Album: On The Beach (1974)

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• Well, we live in a trailer at the edge of town
  You never see us 'cause we don't come around
  We got twenty five rifles just to keep the population down
  But we need you now, and that's why I'm hangin' 'round
  So you be good to me and I'll be good to you
  And in this land of conditions I'm not above suspicion
  I won't attack you, but I won't back you
  
  Well, it's so good to be here, asleep on your lawn
  Remember your guard dog? Well, I'm afraid that he's gone
  It was such a drag to hear him whining all night long
  Yes, that was me with the doves, setting them free near the factory
  Where you built your computer, love
  I hope you get the connection, 'cause I can't take the rejection
  I won't deceive you, I just don't believe you
  
  Well, I'm a barrel of laughs, with my carbine on
  I keep 'em hoppin', 't my ammunition's gone
  But I'm still not happy, I feel like there's something wrong
  I got the revolution blues, I see bloody fountains
  And ten million dune buggies comin' down the mountains
  Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon is full of famous stars
  But I hate them worse than lepers and I'll kill them in their cars Writer/s: Neil Young
  Publisher: Hipgnosis Songs Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 19

• Jeff from So. Cal.I've often felt most had the lyrics wrong about the doves and dogs and computers and love. I hear it as "Yes, it was me with the dogs, setting them free near the factory where you build your computer logs."
• Fiona from HkThe line about the doves and computers: I would think that's about Mansons environmental beliefs. Manson was enraged by finding Coke cans discarded by mountain streams. And he referred to the straight world as "plastic".
  He was said to have breathed on a dead bird and brought it back to life ... though he himself admitted the bird was frozen or stunned.
  So he is pitting himself against the computer world, the plastic world, setting the doves free. The emblems of peace: highly ironic.
  What Charlie actually did was a huge experiment with breaking down identity. Instructing his followers to always be changing, break all rules, live communally, while actually destroying their personalities and replacing them with himself... until they became "one" living "at Now". They believed... the hardcore, anyway, that they had literally become invisible, that they could enter a house and leave no trace, being "slippies" not hippies, slipping between the cracks of society.
  Its amazing how few of them retained their own selves: only Dianne "Snake" Lake laughed at Charlie's spiel... and was savagely beaten for it, and violently raped. Dianne said the girls seemed to exult in the killings, and she was heartbroken over Pat "Katie" Krenwinkel, because she had been the soul of kindness.
  It just goes to show that forms and standards matter, that they keep the inner beast in check, and that messing with boundaries is very dangerous. What's going on in universities is not sensible at all.
• Rob from PhiladelphiaI agree with Hugh that this song sounds a bit like Dylan. Seems like every artist from the 60s-70s had a 'let's try to write/sing like Bob Dylan' moment. Guess it sounds easier than it is.
• Bob from Little Rock, ArSugar Mountain has nothing to do with the Manson Family. Neil wrote this song in the early sixties well before Manson was at any Barker Ranch. Come on, where do you get this stuff?
• Mark from Sf, CaThe references that Neil Youg has in his songs about Manson goes way back to 1970 to the song Sugar Mountain. In the lyric (with the Barkers and the colored ballons) Manson stayed at the Barker ranch as a hideout in the desert. Manson was in prison with Al Karpis who was a member of the Ma Barker gang. That was their same hideout back in the 1930s
  The song Revolution Blues has the lyric (I hate the stars in Laurel Canyon like lepers and I kill them in their cars) refers to Steve Parent who was shot in the driveway of Cielo drive while sitting in his car!! Mama cass Eliot of the Mamas and the Papas threw the Manson family out of her house in Laurel Canyon a few months earlier. She was at the Tate residence about an hour before the murders happened but flew out to a gig and didnt get killed. John Phillips the leader of the Mamas and the Papas who didnt want to record Mansons music also lived in laurel Canyon. He was invited to the Tate residence the night of the murders but decided not to go.
  The lyric in Revolution blues (that was me outside while your dog was barking) was about Terry Melcher the producer of the Beach Boys who didnt want to record Manson either. The lyric (I dont like the rejection so I hope you make the connection} was aimed directly at Melcher. Melcher was living at Cielo Dr but moved out before the murders happened because he was scared of Manson. He got a big guard dog to protect himself from "The Family"
• Steve from Houma, LaCan someone explain to me what NY means by:
  
  "Yes that was me with the doves setting them free at the factory where you built your computer, love"?
  
  This is the only line in the song that I don't get. Are the doves and the factory supposed to be symbolic of something? Any help would be nice!
• Ray from New York, Nyand manson was sentenced in 70 or 71, didnt revolution blues appear in 74 or 75, i dunno but maybe quite an after thought,i also think that the songs lyrics deserve autonomy of any stigma of supposed content,it just an amazing poem, and an amazing song, oh yeah and i think on the beach may have been the album after the 3xditch albums, i believe..
• Ray from New York, Nyneil young may have mixed some facts to not elude to the facts of the case of manson so specificly, like the boys who was shot in the car wasnt a star,for example, the stuff about dogs im not so sure refers to manson, or i know atleast that manson wouldnt harm a dog or any animal for that matter(other than a human of course),and even if im wrong about these things one things for sure, and thats manson was a realy good musician and neil young could sense that i would presume.
• John from London, United KingdomThat's 'dune' buggies dipstick.
• John from London, United KingdomYoung once said in an interview that the single 'Heart of Gold' from 'Harvest', had taken him to the middle of the road where he became bored, so he headed for the ditch. What followed was the three so called 'ditch trilogy' albums, of which 'On the Beach' was easily the best, and remains, for many, his best work to date. This album is a delightfully world weary rant at just about everything. 'Revolution Blues' said to be about Charles Manson, contains an apocalyptic vision of doom buggies and celebrities being murdered in cars. Neil must have been in a dark place himself to have written such lyrics; he even, supposedly, suggested to his record company that they sign Manson up. The mood remains bitter and cynical throughout the album, on the last track, 'Ambulance Blues' Young reels off a list of bitter beefs, including a few choice words for his critics, a few more for Nixon, and the famous 'pissing in the wind' line about Crosby Stills Nash and Young. Listen in the dark, alone.
• Hugh from Calgary, AbDoes anyone else think he sounds sort of like Dylan, musically and lyrically? It could be because of Helm and Danko backing him.
• David from Huntington Beach, CaThis song is awesome. Neil is such the "antistar" but a "star" at the same time lol. He's one of those few guys so brilliant that you can love his work and dislike his work at the same tiem.
• David from , CaShakey also says that this song made David Crosby very nervous. Something about wanting to kill stars in Laurel Canyon didn't sit right. ;-)
• Matt from Portola Valley, CaLevon Helm and Rick Danko of The Band play on this track.
• Johnny from Los Angeles, CaJeez, it does sound like Charles Manson. You're right, Stefanie.
• Cadence from Sacramento, CaNo, Joe has it right. In Shakey: Neil Young's Biography, Neil says he gave Manson the motorcyle. Manson said Neil was the only one who remembered him.
• Dave from TorontoJoe, you've got it backwards. Manson gave Neil a motorcycle. Neil met Manson a few times at parties. He thought that Manson was a great musicain and with the the right band that he would have been huge.
• Joe from Ne Pa, PaEven to this day, Manson still speaks highly of Neil Young. While Manson was a part of the California music scene of the late 60's, Young once gave him a motorcycle.
• Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScHhyw creepy1 Just read the lyrics. It's definitely what Manson would say if he had written it.

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