Neil Young TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT poll

impossible

voted tired eyes but yeah it's just a great mood album

"new mama," i think. it's the middle third of the album that has always made my hair stand on end, the incredible stretch from "borrowed tune" through "new mama." even within the neil y catalog, there's something singular and weird and beautiful about every one of those songs. "new mama" is probably the most conventional of the lot, but those harmonies and the incredible optimism of the lyric are so unexpected within the context of the album that it knocks me for a loop every time i hear it. and it's just such a beautiful song.

new mama is great. it would never be my favorite track on this album but it's really good. provides a respite from the devastation of the rest of the album, like "pardon my heart" or "through my sails" does on zuma.

unfortunately though when i first got into this album, my brother-in-law's girlfiend (now ex-girlfriend) just gave birth to their son so i think of her when i hear it. really incongruous because they had a terrible drawn out breakup and she's totally out of the picture. :/

'new mama' works really well coming out of 'albuquerque' and even better leading into 'lookout joe'. man, the rockers on this album are so doom-laden and sinister. not that the rest of them aren't. i feel like i should file this album in a pile of '70s dream crumbling into waking nightmare along with 'night moves' and 'the last good kiss' as well as 'no country for old men'.

don't forget Sister Lovers

it's got that same air (shared with night moves and TLGK) of the narrator being vv casual and not particularly worried about things, but everything around him is off-kilter and askew and everyone with a friendly face has a gun they're ready to pull on you or a hidden agenda or a secret that will destroy them.

the only song I occasionally skip is "Speakin' Out."

This album is like one long song

yeah i have to listen to the whole thing if I put it on.

That quasi-blues progression so soon after the let's-ease-into-the-groove awesomeness of the title track surprises me

can't wait to hear the briggs version on archives vol 2

probably in time for the 100th anniversary release

i think my brother described the title track's harmonies as "the doobie brothers in hell"

Albuquerque for the slide guitar!

Albuquerque

yeah. that song's like a good slug of cough syrup.

I always wonder why the people who rate this so highly (which I certainly do) never seem to mention Time Fades Away, which, to me, is the only album in Neil's discography that comes close to this wild and woozy vibe. I guess people underrate it because it plays like a weird compilation, and, unlike TTN, there are a few forgettable tunes, but the title track, and "LA," and "Don't Be Denied," and even "Journey Through The Past" could have fit pretty cozily on TTN. What I'm saying is if there is a 'great' Neil record that's overlooked (not merely a 'good' one that's overlooked, like, say, AS&B), it's Time Fades Away. It's the 'middle child' of this amazing run of work.

Hardcore fans revere TFA; like Trans its unavailability created a mystique. In the early 2000a when I discovered it and OTB they were revelations.

Time Fades Away is probably my second favorite of Neil's albums (#1 will forever be On the Beach).

this is so hard for me - this is one of those albums that meant so much to me when I first got it that I never, ever play it any more - it was such a huge part of my life for four or five years that it's part of that time for me, now, and there were some hard hours in that time. reflexively I'd vote "albuquerque," but "borrowed tune" is really important to me - and "tired eyes" is amazing, and those harmonies on "new mama" - but something about that opening scene in "albuquerque," the desperation of it. can't choose.

Yeah, this is the first ILM poll in which I thought about abstaining.

I'd almost definitely abstain from an On The Beach poll.

The only Young album I've never uploaded to iPod: I wouldn't know where to start.

the whole thing

People let me tell you.....

It has to be the title track. That is what we in the biz call a super duper doozy of a song.

Borrowed Tune.

All right, Nils.

underrated moment:

towards the end of the title track on side 1, when he kind of speak sings, "Tonight's the night? Tonight's the night." Like Bruce berry asking death if this is when he's got to go and death gently telling him yes it is.

yes.

Also the two sides of "Pretty bad when you're dealing with the man and the light shines in your eyes" -- could either mean getting busted buying drugs in the cops' high-beams, or it's pretty bad when you're about to get handed your drugs and your eyes are shining.

Always assumed that referred to dealers, as in "Waiting for...", but you're right, it's ambiguous.

Line reminds me of Don't Let It Bring You Doen, about the dead man lying on the side of the road w daylight in his eyes

*Down

I always wonder why the people who rate this so highly (which I certainly do) never seem to mention Time Fades Away

I suppose the fact that TFA is out of print has something to do with that.

TFA is amazing but doesn't quite conjure up the same level of menace and doom.

i love TFA, surely it's a sibling of tonight's the night (this is the 'ditch trilogy' as we all know). LA and Don't be Denied are killer. but i think there's something about the backstory and mythology around these albums that makes tonight's the night something of a bigger album to me. there's all this talk about young and the band being "wide open" and drinking tequila and playing pool and all that in a dark studio where everyone's just on this dark vibe, but on it together and really living it. "welcome to miami beach, everything's cheaper than it looks." those TTN tour shows seemed like something amazing to witness.

the TFA tour on the other hand sounded like a sour time, a bum trip. people were bitchy and miserable and not happy and not having a good time. just hearing stuff about the stray gators at that time seemed like it was a miserable tour.

TFA has the menace, but not the doom. It's his On The Corner, whereas Tonight's the Night is his "He Loved Him Madly."

i think maybe you guys are trying to talk about emotional weight? emotional heaviness? that's what i get from tonight's the night.

what i mean is that feeling of being desperate, tired, and just totally busted and wasted in every possible way
that's almost every song on this album, just over and over and over
very effective!

i mean lyrically, vocally, instrumentally -- everything about this album oozes those feelings (that i haaaaad)

except i could never imagine making music this good while also feeling that way, so kudos to ny & ch for that!

gave this a listen through again before listening. albuquerque is still the best song of all time yep

er before voting

i ended up going with tonight's the night #1

i could vote for any song on this depending on my mood but the opening is such a ragged, dgaf statement of purpose...i remember the first time i heard it still to this day, just knocked my socks off

Man, I want the title track (either version) to knock me out, but for some reason I'm always a little underwhelmed. I get it as an opening statement that sets the tone, but the song itself has never really stood out musically to me.

It's too dark to put the keys in my ignition

lonesome whistle on the railroad traaaaaack

Gonna roll another number before voting.

that sounds like a good idea

i like how he says "and i got time / to roll a number / and rent a car"

Snake eyes, French fries, fried eggs and country ham

Ben Keith is the absolute GOAT on this album - his playing is the glue for the whole ramshackle vibe holding up so well.

several xps back but i remember reading Shakey before Homegrown was released and that statement is pretty lol after it was finally released - they're both on similar wavelengths.

Love the guitar sound on this record: the crunchy sound of dead insects.

i was obsessed with the stray gators version of new mama for a while