18. On the Beach (On the Beach, 1974)
A song about being one of the last survivors after the apocalypse, inspired by the Nevil Shute book and Stanley Kramer film of the same name, this is simply stunning and has passages that sound like they could be written about today's pandemic: "The world is turnin, I hope it don't turn away"; "I need a crowd of people, but I can't face them day to day"; "I head for the sticks with my bus and friends, I follow the road though I don't know where it ends"; and one of my very favorite lines of his, "Though my problems are meaningless, that don't make them go away."
The mellow blues arrangement, which is as chilling and compelling as the lyrics, befits the influence of the honeyslides consumed during recording. The solos could get searing on the CSNY 1974 tour; even though C, S and N all HATED the On the Beach songs (too much of a downer, man), they didn't complain when Neil put them in the setlists and gave them their all.
It has been played only 5 times since that tour. On the 1999 solo tour, Neil broke it out for the first time in 24 years after someone lobbied for it at a backstage meet-and-greet. Such occasions are very special, as there are only 14 known live performances.
This is the song I mentioned that made me emotional when writing about it even though there is no intense personal story that goes with it. (No, those emotions haven't gone away as we've climbed higher.) I think it's because this song really was a case of "my little secret". The album was out of print in the '80s and '90s and almost none of my peers had heard it, as radio ignored it. In high school, a friend and I pooled money to buy old vinyl copies of Time Fades Away and On the Beach. I didn't have a record player, so he kept the vinyl and I copied them to cassette. That's what Gen X-ers had to do to hear this material until one got broadband (OTB finally came out on CD in 2003; I don't know if TFA ever did because Neil hates it.) The theme of isolation, backed by the musical equivalent of a long sigh, really spoke to an introverted teen/twentysomething who was in his own head all the time. It wasn't until 1998 that I found other people who loved this as much as I did.
OK, maybe there is an intense personal story that goes with it.
Studio version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9CkvAQkQLs
Live acoustic version from the 1974 Bottom Line gig:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3WciXT25vU
Live versions with CSNY from 1974:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqRzZNsrVy8 and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuKLUiaaKyw
The breakout live performance from 1999:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWE0IgYINYw
Live acoustic version from 2003:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQbpd4dVzG8
The only live version with Promise of the Real (2019); this too was a breakout, as it had not been performed in 16 years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQHvY29UHBI
Radiohead cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQARzXtc2ik
Boz Scaggs cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmj6khcLM2Y
Golden Smog cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0njAxrRXoQ
Mick Hucknall (Simply Red) cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDbctjmjvXg
Jack Logan cover (this is extremely low-fi but I love it):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLswIyONk1g
The Walkabouts cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNO1b8UOuY
YouTube not only gives me other songs from the album and another Neil tribute band, but performances from Jones Beach and Neil's collaborations with the Beach Boys. Oh, and that Chris Rea song by the same name.