Neil Young TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT poll

honey slides even ffs

We really knew the Tonight's the Night songs so we just played them again, the album, top to bottom, two sets a night for a few days.

only real complaint right now is that they didn't put "cowgirl in the sand" (which was performed at several roxy shows) on side 4.

It would be interesting to hear what this sounds like as the studio album, they sound totally fried on those later in the LP tracks.

sometimes i can't see a hood ornament without hearing Neil Young singing "hood ornament"

otm

underrated summer album. it's like got a very easy, summer night air, but those summer nights in bleak little towns or at a kinda druggy party slowly going bad at a house in the desert, where you know half the people and no one knows the other half.

i think one of Neil's gifts is crafting these beautiful numbers which to him have a very specific meaning but are easily universal to others. like I know Thrasher is about CSN but it could be about anyone moving on in their life and facing an uncertain, possibly dark future.

Yes

maybe this is my cold speaking but after seeing this revive i feel an urge to squirt visine in my eyes and wash my face

“like I know Thrasher is about CSN but it could be about anyone moving on in their life and facing an uncertain, possibly dark future.”

This has been one of my all-time fave songs and I always wondered what is was about and now I kinda wish I hadn’t read the above. Or at least the part about CSN. They dont deserve it!!

this album is a drag

had a cd of this at one point, lost to time, and listened to it on a couple cross country trips esp. thru utah, nevada, arizona. perfect soundtrack for it.

lol sorry tobo, if it's any consolation it maybe has other meanings as well.

this album is a drag

yeah it's amazing

haha yeah it's kinda special as a road trip album if you're anywhere in the southwest.

best use of "Econoline van" in a lyric in rock history

best use of "fried eggs and country ham" in a lyric in rock history

tried to do his best, but he could not

havin' a ball rollin' to the bottom

always wondered what the hell 'country ham' even is. pigs are usually raised in the country, neil.

Albuquerque is great song, but if it is your favourite song on tonight’s the night then you don’t like tonight’s the night

This record is about burned out, sad junkie chaos! Albuquerque is too clean of a track! Albuquerque always stood out to me as more of a “on the beach” sad boy track. Also, I am personally burned out on it because I use it to teach guitar like every single day

best use of "fried eggs and country ham" in a lyric in rock history

LOL yeah. Love this album, it may be my favorite Neil Young album. I just wish the "original version" could be heard. I'd have to check again, but I think it's supposed to be a few different tracks with some additional raps that were pretty long - I have a hard time imagining how those changes could be that transformative in the way it's been described in Shakey, but I guess we'll never know.

i believe the briggs version is on the master schedule for the archives series but who knows

It's possible I missed an update, but last I heard Neil shot down any hopes of a release, saying no master of the original survives and adding that they tried reconstructing one to no avail.

always wondered what the hell 'country ham' even is. pigs are usually raised in the country, neil.

it's a specific southern style ... salt-cured maybe? Very salty, anyway.

Neil has gone back and forth about the "raps" from tonight's the night, sometimes saying they exist sometimes saying they can't use them. kind of weird — jimmy mcdonough definitely *heard* them. i wonder if the actual content is a little sketchy, like neil or the band members say some things that might not be totally acceptable these days.

"I'm rappin' Neil Young
And I'm here to say
Waitresses are inarresting
Bring me fried eggs and country ham, hey hey"

"Life ain't nothin' but cars and model trains
BOYEEEE!"

Country hams are salt-cured (with or without nitrites) for one to three months. They are usually hardwood smoked (usually hickory and red oak), but some types of country ham, such as the "salt-and-pepper ham" of North Carolina, are not smoked. Missouri country hams traditionally incorporate brown sugar in their cure mix and are known to be milder and less salty than hams produced in more eastern states such as Kentucky and Virginia. They are then aged for several months to 3 years, depending on the fat content of the meat.[2]

A lesser artist obv would have just stopped when he could for bacon and a scramble.

If he’d named the song after a Pennsylvania town I guess the line would’ve been “fried eggs and scrapple”

I like how lyrics/song titles transfer from song to song, a long bumpy continuous groove.

tried to do his best, but he could not

otm

havin' a ball rollin' to the bottom

also otm

also:

ain't got nothin on those feelings that I had

*croaky voice*

re country ham, you learn something new every day. now i want some country ham.

Well tell me more, tell me more, tell me more
I mean was he a heavy doper or
Was he just a loser?
He was a friend of *yours*

that one hits home for me

The words "Please take my advice" sound like the loneliest thing in the world.

well they say
that Santa Fe
is less
than 90s miles away


like everything about this is perfectly structured to make this fairly banal observation seem like some deep existential truth, the way he phrases it, the way he breaks the lines up, the fact you can't ever be sure how far Santa Fe is, only trust what's been handed down to you in the oral tradition

that's the Neil Young ethos

So say that Homegrown ended up being released in 1975 instead of this, as per the original plan. What becomes of Tonight's the Night? Does it get shelved when Neil gets into the sunnier mood of Zuma, and end up being released in its entirety at a later date? Or do songs trickle out on other records, either in their original versions or remakes, as happened with Hitchhiker and Chrome Dreams? It's hard to imagine these songs in another context.

At the last moment however, Young chose to drop Homegrown and release instead Tonight's the Night, an unreleased album recorded in 1973.[7] Young stated that he had a playback party for Homegrown and Tonight's the Night happened to be on the same reel. He decided to release Tonight's the Night after that listening because of "its overall strength in performance and feeling" and because Homegrown "was just a very down album."[8]

I hope Neil never stops Neiling, long may he run.

well they say
that Santa Fe
is less
than 90s miles away

like everything about this is perfectly structured to make this fairly banal observation seem like some deep existential truth, the way he phrases it, the way he breaks the lines up, the fact you can't ever be sure how far Santa Fe is, only trust what's been handed down to you in the oral tradition

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 12 July 2023 9:57 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Opening lyrics of speaking out do the same, and carry the same vocal rhythm/inflection.

Omg what on earth is happening itt

For me, Albuquerque is highest bar for simple words + melody with deep feeling. “I’ll find somewhere where they don’t care who I am” hits different when you imagine a wide range of people saying it. To me that makes the sentiment individual to one’s experience and basically universal. At the same time! That’s magical imo.

I should go on a NY binge soon. It has been a while.

^OTM, and the cosmic pedal steel = chills down the spine

To me that makes the sentiment individual to one’s experience and basically universal. At the same time! That’s magical imo.

^^^

there was a great quote when neil was asked if his songs were autobiographical, he said "i don't want people to think about me when they hear my songs, i want them to think about themselves"

It's hard to imagine these songs in another context.

...although I suppose the songs that weren't part of the sessions proper could have wound up elsewhere, as the Whitten song did on the Fillmore live album years later.

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