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64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Doom laden masterpeice and Young's finest 40 minutes., 18 Jul 2003
The centrepeice of the so-called Doom trilogy (also featuring the as yet unavailable on CD Time Fades Away and Tonight's the Night) makes it to CD at last, and it's been worth the wait. Long acknowledged as a pivotal album in Young's career, On the Beach is also one of the greatest albums of the mid seventies, rooted in the uncertainties and contradictions of the Nixon era. It's also a fairly subdued affair, the world weary tempos of much of the album echoing the stoned ennui of the time. This is perfectly encapsulated in the iconic cover shot of Young standing on the edge of the ocean surrounded by the detritus of the disintegrating west coast lifetstyle. Revolution Blues, with its images of bloody fountains and murder, captures the feeling of impending disaster and paranoia endemic in LA after the Manson murders had ended the hippy dream - clearly all was not right in paradise. For the Turnstiles, with its spare banjo and dobro backing and tense, strained vocal, bemoans the creeping spectre of commerce which was gradually taking over music in the 70s, inspired by the bacchanalian excesses of the 1974 CSN&Y stadium tour. The title track finds Young simultaneously acknowledging the need for adulation even as he recoils from it (I need a crowd of people, but I can't face them day to day) - there's no better emblem for Young's reclusive and enigmatic nature. Walk On, with its jaunty guitar riffs and playful slide playing, is offset by a lyric in which Young hits back at his critics and also looks back to the days before money got in the way of art. This theme of lost innocence also informs the epic closer, Ambulance Blues, one of Young's greatest and most widely analysed compositions. On the Beach may not be to everyone's taste. For Young fans more enamoured of his Harvest persona of sensitive acoustic troubadour, it may make for difficult listening. It also lacks the full on rock approach of his work with Crazy Horse. However, its ramshackle approach is part of its appeal, matching the world weariness of its lyrical concerns and lending the whole an appealingly live feel. Why this album has never been released on CD before is quite frankly astonishing, considering the presence of such turkeys as Old Ways and Everybody's Rocking in the racks. Of the latest batch of Young reissues, this is by far the best, followed distantly by the uneven but interesting American Stars'n'Bars. All we need now is for Time Fades Away to come out and the doom trilogy is complete and we can all retreat into our luxury mansions, shut the door and cower in the corner with nothing but the hi-fi, tequila and paranoia for company. Now that's a good night in!
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At last the wait is over, 5 Jun 2003
At last this is to be made available on Cd! All the time spent in collectors stores is over. This is one of Neil Young's greatest triumphs & certainly the best non crazy horse record. it forms a bridge between its contempoary albums Tonights the Night & Time fades away with the more commercial later 70s records Rust never sleeps et al. It is hard to understand Young without this,as 'See the Sky about to rain' & 'Ambulance Blues' are wonderful fractured songs. Elsewhere he takes a jaundiced view of 70s LA. To comic affect in Revolution Blues Even the sleeve shows the alienation of Young at this time. Whilst it may lack the pop touch of earlier & later works it remains a satisfying dark whole. In many ways its relationship to Harvest is similar to the darker desparate place of Springsteen's Darkness to the space of Born to Run. Words cannot fully do justice to this album. but it it will epand your horizons.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Damascene Conversion: Revolution In The Heart..., 20 Oct 2008
Years ago, I bought 'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere' on the recommendation of a trusted friend, who told me it was considered an idiosyncratic masterpiece in the vein of 'Astral Weeks,' though musically miles apart. Whereas I liked the album, I was never the biggest fan of extended musical jams, which 'Cowgirl In The Sand' and 'Down By The River' sounded like to me. In short, I couldn't love it, and I already knew 'Harvest,' 'After The Goldrush' and Youngs work with Buffalo Springfield particularly well. What I was looking for was that rare nugget that makes you fall in love with music all over again. Then, recently, I was drawn in by the effusive reviews of the reissued 'John, The Wolfking Of L.A.' by John Phillips, and it is a fairly consistent and good portrait of the West Coast scene of the early seventies, but once again, I couldn't think of it as this great lost masterpiece that others assured me it was. So, when I read the reviews of 'On The Beach' which mentioned Nixon, Manson, and a whole host of other themes in connection with this album, I was a bit sceptical. Then, someone said, listen to it first, before you part with your pennies, but I either want something or I don't have it, so I bought it last sunday, and suddenly my whole faith in the marriage of mind and music and lyrical genius was once again well and truly restored. Not only with this album, but also 'Tonight's The Night' which also looked chancey at first, but it is hard to separate the two as they're both so different in their way, but both leagues away from 'Everybody Knows...' in my opinion. Young has a genuine, honest voice, and a feeling for people and situations that most reminds me of Lou Reed in his most tender moments, though again, they are musically unalike. And to all those who took time to go online to say that 'Ambulance Blues' is one of the greatest 9 mins ever committed to disc, I'd have said before sunday that they must surely be exaggerating, but now I know different. The sustained wisdom and generosity of the song's narrator puts Young in the same league lyrically and musically as Bob Dylan at his very best. There is not one bad note on this album, and really I'm stuck for words to explain just why. But that is the beauty of music for you: you have to go out, buy this record, and listen to it over and over again until it all sinks in (probably two or three plays of this one) and before you know it you have found another favourite. Sheer class!
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