SOME GET STONED
SOME GET STRANGE
BUT SOONER OR LATER
IT ALL GETS REAL
NOTES :
I Just
ADDED
SOME MELLOW
SONGS I LIKED
AND CHANGED THE
ART WORK A BIT
On the Beach
is the
fifth studio album
by
Canadian-American musician
released by
Reprise Records in
July 1974.
It is the second
of the so-called
"Ditch Trilogy"
that Young recorded
following the
massive success of
1972's
Harvest,
and reveals
the artist grappling
with feelings of
over-exposure,
alienation and
melancholy.
Background
Looking back on the album
for the liner notes
to the
Decade box set,
Young wrote of
"Heart of Gold":
"This song put me in
the middle of the road.
Traveling there soon
became a bore,
so I headed for the ditch.
A rougher ride
but I saw more
interesting people there."
Recorded after
(but released before)
Tonight's the Night,
On the Beach
shares some of that album's
bleakness and
crude production
which came as a shock
to fans and critics alike,
as this was the
long-awaited studio
follow-up to
the commercially
and critically successful
Harvest.
It hinted towards
a more subtle outlook,
particularly on
the opening track,
"Walk On".
As happened with
Tonight's the Night,
On the Beach
under-performed commercially
but went on to
attain high regard
from fans
and critics alike.
Both albums were recorded
in a haphazard manner,
with a variety of
session musicians
often changing
their instruments while
Young offered
basic arrangements
for them to follow.
He chose rough,
monitor mixes of songs
rather than a more
polished sound,
alienating his sound
engineers in the process.
Throughout the
recording process,
Young and his colleagues
consumed a homemade
concoction dubbed
"honey slides",
a goop of sauteed marijuana
and honey that
"felt like heroin",
at the behest of
session musician
and
de facto producer
Rusty Kershaw.
This may account for
the mellow mood
of the album,
particularly on
its second half.
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