On the Beach | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 19, 1974 [1] | |||
Recorded | November 30, 1973 – April 7, 1974 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | Country rock, Blues rock | |||
Length | 39:40 | |||
Label | Reprise | |||
Producer |
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Neil Young chronology | ||||
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Singles from On the Beach | ||||
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On the Beach is the fifth studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released by Reprise Records in July 1974. It is the second of the so-called "Ditch Trilogy" that Young recorded following the massive success of 1972's Harvest , and reveals the artist grappling with feelings of over-exposure, alienation and melancholy.
Looking back on the album for the liner notes to the Decade box set, Young wrote of "Heart of Gold": "This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there." Recorded after (but released before) Tonight's the Night , On the Beach shares some of that album's bleakness and crude production — which came as a shock to fans and critics alike, as this was the long-awaited studio follow-up to the commercially and critically successful Harvest. It hinted towards a more subtle outlook, particularly on the opening track, "Walk On".
As happened with Tonight's the Night, On the Beach under-performed commercially but went on to attain high regard from fans and critics alike. Both albums were recorded in a haphazard manner, with a variety of session musicians often changing their instruments while Young offered basic arrangements for them to follow. He chose rough, monitor mixes of songs rather than a more polished sound, alienating his sound engineers in the process. Throughout the recording process, Young and his colleagues consumed a homemade concoction dubbed "honey slides", a goop of sauteed marijuana and honey that "felt like heroin", at the behest of session musician and de facto producer Rusty Kershaw. [2] This may account for the mellow mood of the album, particularly on its second half. [2]
While the original Rolling Stone review described On the Beach as "one of the most despairing albums of the decade", later critics, including Allmusic's William Ruhlmann, used the benefit of hindsight to conclude that Young was in fact "saying goodbye to despair, not being overwhelmed by it". Neil Young concluded: "Good album. One side of it particularly — the side with "Ambulance Blues", "Motion Pictures" and "On the Beach". It's out there. It's a great take."
On the Beach is a folk rock [3] album exploring themes of anger, alienation, and cautious optimism.
"Walk On", the album's opener, has Young combining his melancholy outlook with a wish to move on and keep living. In the liner notes to Decade, Young describes the song as: "My over defensive reaction to criticisms of Tonight's The Night and the seemingly endless flow of money coming from you people out there."
The social commentary "See the Sky About to Rain" dates from Harvest. It had been covered by The Byrds a year earlier on their eponymous reunion album.
"Revolution Blues" was inspired by Charles Manson, whom Young had met in his Topanga Canyon days, about six months before the Tate–LaBianca murders. [4] [5] David Crosby and Young's other bandmates objected to playing the song live. "Man, they didn't know if they wanted to stand on the same stage as me when I was doin' it. I was goin', 'It's just a fuckin' song. What's the big deal? It's about culture. It's about what's really happening.'" [6] In a 1985 interview, Young recalled meeting Manson and being spooked by him:
"I met him through Dennis Wilson. He wanted to make records. He wanted me to introduce him to Mo Ostin at Reprise... Musically I thought he was very unique. I thought he really had something crazy, something great. He was like a living poet... But I think he was very frustrated in not being able to get it, and he blamed somebody." [7]
"For the Turnstiles" is a country-folk hybrid featuring Young's banjo guitar and a harmony vocal from Ben Keith, who also plays dobro on the track. The lyrics critique the music industry, with Young later stating in the Decade liner notes: "If statues could speak and Casey was still at bat, some promoter somewhere would be making deals with Ticketron right now."
The side closes with "Vampire Blues", a cynical attack on the oil industry, [8] and side two opens with "On the Beach", a slow, bluesy meditation on the downsides of fame.
"Motion Pictures" is an elegy for Young's relationship with actress Carrie Snodgress, which was falling apart. [9] Young remembers in Waging Heavy Peace: "We were all high on honey slides... A couple of spoonfuls of that and you would be laid-back into the middle of next week. The record was slow and dreamy, kind of underwater without bubbles." [10] The song was written in a Los Angeles hotel room while watching TV. [11] Kershaw described the song's genesis: "We didn't work every day, we only worked when we felt really inspired. Me and Ben and Neil were sittin' in Ben's room. Neil started hummin' somethin', and I started playin' along with the melody on the steel. Ben started playin' bass, it sounded so goddamn pretty. Neil picked up a pen and just wrote the words right then and put that motherfucker down while it was still smeared all over us." [12]
"Ambulance Blues" closes the album. In a 1992 interview for the French Guitare & Claviers magazine, Young said that song was based on "Needle of Death" by Bert Jansch, who he said was on a par with Jimi Hendrix: "I wasn't even aware of it, and someone else drew my attention to it." [13] It explores Young's feelings about his critics, Richard Nixon, and the state of CSNY. The line, "You're all just pissing in the wind", was a direct quote from Young's manager Elliot Roberts regarding the inactivity of the quartet. [14] The song also references the Riverboat, a small coffeehouse in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood which was an early venue for folk-inspired artists like Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Cockburn, Joni Mitchell, Simon & Garfunkel, and Arlo Guthrie. [15] [16] The line, "Oh, Isabella, proud Isabella, they tore you down and plowed you under", references 88 Isabella Street, an old rooming house in Toronto where Neil and Rick James stayed for a period. It was demolished in the early 1970s and an apartment now stands on its location. Young confirms in a 2023 post to the "Letters to the Editor" section of his website that the verse about the man who tells so many lies was indeed written for Richard Nixon.
Most of the album was recorded at Sunset Sound in Hollywood in late March and early April 1974. Two tracks, "Walk On" and "For the Turnstiles" were recorded months prior at Young's ranch. David Briggs fell ill and missed most of the sessions. Sideman Ben Keith took the lead in recruiting Rusty Kershaw and members of The Band to play on the album. Members of both Crazy Horse and CSNY also contributed to the sessions.
Young recorded several new songs at his ranch in November and December 1973. These included "Winterlong" from Decade , "Borrowed Tune" from Tonight's the Night , demos of "Traces" and "Ambulance Blues" as well as new attempts at "Bad Fog of Loneliness", "Human Highway", and "Mellow My Mind". The sessions also produced the album tracks "Walk On" and "For the Turnstiles". Ben Keith humorously remembers recording the latter song on dobro and banjo with Young and pushing his vocal abilities to the limit: "I'd sing these off, weird harmonies, and Neil'd go, 'Oh, that's cool—do that.' I didn't know I could sing that high—I still can't. I must've been sittin' on a crack and got my balls in there." [12]
The remaining sessions were held at Sunset Sound, where Young had previously recorded with Buffalo Springfield and Crazy Horse. The mood of the sessions was heavily influenced by the honey slides, creating a very melancholy, depressed atmosphere. Additionally, Young was at the time realizing that his relationship with Carrie Snodgress was disintegrating. Rusty Kershaw insisted on taking a relaxed approach to recording, rejecting the need to rehearse the material beforehand. He explains in Shakey:
"I said, 'Neil, when it'll move me the most is the first time you play it. You're gonna do it your very best then, and I can play it with you the first time. We only have to sit real close together. Neil said to me later, 'How in the hell do you know how to play this thing the first time I play it? You don't know what I'm gonna do.' I said, Neil, you carry a heavy vibe, and if I'm sittin' close to you, I can feel what you feel before you play. I know where you’re gonna go.'" [12]
Dissatisfied with their complacent performances, Kershaw managed to motivate the other musicians to inject extra energy and unease into the recording of "Revolution Blues" through wild behavior and crazy antics in the studio: "I said, 'Look, man, you don’t sound like you're tryin' to start a fuckin' revolution. Here's how you start that.' And I just started breakin' a bunch of shit and Ben jumped right in there. I said, 'That's a revolution, muth' fucker.' Goddamn, that sparked Neil right off. He got it on the next take." [12]
The album cover was designed by art director Gary Burden with photography by Bob Seidemann. It features Young facing the ocean at Santa Monica Beach with an umbrella and a 1959 Cadillac sticking up out of the sand. Young wrote in Waging Heavy Peace that it is one of his favourite covers, the idea of which came like "a blot from the blue":
"Gary and I traveled around getting all the pieces to put it together. We went to a junkyard in Santa Ana to get the tail fin and fender from a 1959 Cadillac, complete with taillights... We picked up the bad polyester yellow jacket and white pants at a sleazy men's shop... Finally we grabbed a local LA paper to use as a prop. It had this amazing headline: SEN. BUCKLEY CALLS FOR NIXON TO RESIGN... That was the creative process at work. We lived for that, Gary and I, and we still do." [10]
In addition to its release on vinyl, On the Beach was also released on cassette and 8-track cartridge, though the track listing for the latter formats was the reverse of that on the vinyl album. It remained unavailable on CD until 2003, when a remastered version was finally released. It has since been re-released as Disc 2 of the 4-CD box set Neil Young Original Release Series Discs 5-8. The album is also available in high-resolution audio on the Neil Young Archives website, [17] where four additional album outtakes were added in February 2021.
Originally Young had intended for the A and B sides of the LP to be in reverse order but was convinced by David Briggs to swap them at the last moment. Young has said that he later came to regret caving in, although both the cassette and 8-track versions were released with the sides swapped. [18]
For about two decades, rarity made a cult out of On the Beach. [19] The title was deleted from vinyl in the early 1980s and was only briefly available on cassette and 8-track cartridge tape, or European imports or bootlegs. Along with three other mid-period Young albums, it was withheld from re-release until 2003. The reasons for this remain murky, but there is some evidence that Young himself did not want the album out on CD, variously citing "fidelity problems" and legal issues. Beginning in 2000, over 5,000 fans signed an online petition calling for the release of the album on CD. [20] It was finally released on CD on Reprise Records in August 2003. [21]
Young did not tour behind the album, instead joining CSNY for their Summer 1974 large stadium tour, chronicled in the 2014 live album CSNY 1974 , where the group played "Walk On", "Revolution Blues" and "On the Beach" and Young would perform "Ambulance Blues" solo acoustic. Prior to the tour, Young would also play a widely bootlegged solo acoustic set at The Bottom Line in New York, where he would debut the album's songs and famously share his recipe for honey slides.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [22] |
The Austin Chronicle | [23] |
Christgau's Record Guide | A− [24] |
Drowned in Sound | 10/10 [25] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [26] |
The Great Rock Discography | 9/10 [27] |
MusicHound Rock | 3/5 [28] |
Pitchfork | 9.5/10 [29] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [30] |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 8/10 [31] |
Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "Something in [Young's] obsessive self-examination is easy to dislike and something in his whiny thinness hard to enjoy. But even 'Ambulance Blues,' an eight-minute throwaway, is studded with great lines, one of which is 'It's hard to know the meaning of this song.' And I can hum it for you if you'd like." [24]
Pitchfork listed it #65 on their list of the Top 100 Albums of the 1970s. On the Beach was certified gold in the United States, selling 500,000 copies. In 2007, On the Beach was placed at #40 in Bob Mersereau's book The Top 100 Canadian Albums. It was voted number 195 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums in 2000. [32] In 2020, Rolling Stone included the album at number 311 on their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, writing: "Reeling from the losses that sparked Tonight's the Night the previous year, Neil Young shelved that album for a while and made this one instead: a wild fireball of anger (“Revolution Blues”), nihilism (“For the Turnstiles”), and tentative optimism (“Walk On”). The album peaks on Side Two, a stoned symphony of grieving whose three songs (“On the Beach,” “Motion Pictures,” “Ambulance Blues”) are among the most emotionally real in Young's catalogue." [33]
All tracks are written by Neil Young. All track timings are from the original vinyl release, R 2180. [34]
Note
Chart (1974) | Peak position |
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Australia (Kent Music Report) [35] | 34 |
US Billboard Top LPs & Tape [36] | 16 |
UK Album Charts [37] | 42 |
Canadian RPM 100 Albums [38] | 13 |
French Album Charts [39] | 3 |
Japanese Album Charts [40] | 48 |
Norwegian VG-lista Albums [41] | 10 |
Dutch MegaCharts Albums [42] | 5 |
US Cash Box Top 100 Albums [43] | 8 |
US Record World Album Chart [44] | 16 |
Year | Single | Chart | Position |
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1974 | "Walk On" | US Billboard Pop Singles [45] | 69 |
US Cashbox Pop Singles [43] | 54 | ||
US Record World Pop Singles [44] | 66 |
Year End Album Charts
Chart (1974) | Rank |
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Canada Album Charts [46] | 86 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom (BPI) [47] | Silver | 60,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [48] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Decade is a compilation album by Canadian–American musician Neil Young, originally released in 1977 as a triple album and later issued on two compact discs. It contains 35 of Young's songs recorded between 1966 and 1976, among them five tracks that had been unreleased up to that point. It peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, and was certified platinum by the RIAA in 1986.
Harvest is the fourth studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released on February 1, 1972, by Reprise Records, catalogue number MS 2032. It featured the London Symphony Orchestra on two tracks and vocals by guests David Crosby, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Stills, and James Taylor. It topped the Billboard 200 album chart for two weeks, and spawned two hit singles, "Old Man", which peaked at No. 31 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and "Heart of Gold", which reached No. 1. It was the best-selling album of 1972 in the United States.
Tonight's the Night is the sixth studio album by Canadian / American songwriter Neil Young. It was recorded in August–September 1973, mostly on August 26, but its release was delayed until June 1975. It peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard 200. The album is the third and final of the so-called "Ditch Trilogy" of albums that Young released following the major success of 1972's Harvest, whereupon the scope of his success and acclaim became so difficult for Young to handle that he subsequently experienced alienation from his music and career.
After the Gold Rush is the third studio album by the Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released in September 1970 on Reprise Records. It is one of four high-profile solo albums released by the members of folk rock group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping 1970 album Déjà Vu. Young's album consists mainly of country folk music along with several rock tracks, including "Southern Man". The material was inspired by the unproduced Dean Stockwell-Herb Bermann screenplay After the Gold Rush.
American Stars 'n Bars is the eighth studio album by Canadian-American folk rock songwriter Neil Young, released on Reprise Records in 1977. Compiled from recording sessions scattered over a 29-month period, it includes "Like a Hurricane", one of Young's best-known songs. It peaked at #21 on the Billboard 200 and received a RIAA gold certification.
The Deep End, Volume 1 is the fourth studio album by American rock band Gov't Mule. It was released on October 23, 2001, by ATO Records and Evangeline Records.
Comes a Time is the ninth studio album by Canadian-American singer-songwriter Neil Young, released by Reprise Records in October 1978. The album is largely performed in a quiet folk and country style. It features backing harmonies sung by Nicolette Larson and additional accompaniment by musicians that had accompanied Young on his commercial pinnacle, Harvest. Like Harvest, the lyrics to many of its songs are inspired by relationships. In his memoir, Waging Heavy Peace, Young describes Comes a Time as one of his best albums ever.
Neil Young is the debut studio album by Canadian/American musician Neil Young following his departure from Buffalo Springfield in 1968, issued on Reprise Records, catalogue number RS 6317. The album was first released on November 12, 1968, in the so-called 'CSG mix'. It was then partially remixed and re-released in late summer 1969, but at no time has the album ever charted on the Billboard 200.
Time Fades Away is a 1973 live album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young. Consisting of previously unreleased material, it was recorded with the Stray Gators on the support tour following 1972's highly successful album Harvest. Due to Young's dissatisfaction with the tour, it was omitted from his catalogue and not released on compact disc until 2017. The album is the first of the so-called "Ditch Trilogy" of albums that Young recorded following the major success of Harvest, whereupon the scope of his success and acclaim became so apparent that Young subsequently experienced alienation from his music and career.
Hawks & Doves is the eleventh studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young. It was released on October 29, 1980, through Reprise Records. It was produced by Young along with Tim Mulligan and Elliot Mazer. The first side of the album consists of previously unreleased folk-centric material recorded from 1974 through 1977, while the second side features heavily country-styled songs recorded specifically for the album in July 1980.
Trans is the thirteenth studio album by Canadian-American musician and singer-songwriter Neil Young, released on January 10, 1983. Recorded and released during his Geffen era in the 1980s, its electronic sound baffled many fans upon its initial release—a Sennheiser vocoder VSM201 features prominently in six of the nine tracks.
Old Ways is the 15th studio album by Canadian-American musician and singer-songwriter Neil Young, released on August 12, 1985, on Geffen Records.
Road Rock Vol. 1: Friends & Relatives is a live album released in 2000 by Canadian / American musician Neil Young. The "friends and relatives" include Ben Keith, Chrissie Hynde, Duck Dunn, Young's then wife, Pegi, and his sister, Astrid. The album features an unreleased song, "Fool for Your Love", which dates from Young's This Note's for You period, and a Bob Dylan cover, "All Along the Watchtower".
Journey Through the Past is a double LP soundtrack album from the film of the same name by Canadian / American musician Neil Young, released in November 1972 on Reprise Records, catalogue number 2XS 6480. It peaked at #45 on the Billboard 200. Its initial release was on vinyl, cassette tape, reel-to-reel tape, and 8-track tape cartridge. Although its follow-up Time Fades Away was finally released on CD in August 2017, Journey Through the Past remains the only 1970s Neil Young album yet to see an official CD reissue.
Homegrown is the 42nd studio album by Canadian-American Neil Young. It was released on June 19, 2020, by Reprise Records. The album consists of material recorded between June 1974 and January 1975. The album was recorded after the release of On the Beach and before the sessions for Zuma. Like those two albums, much of the material was inspired by Young's relationship with actress Carrie Snodgress, which was deteriorating in 1974. The album was compiled and prepared for release in 1975. Instead, Tonight's the Night was released, and Homegrown remained unreleased for 45 years. It was finally set for release as part of Record Store Day 2020, amid Neil Young's ongoing Archives campaign. Its release was again delayed by Record Store Day's postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before finally seeing release on June 19.
Neil Young Archives Vol. 1: 1963–1972 is the first in a planned series of box sets of archival material by Canadian-American musician Neil Young. It was released on June 2, 2009, in three different formats - a set of 10 Blu-ray discs in order to present high-resolution audio as well as accompanying visual documentation, a set of 10 DVDs, and a more basic 8-CD set. Covering Young's early years with The Squires and Buffalo Springfield, it also includes various demos, outtakes and alternate versions of songs from his albums Neil Young, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush, and Harvest, as well as tracks he recorded with Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young during this time. Also included in the set are several live discs, as well as a copy of the long out-of-print film Journey Through the Past, directed by Young in the early 1970s.
Chrome Dreams II is the 30th studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young. The album was released on October 23, 2007 as a double LP and as a single CD. The album name references Chrome Dreams, a legendary Neil Young album from 1977 that had originally been scheduled for release but was shelved in favor of American Stars 'N Bars.
Rusty & Doug were a country music and cajun music duo composed of Doug Kershaw and his younger brother, Rusty Kershaw.
Neil Young Archives Volume II: 1972–1976 is a 10-CD box set from American-Canadian folk rock musician Neil Young that was initially released in a limited deluxe box set on November 20, 2020. The release is the second box set in his Neil Young Archives series, following 2009's The Archives Vol. 1 1963–1972, and covers a three-and-a-half-year period from 1972 to 1976. The track list was officially announced on the Neil Young Archives site on September 20, 2020, with the first single, "Come Along and Say You Will", being posted to the site as the Song of the Day on October 14. The set then went up for pre-order on October 16, 2020, as an exclusive release to his online store, with only 3,000 copies being initially made available worldwide. After selling out the following day, Young announced several weeks later that a general retail version, as well as a second pressing of the deluxe box set, is expected to be released to market on March 5, 2021. This was followed by the release of a second single, "Homefires", on October 21, and a third, an alternate version of "Powderfinger", on November 3.
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