Log #85 - Is This Neil Young's Greatest Ever Album?

Is On The Beach Neil Young's greatest ever album? The middle of the so called "ditch" trilogy, On the Beach came out in 1974 between 1973's Time Fades Away and 1975's Tonight's The Night.

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1. Neil Young - On The Beach

2. Deep Purple - Machine Head

3. Cocteau Twins - Four Calendar Cafe

4. Cocteau Twins - Treasure

5. Susuma Yokota - Sakura

6. Ludovico Einaudi -  In a Time Lapse

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Heart of Gold put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there.

Neil Young's off quoted statement explains his deliberate "sabotage" of a career that had reached commercial success with his Harvest album - the single Heart of Gold reached No. 1 in the US in April 1972.

As it happens this "sabotage" actually secured a long term reputation for unpredictable brilliance as he followed the (relatively) soft acoustic Harvest with these three albums of raw angry rock that many fans now consider collectively his greatest work.

The catalyst for the change was the death of his backing guitarist Danny Whitten from a heroin overdose in late 1972. Young had fired him from his band Crazy Horse and for many years afterwards blamed himself for Whitten's death.

Recorded live on tour without Whitten Time Fades Away is a raucous scattered selection of previously unreleased songs. Still unavailable on CD the album has unaccountably been dismissed by Young himself but remains a firm favourite of fans.

The tracks that went on to form Tonight's The Night were recorded in sessions following the Time Fades Away tour. By then Young had lost another colleague to heroin, roadie Bruce Berry who became the subject of the album's title track. Not originally intended for release the harrowing Tonight's The Night album eventually came out in 1975. 

With it's mix of rock, ballads and blues On The Beach is like a darker After The Goldrush showcasing Young's instrumental and lyric writing prowess. Rarely has he reached such heights since. 

On The Beach Tracklisting:

1. "Walk On"
2. "See the Sky About to Rain"
3. "Revolution Blues"
4. "For the Turnstiles"
5. "Vampire Blues"
6. "On the Beach"
7. "Motion Pictures"
8. "Ambulance Blues"

The album begins with a straight forward rocker Walk On. Next follows the beautiful See The Sky About To Rain which Young often performed solo on piano in concert. Here he is backed by Graham Nash on electric Wurlitzer keyboard with some echo effect. 

Revolution Blues is the heaviest track on the album. Recalling the horror that was Charles Manson (a subject Young would return to again in the future) Young barks: 

Remember your guard dog?

Well, I'm afraid that he's gone

It was such a drag to hear him whining all night long.

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.

For The Turnstiles features Young playing banjo in the same unique percussive style with which he plays acoustic guitar.

The band go all down and bluesy with the slow walking Vampire Blues. Young plays one of his most intriguing guitar solos since Southern Man and is backed by humming Hammond organ which recalls some of CSNY's best live work. Young sings cynically:

Good times are coming, I hear it everywhere I go.
Good times are coming, but they sure are coming slow.

The title track is a gorgeous slow blues which precedes the expansive guitar of the Zuma album:

All my pictures are falling
From the wall
Where I placed them yesterday

Motion Pictures is another very laid back acoustic based number with some gentle slide guitar and harmonica backing. The song was an ode to Neil Young's then wife Carrie Snodgress:

Well, 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.

The final song is the sprawling 9 minute stream of consciousness acoustic masterpiece Ambulance Blues - up there with Thrasher, Last Trip to Tulsa and The Old Homestead as one of Young's greatest lyrical achievements. The guitar riff is unintentionally influenced by Bert Jansch's Needle of Death song (Young was a great fan of Jansch). 

That guy was so good. And years later, on On the Beach, I wrote the melody of "Ambulance Blues" by styling the guitar part completely on "Needle of Death". I wasn't even aware of it, and someone else drew my attention to it.

Young reminisces about the good old days:

Back in the old folky days
The air was magic when we played.

Digs at the critics:

So all you critics sit alone
You're no better than me
for what you've shown.
With your stomach pump and
your hook and ladder dreams
We could get together
for some scenes.

... and Richard Nixon again:

I never knew a man
could tell so many lies
He had a different story
for every set of eyes.
How can he remember
who he's talkin' to?
'Cause I know it ain't me,
and I hope it isn't you.

And takes a snipe at his CSNY colleagues not for the last time:

You're all just pissin'
in the wind
You don't know it but you are.
And there ain't nothin'
like a friend
Who can tell you
you're just pissin'
in the wind.

In 2008 Young treated fans by resurrecting this song during his epic World Tour:

So is it Young's best album? It's a close run thing. Young was on a very rich run of form at the time and produced a streak of classic albums between 1970 and 1975. You probably need to get them all:

1970 After The Goldrush
1972 Harvest
1973 Time Fades Away
1974 On The Beach
1975 Tonight's The Night
1975 Zuma

... but if I was forced to save one from the waves on my Desert Island I'd probably grab Zuma. Standby for a forthcoming album ranking listing.

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Ed. What about the Journey Through The Past album?
Journey Through The Past is a rare and oft overlooked soundtrack album that strictly came between Harvest and the Ditch Trilogy. Released at the end of 1972 the double album comes from Young's random film of the same name and features various gig footage and studio outtakes including Buffalo Springfield and CSNY. Only one original track was included - a piano solo entitled Soldier.

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