Neil Young's Ditch Trilogy
"Time Fades Away", "Tonight’s the Night" & "On the Beach"
Neil Young's Ditch Trilogy -- consisting of "Time Fades Away", "Tonight’s the Night" & "On the Beach" -- is well documented as containing the "missing link" to the Rosetta Stone of understanding his entire body of work over the decades.
From The Beautiful, Enduring Gloom of Neil Young's Ditch Trilogy | PandoraMusic by Eric Shea:
Over four decades later, Young’s darkest and most emotional work still connects. Give this doomed triptych a spin, and it becomes understandable why the palpable emotion and raw desperation running through these three albums remain hauntingly relevant. Young recorded On the Beach in 1973, but listen for the title track’s most timeless lyric:Full article @ The Beautiful, Enduring Gloom of Neil Young's Ditch Trilogy | PandoraMusic by Eric Shea.
“All my pictures are falling from the wall where I placed them yesterday / The world is turning / I hope it don’t turn away.”
Also, see more on the origin of the expression "Ditch Trilogy" as applied to Neil Young's 3 albums "Time Fades Away", "Tonight’s the Night" & "On the Beach".
I've never bought this Ditch Trilogy thing.
ReplyDeleteOn the Beach is a well-crafted album -- great songs, well-played, beautifully recorded.
Agreed. I’ve always thought...One could make an argument that the “ditch era” was only made up of two albums; one jumping in, the other climbing out. And then came “On The Beach.”
ReplyDeleteOK, guys, fair enough on the whole "Ditch Trilogy" mythology.
ReplyDeleteAfterall, the "Ditch Trilogy" was something we coined here on TW sometime way back in the 1990s @ http://www.thrasherswheat.org/tnfy/ditch.htm
Should the trilogy really have been a dualogy?
Not to get to meat here, but it's not Neil ever designed a trilogy consciously. Similarly with the Rust trilogy across the decades. It just became a convenient set of labels to attach to a period of work as an organizing structure.
Which is what we do here @ TW. So guilty on the "Ditch Trilogy" mythology.
Check mate.
next?
I am reminded of the early days of the RUST listserv back in 1993. I posed a simple question: "Harvest Moon just put Neil back into the middle of the road, will his next step be back into the ditch?". Shortly thereafter, we received "Sleeps With Angels". The CD was black. What was the only other album Neil had made with a black inner? Tonight's The Night!
ReplyDeleteThe last three records are more like a ditch trilogy and he's still in it!
ReplyDeleteI propose adding an album to the Ditch Trilogy. Personally, I've always grouped the trilogy with Zuma. Four albums that were the least contrived with the most raw emotion. For me, in this Ditch Quartet (I know it doesn't sound very catchy), Neil seemed to be immersed in state of humility that allowed him to bear his soul to the world, a period of humble creativity, unparalleled since.
ReplyDeleteA Ditch Quadrilogy!
ReplyDeleteI've always looked at it as a sequence of five albums.... Harvest - Time Fades Away - Tonight's the Night - On the Beach - Zuma.....Harvest being the prologue that leads to the Ditch. And Zuma serves as the light at the end of the tunnel....
ReplyDeleteOn a separate note, has anyone noticed that the Time Fades Away / Last Trip To Tulsa single release is missing from the Archives timeline?
@ Lone Red Rider - good analogy there LRR! The symmetry of Neil's catalog is quite fascinating.
ReplyDeleteAll happy random accidents as best we can determine.
@ rightwing - ok, now we're getting somewhere. A Ditch Quadrilogy, as Thos suggests.
@ Bodhi - ok, now we're really getting somewhere. A Ditch Quintology!
Ok, we've got 3. can someone give me 4? OK, 4 to the rightwing gentleman. Can someone give me 5? OK, 5 to the Bodhi guy. can someone give me 6? 6? 6? Going once, twice, 3 times, sold to the Bodhi guy @ 5.
Ok, Bodhi, you're invited to submit a post on the Ditch Quintology. 5,000 words or less please.
We can add Homegrown to that list when it’s released.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kahuna, no one's heard the real trilogy.
ReplyDeleteIn order:
1. Tonight's The Night
2. On The Beach
3. Homegrown