Classic Rock Album of the Day- Neil Young- Tonight's the Night- (1975) ****
Today's review is a look at a an album, that is right near the top of my favorites with Young. Overall content is a tad lower than Rust Never Sleeps, and After the Gold Rush But if you want one single album that has the most outpouring of emotion and grit this is one. In fact I can't think of one album in Rock and Roll that has this level of tenor, where the artist is basically was bleeding on vinyl. The despair in Young's voice is spine chilling, and undeniably genuine
And this is the magnificent heyday of his career. When you look at this tandem of 4 of 5 albums from 1970-1975 (After the Gold Rush, Harvest, On the Beach, Tonight's the Night, Zuma) Young massively dominated the singer-songwriter genre. These four as a core of the best part of his career, cemented him easily again as one of 2 or 3 best in genre alone. Young was famous for his whacked out experimental genre bending efforts that often left we fans scratching our heads in puzzlement. Some were on target like Reactor, but then there were awful turns to like Trans, and Everybody's Rockin' (Frisbee status). But if you are a Neil Young fan, I'd bet that there is one of these 5 LP's in your collection. And in this period, you could often hear a tune on the radio... esecially from Harvest.
Even though Crazy Horse is not titled on the LP, there are Crazy Horse perforances on the electric parts. Including playing and vocals from Horse's late Danny Whitten of this LP. Most of the rocking tunes are fantastic, but still the focus of excellence is on the acoustic numbers which highlight the despair, anger, and lamentation. And the album if I can be perfectly honest, is a depressing listen when you understand it's circumstances. A bit of this provided like a movie trailer on Harvest, with "The Needle and the Damage Done", but here where it is blaired a slap in the face. And to the common working man.... Who didn't think they knew the Roadie, Bruce Berry after this effort.
As a general rule, I've mostly always have prefered the Crazy Horse LPs in his dicography. But in a 80/20 kind of way. But what you have in "Tonight's the Night" is unique to anything Young created before or after. It's comes across almost as a musical operatic tragedy, in meter. And what adds to that eery feel, is that outside the title track, the rest of the album lyrically doesn't come acros that meloncoly. It is the tone and tenor that impacts the listener. I don't know what possesed Young to subject himself to torture by recording these, but 50 years later, they sure stand up the test of time of greatness.
Outside the superior songwriting, the musicanship is par with others in era. Well....with maybe a slight bit more of grit. What does seem striking is that this is the last bastion of the original Crazy Horse which launched Young's electric aspect of his career. And when you encounter further albums the sound is different. I can not put a finger on exactly why. But it does. And one last thing. Young's music is another catalog that is basically controlled like an iron fist with the YT/VEVO tyrants. So, instread.... I'll link a couple of good cuts below the song review.
Fun Fact: Though album was released in 1975, most of it was recorded August-September 1973. Not sure why the delay, but I often speculated Album Company resistance due releasing such a "downer album"
Side 1-
------------
Tonight's the Night- Heartfeld title track that honors and memoralizes Young's friends, the Roadie Bruce Berry, and fellow guitarist Danny Whitten. A slow somewhat bluezy off key effort that masterfully sets the tone of the album. The piano/guitar jam accentuates the feel. 5
Speakin' Out'- It doesn't get more pure blues on Young's behalf. Again off-key, but less impactive. 11
World on a String- Decent 4/4 rocker, the lyricaly imagery is strong, and does that classic Crazy Horse touch. 6
Borrowed Tune- First of the true heart string pullers on the LP. Very simple solo of Yong's voice, piano, and haromica. The pain comes across so evidently, so powerful. More to come from the Drugs Suck story. 4
Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown- Postmothous performance that include's Whitten's tune, with Young singing background. On it's own this one solidly rocks. Beautifully symetrically made. Crazy Horse often gave Young that fantastic garage band sound, and this is a perfect example. The point that this song is about making a drug deal just adds to macrabeness of the LP. 1
Mello My Mind- More of the same, but filler. Young's voice on this one is like chalk on a chalkboard. Bad on purpose, to accentuate the point I guess 12
Side 2-
----------
Roll Another Number for the Road- Same off keyed approach, but with great charm. You can almost see Young wasted on the side of the road waking up. Country themed, and very effective in the approach. 9
Albuquerque- Another kind of slow blues angle that harkens a lot to a lot of Young's late 60's very early solo work. 8
New Mama- Some serious acoustic work that sounds and starts like "Old Man". Vocals are well tuned this time in kind of a CSNY style. 7
Look Out Joe- I consider this the sleeper. Nothing spectacular as far as songwriting or musicianship, but how the song is presented is pretty unusal for Young's style, with a different take as he provides narrative. 3
Tired Eyes- Again another with the same narrative, but much less success. Whiney filler. 10
Tonight's the Night (Part 2)- I love how Young sometimes takes two approaches to the same song, with a signifant shift in style. Much like he did with the Title Track of Rust Never Sleeps with Hey Hey, My My. Part 2 has a great edge and feel that better captures the documnentative feel of the predecessor. By the end of this album, you can tell that it was exhaustive to make, 2
Today's review is a look at a an album, that is right near the top of my favorites with Young. Overall content is a tad lower than Rust Never Sleeps, and After the Gold Rush But if you want one single album that has the most outpouring of emotion and grit this is one. In fact I can't think of one album in Rock and Roll that has this level of tenor, where the artist is basically was bleeding on vinyl. The despair in Young's voice is spine chilling, and undeniably genuine
And this is the magnificent heyday of his career. When you look at this tandem of 4 of 5 albums from 1970-1975 (After the Gold Rush, Harvest, On the Beach, Tonight's the Night, Zuma) Young massively dominated the singer-songwriter genre. These four as a core of the best part of his career, cemented him easily again as one of 2 or 3 best in genre alone. Young was famous for his whacked out experimental genre bending efforts that often left we fans scratching our heads in puzzlement. Some were on target like Reactor, but then there were awful turns to like Trans, and Everybody's Rockin' (Frisbee status). But if you are a Neil Young fan, I'd bet that there is one of these 5 LP's in your collection. And in this period, you could often hear a tune on the radio... esecially from Harvest.
Even though Crazy Horse is not titled on the LP, there are Crazy Horse perforances on the electric parts. Including playing and vocals from Horse's late Danny Whitten of this LP. Most of the rocking tunes are fantastic, but still the focus of excellence is on the acoustic numbers which highlight the despair, anger, and lamentation. And the album if I can be perfectly honest, is a depressing listen when you understand it's circumstances. A bit of this provided like a movie trailer on Harvest, with "The Needle and the Damage Done", but here where it is blaired a slap in the face. And to the common working man.... Who didn't think they knew the Roadie, Bruce Berry after this effort.
As a general rule, I've mostly always have prefered the Crazy Horse LPs in his dicography. But in a 80/20 kind of way. But what you have in "Tonight's the Night" is unique to anything Young created before or after. It's comes across almost as a musical operatic tragedy, in meter. And what adds to that eery feel, is that outside the title track, the rest of the album lyrically doesn't come acros that meloncoly. It is the tone and tenor that impacts the listener. I don't know what possesed Young to subject himself to torture by recording these, but 50 years later, they sure stand up the test of time of greatness.
Outside the superior songwriting, the musicanship is par with others in era. Well....with maybe a slight bit more of grit. What does seem striking is that this is the last bastion of the original Crazy Horse which launched Young's electric aspect of his career. And when you encounter further albums the sound is different. I can not put a finger on exactly why. But it does. And one last thing. Young's music is another catalog that is basically controlled like an iron fist with the YT/VEVO tyrants. So, instread.... I'll link a couple of good cuts below the song review.
Fun Fact: Though album was released in 1975, most of it was recorded August-September 1973. Not sure why the delay, but I often speculated Album Company resistance due releasing such a "downer album"
Side 1-
------------
Tonight's the Night- Heartfeld title track that honors and memoralizes Young's friends, the Roadie Bruce Berry, and fellow guitarist Danny Whitten. A slow somewhat bluezy off key effort that masterfully sets the tone of the album. The piano/guitar jam accentuates the feel. 5
Speakin' Out'- It doesn't get more pure blues on Young's behalf. Again off-key, but less impactive. 11
World on a String- Decent 4/4 rocker, the lyricaly imagery is strong, and does that classic Crazy Horse touch. 6
Borrowed Tune- First of the true heart string pullers on the LP. Very simple solo of Yong's voice, piano, and haromica. The pain comes across so evidently, so powerful. More to come from the Drugs Suck story. 4
Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown- Postmothous performance that include's Whitten's tune, with Young singing background. On it's own this one solidly rocks. Beautifully symetrically made. Crazy Horse often gave Young that fantastic garage band sound, and this is a perfect example. The point that this song is about making a drug deal just adds to macrabeness of the LP. 1
Mello My Mind- More of the same, but filler. Young's voice on this one is like chalk on a chalkboard. Bad on purpose, to accentuate the point I guess 12
Side 2-
----------
Roll Another Number for the Road- Same off keyed approach, but with great charm. You can almost see Young wasted on the side of the road waking up. Country themed, and very effective in the approach. 9
Albuquerque- Another kind of slow blues angle that harkens a lot to a lot of Young's late 60's very early solo work. 8
New Mama- Some serious acoustic work that sounds and starts like "Old Man". Vocals are well tuned this time in kind of a CSNY style. 7
Look Out Joe- I consider this the sleeper. Nothing spectacular as far as songwriting or musicianship, but how the song is presented is pretty unusal for Young's style, with a different take as he provides narrative. 3
Tired Eyes- Again another with the same narrative, but much less success. Whiney filler. 10
Tonight's the Night (Part 2)- I love how Young sometimes takes two approaches to the same song, with a signifant shift in style. Much like he did with the Title Track of Rust Never Sleeps with Hey Hey, My My. Part 2 has a great edge and feel that better captures the documnentative feel of the predecessor. By the end of this album, you can tell that it was exhaustive to make, 2
