On the Beach [Original recording remastered, Enhanced]

If you are curious about all four of these formerly "lost" albums, but not sure which to buy, make certain "On The Beach" is the first. The other three are not nearly as artistically strong or interesting, save for "Like A Hurricane" on 'American Stars and Bars', a collection of unreleased tracks in 1977. However, all four are still essential to Neil's fans or completists. Hopefully they will be able to get "Time Fades Away" remastered eventually--the master tapes, I've heard, have some mastering problems that can't be overcome at the moment.

Neil Young is a widely varying, sometimes frustratingly inconsistent artist. However, he was clearly at his peak in the late '60s and early '70s, putting out at least five studio albums that could be deemed classic: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, After The Gold Rush, Tonight's The Night, On The Beach, and Zuma.

You may notice I didn't put Harvest in that list. While Harvest is certainly a good album, it's almost TOO accessible and tries too hard, in my opinion, to be commercially successful. It also suffers from the two London Symphony Orchestra tracks. Neil's best work often came when he didn't give a damn about what his audience or record label wanted, and so that puts Harvest out of the running for best in my book. After The Gold Rush was a great album, as was Everybody Knows.. and Zuma, but each album had one or two tracks that didn't feel up to par.

That leaves just two PERFECT Neil albums, both released in the dark period of the early Seventies after losing Bruce Berry and Danny Whitten (members of his backing band Crazy Horse) to drug abuse. Tonight's The Night is a dark, harrowing, bleak trip through a shattered hippie dream, an amazing album but nowhere near accessible, maybe a little TOO dark for some. 1974's On The Beach is more easily digestible and lighter, but still quite bleak and very personal. It has remained inexplicably out of print for almost 25 years, but thankfully Neil has brought it back with a remaster (now, if he would only release Time Fades Away to complete the "Doom Trilogy").

On The Beach ranges from moodily atmospheric (the title track) to quite upbeat (Walk On) but throughout Neil's mood is bitter and confessional. He tells off of his detractors (record labels, Harvest fans, press critics, Lynyrd Skynyrd) on the rocking, radio-friendly Walk On and gets pensive on the hushed, organ-driven See The Sky About To Rain (similar thematically to the title track of After The Gold Rush). Revolution Blues is a disturbing rocker with the infamous figure of Charles Manson supplying narrative, and is one of my favorite Neil songs. For The Turnstiles is a dark, lyrically enigmatic cut with Neil plucking away at a banjo. That concludes Side 1 of the original LP.

While Side 1 was great, Side 2 consists of the four best Neil songs possibly ever released (that's personal opinion, of course). Vampire Blues is a darkly funny number commenting on the oil industry, and is the only actual "blues" song on the album. The title track has a very haunting, somber feel to it as Neil sings about falling out of fame. Motion Pictures (For Carrie) is a very personal ballad about Neil's relationship with actress Carrie Snodgrass.

And finally, there is the grand epic Ambulance Blues, which is to Neil Young as Desolation Row is to Bob Dylan--the greatest song of their respective careers. Over 9 minutes, Young takes us on a lyrical trip through his psyche, delivering some truly inspired imagery while a fiddle fills the air between verses:

"Back in the old folky days
The air was magic when we played.
The riverboat was rockin'
in the rain
Midnight was the time
for the raid...

All along the Navajo Trail,
Burn-outs stub their toes
on garbage pails.
Waitresses are cryin'
in the rain
Will their boyfriends
pass this way again?

I guess I'll call it
sickness gone
It's hard to say
the meaning of this song.
An ambulance can only
go so fast
It's easy to get buried
in the past

When you try to make
a good thing last.

So all you critics sit alone
You're no better than me
for what you've shown.
With your stomach pump and
your hook and ladder dreams
We could get together
for some scenes.

I never knew a man
could tell so many lies
He had a different story
for every set of eyes.
How can he remember
who he's talkin' to?
'Cause I know it ain't me,
and I hope it isn't you.

Well, 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 Farmer's Market
And I still can hear him say:
You're all just pissin'
in the wind
You don't know it but you are.

And there ain't nothin'
like a friend
Who can tell you
you're 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
How can he remember
who he's talking to?
Cause I know it ain't me,
and hope it isn't you."

In one word, brilliant. GET THIS ALBUM. True Neil Young fans won't regret it.