Neil Young: "Tonight's the Night" revisited

As I recall in the footnotes in Shakey Jimmy McDonough explained that he and Joel Bernstein were never able to confirm Neil's claim about the packages of glitter ("Our Bowie statement" as Neil put it). But what the hell, Tonight's The Night had enough goodies in the packaging it didn't need no stinkin' glitter!

I know, isn't it great?! I'll never forget my best friend's reaction to TTN when I played it for him (my friend is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to playing and production values): "This is either terrible or the greatest f--kin' thing I've ever heard- I can't decide which..."

Years ago, my love for Tonight's The Night actually compelled me to try the ol' Jose Cuervo/ganja diet for a while- an expensive habit, to be sure...not every day, mind you, but enough to understand what Neil and the boys were talking about when they mentioned "The Glow" they were under when they made the album. And yeah, I also admit On The Beach inspired me to whip up a batch or two of Honey Slides in my time as well...

 

More importantly, though, what Tonight's The Night meant (and still means) to me was that as an album it showed me that it was perfectly alright to make a record rife with bum notes, missed beats and off key singing, that not every album needs to sound as "perfect" as a Steely Dan record. The production ethos Young and David Briggs used on Tonight's The Night was a huge influence on my own music. Huge.

 

I'm not sure what that reviewer was on about...it is depressing. But it rocks!

Is there a Neil fan out there who doesn't have this album in their top 5 Neil's?

 

Which is pretty much what the reviewer said.

Probably a tie between TTN, Ragged Glory and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

 

Somewhat misunderstood when it came out (like "On The Beach")
Then 30 or more years later, it all makes perfect sense and ends up being one of Young's great albums overall.
Probably more easy to 'get' now that Neil's been throwing us curveballs for years and years...

 

No he said it was a depressing album but it was also a party album! ?

It's not. It's a rockin' depressive recording.

Ain't no uplift on this one. Not even Go Downtown...

 

I hate to admit it, but I don't have it up there. I can't explain why. I recognized immediately how emotional this record was even without even knowing the circumstances it was recorded under. I just had a hard time trying to get through it.

Maybe it's too powerful for me to handle. I think I need to revisit it under the right frame of mind. I f**kin' love Nei!. I feel there is this void for not connecting with TTN. I am not trying to force anything, I want to feel and understand the beauty that people proclaim about this record. I need to drop the needle when the atmoshpere feels right and maybe in Neil's frame of mind the night it was captured in that studio.

 

This was my 4th Neil Young album back in 2007, because the vinyl was 5.99 sealed from Amazon so I took a gamble on it. My first three were Harvest, After The Gold Rush and the Live At Massey Hall.

I think if I picked up something else like Zuma or Re-Ac-Tor, I never would've ventured down the Neil Young discography like I have. This album blew my mind, it's classic and as I mentioned on another thread, really might be the highlight of a perfect string of 4.5/5 star releases from the S/T up to Hawks & Doves.

 

I was going to post a link to a youtube video with the entire London Rainbow Theatre 1973 gig, but it's not there anymore

That is an amazing show - any fan of TNT should get it however possible, as soon as possible!

I don't know what else to write about this album, it's my favorite of all time.

They knocked a hole in the wall at SIR rehearsal studios to record it. Joni Mitchell dropped by and they recorded some stuff with her on electric guitar, none of which has been heard since.

Ben Keith's pedal steel work on this was why I picked up the instrument. It's such a deep well of an album, and at least for me, I can listen to it at almost any time and it will make me feel something. I have so many memories through the years of this album, cold winter mornings, super late nights, super late nights after a party, super late nights while "experienced", car rides with friends, car rides alone, in about 10 different living rooms both alone and with friends

I still sing along to most of it the whole time

 

I'm friends with a guy who was a roady one Summer for Uncle Tupelo (the seminal Jeff Tweedy & Jay Farrar alt-country band) back in the early 90's. He told me that Jay and Jeff (and the other band members as well) all worshipped at the alter of TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT. Said it was there favorite album of all-time.

 

It's great to remember a time before the Internet when you would wander into a record store and a new, completely unexpected Neil Young album would be staring at you from the racks. After Time Fades Away and On the Beach, especially given the spooky album cover, it was pretty clear before the first listen that we weren't exactly talking Harvest II here.

First impression of side one was kind of "this is going to take a few listens" but when "Roll Another Number" kicked side two into gear it was like a heavyweight boxer throwing haymakers until "Tired Eyes" landed the knockout punch. I think I listened to side two about a hundred times in a row before I went back to the first side.

The whole Ditch Trilogy thing came after the fact. There was no way of knowing at the time whether or not he was going to get even darker (as if that seemed possible.) But pain and grief have never sounded more cathartic and a few months later when the first notes of "Don't Cry No Tears" burst out of Zuma it was like a sunrise.

 

first heard this album in the late 80's and it blew me away. still does.
I love Neil's perfect stuff like Broken Arrow, Expecting To Fly, Country Girl etc.. but TTN is a quite brilliant album and one of his best. as well as being dark and down it also has great humour. i think it probably is a masterpiece. i especially like Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown, a fitting insert from Danny and Crazy Horse.

 

Coincidentally I just listened to TTN a couple of days ago, but it had probably been a few years.... I had forgotten about this one, to some degree. As much as I love it, and I do, it isn't one of my "go to" Neil albums. But it was refreshing to hear it again recently and "rediscover" some of the stuff that make this album what it is.

 

This album is a masterpiece. Up there with any piece of amazing art created by anyone ever.

It is pure raw emotion, lightning captured in a bottle.

I will never, ever not be completely floored every time I hear it.

 

I too recently rediscoverd this album, and became completely obsessed by it.
Mellow My Mind is not only one of his best songs, wtf kind of performance is this? It's so messed up, no artist in his right mind would keep this take and release it, but evidently Neil Young was not in his right mind when he made that album.
Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown is a feelgood song until you realize it's a flashback, and then it becomes of the darkest in the set.

 

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT still holds its special allure -- or "glow" -- 41 years on. It's hard to explain how I can absolutely love an album rife with such darkness throughout. I can't compare TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT to anything else by anyone else. A moment captured so perfectly.

 

I've been trying to find Tonight's The Night, Zuma, On The Beach and Time Fades Away, but it's nearly impossible to find them on original vinyl. I'm running out of patience as I was hoping the reissued RSD box would see the titles released individually. At this point I think I'll just snap up the available CD copies that are in the stores currently. I know Time Fades Away isn't on CD (as far as I know), but I'm hoping to come across a vinyl copy out in the wild one day.

 

(Boy, I think this is the first discussion where I've 'liked' damn near every post!)

Every time Neil gets to the chorus and his voice cracks on "Ain't got nothin'..." is like a kick in the guts. And yer right, no artist by all rights would have released that take (or many others on the released album, for that matter), but Neil did, and that's part of what makes the album so special.

Oh yes. I know David Briggs didn't like the idea of Neil "diluting" the album with "Downtown", "Lookout Joe" etc but given that "Come On Baby" is not only sung by Danny Whitten but is a song about jonesing and going out and scoring some smack, makes it essential to the Tonight's The Night "story". Absolutely, the album wouldn't be the same without it.

I will metaphorically knock back a slug of Jose Cuervo and smoke a doob to that!

The Discogs site is yer friend here...thirty eight bucks might be a little pricey, but apparently it still has all the packaging and goodies:
https://www.discogs.com/Neil-Young-Tonights-The-Night/release/1273539

 

I am a huge Neil Young fan, but I have always had a hard time putting it in my top 5. I like the album but I don't love it. It is a masterpiece of an album, but I think I respect the album more than I love it. I've always thought that On the Beach is a much stronger album than Tonight's the Night.

 

This is why i love song for teh performace over perfection Mellow My Mind indeed who needs polished.

A Polished turd is still a turd.

A perfomace is like lightening and Neil was botteling it on this album

 

Without turning this into yet another X vs. Y thread, I think of OTB as a rehab album, the one you make after already doing TTN'; maybe it's one of the steps imposed by Reprise to get TTN released at all. OTB's very good, but it lacks the risk and abandon of the earlier session.

 

It's true Tonight's the Night has a lot more rawness to the album and I can see its charm, but I just feel that On the Beach has a stronger set of songs. Anyway, Tonight's the Night is a great album just not my favorites.

 

I just liked it because it was ugly, bad at times, and really rough. It sounded like a hangover. Nils Lofgrens guitar was great, I wondered if he was the only guy not drunk out of his mind during the proceedings.

 

this was my second neil young album, after "freedom". it was 1993 and i bought it because i thought neil looked cool on the cover. it made me a fan for life, although it might have sent a more "sensible" person running.

 

I think it's Neil's greatest album/achievement.