Product Description
As New! Hard To Find Remastered Reissue Edition Of The Sixth Studio LP By Neil Young. Textured Gatefold Cover Includes Inner Sleeve & “Waterface” Fold-Out Insert.
‘Tonight’s The Night’ is a direct expression of grief. Crazy Horse guitarist, Danny Whitten and Young’s friend and roadie, Bruce Berry had both died of drug overdoses in the months before the songs were written. The title track mentions Berry by name, while Whitten’s guitar and vocal work highlight “Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown”, which was recorded live with Crazy Horse at the Fillmore East, in 1970.
Neil Young Archives Official Release Series – NYA ORS 07. Remastered for vinyl from the original master tapes by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood CA.
Condition – Vinyl: NEAR MINT! Appears to have never been played.
Condition – Cover: NEAR MINT!
Side 1:
Tonight’s The Night
Speakin’ Out
World On A String
Borrowed Tune
Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown
Mellow My Mind
Side 2:
Roll Another Number (For The Road)
Albuquerque
New Mama
Lookout Joe
Tired Eyes
Tonight’s The Night – Part II
AMG –
Immediately recognized as a unique masterpiece by critics, and ranked as one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever made. Written and recorded in 1973 shortly after the death of roadie Bruce Berry, Neil Young's second close associate to die of a heroin overdose in six months (the first was Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten), Tonight's the Night was Young's musical expression of grief, combined with his rejection of the stardom he had achieved in the late '60s and early '70s. The title track, performed twice, was a direct narrative about Berry: "Bruce Berry was a working man/He used to load that Econoline van." Whitten was heard singing "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown," a live track recorded years earlier. Elsewhere, Young frequently referred to drug use and used phrases that might have described his friends, such as the chorus of "Tired Eyes," "He tried to do his best, but he could not." Performing with the remains of Crazy Horse, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina, along with Nils Lofgren (guitar and piano) and Ben Keith (steel guitar), Young performed in the ragged manner familiar from Time Fades Away -- his voice was often hoarse and he strained to reach high notes, while the playing was loose, with mistakes and shifting tempos. But the style worked perfectly for the material, emphasizing the emotional tone of Young's mourning and contrasting with the polished sound of CSNY and Harvest that Young also disparaged. He remained unimpressed with his commercial success, noting in "World on a String," "The world on a string/Doesn't mean anything." In "Roll Another Number," he said he was "a million miles away/From that helicopter day" when he and CSN had played Woodstock. And in "Albuquerque," he said he had been "starvin' to be alone/Independent from the scene that I've known" and spoke of his desire to "find somewhere where they don't care who I am." Songs like "Speakin' Out" and "New Mama" seemed to find some hope in family life, but Tonight's the Night did not offer solutions to the personal and professional problems it posed. It was the work of a man trying to turn his torment into art and doing so unflinchingly. Depending on which story you believe, Reprise Records rejected it or Young withdrew it from its scheduled release at the start of 1974 after touring with the material in the U.S. and Europe. In 1975, after a massive CSNY tour, Young at the last minute dumped a newly recorded album and finally put Tonight's the Night out instead. Though it did not become one of his bigger commercial successes, the album was immediately recognized as a unique masterpiece by critics, and it has continued to be ranked as one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever made.