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)
From: Mike Cordova
To: rust@rustlist.org
Subject: Albums in order: On The Beach
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
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