Neil Young’s “Tonight ‘s the Night” rightly gets credit as one of the best stoner albums of all time, but that album’s precursor, “On the Beach,” offers some stiff competition.

Both albums represent approximately the same timeframe (technically speaking, the songs for “Tonight’s the Night” pre-dated “On the Beach”), recorded in the aftermath of the runaway commercial success of his single “Heart of Gold”. Apparently, Young did not enjoy finding himself ‘in the middle of the road’, and these two albums find him “headed for the ditch” (a phrase he used to explain the sudden change of direction). The sense of Young pulling away from fame and fortune is palpable, particularly on “On the Beach.” 

Once a hippie icon of the youth movement, Young never fully embraced the role that most of his fans projected on him. He was never comfortable with fame (remember “Out of My Mind” and “Mr. Soul” from his Buffalo Springfield days?) and by 1973 he seemed to grow wary of his own generation. “On the Beach” is chock full of lyrical moments that suggest he’d given up on the ‘youth’ movement – “You’re all just pissing in the wind” (from “Ambulance Blues”) is one of the most telling lines. Even the album’s hit single, “Walk On”, speaks directly to a desire to find peace of mind by pulling away from his new audience.

Taken as a whole, the songs of “On the Beach” capture the mercurial nature of Young’s personality. By the end of side two, it’s obvious that he changed from a cynical realist to a realistic cynic but even still, it isn’t something you can hold against him, because ‘there ain’t nothing like a friend who can tell you when you’re just pissin’ in the wind’. At the time of its release, “On the Beach” was derided for being a sloppy and pessimistic record, but it is now generally regarded as one of his best.

Featured Tracks:

Walk On

See the Sky About to Rain

Revolution Blues

For the Turnstiles

Vampire Blues

On the Beach

Motion Pictures

Ambulance Blues

July 1974 - Billboard Charted #16