Solid Little Rock Jams

Neil Young - On The Beach

Why did this have to come out before Tonight's The Night, now everybody is confused.

That's not the order that you listen to them in unless you don't know what the fuck you're doing.

Last three songs on here would have been the greatest suicide note ever penned but instead of dying after letting that G chord have a couple final gasps Neil Young just keeps on living and writes "Like A Hurricane" and "Powderfinger" and "Cough Up The Bucks" because he's Neil fucking Young, the face of the '70s folk/country/singer/songwriter bullshit that was basically just backwash generated by the Great '60s Abortion of Shattered Dreams and yet he's the only one who truly took it upon himself to just kill every remaining trace of it. And that's what On The Beach is, Neil murdering what is either part one, two, or four of his "classic" era to make way for part two or three or five because the only other choice would have been to shamefully fade away or burn out or whatever everybody else did.

Because he just transcends every aspect of everything else and if you supposedly enjoy this music and yet don't realize this then you're listening to it all wrong.

You don't know what it is to feel like every person in the world is going out of their way to obliviously suffocate any aspect of your life that has the potential to make things seem a little bit better, if only for an hour or two or until you wake up the next morning, except deep down you know it's you who is the one guilty of feeding yourself the most bullshit of all. Neil Young's friends are dying and his women are leaving and he's done all he can to stay true to his own individuality except that's not what people want and it's not the way that anything is going to get better.

And he isn't just going to stay in one place. He went completely off it on the last two records, even growing a beard and rejecting the oh so played out electric rock 'n roll guitar in favor of some bomb ass saloon piano that he could bash out the most tuneless bullshit on and not have to stand up. And now it's time to move on because he's really just sick and delirious and tired and that's why "Ambulance Blues" exists and is the Greatest Goddamned Song Ever Written and makes me think for nine whole minutes that maybe it's the lyrics that matter after all.

But enough about the baked as all fuck melancholy exhaustion apocalypse that is side two of this album, enough before I even get to the title track or "Motion Pictures" and how you should be ashamed of your life for the fact that feeling sorry for yourself has never resulted in writing THOSE fucking songs, Jesus Christ. Because everything else here is genius. Except "Vampire Blues." But complaining about a "filler track" that is so blatantly a filler track... who even does that anymore? Irrelevant. Levon Helm sits down, plays a 4/4 beat, and makes you rethink rock drumming as you thought you knew it. "Revolution Blues" is the definition of sheer brutality, a "VICIOUS SWIPE," indeed. Then there's the Crazy Horse guitar rock song with the beautiful riff and a vocal melody that goes to more wonderful places than any of us deserve to be taken.

I'm not going to just review all the songs on here, probably should have just stopped the review a couple paragraphs ago. You know I've listened to it a few times and don't consider not singling out "For The Turnstiles" as a highlight (which it isn't) as evidence that I "forgot about it" so don't try to pull that one, mister.

Wholly deserving of its classic status. Sure don't make 'em like this anymore!

Rating: Another pretty good Neil Young album.
Download Link: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa