Tonight’s the Night |
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Recorded: 3/7/70 to 12/5/73 Released: June 20, 1975 Peak: 25 US, 48 UK, 12 CN, 42 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.06 UK, 1.0 world (includes US + UK) Genre: rock |
Tracks:Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.
All tracks written by Neil Young unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 44:52 The Players:
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Rating: 4.142 out of 5.00 (average of 24 ratings)
Quotable:“The work of a man trying to turn his torment into art and doing so unflinchingly.” – William Ruhlmann, All Music GuideAwards:(Click on award to learn more).
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Veering Away from Folk RockWith 1972’s Harvest and its #1 single “Heart of Gold,” Neil Young had hit the big time. He was at the forefront of the folk-rock-oriented singer/songwriter movement that dominated the 1970s. However, he was bored and unimpressed with success. “Bravely, he threw away a certain career as a folk-rock/country-rock heartthrob for a more treacherous mixture of hard rock and hard turns.” JG“All Young had to do was plug in his electric guitar play his modal, minor-key solos, and watch ‘em scatter.” JG The “harsh, off-kilter” JG Tonight’s the Night, the next album recorded after Harvest, was Young’s “most radical” JG transition. A Tribute to Fallen FriendsIn less than a year’s time, Young lost two close friends, Crazy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry, to heroin overdoses. Young responded with Tonight’s the Night, his “musical expression of grief” AM as well as his reaction to the “commercial success [that] had left him feeling trapped and isolated.” RDThe RecordingMost of the album was recorded in “a series of late-night, tequila-fueled sessions” RD in SIR studio in Los Angeles. He worked with the remains of Crazy Horse. Bassist Billy Talbot said it was like “a drunken Irish wake.” 500David Briggs, the producer, “kept the tape rolling and recorded everything.” AD He actually “wanted a far looser version of the album to be released, the original version. That version included drunken raps, spoken parts, linking the songs.” AD 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.” AM “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.” AM Late ReleaseReprise Record rejected Tonight’s the Night “in the vain hope that Young would record a more commercial album.” RD There is, however, also a suggestion that Young withdrew it himself “at the start of 1974 after touring with the material in the U.S. and Europe.” AMThe album was finally released in 1975 after Young had participated in a massive CSNY tour and dumped a newly recorded album at the last minute in favor of releasing Tonight’s the Night. AM The Album’s ImpactEither way, when the album finally saw release, it “failed to match the sales of previous releases” RD but “immediately was recognized as a unique masterpiece by critics.” AM “Its true influence would not become apparent until more than a decade later, when grunge and alt-country acts alike would mimic its raw and emotionally apocalyptic sound.” RD“It has continued to be ranked as one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever made.” AM Internet music critic Adrian Denning called it “the single most powerful and real album statement Neil ever put out.” AD The SongsThe “ominous” AD title track, “littered with guitar-sweeping guitar from Nils Lofgren,” RD alongside “croaked and off-key vocals,” AD “tackles Bruce Berry’s sad and wasted life.” RDDanny Whitten actually sings on Come on Baby, Let’s Go Downtown, a song he wrote and performed live with Crazy Horse at the Fillmore East in New York City on March 7, 1970. It is both “spooky and great.” AD On “mournful ballads” AM like that one and Speakin’ Out, “Young sounds like he’s on the edge of a breakdown.” 500 The song “seems initially unremarkable, until repeated listens get the vocals into your brain.” AD The song is “a blues based on Dylan’s ‘Pledging My Time.’” JG “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.” AM “World on a String, featuring ethereal pedal steel from Ben Keith, is a beautifully cynical rejection of Young’s celebrity status.” RD noting, “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.’” AM The latter is “heartfelt and real” AD and features “beautiful steel guitar and piano and vocals.” AD “Mellow My Mind is beautiful, more so than the entire Harvest album.” AD Borrowed Tune is “a moment of genius” AD in which Neil, in his “cracked vocal” AD amidst “the lovely piano and harmonica,” AD flat out confesses to stealing the lyrics of the song: “I’m singing this borrowed tune / I took from the Rolling Stones. / Alone in this empty room/ Too wasted to write my own.” |
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First posted 11/16/2010; last updated 9/9/2026. |
