Neil Young – Oceanside CountrySide :: Ondarock reviews

On the one hand the ocean, on the other the countryside. In the middle, he, the Canadian Loner, 80 years to be completed this year, tireless also as a archivist, with his constant work of exhuing lost records, between Outtakealternative and unpublished versions fished out of the drawer. In this case, even, the clock hands must be brought back almost 50 years. “Oceanside CountrySide” in fact collects a series of songs recorded between May and December 1977, shortly after the release of “American Stars' n Bars”, together with old companions such as the multi -instrumentalist Ben Keith. That album, like others of the same period (“House”, “Hitchhiker”, “Chrome Dreams” etc.) has remained unpublished for over four decades. Although most of the songs then reappeared in other versions on works such as “Rust Never Sleeps”, “Hawks & Does” and “Comes a Time”, the 1978 album that officially replaced “Oceanside CountrySide” in Young discography. Now, just like those LP abandoned in the 70s, the Lost album “Oceanside CountrySide” reviews the light in its original packaging, after having already been included in the box “Archives Vol. III (1976-1987)” of 2024, but with different versions and one tracklist modified. The current edition of the album – officially inserted in the Neil Young Archives, within the Analog Original series – reports the format originally expected in 1977.

Ocean and countryside, it was said, like two sides of the same medal. On the lines of “Rust Never Sleeps” (1979), “Oceanside CountrySide” presents a bipartite structure: the first half, “Oceanside”, contains lonely acoustic songs, voice and guitar, along the coasts of Florida and Malibu, while the second, “CountrySide”, collects traces engraved in Nashville with the help of trusted musicians (Joe Osborne on bass, Rufus Thibodeaux on the violin, Ben Keith on the Dobro and Karl Himmel on drums), for a sound Close to the “Harvest” masterpiece folk-rock (1972).

The curtain on the ocean opens on the walked arpeggios of “sail away”, delicate ballad Culled by soft melodies and evocative texts, subsequently appeared in “Rust Never Sleeps”. And that assolus of harmonica, let's face it, is a blow to the heart. Immersed in a timeless bucolic scenario, we come across the soaked intimacy of “Lost in Space” and in the brackish country of “Captain Kennedy” (two episodes taken on “Hawks and Dues” of 1980).
The magical “Goin 'Back” – here in an even more slender and soft version – is the well -known opening of “Comes a Time”, from which “Human Highway” is also taken up,, title track Lissed of another album that did not go through, curated this time of the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, who had to follow their epic “déjà vu” of 1970 in the intentions: many years have passed, but that poignant lament of Young who with a thread of voice (and there) asks “How Couich People Get So Unkind?” It remains dramatically alive and current.

Shot the side, we find ourselves wandering for the Tennessee camps (cit.) in the midst of country-rock fragrances to the sound of fiddle Of the fun “Field of Opportunity” (without the vocal harmonies of the sweet Niclette Larson added for “Comes a Time”) and of an overwhelming version of “Dance Dance Dance”, which Young had recorded for the first time in 1969 with the Crazy Horse for another album never published, before the band included it in its homonymous debut of 1971.
More reflective other episodes such as the “The Old Homesad” contrite, already proposed on “Hawks & Does” (2003), with the prophetic verse “Why do you Ride That Crazy Horse?”, And the melancholy ballad “It Might Have Been”, chiseled with the minimum of tinsels, at the service of the fragile voice – and always damn emotional – of the songwriter of the songwriter of Toronto.
He closes the album “Pocahontas” – a song already known to the fans but here in a more bare and intimate guise – with a poetic reflection on historical injustices, built on a surreal and evocative narrative.

It is a dip in the past, yes, but “Oceanside CountrySide”, in addition to offering a new perspective on the work of one of the most important songwriters ever, releases an authenticity and a purity that cannot leave indifferent. And in fact the fans paid him a more than worthy welcome, dragging him in the top 20 of the best -selling albums in vinyl on both sides of the ocean (to stay on the subject).
In short, Neil Young confirms himself as a bulwark, not just musical. And even if the concert in Ukraine has faded, the nobility of the gesture remains. Keep on Rockin', Neil.

PS The disc, number 7 of the Special Release Series dedicated to unpublished albums, comes out for the new AOS (Analog Original Series) series which provides for direct transfer to vinyl of analog masters without going from any digital version. The CD version was however announced for April 25th.

22/03/2025