Thursday Throwback is a weekly colour scheme inspired by an iconic album cover of yesteryear. This week’s throwback is the 1974 album “On the Beach” by Neil Young. The colours are as follows:
| Colours | HEX | RGB | HSB | CMYK | LAB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colour 1 | #593239 | 89, 50, 57 | 349, 44, 35 | 0, 43, 35, 65 | 25, 18, 3 |
| Colour 2 | #5C2673 | 92, 38, 115 | 282, 67, 45 | 19, 66, 0, 54 | 26, 37, -33 |
| Colour 3 | #0896A6 | 8, 150, 166 | 186, 95, 65 | 95, 9, 0, 34 | 56, -26, -17 |
| Colour 4 | #0D0000 | 13, 0, 0 | 0, 100, 5 | 0, 100, 100, 94 | 0, 3, 1 |
| Colour 5 | #8C6464 | 140, 100, 100 | 0, 29, 55 | 0, 28, 28, 45 | 46, 16, 6 |
“On the Beach” is the fifth studio album from Canadian-American artist, Neil Young. The album was launched by Reprise Records in July 1974 and is the second part of what is known as the “Ditch Trilogy,” a series of three albums that Young produced following his highly successful 1972 album, “Harvest.” The acclaim and success he experienced up to this point led to feelings of withdrawal, estrangement and sadness. “On the Beach” was a culmination of the themes explored while processing those emotions.
Although “On the Beach” did not achieve commercial success upon its release, it has since gained a high level of appreciation from both fans and critics. The album was recorded in a somewhat disorganised manner, with Young using different session musicians and frequently altering their instruments. The arrangements provided to the musicians were minimal, and Young often chose rough monitor mixes over a polished sound, which caused some friction with his sound engineers.
The album cover for “On the Beach” was designed by art director Gary Burden, with photography by Bob Seidemann. It depicts Young facing the ocean at Santa Monica Beach, holding an umbrella, while the rear end of a 1959 Cadillac sticks up out of the sand. Young later revealed in his 2015 memoir, “Waging Heavy Peace,” that the cover for “On the Beach” was one of his personal favourites. Partially inspired by the 1959 movie of the same name, he and Burden travelled around the local area to gather the necessary props. They purchased the car part from a scrap yard in Santa Ana and the furniture from a local patio store. The pattern on the chairs and inside of the parasol was later incorporated into the album cover’s inner sleeve. The addition of the newspaper was the final touch. According to Young, the headline read “SEN. BUCKLEY CALLS FOR NIXON TO RESIGN,” indicating that the photoshoot took place around the 20th of March 1974.
“That was the creative process at work. We lived for that, Gary and I, and we still do.”
Neil Young
Need a cover for your next release? Visit our shop or drop us a line!