Tonight's The Night

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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.



Another bizarre aspect to the album is the liner insert. The cryptically strange "On The Beach" album overlay has the story of a Florida town - presumably Miami Beach - and some odd happenings. Along with a photo of Roy Orbison, the meaning and significance of the story remains a mystery. Here is a transcription of the "Tonight's The Night" album liner notes.

From a 1995 interview in MOJO Magazine with Neil he was asked about the rumor that he tried to produce a Broadway play based on the record:

Neil: "Yeah, we did. The plot was about a roadie who made it and then OD'd on drugs. 'From Roadie To Riches' was the name of it (laughs). For Broadway in 1974 it was a little ahead of its time, as you can imagine. "

The legend of the album continued to grow with Lynyrd Skynyrd 's album 'Street Survivors', where you can see Ronnie Van Zant wearing a 'Tonight's the Night' t-shirt on the cover which was taken shortly before he died in a plane crash.

A final note regarding the album package. Look closely of the liner photo of the band. Along the bottom of the photo Neil captions each band member -- including Danny Whitten's name in the blank space on stage where he would have stood had he been still alive.

Also, here's a collection of album reviews and commentary of Neil Young's Tonight's The Night.

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• Analysis of lyrics of Tonight's The Night

• Tonight's the Night Liner Notes Translation from Dutch to English

• The cryptically strange "On The Beach" overlay liner notes for the "Tonight's The Night" album.

• FUNHOUSE! review by Damon Ogden
  

• Tonight's The Night - Longtime Rustie Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova review

• Tonight's The Night - The importance of Song Sequence by Tired Eyes

• Robert Christgau's review

• Sleeps With Angels - Sequel to "Tonight's The Night"?

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  Reviews of "Tonight's The Night"

• From Pop Matters review by Chris Fallon:
  "The moment the needle hits the vinyl (my preferred format for all music, but especially for grooving on Neil), I am powerless to Young's allure and now the Neil Young on the cover is directing the phrase at me through his scraggle of hair, with an alcohol-induced slur: 'Tonight's the night' -- it always is when you hear this record.

  This album's coarseness complements the deep honesty with which he has imbued these songs. Young has an uncanny ability to convincingly set a specific mood and Tonight's the Night, with all its atmospheric amp-buzz, crackles, somber themes, and full-tilt rockers is his finest achievement in this regard. It implores you to get out your bottle of whiskey, roll another number, pull up a stool, regret the loss of friends, exult the dawn of life, revel in anonymity and envisage a life that, perhaps, you were initially not meant to have. Unfortunately for Neil Young he never really escaped the clutches of fame -- thank God for us, though, that he didn't."

• From RollingStone.com review by Dave Marsh:
  "There is no sense of retreat, no apology, no excuses offered and no quarter given. If anything, these are the old ideas with a new sense of aggressiveness. The jitteriness of the music, its sloppy, unarranged (but decidedly structured) feeling is clearly calculated.

  The music draws us in, with the wonderful guitar line crashing through the ominous "Lookout Joe," with the steel guitar on "Albuquerque," the almost folkish suggestion of melody that drives "Tired Eyes" but—and here is where it is new—it also spits us back out again, makes us look at the ugliness on the surface and beneath it."

  Interview on "Tonight's The Night"

• From Jimmy McDonough's biography "Shakey" excerpt on the "Tonight's The Night" 1973 tour of Europe:
  Neil:"Tonight's the Night was a lot more fun. 'Cause I was with my friends. I was havin' a fantastic time. It was dark but it was good. That was a band with a reason. We were on a mission. That's maybe as artistic a performance as I've given. I think there was more drama in Tonight's the Night because I knew what I was doing to the audience But the audience didn't know if I knew what I was doing. I was drunk outta my mind on that tour. Hey you don't play bad when you're drunk, you just play real slow. You don't give a shit. Really don't give a shit.

  I was fucking with the audience. From what I understand, the way rock and roll unfolded with Johnny Rotten and the punk movement - that kind of audience abuse - kinda started with that tour. I have no idea where the concept came from. Somebody else musta done it first, we all know that, whether it was Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard, somebody shit on the audience first."

  The Making of "Tonight's The Night"

• From interview with David Briggs on the making of "Tonight's The Night":
  David Briggs"We didn't go down with the idea, `Let's make a spooky record,'the album just kind of evolved."

  The Influence of "Tonight's The Night"

• A book on the band Wilco titled "Learning How To Die" by Greg Kot includes an interesting story on the influence of Neil Young on Wilco's sound. An excerpt from the book discusses Young's impact on Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy, and Jay Farrar:
  "Plenty of musical tributaries converged in the early recordings of Uncle Tupelo, but one of the most prominent was Neil Young - the off-the-cuff, midnight-of-the-soul Young of Tonight's the Night and On The Beach , as well as the hippie balladeer of "Harvest" and the primitive guitar genius of "Down By the River."

  'You can't underestimate Young's influence on that whole scene,' says journalist Richard Byrne.

  'I would say the main reason I got what was happening was because I was a huge Tonight's the Night fan, and Tonight's the Night was the album for all of these guys, for Brian Henneman, for Jay Farrar, for Jeff Tweedy. They were hearing the country and folk stuff that they grew up around, and they were listening to all their SST punk records, and Neil crystallized it for them.' "

• From Thrasher's Blog post on a San Francisco Chronicle reporter Jane Ganahl interview with 'the minstrel of alt-country' Jay Farrar:
  'Of the latest, 'Terroir Blues,' he notes, 'I was using two albums that I like, (Neil Young's) 'Tonight's the Night' and (the Beatles') 'Revolver,' as touchstones.' '"

  Tonight's the Night comments in the book Shakey

  From Jimmy McDonough's book Shakey: A Neil Young Biography on recording Tonight's the Night:

  YOUNG:"'Cinema verite? I got into audio verite..... Hey, I've made records where you analyze everything you do 3,000 times and it's perfect. I'm sick of it. I want to make a record that's totally stark naked. Raw. I don't wanna fix any of it. I don't care if it's totally out of tune, man, let's play. Fuck it.... I like the idea of capturing something. Record something that happened. I'm a musician. I don't wanna sit there and build a record. I built a couple of records. Big deal. Tonight's the Night doesn't care. And that makes you feel good about it. There's no pretense.'"

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Reviews of Neil Young Albums

Neil Young Archives - Thrasher's Wheat