Rick Danko: bass
Levon Helm: drums
Graham Nash: Wurlitzer, rhythm guitar
David Crosby: rhythm guitar
Tim Drummond: bass, percussion
Ralph Molina: drums, hand drums
Billy Talbot: bass

Produced by: David Briggs

On the Beach' is the third and final installment in Neil Young's infamous `Doom Trilogy' and is certainly very deep and dark, but not quite AS much as the other two. This is the one of the three that you can put on at any time, without it bringing you down (the other two are beyond melancholy, suited almost exclusively for late nights, with the proper buzz on). I could tell you the complete history of the album, exactly what went on during the recording sessions (a fascinating story in itself), everything that was going on in Neil's life that made the album what it is, but `On the Beach' is musically and artistically the strongest of the trilogy, so it might be better to just go song by song.

"Walk On", from the second you hear the catchy opening riff for the first time, sounds like it belongs on a `Greatest Hits' disc, it's so instantly a classic. It's also so happily mellow with it's light-hearted guitar leads and hopeful lyrics such as "I remember the good old days/stayed up all night getting crazed/then the money was not so good/but we still did the best we could" and the chorus "oooh baby that's hard to change/I can't tell them how to feel/some get stoned, some get strange/sooner or later it all gets real/walk on..." Neil also shows his indifference to critics who derided him during his "Ditch Period" and made him out to be things he wasn't: "I hear some people been talkin me down/bring up my name, pass it round/they don't mention the happy times/they do their thing, I'll do mine." This song was a minor hit when it was released, getting some play on FM radio. Don't let it fool you though, although this song might not be in the "ditch" Neil talks about, it still isn't "Heart of Gold's "middle of the road."

"See the Sky About to Rain" brings the mood down a notch. Its lonesome organ and Neil's forlorn vocal perfectly suit each other and Ben Keith`s slide guitar fills are very country-ish and offset all the song`s imagery. The lyrics really don't tell a logical story, but instead can be characterized as brilliantly vague metaphors that combine with the mood of the music to create vivid images and emotions.

"See the sky about to rain, broken clouds and rain, locomotive pull a train, whistle blowin' through my brain. Signals curlin' on an open plain, rollin' down the track again, see the sky about to rain."

These lyrics, which make up the chorus, are a perfect example, as well as the man who breaks Neil's silver fiddle. The harmonica solo towards the end sounds like it's played by a desolate cowboy, alone on the trail at night in the middle of a long haul.

"Revolution Blues" takes the mood from slightly depressing to downright creepy. This is where the influence of country fiddler Rusty Kershaw can first really be heard (Rusty was brought along for the sessions thanks to Ben Keith, who thought he would be perfect. His main contribution might be making "mudslides" - a mixture of marijuana and honey fried in a pan - throughout the recording and keeping Neil and everyone high as a kite). Not that he plays anything on the track, but after the first take where Rusty (who had been hanging out in the studio freaking out David Crosby who plays rhythm guitar) felt they hadn't captured the right feeling, he started throwing stuff around yelling "this don't sound like no revolution!" The very next take is the one you hear here, done while Rusty writhed around to the music on the ground, like some kind of big hairy snake. Whatever the case, it seems to have worked. Neil's vocal is perfectly spooky, singing as if he were Manson himself. Much of the lyrics I can only guess consist of ideas that Neil heard from Charlie directly, hanging out with him in the `60's, before the murders of course.

"Well I'm a barrel of laughs with my carbine on I keep em hopping till my ammunition's gone But I'm still not happy, I feel there's something wrong. I got the revolution blues I see bloody fountains and ten million dune buggies comin down the mountain. 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."

The song starts off in A minor, and stays there pretty much the whole time, providing the perfect tone. Levon Helm and Rick Danko are on top form on bass and drums.

"For the Turnstiles" follows, and at first seems like a complete curveball. It starts out with Neil accompanying himself on banjo, singing and playing as if this were `Tonight's the Night.' "For the Turnstiles" could only be described as sounding like a couple of Appalacian rednecks, a fourth of a bottle deep into some strong moonshine, sitting on a back porch and haphazardly strumming away their troubles. Ben Keith adds what could be called a vocal harmony during the chorus, which really is a far cry from the layered CSNY sound, but I wouldn't have replaced it with anything cause it works perfectly. Ben also joins in on dobro following the first chorus, as well as a great slide solo later on. Here we find Neil loathing the upcoming `74 arena tour with CSN, as well as throwing in details of a party he went to with Ben which was a bash thrown by some local pimps (which must have been great for business).

"All the sailors with their seasick mamas, Hear the sirens on the shore. Singing songs for pimps with tailors, Who charge ten dollars at the door."

"Vampire Blues" is the only song with "blues" in the title that actually sounds anything like a conventional blues tune. It's here in the middle of the album that we're riding right back in the `Tonight's the Night' ditch. Neil sings "good times are comin, I hear it everywhere I go/good times are comin, but they sure comin slow." "Vampire Blues" also boasts a solo in which Neil plays the same note about 40 times in a row and makes it sound brilliant.

"On the Beach" is a song like none other in Neil's career. The apocalyptic tone is not unlike the tone Bob Dylan would adopt much, much later for such epics as "Ain't Talkin" and "Highlands" where, ironically, Bob mentions listening to Neil Young. With lines like "the world is turnin, I hope it don't turn away" and "I need a crowd of people, but I can't face them day to day/though my problems are meaningless, that don`t make them go away" it's clear that the surface brightness of "Walk On" hasn't completely obliterated the cloud over Neil's head. Graham Nash, generally considered the squarest member of CSNY, contributes haunting Wurlitzer piano.

Rusty Kershaw finally enters the scene on "Motion Pictures (for Carrie)." His slide guitar accompaniment completely makes the song, so it should come as a shock that it was completely improvised. According to the story, Rusty had never heard the song before. His only request was that he sit real close to Neil while playing, so as to "feel the vibe." Lyrically, Neil again takes a few lines to put his detractors in their place:

"I hear some people have got their dreams well I've got mine... all those people, they think they got it made but I wouldn't buy, sell, borrow, or trade anything I have to be like one of them I'd rather start all over again" He also takes time out to talk direct to girlfriend Carrie Snodgress "I'm deep inside myself, but I'll get out somehow And I'll stand before you, And I'll bring a smile, To your eyes..."

Rusty is again in fine form on the epic acoustic folk ballad "Ambulance Blues", adding improvised fiddle to Neil's classic acoustic guitar and harmonica combo. The nine minute song covers practically everything under the sun. The opening is about Neil's "old folky days" in Canada where he played in clubs such as the Riverboat, which was an actual riverboat named Isabella. He seems to make it clear that he's nearly over his ditch period when he sings:

"I guess I'll call it sickness gone, It's hard to say the meaning of this song. An ambulance can only go so fast, It's easy to get buried in the past, When you try to make a good thing last."

Neil then goes on in the next verse to mention the Patty Hearst kidnapping, as well as voicing another attack on music critics, this time blasting them for deriding his last few albums when they have never even tried to do what he does. The last verse (about the man who "tells so many lies") is almost definitely about Nixon. Perhaps the song could cumulatively be looked at as a eulogy for the death of the sixties. The anti-war hippies are now the "burn-outs who stub their toes on garbage pails" and the "waitress's are cryin' in the rain" wondering "will their boyfriends pass this way again" aka will they make it home from Vietnam alive. The Mother Goose reference could easily be a metaphor describing the so-called "American dream" as a fairy tale dream that we`ve since woken up from. Whatever the meaning, "Ambulance Blues" is easily up there on the same level as "Desolation Row" and other similar works of art. One of the greatest, most mesmerizing songs Neil has ever recorded.