Vinyl Me, D - A Free Record Club

When I opened the package, my immediate thought was "oh! I think I already have this!"

Well, close but no cigar! I have the live album and the album cover was taken (probably, though I haven't verified) the same night.

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Growing up my dad had two rock heroes. On electric guitar it was Pete Townshend and on acoustic it was Neil Young (I think only because he couldn't play Michael Hedges himself). Throughout my childhood I'd hear dad playing his guitar and his harmonica from a spare bedroom whenever he needed to unwind. He was usually too shy to play out to anyone else. He had the tablature book for Harvest Moon and that's the one I remember the most, although Harvest was also a favorite. He was never HUGE on the "grandfather of grunge" crunchy electric guitar sounds, but any Neil was an instant winner. I've really enjoyed expanding my Neil collection, and this is certainly a welcome addition. He's coming in town for a visit next week so I'll be sure to give it a spin over some beers and let my own little one hear it as well. Thanks D.

Edit: Also looking forward to doing a compare between the studio and live album!
 
Early on in the immaculate conception of this club, I knew this had to be a featured record. I was happy to see none of you already owned it. This is one of Neil's most vital, essential records.

Tonight's The Night is the last LP of the 'ditch trilogy' following Time Fades Away and On The Beach. For my money, it's the darkest and most personal record of Neil's seven-decade career.

At its heart and soul, this record is about living and dying with heroin and the wreckage left behind for others to deal with. Neil describes TTN as his most "liquid" album, as in there was a lot of booze involved during its recording. Coming to terms with writing a record about two friends taken by heroin needed alcohol just to get through it. You can hear it in the songs. At face value, it seems counterproductive, or even a bit hypocritical, but also reflects what was necessary at the time to deal with the enormous loss and pain of the situation.

Tonight's The Night centers on the heroin deaths of Danny Whitten, original Crazy Horse guitarist, and Bruce Berry, a loyal CH roadie. The songs themselves run the gamut from joy to despair and most everything in between. Ironically, one of the most upbeat songs is 'Come On Baby, Let's Go Downtown', a song actually sung by Danny Whitten about living to score a hit to get by til it's time to score again...



Neil's theme of death and decay permeated every aspect of Tonight's The Night from the lyrics and anguished vocal delivery right down to the packaging itself. Original copies of this record were housed in a jacket made of a soft, fuzzy blotter paper. Just as human life, these sleeves were very fragile. Their delicate nature lent themselves to self-destruction. Every time TTN was taken out of a shelf and slid back into place, the jacket became more worn, more eroded, much like each time an addict shot up. That's what makes original pressings of this record in great condition so difficult to find.

A couple OG copies from my collection in varying states of decay. The first one would probably rate a NM considering the fragile nature of this release. You can't tell it from the photo, but the entire spine is blown out on the second one.

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Man it's a great album. Also, having ready Waging Heavy Peace, Danny's death weighs on Neil, much like Buddy Holly's death did on Waylon. Those last moments can't be taken back and can haunt someone. If I'm not mistaken, Danny died after being fired, no? It had a profound effect on Neil that lasts to this day.
 
Here's a compilation review. Definitely a heavy album!

The opening title track starts with the saddest piano notes you’ve ever heard, droplets of sorrow falling onto a lake of melancholy, and you quickly start to realise that this isn’t the same Neil Young that sent endless numbers of music fans to sleep with the bland Harvest, this is a Neil Young dealing with personal loss and mourning. You don’t have to be told that the majority of Tonight’s the Night was recorded during a wake (26 August 1973 apparently), somehow you just know. The deaths of Bruce Berry and Danny Whitten had obviously hit Young hard, and there really was nothing for it but to get loaded with friends and try to record an album that was at different points performed in deep despair, during moments of drunken revelry, and when the whole band were impaired by various substances they hoped would ease the pain of the passing of their friends.

You should never, ever reach for Tonight’s the Night when you need an album to cheer you up, and equally you should never reach for it during moments of severe despair, as it may very well convince you that life is just too much hard work. There’s a time and a place for Tonight’s the Night, which inevitably means that you don’t play it very often, but it always, and I mean always, makes an impact when it is played.

The circumstances in which Tonight’s the Night was recorded means that most of the songs here sound as if they are going to unravel at any moment due to the fact that Young, the remnants of Crazy Horse and everyone else involved in the creation of the album were on the point of collapse. Tonight’s the Night is an album of interesting juxtapositions as well, the best being the end of the cracked, broken and utterly fragile “Borrowed Tune” being utterly blown away the next moment by the live track “Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown”, when Young and Whitten’s interlocking guitars and vocals blast joyously from the speakers. It’s the single moment of levity and celebration in an album based in misery and as such is a shining highlight of the album. It’s no accident that it is Whitten taking lead vocals on that one.

For an album recorded in such a shambolic state, there are some surprisingly strong numbers on Tonight’s the Night, with “World On A String”, “Mellow My Mind” and “Tired Eyes” being some of Young’s best songs from this prolific period and “Roll Another Number (For The Road)” being a fine hymn to gentle excess.

Okay so Tonight’s the Night is not an album you’re going to play very often, but it’s one that you savour every time you do, as you never know if it may collapse inwardly in on itself at any moment. No wonder that it took two years to release it.

Neil Young's 1975 "Tonight's The Night" is considered to be his 'darkest' album - both literally and figuratively - and the last of the "Ditch Trilogy" (along with Times Fade Away and On The Beach). The album explores the depth of Neil's pain over the heroin overdose deaths of Crazy Horse's Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry. Although released in 1975, the album was actually recorded in 1973 after the disastrous Times Fade Away tour. Chronologically, "Tonight's The Night" is actually the second of the "Ditch Trilogy" albums. The darkness of the songs even continues to the album packaging with it's black & white cover and liner notes and black label instead of the normal orange reprise records label.

The bookends of Tonight's The Night are the title track which opens acoustic and concludes electrically. This unplugged and plugged approach which Neil pioneered in 1973 was continued again later with the acoustic "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" and electric "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" on 1979's Rust Never Sleeps and again on 1989's Freedom's "Rockin In The Free World" acoustic and electric version. The unplugged theme would later become a phenomenon in the 1990's with MTV's Unplugged series. One of the most revealing parts of the album is the liner notes themselves which are in Dutch. For most, the clues in Dutch were a mystery for most. Thankfully, a translation has been done which reveals some insights into Neil's despair during the period. It certainly reveals the importance of tequila and understanding the meaning of Tonight's The Night. From the liner notes: "The death of Neil's discovery and friend, Danny Whitten seems to have affected him deeply. Since 'The Needle & the Damage Done' most of Neil's songs about Danny's death reflect his guilt complex. Neil seemed to fall back into an even deeper depression. Then he began drinking, became sentimental and generally intolerable for anyone who had anything to do with him. It's said that those around him treated him with great caution for fear of provoking him, causing him to retreat and become a recluse. During this evening at the Rainbow, Neil makes particular reference to Miami Beach where he was safe from external influences and where a highly emotional and introverted process went its course."

Another fascinating aspect to the original vinyl album was the writing in the run out groove. On Side A the phrase "Hello Waterface" was written. And on Side B the phrase "Goodbye Waterface". There's been a great deal of speculation and rumor about what these cryptic phrases might mean. One theory is that it refers to either Danny Whitten or Bruce Berry. If this is the case, "Waterface" most likely refers to Whitten. Whitten has been described as an emotional person who was prone to bursts of sobbing. Hence, Danny's crying might be the "Waterface". The liner notes refer to "BB", which is clearly Bruce Berry. The note includes the line "Tell Waterface to put it in his lung and not in his vein." This line is an anti-heroin reference and speaks to Neil's loss of Crazy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten and long time roadie Bruce Berry's heroin overdose deaths.


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"; the latter was recorded live in 1970. The song would later appear, unedited, on a live album from the same concerts, Live at the Fillmore East, with Whitten credited as the sole author.


Both a tribute to and a commentary on the drug overdose death of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten, Tonight’s The Night features an impressive cast of supporting players. Guitarist Nils Lofgren guests on eight tracks, including the title track. Legendary keyboardist/producer Jack Nitzsche plays piano on “Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown,” a concert showstopper captured live at the Fillmore East. The album also features steel guitarist Ben Keith and Crazy Horse regulars Billy Talbot (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums).


Also, Pitchfork did a great review of this one as well. 10/10. Neil Young: Tonight's the Night
 
This album is perfect for dim lighting, a glass of red wine too much, and some good reflecting. I love this. And that it is so closely intertwined with two of my other favorite Neil albums makes for a fantastic evening of listening when they are back to back to back.

I look forward to doing this again :)
 
scotthilk said:
Here's a compilation review. Definitely a heavy album!

The opening title track starts with the saddest piano notes you’ve ever heard, droplets of sorrow falling onto a lake of melancholy, and you quickly start to realise that this isn’t the same Neil Young that sent endless numbers of music fans to sleep with the bland Harvest, this is a Neil Young dealing with personal loss and mourning. You don’t have to be told that the majority of Tonight’s the Night was recorded during a wake (26 August 1973 apparently), somehow you just know. The deaths of Bruce Berry and Danny Whitten had obviously hit Young hard, and there really was nothing for it but to get loaded with friends and try to record an album that was at different points performed in deep despair, during moments of drunken revelry, and when the whole band were impaired by various substances they hoped would ease the pain of the passing of their friends.

You should never, ever reach for Tonight’s the Night when you need an album to cheer you up, and equally you should never reach for it during moments of severe despair, as it may very well convince you that life is just too much hard work. There’s a time and a place for Tonight’s the Night, which inevitably means that you don’t play it very often, but it always, and I mean always, makes an impact when it is played.
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These are usually the best albums; the ones you can't regularly listen to but hit you hard everytime.

Some recent ones for me are: FJM, God's Favorite Customer and Conor Oberst Salutations. I find myself going back time and time again and experiencing them different because of where my head is currently at.

Excellent pick and one of my favorite Neil albums.
 
Ethos99 said:
These are usually the best albums; the ones you can't regularly listen to but hit you hard everytime.

Some recent ones for me are: FJM, God's Favorite Customer and Conor Oberst Salutations. I find myself going back time and time again and experiencing them different because of where my head is currently at.

Excellent pick and one of my favorite Neil albums.
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for me:

Current 93's "I have a special plan for this world". I listen to this maybe once a year. It's just too solipsistic and nihilistic to listen to more often.

Today is the Day's "Temple of the Morning Star"

All early period Swans. everything from "cop" to "public castration is a good idea" basically.

Most Diamanda Galas is just too intense to take on the regular.
 
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