In the notes written about each song on ‘Decade‘ his 1977 triple-album career retrospective, Neil Young says of the US Number One hit single ‘Heart of Gold‘:
‘This song put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon become a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there.’
‘Ditch‘ may be something of an understatement when reflecting on where his career went for the best part of three years after the enormous success of ‘Harvest‘ – the 1972 album which contains ‘Heart Of Gold.’
Since coming to prominence in 1966 as a member of LA-based folk-rockers Buffalo Springfield, who also included Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, Young (born Toronto, Canada, November 12, 1945) had emerged as an outstanding original talent – a fine guitarist and writer of complex, melodic rock songs that he sang in a distinctive, quivery vocal style.
After the group split, he recorded an intriguing if hesitant debut album (‘Neil Young‘ 1969), a far-more assured second, the hard-rocking ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere‘ (1969) – his first outing with Crazy Horse, some of whom would become long-term sidemen – but before the year was out teamed up with Stills again in the aggregation that was Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
As a trio the others had just released a hugely successful debut album, Young then making his presence felt on the April 1970 CSN&Y set ‘Deja Vu‘ – that became a huge worldwide hit, despite the outfit quickly falling apart under a welter of clashing egos.
Young capitalised on the commercial triumph of ‘Deja Vu‘ with the magnificent ‘After the Gold Rush‘ (September 1970). Rightly acclaimed as a tour de force, the vivid imagery and powerful melodies put Young at the forefront of the burgeoning singer-songwriter movement.
But eighteen months were then allowed to elapse before release of ‘Harvest‘ – which often comes across as a watered-down version of its predecessor. From setting the standard with ‘Gold Rush‘ Young suddenly found his thunder stolen by Carole King (‘Tapestry‘), Joni Mitchell ‘Blue‘) and stunning debut offering from a newcomer named Jackson Browne.
What previously felt like incisive observations, on ‘Harvest‘ sound closer to grumpy self-pity, the tone set by the first line in the opening song: ‘Think I’ll pack it in and buy a pick-up/Take it down to LA.’
In what seems a bizarre series of moves – although seen in the overall arc of his career, just early examples of perverse he could be – Young appears intent on destroying all he has achieved thus far, declaring his unease with fame and contempt for the music business as a whole.
So, with foot firmly on the accelerator, Young revs up and aims his pick-up squarely at the ditch. The live album ‘Time Fades Away‘ (1973) veers back and forth between self-indulgent and audacious, while his concert performances of the era became legendary for their embittered, erratic nature.
Debuting a series of intensely personal songs based on the recent drug-related deaths of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry, they culminate in ‘Tonight’s The Night‘ – the title track given to this stark collection.
In late 1973 Young began laying down these haunted, highly charged tracks, but despite their undoubted power they were, for the moment, deemed too dark and despairing for release.
Instead, he started work on a new set of recordings and at a time when his commercial cache was on the wane, presented cynics with an open goal by agreeing to a 1974 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunion tour – attracted no doubt by the prospect of a lucrative cut of the action from a stadium jaunt around the US.
The ‘Doom’ tour as it became known, due to excesses ranging from the ear-splitting level Stills and Young played their electric guitars through to the drug-fueled performances themselves, was already underway when Young released ‘ON THE BEACH’ in July 1974.
Yet unlike the grandiosity occurring on the road, it is an enthralling set that stands not just as one of the defining albums of the 70s, but arguably the most lyrically potent made in the first half of that decade.
If Reprise Records were looking for something lighter, or at least less bleak than the currently shelved ‘Tonight’s The Night,’ it can only be assumed they heard the opener ‘Walk On,’ thought their prayers had been answered – and listened to no more.
The most upbeat song of the eight tracks (and at 2:40 by far the shortest) – according to Young in his ‘Decade‘ notes (it is): ‘My own defensive reaction to criticisms of ‘Tonight’s The Night.’
In which case he does not appear to have taken the criticism too much to heart – his electric guitar parts bordering on jaunty as Young begins his fifth studio album by saying:
‘I hear some people been talking me down/Bring up my name, pass it around.‘
Such is the country-rock structure of the melody, beefed-up by slide guitar from long-time pedal steel cohort Ben Keith, ‘Walk On‘ would have not sounded out of place on a Jackson Browne album of the period.
Whether at the time Browne had the rock stardom experience to come up with the line, ‘Some get stoned, some get strange/But sooner or later it all gets real,’ is debatable – but there is no doubt with his own brilliant 1974 release ‘Late for the Sky,’ Browne produced an equally compelling, if slightly less-jaundiced view of Watergate-era America.
The mournful ‘See The Sky About To Rain,’ is another solemn take on the alienation that comes with success. The sparse instrumentation, stripped back to Young (Wurlitzer piano and harmonica), Keith (steel guitar), Tim Drummond on bass and drums from Levon Helm, is perfect for the edgy, hesitant vocal Young delivers.
For about thirty seconds as the song draws to an end, he hums along to his own piano playing, the only time on the album he sings without delivering a lyric – effective it is too, on the most melancholy piece on the record.
Originally cut for ‘Harvest‘ and then recorded by The Byrds on their best-forgotten reunion album of 1973, Young hits all the first-person nuances in this, the definitive take.
The explosive ‘Revolution Blues‘ contains the lyrical couplet that developed a life way beyond the song and the album. Commenting on the crazed, hippy-cult most associated with Charles Manson and the spate of murders they committed in the summer of 1969, Young drawls the infamous words:
‘Well I hear that Laurel Canyon is full of famous stars/But I hate them worse than lepers and I’ll kill them in the cars.’
Accompanying Young on chunky rhythm guitar is David Crosby – a Laurel Canyon star if ever there was one – while Helm is joined by Rick Danko (bass), the other half of The Band rhythm section.
Young often aired ‘Revolution Blues‘ on the ‘Doom’ tour and on a night when tapes rolled in one of the cavernous baseball arenas CSN&Y had taken their largely introspective music into, they serve the song splendidly – a tremendous version appearing on the three-CD ‘CSNY 1974‘ set of recordings released in 2014.
With Drummond (bass) and Russ Kunkel (drums) aiding propulsion, all the feistiness associated with the track is evident over the next four and a half minutes – during which Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young actually sound like one of the great rock bands.
In his ‘Decade‘ retrospective, the other song Young includes from ‘On The Beach‘ is ‘For The Turnstiles‘ – which appears to convey anxieties carried over from the ‘Tonight’s The Night‘ experience.
With only Young (banjo) and Keith (dobro) appearing on the track, it could not be more plaintive, a line in the chorus of, ‘Though your confidence may be shattered/It doesn’t matter,’ evoking frustration at how his last project had floundered.
The second song to include ‘Blues’ in the title is ‘Vampire Blues‘ a slowly read critique of the oil industry and how it is sucking the blood (oil) out of the earth – while the third is the weighty closing cut ‘Ambulance Blues‘, which runs to just three seconds short of nine minutes.
Encompassing such themes as the early days of his career, (‘Back in the old folky days/The air was magic when we played,’) in this gentle eulogy of a folk song, Young (guitar and harmonica) is accompanied for the most part by Rusty Kershaw on fiddle.
But dwelling on events of yesteryear suddenly becomes uncomfortable, (‘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‘) – so things are brought right up to date with an attack on President Nixon as Watergate continues to unfold:
‘I never knew a man who could tell so many lies/He had a different story for every set of eyes/How can he remember who he’s talking to/Because I know it ain’t me/And I hope it isn’t you.’
This softly flowing, yet mesmeric piece meanders to a close on the back of a hard-learned lesson (‘And there ain’t nothing like a friend/Who can tell you you’re just pissing in the wind‘).
Is Young being offered advice on the self-destructive nature of his career in recent years? Or being told his re-alignment with Crosby, Stills & Nash should have been a non-starter?
Either way, the song feels like having a late-night conversation with a friend not heard from in a while – and discovering what has shaped their worldview in the meantime.
Nobody who has heard ‘Ambulance Blues‘ would deny the influence this and a couple of other ‘On The Beach‘ tracks had on the vocal style of the late Tom Petty – but having said that, Petty would usually have three songs over and done in the time it takes ‘Ambulance‘ to run its compelling course.
The two remaining songs are those that precede ‘Ambulance Blues‘ on side two of the vinyl edition of the album – the title track and ‘Motion Pictures.’
‘On The Beach‘ is a wonderfully atmospheric piece built around stunning guitar lines and some understated piano contributed by Graham Nash. Another song frequently performed on the ‘Doom’ tour, judging by the live recording issued in 2014, the vast stadium audience either failed to hear or did not grasp the irony of the line:
‘I need a crowd of people/But I can’t face them day to day.’
Once again, the imagery is absolutely sublime and although Young later described ‘On The Beach‘ as ‘probably the most depressing record I’ve ever made,’ there is no escaping the depth and emotional gravitas running through this riveting set.
Neither is there much happiness to be found in ‘Motion Pictures‘ an ode to actress Carrie Snodgrass, with whom his four-year relationship was entering its final days.
But far from sounding bitter or aggrieved, Young is gently wistful, wishing for no more than what he has – the simple acoustic guitar/harmonica/handdrum accompaniment allowing phrases such as ‘all these headlines, they just bore me now/I’m deep inside myself, but I’ll get out somehow,’ to truly resound.
It is a haunting piece that serves, more so even than the title track, as a commentary on the album cover – Neil, standing at the edge of the ocean, looking out to sea. His back is turned on the ’59 Cadillac buried in the sand, the scene also decorated with a newspaper, the front page calling on Nixon to resign. Also, one wonders, is he putting behind him the failed aspirations of the 60s counterculture with which CSN&Y were so identified, his love affair with Snodgrass and the ghosts of Whitten and Berry?
Surprisingly, given how Young was involved in the most high-profile tour of the year, the album failed to generate much commercial interest – his decline, in terms of record sales, that began with ‘Time Fades Away‘ continuing unchecked.
Indeed, the figures were even worse when ‘Tonight’s The Night‘ – the third and final instalment of what became known as his ‘Ditch‘ trilogy – finally saw the light of day twelve months later.
While flopping in the marketplace, ‘On The Beach‘ sent critics into a spin, the New Musical Express so bamboozled by the work that after initially giving it a resounding thumbs down, they took the unusual step of a ‘re-review’ – when it was rightly acclaimed as the masterpiece it undoubtedly is.
Latterly Rolling Stone magazine have labelled ‘On The Beach‘ as ‘the most despairing album of the decade‘ and even though it is shot through with pessimism – to a slightly lesser degree than ‘Tonight’s The Night‘ – they are both essential inclusions in any comprehensive collection of 70s rock LPs.
In fact, there is not a one-two combination quite like it anywhere else. The Van Morrison pairing of ‘Astral Weeks‘ and ‘Moondance‘ are magnificent but of a lighter shade (which is not a criticism) and although John Lennon bares his soul to spellbinding effect on ‘Plastic Ono Band‘ with the follow-up ‘Imagine‘ he pulls back from the brink and makes a far more accessible record – whereas Young just steams ahead regardless in the inimitable, uncompromising manner that has marked him out as an artist apart.
If searching for a comparable twosome, then perhaps it is best found beyond the medium of rock music and in the elegiac Sam Peckinpah westerns ‘The Wild Bunch‘ and ‘Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid.’ Both are populated with enigmatic characters, intense scenes – people looking for meaning in the mayhem around them.
Or as Neil Young puts it in the title track of ‘On The Beach‘:
‘The world is turning/I hope it doesn’t turn away.’
NEIL YOUNG – ‘ON THE BEACH‘ (Released July 19 1974):
Walk On/See The Sky About To Rain/Revolution Blues/For The Turnstiles/Vampire Blues/On the Beach/Motion Pictures/Ambulance Blues;
This article was first published on 5/6/2019.
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