Neil Young News
In 2004 Rustie, Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova posted a series of articles on his experience listening to all of Neil Young's albums in chronological order. Here is one in the series. For a complete listing, see Albums in Order reviews.
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:51:36 -0800 (PST) This series isn't so much about album reviews; I'm more
trying to get into where I was, what I was thinking when
these records came into my life, into my head. I'm into
kind of a Journey Through The Past and I thank you for
indulging me by letting me post my thoughts on Rust.
Time Fades Away was the last album released before I headed for a
brand new life. I started at the Air Force Academy on July
1, 1974. (Note to those that may not know: the USAF
Academy is a 4 year academic/military school for people
planning careers as Air Force Officers. The three main
U.S. military schools are West Point for the Army in New
York, the Naval Academy in Annapolis MD, and the Air Force
Academy in Colorado Springs, CO.) On The Beach was released 9 days
after I started, but I was in a boot camp environment;
marching, drills, military indoctrination, shaved
hair...this was my life for the next few months, really
for the next 4 years. I was able to get a copy of On The Beach in
maybe September, but freshmen cadets were not allowed to
have stereos in their rooms for the first few months of
the program. So I had to go to the library to listen in a
booth with headphones. But I bought my copy when I had a
chance and listened as much as I could. And I loved what I
heard.
Side one is a collection of pretty cool songs. Walk On was
a reaction, I felt, to those that were disappointed in his
movie Journey Through The Past and in Time Fades Away. "Oooo baby that's hard to change, I
can't tell them how to feel, some get stoned, some get
strange, sooner or later it all gets real, walk on." Great
start. See The Sky About To Change is beautiful. I must
admit that I was (and truth be known I'm still) disturbed
by Revolution Blues. It's a disturbing subject, the whole
Manson thing. Listening to the song to this day makes me
uncomfortable. But that's not altogether a bad thing, to
be disturbed. I'm disturbed by a lot of things in great
fiction, great films. Why not in some music?
To me, side 2 of the album (the three songs On The Beach,
Motion Pictures (for Carrie), and Ambulance Blues) formed
the core of where Neil's expression of where he was at in
'74. I listened over and over to that side of the album
and was carried into another world. I still am. People
listen to greatest hits or Decade and think they know
something about Neil Young. Bullshit!
Side two of the On
The Beach album tells one more about Neil Young than just
about anything in my opinion. "The world is turning I
don't want to see it turn away" "I went to the radio
interview but I ended up alone at the microphone" "now I'm
livin' out here on the beach but those sea gulls are still
out of reach" "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" "All those headlines just bore me now, I'm deep
inside myself but I'll get out somehow" "It's easy to get
buried in the past when you try to make a good thing last"
"all you critics sit alone, you're no better than me from
what you've shown" "I'm up in T.O. keepin' jive alive and
out on the corner it's half past five, but the subways are
empty and so are the cafes except for the farmers market
and I can still hear them say you're all just pissin' in
the wind" "I never knew a man could tell so many lies he
had a different story for every set of eyes."
What a massive catharsis of feeling, what an artful
expression of living, of life. To me, side two of On The
Beach defined so much of what I loved about Neil. And it
was musically interesting, beautifully sung. In my mind,
this album side defines so much of what is important about
music, about art, about life. It was a gift from Neil's
muse and I am so very glad he got this together and put it
on a record and released it to share it with us.
I very much enjoyed listening to On The Beach today.
Mike - Expecting To Fly
From: Mike Cordova
To: rust@rustlist.org
Subject: Albums in order: On The Beach
For more of Expecting To Fly's reviews, see the Albums in Order series.
Also, see more on the album On The Beach and the Ditch/Doom/Wilderness Trilogy.
Reviews of Neil Young Albums
Neil Young Archives - Thrasher's Wheat