Customer Reviews

Tonight's the Night

5 star:		(106)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

In my senior year in high school (1975) I was a huge Neil Young fan. I had all his solo albums, had seen him in concert several times, knew virtually every one of his tunes by heart, and I even looked like the guy. When I heard that he had released a new album, "Tonight's the Night", I hustled down to the local Tower Records, forked over my ...,and rushed home to give it listen. I hated it. "What," I asked no one in particular, "is this mess?" Neil's lack of polish and affectation were always part of his appeal, but "Tonight's the Night" was too much. Neil and his band were so loaded they could hardly play, Neil singing was so bad it was laughable, and the whole record sounded like it had been recorded in a barn. I dismissed the thing as some kind of joke and filed "Tonight's the Night" away on the shelf. I then put on "After the Gold Rush" and thought about what I could have bought with that ... I wasted on "Tonight's the Night".

A few weeks later I was telling a friend how bad "Tonight's the Night" was and pulled it off the shelf to play for him. But, on second listen the album didn't sound as bad as I had remembered. "Come Baby, Let's Go Downtown" was a nice rockin' tune, "Roll Another Number" was an amusing druggie tale, and "Tired Eyes" seemed like an sad, even pretty, ballad. "Hmmm," I thought "Maybe this isn't a joke after all." I still didn't think it was a good album, it sure wasn't "Harvest", but I decided to give it a few more listens before I wrote it off for good.

So over the next few weeks I listened to "Tonight's the Night" again. And again. And again. And again. I listened to it drunk and I listened to it sober. I listened to during the day and I listened to it at night. I listened to it loud and I listened to it soft. I just couldn't stop listening to it. It replaced "Live at Fillmore East" as the album that was constantly on my turntable. It was absolutely hypnotic. "Tonight's the Night" sure wasn't "Harvest"; it was far better. It was some strange kind of Canadian, whiteboy, folk blues that reached right inside you, in the same way that Robert Johnson did, or Roscoe Holcomb did. It was the real thing, and it didn't matter if Neil couldn't carry a tune to save his life, or that the steel guitar was out of tune; it was pure, unaffected emotion that could send chills down your spine. And the songs! Each one was gem and I soon knew them all by heart (and I still do). Needless to say, my initial impression of "Tonight's the Night" underwent a complete revision. I now thought it was a bloody masterpiece and I've had no reason to change my mind since then. Although I no longer listen to "Tonight's the Night" obsessively, or even frequently, every time I put it in the changer it still sounds . . . "fresh"? "unique"? "original"? "raw"? All that and more. It always sounds like "Tonight's the Night". It's still the real thing.

The long history of rock and roll is filled with many incongruities. One of the more SEEMING incongruities has already been identified by several reviewers (I didn't read them all, so this may be old hat) and that is the punk feel in this mostly accoustic album. But this shouldn't be surprising. In a 1977 interview, Johnny (Rotten) Lydon stated that Neil Young was a major influence on him, and that TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT impressed him the most. Neil returned the compliment in "Hey, Hey, My, My" with the lyric: "The King is gone but he's not forgotten/This is the story of Johnny Rotten".

Obviously, the influence wasn't musical. The influence wasn't in attitude, either: much of TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT howls with pain and despair, NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS..." growls with anger and mockery. The true influence writhes in the convulsions, the hoarse screams, the rawness of the emotions. There's a fury and an outrage in these albums that is unsuppressed. It's little wonder that Kurt Cobain would be the logical heir of this legacy. (Another seeming incongruity: Kurt Cobain's suicide note contains Neil Young's lyric "It's better to burn out than to fade away". And Neil wrote the sorrowful "Sleeps with Angels" about Cobaine's suicide.)

Nearly thirty years later the raw wounds still fester; the album has withstood the proverbial test of time. I won't go through each song individually because I would just be repeating what other reviewers have said. But it is worth repeating how powerful this album is.

Hearing this record for the first time was one of the scariest and strangely moving experiences of my life. Hearing Neil positively moan out the straight-narrative vocals of the opening title track - as if each word sung is causing him physical pain - gives one a glimpse of what it must feel like to hear a man sing from the other side of the grave. The history of this album is well-documented: it was written and recorded in 1973 after the heroin-related deaths of two of Neil's associates, guitarist Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry. As on the more recent Sleeps With Angels - where Young deals directly with Kurt Cobain's suicide - Neil tackles his subject matter head on here, in a surprising, shocking, almost nearly disturbing way. One hears of turning grief into art - art as therapy - well, there are few finer examples of it in all of music than here. Neil directly unloads his grief and sorrow and mixed up and confused feelings into his music. The title track is a direct narrative about Berry "Bruce Berry was a working man/He used to load that Econoline van" and sets the course for the rest of the album's songs - dark, introspective, direct, brooding, and ragged. The lyrics and music supporting them have a generally dark vibe throughout; absolutely hopeless tunes such as Borrowed Tune ("I'm clmbin' this ladder/My head in the clouds/I hope that it matters/I'm havin' my doubts") abound. The lone upbeat, more harmonius song here - a live Come On, Baby, Let's Go Downtown with vocals from Whitten - sticks out like a sore thumb amongst this musical graveyard of heartbreak and pain. Other songs seems to tackle the subject almost directly - such as Tired Eyes ("He tried to do his best/But he could not"), even reflecting Neil's own situation, of which he admits, in Borrowed Tune "I'm singin' this borrowed tune/I took from the Rolling Stones/Alone in this empty room/Too wasted to write my own." The performances are extremely raw and obviously not intended to be polished or kept up. They are all undoubtedly first takes - you can hear instruments that are out of tune, notes that are out of place, even the musicians speaking back and forth to one another (not to mention a static hum.) Clearly, this album was not made for fun. It was made out of necessity. Such is the essence of true art.

Brooding on the drug deaths of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and CSNY roadie Bruce Berry,Neil Young and the remainder of Crazy Horse take the listener on an unplanned trip to the dark side of the city on TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT.This is a unpolished,shambling primal scream;Young offers no apologies and no cures.He simply buries his friends the best way he knows;with a dose of raw power.He is too wasted to write eloquently;he admits as much on BORROWED TUNE.TIRED EYES warns us not to become accustomed to the horror that sometimes lurks behind the corner.ROLL ANOTHER NUMBER is a sly dig at the hippie beliefs than had by 1975 seemed stale.LET'S GO DOWNTOWN (a live duet recorded a few years earlier with Young and Whitten)reminds us of what was lost.NEW MAMA is a song dedicated to Neil's wife and baby.TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT is the tale of Bruce Berry.This was recorded in 1973;after which Neil played some diasterous dates in London,playing this material. "Welcome to Miami Beach.Everything here's as cheap as it looks",was the motto for that tour and it could have been the same for this period in young's life.Two years later,the same record company who refused to release TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT the first time had the choice of it or a collection of semi-country songs called HOMEGROWN. Thankfully for us,they chose the former.Rightfully so,this album is ranked in the top 100 albums of all time.It remains a top ranked release in the Young canon.

"Tonight's The Night" is, in many respects, the most remarkable record Neil Young has ever made. More to the point, it's an album so marked by pure and unprocessed emotion that you can be certain that you will never hear anything like it again released by a major artist on a major label.
And by 1973, Neil Young was a major artist. Both financially and creatively. "Everybody knows...", "After the Gold Rush", and "Harvest" had all been released, delivering to Young some of the biggest hits of his very long career. But by 1973, Young's success as an artist was being tempered by the losses to excess he was experiencing among those around him. First Danny Whitten, a guitarist with Crazy Horse and songwriter ("I Don't Want To Talk About It") overdosed on heroin in 1972, using the money Young had given him along with a plane ticket home, fired after a disasterous recording session. Then Bruce Berry, a roadie with Crazy Horse, died at the same hand a year later.
With this emotional backdrop, Young recorded several late night sessions with his band of semi finished tunes and less than flawless musicianship. The result is not polished, not always coherent, nor for that matter, in tune. But it remains an extraordinary document of a significant artist grappling with his deepest demons. And he recorded it. Listen to "Borrowed Tune" with it's lyrics and melody confessing the artistic theft so plainly ("I'm singing this borrowed tune, I took from the Rolling Stones. Alone in this empty room, too wasted to write my own") and consider the chances you'll ever hear such honesty on record again.

Those of us who love Neil at his raw and sloppy best will agree that this and the inexpicably unavailable "On the Beach" remain his finest work. This is far from the easy-listening strains of Harvest, Comes a Time, or Harvest Moon, so if those are your favourite NY albums, stay away. If however, your musical tastes are a tad more adventurous, give this a chance. The music is catharsis, Neil's musical response to the death of his two close friends Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry. Neil and band are apparently stoned, drunk or both, the playing is raw and sloppy but GENUINE, and the songs are great. Highlights include "Tired Eyes", "New Mama", "Albuquerque", the title track, and several others. After a few open-minded listenings you'll agree it's a certifiable classic. Go for it

About this time, Neil could do no wrong. This is definitely one of his best ever - along with Rust Never Sleeps and On the Beach (criminally unavailable on CD). Favorite songs on this include both versions of the title track as well as Albuquerque, World on a String and Lookout Joe - but they are all great. It has been called a dark album and it is, but in the end it is uplifting to my spirit every time I listen. When his voice cracks on Mellow My Mind, it just doesn't get any better. He has made great music throughout his career but never any better than his mid to late 70's peak. This is it.

Listening to this album in the new millennium, as I often do, it's difficult to understand why Young's folksy fans deserted him. Yep, the subject matter may be a bit harsher than Harvest, but don't forget that album contained Needle and the Damage Done and Alabama. I admit, I'm not a huge fan of the title track, but everything else on here is classic, from the Crazy Horse rock of Come on Baby... and World On A String, to the stoner tracks like Borrowed Tune, new Mama and the country-grunge of Roll Another Number. Not to forget Albequerque, with it's fantastically strung out chorus. But when on earth is Neil Young's best album coming out on CD? On The Beach should be available to everyone. I've got it on a Spanish pirated CD, but in a siesta kinda way, they managed to stick side 2 on first. Spaniards!

If 65 Amazon customer reviews (and countless raves from professional critics) haven't convinced you of this album's greatness, then I certainly don't know what I can add.

This album is drunken and emotional, filled to the brim with the drug-fueled decay of the 1970s. The idealism that informed the psychedelic age of the late 60s had given way to death and incoherence just six years later. Suddenly, the excess and the drugs that seemed so hip began to kill people.

By the time Neil Young and his band entered the studio, Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison were dead. No doubt Young felt that these stars' deaths showed the true dangers of excess. He possibly might have felt that these were isolated incidents. After all, drugs expanded and freed the mind, did they not? They didn't kill you in various combinations. Maybe those three just overdid it.

Then Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry also died. Not just one person close to Neil Young, but two. The resulting confusion and grief is everywhere on TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT. This album is a portrait of a man mourning the deaths of others, while struggling to overcome his own addictions. Pretty ironic that Young and company are singing about these deaths, and sound so loaded and wasted at the same time.

The contradiction in TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT is but one of the many facets to Neil Young, who must be considered one of the most complex and gifted artists of the 20th century.

This album did not, as John Gilman erroneously states, come hot on the heels of Harvest. In between the two came two of NYs great three recordings (this being his third), Time Fades Away, and the extraordinary On The Beach; neither of which have ever been released on cd. It is a shame that those of the listening public who are without a turntable and a good 2nd hand lp source are unable to appreciate the full triumvirate. This is a great record with some very stark singing and emotional playing. In turns it is mournful, rocking, elegaic, and brooding. A desert island disc.