PASS IT ’ROUND
The long, strange afterlife of On The Beach
Testing the waters: Young and Peter Buck at the 1998 Bridge School Benefit
FOR many years, it seemed as if Young was trying to avoid On The Beach. Even compared with its Ditch Trilogy brethren, On The Beach cut alittle too close to the bone for its creator; it wasn’t reissued on CD until 2003 and Young has rarely revisited its songs in live performances.
Things started to thaw slightly when REM were invited to appear at the Bridge School in 1998. According to asource close to the band, REM and Young rehearsed both “Ambulance Blues” and “On The Beach” – although the latter never made it to the stage. Perhaps inspired by the REM hook-up, Young added “Ambulance Blues” to the setlists for his American solo tour the following year. It wasn’t until 2007, though, that European audiences got to hear it –aregular solo acoustic showstopper during the tours promoting Chrome Dreams II.