Neil Young - On The Beach

also keep those otb stories coming especially ones involving rain and rome

<<if you're bummed out enough and playing an acoustic there's a 75% chance you sound like on the beach>>

very true.

I like Oldham and Molina, but I can see why others would grow restless since it's only one facet of Young's attack and is nearly the entire approach from these other guys, especially Molina. That said, it's like a color I prefer, so I'm a sucker for it. For anyone looking to sample, I'd suggest Didn't It Rain or Ghost Tropic from Songs:Ohia. That's the stuff I like best. But it's definitely not for everyone.

there's also a 75% chance you sound like pink moon

venndiagram.jpg

i don't see any connection between this album and nick drake

mood, vibe

I don't see it either. acoustic guitars /= Nick Drake by default, Nick used pretty specific tunings and finger-picking styles

can I just say if you're bummed out enough and playing an acoustic gtr you will probably sound something like on the beach or pink moon and less like motorhead and leave it at that

haha sure

unless you are like premier league guitarist, you don't sound like pink moon

also keep those otb stories coming especially ones involving rain and rome

― 鬼の手 (Edward III),

No lie: My old vinyl copy sustained back-cover damage due to rain! It was being stored in a (burned-out) basement, directly below a partially opened window. (Vinyl was already in lousy shape anyways - bought it from a dollar bin back in the 80s.)

"Revolution Blues" for me.

I love the sound of Crosby's rhythm guitar on "Revolution Blues." Someone upthread praised the electric piano sound on "See The Sky About To Rain." I just love what Young's engineers got out of the instruments here.

^^
Fully agree. On The Beach (the song) has an amazing sonic feel to it. Fantastic bass sound as well.

Since reading the story behind it, On the Beach always makes me want to try a honey slide. The combination of weed and honey pretty much sums up the sound of the record.

A buddy and I tried these "slides" a few years ago, in blatant imitation of what we read in Shakey. It tasted like ass. For thirty minutes we felt nothing, then... wow. We couldn't move.

I assume "tasted like ass" is a negative. But was the "couldn't move" part a positive?

I had a friend who described angeldust as being unable to figure out your own name or how to walk across the street and that was his endorsement. I decided to skip it. That didn't sound like a good time to me. But then again, I can't even smoke weed since it makes me think the world is out to kill me. Maybe it is?

can we talk about the drumming on sky for a second?

I just love what Young's engineers got out of the instruments here.

Exactly. The instruments all coincide perfectly & stand alone beautifully as well.

can we talk about the drumming on sky for a second?

Oh yeah. I love that late-night stumbling, careening-forward drum vibe in the last 1:30 or so.

alright, if we're gonna talk about sound quality: gtr on "walk on". it's reason enough to track down the HDCD version of OTB. sometimes neil's audiophile nuttiness strikes me as o_O but moments like that I'm like ok ok I get it. the song itself is pretty slight but the sonics are magnifico.

the bridge of 'walk on' has some of my favourite ever neil guitar sounds

"Walk On" is a peculiar opener; doesn't he say something about this in the liner notes to Decade?

I came to this album pretty late in my Neil life so I tend to think of this as "Revolution Blues", on the one hand, and then the second side as a unit on the other.

I wish I had this album with me right now; I'd really like to hear "Motion Pictures" b/c I'm away from home and I'm deep inside myself right now.

well, i'm drunk

walk on is one of those songs. Those perfect kiss offs. I've never felt a real kiss that left such a salty acidic taste in my mouth.

i feel like this whole album is trapped in a squirming layer of ectoplasm. walk on.

tripmaker, et al, have at it

time fades away HDCD

for illustration purposes

walk on

for euler

motion pictures

thankig u

voted "ambulance blues" but already wishing i'd voted "motion pictures." not that you can really go wrong here.

now that you mention it, there is no wrong answer

thanks so much for "Motion Pictures", needed it badly tonight; the song is so exhausted, he makes the harmonica sound discrete rather than continuous, like it takes these massive steps rather flowing, like flowing would take too much energy and anyway I've got mine.

rather *than* flowing

It's funny, I've only ever owned the CD version of this, but always having thought of those last three tracks as a side-b epic trilogy (I read about the album before hearing it) I can't conceive of voting for them individually. My gut's saying Revolution Blues, but I'm gonna hold off on voting another day or two in case I decide I should have gone with Sky About To Rain.

I like that in all the talk of this album as being so down and rainy, I still can't think of it as anything but a positive force.

Terrific album, great thread too! I was so happy to find this on vinyl, half a year before the CD reissue as it later turned out... Still very happy with it as the I dig the artwork a lot. Upon hearing the CD I got the impression that the songs felt a bit slower then on the vinyl I bought, most evidently (to me anyway) in the case of "Walk On". Makes it a bit more upbeat, musically.

Anyway, my vote goes to "Sky About to Rain". Instruments, arrangement, the slightly restrained playing (as I perceive it) - it all adds up to this melancholic beauty of a song.

basically been listening to this on repeat since this thread started, thanks thread.

^

hehe, me too!

otm also about "see the sky about to rain" - my favourite bit of pedal steel guitar this side of m.ward.

Thanks, EdIII!

Eddie, you're a star!

a good T/S would be "on the beach" vs. the unreleased "chrome dreams"

or on the beach, tonight's the night, and time fades away

"I'd rather start all over a-gain."

yeah i'd still go w/tonight's the night. but it just blows my mind he left an album as good as "chrome dreams" unreleased.

if he ever does the next volume of "archives" it could be so dope.

probably my favorite Neil Young album, and that's saying something. i think discovering this album when i was a kid and realizing that it wasn't on CD was one of the formative moments in my music obsession. Sooner or laterrrrr it all gets real! and not to be captain plug-a-blog here but if you haven't heard this show: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/83610034/citizen-kane-jr-on-the-beach-first-post download it NOWWWWW.

If you keep linking to stuff like that, I'll follow you anywhere, cap'n.

i voted for "Motion Pictures" btw. Though I could've voted for any of them. "Motion Pictures" is my favorite to play on guitar, just five lovely chords circling around each other.

"On The Beach" for the lyrics alone.

Perfect album, duh

Thanks for the link tylerw!

no prob -- lots more Neil on the blog if you dig around.
i do love that electric piano/wurlitzer whatevs on See The Sky -- Neil doesn't play that anywhere else, does he? interesting that Levon and Rick from the Band show up here -- I dream that the next volume of the Archives will have like a full session with them ... doing songs from Zuma or something.

that's a hard one as that is really one of neil's most intimate and best albums and there are no duds on it. i'd say sky is the one as the simple & sad tune touches something deep inside me. that pedal steel sound totally kills me every time. it is not cheesy at all. and it does not give the song a country vibe. yes, i still can't take country most of the time. the title track is almost on par and revolution blues and walk on are phantastic too.

hello, long time lurker but very infrequent poster...
see the sky is beautiful but at this stage i'm in danger of over-familiarity. walk on, on the other hand, can't see this one ever getting old. love that lurching/funky rhythm. looking forward to seeing NY @ Primavera festival in Barcelona in a couple of weeks too!

It's not the best song, but I'd sort of like to rep for Vampire Blues! It's overlooked because jesus every song on this album is gold, but I love love love this song/recording. It sounds like what I thought Tonight's the Night would sound like just from descriptions of it before I actually heard it. It just nails the exhausted/strung out/at least I got my band feeling.