A "Live" Version of the Album On The Beach by Neil Young

NEIL YOUNG - ON THE BEACH (Album) LIVE !via 59ufo | YouTube
 (Click photo to enlarge)

Over on YouTube,  59ufo  is putting together live versions of CSN, CSNY, and Neil Young albums that are fun ways of hearing (and watching) familiar albums in a new way. (Thanks Road Dawg!)

So far, 59ufo  has done the CSN "Porch Couch" album, Deja Vu, ATGR, Harvest, Tonight’s The Night, and On The Beach. 59ufo does a nice job of curating interesting performances, adding relevant visuals to the videos.

The album On The Beach by Neil Young has long been considered to be essential and core to the "Ditch Trilogy/Quadrilogy/Quintology/Sextology".  

Here is a "Live" version of the album On The Beach. 

More on On The Beach: A 50 Year Old Masterpiece.

 

On The Beach: A 50 Year Old Masterpiece

More on Neil Young's "Ditch Quadrilogy": "Time Fades Away", "Tonight’s the Night", "On the Beach" & "ZUMA". 

+ "Ditch Trilogy/Quadrilogy/Quintology/Sextology"

Neil Young's "Ditch Quadrilogy":
"Time Fades Away", "Tonight’s the Night", "On the Beach" & "ZUMA" 

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On The Beach Album by Neil Young: A 50 Year Old Masterpiece

Rare "On The Beach" Poster with Neil facing camera

 (Click photo to enlarge)

 

The album On The Beach by Neil Young has long been considered to be essential and core to the "Ditch Trilogy/Quadrilogy/Quintology/Sextology".

In honor of the album's 50th anniversary we bring you "On The Beach: A 50 Year Old Masterpiece" by Mike "Expecting To Fly". (via RUST Group)

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On The Beach: A 50 Year Old Masterpiece 

Neil Young's On The Beach - 1974
 (Click photo to enlarge)  

 

On The Beach was released on July 19, 1974.  I remember listening to it over and over.

 

I didn't really know what to make of it at first because it was so different than anything else I had ever heard from Neil or from anyone for that matter. But the album kind of crawled into my mind and shaped itself into one of the best listening experiences I have ever had. 

 

The songs are so incredibly intense. 

 

I just loved the answer to critics expecting another Harvest in the form of the songs Walk On (and later on Ambulance Blues.) The beauty of the song written 5 years earlier See The Sky About To Rain, the best (I think) version of the song ever. "I'm a black bat baby, hangin' on your window pane" and other lyrics foretell Neil's later relationship with oil and the companies who produce it on Vampire Blues.

 

And then there is side 2, possibly the best album side of all time by anyone. 

 

"I need a crowd of people, but I can't face them day to day"; oh, the consequences of becoming famous for your work. The title song of the album has some of Neil's best bluesy jazzy guitar work and some really moving lyrics. The atmosphere it creates is hauntingly exhilarating and beautiful. 

 

"Well all those people, they think they've got it made, but I wouldn't buy sell borrow or trade anything I have to be like one of them. I'd rather start all over again." 

 

These are some of the hard-hitting lyrics in Motion Pictures and are deeply important to me. The wonderful Ambulance Blues closes out the album. The entire song is compelling and I can listen to it in my head anytime I want but I love to play the record to listen. "I never knew a man could tell so many lies, he had a different story for every set of eyes, how could he remember who he's talking to, 'cause I know it ain't me and I hope it isn't you" is a verse that resonates through generations.

 

I love the On The Beach album. It's an important part of my life, then and now. If anyone asks about an album that has aged well, think of this one.

 

Mike

Expecting To Fly

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Thanks so much for the memories here E2F & RUST Group!  And it is definitely that time of year to not only be on the beach but in the water.  Stay cool and keep reaching for those seagulls.

More on Neil Young's "Ditch Quadrilogy": "Time Fades Away", "Tonight’s the Night", "On the Beach" & "ZUMA". 

+ "Ditch Trilogy/Quadrilogy/Quintology/Sextology"

Neil Young's "Ditch Quadrilogy":
"Time Fades Away", "Tonight’s the Night", "On the Beach" & "ZUMA"

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Neil Young's Original Harvest Album Cover Photo? + TW Shoutout

 

Neil Young's Original Harvest Photo?

Otis Gibbs | YouTube

Last year, we featured a few interviews by musician Otis Gibbs -- “The best unknown songwriter in music today” -- who also happens to be a big Neil Young fan amongst other notorieties. (Thanks Jim!)

In his latest video podcast, Otis Gibbs tells the story of the great photographer, Henry Diltz, who claims Neil Young's Harvest album was meant to have a different cover. Interesting speculation here on what might have been.

 

Here is an image that the above interview references by photographer Henry Diltz from "The Barn" and the Harvest album sessions (see "Old man look at my life..." - Photos of Neil Young and His Inspiration by Henry Diltz )

The Unused Harvest Album Cover Photo???

Neil Young at Broken Arrow Ranch - 1971
Photo by Henry Diltz

(see "Old man look at my life..." - Photos of Neil Young and His Inspiration by Henry Diltz ) 

 

If a photo was used instead on the Harvest album cover, the whole "loner hippie cowboy" image of Neil Young would have certainly had a different impact. Certainly, Neil on a haybale was not the image that the record label wanted to establish.

Lastly, check out comments around ~3:00 about our website Thrasher's Wheat as a "Neil Young rabbit hole."  Thanks for props Otis!

Also, check out an interview with Kenny Vaughan on why Neil Young is intentionally out of tune.

Otis Gibbs & Kenny Vaughan

(See Why Neil Young Is Intentionally Out Of Tune | Thoughts by Kenny Vaughan )

 

  Dan Baird & Otis Gibbs 

(see Meeting Neil Young: Talking Guitars With Dan Baird & Otis Gibbs)

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The Essentials: On the Beach by Neil Young | The Old Grey Cat

Tracks On The Beach by Neil Young
(Click photo to enlarge)

 

Here is a look back at some of the earliest reviews of the essential Neil Young album "On the Beach".

From The Essentials: On the Beach by Neil Young | The Old Grey Cat:

Rolling Stone magazine lauded it upon its release (and has since ranked it the 311th greatest album of all time). Jack Garner of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, in his 8/16/74 review, called it “a strong, complete and exciting record.” Across the pond, in the Bracknell and Ascot Times, Geoff Thompson agreed, though he thought it had a listening curve: “On the Beach is an album that takes quite a bit of getting into, but once you are in, there’s no escaping.” A few decades later, in a capsule review that I posted to the original Old Grey Cat website in the late 1990s, I called it “a grim realization (or is that acceptance) of life, circa 1974.”

It reflects the moment when the fantasies of youth give way to self-doubt (if not self-recrimination). On the Neil Young Archives, Neil himself wrote, “Looking back on this album, somehow it makes me feel sad remembering that part of my life.” (It may be why he allowed the LP to go out of print in the early ‘80s and waited until 2003 for it to be issued on CD.)

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The original (red) Rolling Stone Record Guide (1979), I should mention, gave On the Beach two stars but no mention in John Swenson’s half page take on Neil’s oeuvre. For the 1983 (blue) edition, rock curmudgeon Dave Marsh elbowed Swenson to the side and rewrote (and expanded) the discography. The two stars remained, but a sentence description was added: “[T]his album’s apocalyptic prophecy is rendered all but unlistenable by Young’s grating, whining delivery.” (He gives Tonight’s the Night five stars and a paragraph of praise, however, so all’s forgiven.)

In a similar vein, L.A. Times rock scribe Robert Hilburn wrote in his August 27, 1974, review “[T]he tone of the new album is drab, sullen, isolated.” Newsday’s Robert Christgau, too, found little to like: “Something in the obsessiveness of this music is easy to dislike and something in its thinness hard to enjoy.” (He spent the bulk of the review praising Time Fades Away so, as with Marsh, forgive him his misjudgment.)

(I share those sentiments simply because I enjoy digging into what I like to call “the first draft of history.” It takes time for critical consensus to congeal, after all.)

Thanks OGC! Definitely essential Neil, for sure.  Also, we enjoy your digs into “the first draft of history.” Agree, yes, it sometimes takes decades -- if not more -- for critical consensus to congeal. And somewhat ironically, you know what Neil had to say about critics and pissin' in the wind ...

More  on The Essentials: On the Beach by Neil Young | The Old Grey Cat.

 

More on the essential Neil Young album "On the Beach": 

• "Time Fades Away", "Tonight’s the Night" & "On the Beach": The Beautiful, Enduring Gloom of Neil Young's Ditch Trilogy
  
• The Surrealism of Neil Young's "On The Beach" Album
  
• Tattoo of the Moment: "On The Beach Face" Neil Young's Album Cover
• On The Beach: 45 Years Later, Still Neil Young’s "Most Beautiful (and Most Depressing) Album")
  

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Tattoo of the Moment: "On The Beach Face" Neil Young's Album Cover

 "On The Beach" Face via WolfmanZack (Click photo to enlarge)

 

The Tattoo of the Moment is from WolfmanZack (aka Weed Detective) with a pretty audacious Neil Young tattoo of "On The Beach Face".

WolfmanZack -- who BTW is ranked in the "Top 0.05% of Neil Young listeners on Spotify 2 years in a row" -- says this:

The artist does that kind of half-face portrait style as his signature style, and I'd been wanting a Neil tattoo. 

"On the Beach" is my favorite Neil Young album so it seemed fitting, he added the weed bolo tie flourish, I made sure there was plaid and sideburns etc

Quite a statement, we must say.  And we thought we really liked "On the Beach" album!?

More on the dedication to Neil Young's album "On the Beach".

Rick Carlisle at Orpheus Records w/ On The Beach vinyl
Ain't Got No Blu-Ray DVD: Spin The Black Circle "The Drought" & "On The Beach"The Surrealism of Neil Young's "On The Beach" Album  
"Out here on the beach, but those seagulls are still out of reach"
 (see On The Beach: 45 Years Later, Still Neil Young’s "Most Beautiful (and Most Depressing) Album")

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