Following the 1973
Time Fades Away tour,
Neil Young wrote and recorded an Irish wake of a record called
Tonight's the Night and went on the road drunkenly playing its songs to uncomprehending listeners and hostile reviewers. Reprise rejected the record, and
Young went right back and made
On the Beach, which shares some of the ragged style of its two predecessors. But where
Time was embattled and
Tonight mournful,
On the Beach was savage and, ultimately, triumphant. "I'm a vampire, babe,"
Young sang, and he proceeded to take bites out of various subjects: threatening the lives of the stars who lived in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon ("Revolution Blues"); answering back to
Lynyrd Skynyrd, whose "Sweet Home Alabama" had taken him to task for his criticisms of the South in "Southern Man" and "Alabama" ("Walk On"); and rejecting the critics ("Ambulance Blues"). But the barbs were mixed with humor and even affection, as
Young seemed to be emerging from the grief and self-abuse that had plagued him for two years. But the album was so spare and under-produced, its lyrics so harrowing, that it was easy to miss
Young's conclusion: he was saying goodbye to despair, not being overwhelmed by it. [
On the Beach was re-released on LP in 2016.] ~ William Ruhlmann