Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good tidings, 1 Sep 2002
Come on Neil,release this on CD!.This is a classic alongside "Time fades away" " and " tonight's the night""On the beach" deals with the madness of the late 60's and the end of the hippie dream.The album opens with the jaunty "Walk on"about friends who have turned weird or were on the old drugs!"See the sky about to rain" is one of Neil's greatest ballads,written in the late 60's."Revolution blues" is classic Neil,It's a song about Charlie Manson(He used to be a good boy, He used to cut my grass!!!)this is one of Young's spookiest songs,Levon Helm and Rick Danko of the Band play on this track,"For the Turnstiles" is a lovely tune with Neil on Banjo and Ben keith on dobro .Vampire blues" is pretty upbeat with the lyric "Good times are comin',but they sure are comin' slow""Motion pictures" is another downer,but there is a bit of hope here"I'll stand before you and I'll bring a smile ,to your eyes" "On the beach" deals with Neil trying to come to terms with fame,although,in his words"I need a crowd of people,but I can't face them day to day"this track has a lovely guitar solo from Neil.In my view the highlight of the album is "Ambulance Blues "which deals again with the madness of the times,Patty Hearst and her freedom fighters and Richard Nixon,"I never knew a man who told so many lies ,he had a different story for every set of eyes"The words to this song are amazing and what adds to the track is Rusty Kershaw on fiddle ,Neil's harmonica and guitar blend well with Kershaw's sorrowful playing.This must be an all time classic line "An ambulance can only go so fast !"
Yes ,this is excellent,so let's hope it comes out on CD pretty soon!
Other musicians who appear on the album are Graham Nash and Tim Drummond on bass
A must,even on vinyl or cassette !!!!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best unknown Neil Young album, 25 May 2002
By A Customer
This was called his dark period. But "On the Beach" is definitely one of his best albums ever, "Ambulance Blues" one of his best songs. Note his dense voice, deep, almost detached at times and never nasal or squeaky. The lyrics are always intense, emotional, full of inspiration. Instruments are mostly acoustic guitar and harmonica. God knows why it has never been printed on CD.
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5 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Forever Young, 3 Dec 1999
By A Customer
It was with this album (originally released in 1974) that Young finally moved away from the shadow of Fleetwood Mac. After six years on the road with the drum and bass supergroup, Neil decided to go it alone, and try recording all the songs himself. For a debut album it is staggering. The Up-tempo rock of its title track reminds me of Emerson Lake and Palmer at their prog-rock best, with an inspired use of cowbells (those who have heard it will know what I mean!). As usual there are appearances from Stephen Stills (for those of you not lucky enough to have heard this genius, try and imagine Phil Collins mixed with Chris be Burgh; yes, he really is that intense), whose novel guitar work on the uber-ballad noodlings of 'For the Turnstiles' truly is fantastic (it reminded me of Hank Marvins fret-board artistry on Apache), as is the appearance of Charles Manson (from the Beach Boys), playing slap-bass on 'Walk on'. 'Revolution Blues' is a slow and dirgy song that is only saved by its long guitar solo at the end (Stills again). In summation, On the Beach show Neil young at his brilliant best before he got to miserable and right wing for anyone to tolerate.
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