Neil Young TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT poll

Had to go Tired Eyes. So, so good.

surprised this hasn't been done before! was tempted to go with tired eyes, but i selected albuquerque instead. after the descent of the first half, it sounds like the bleary eyed dawn, still 3/4 drunk.

nice as this poll corresponds with Acclaimed Music Top 25 Albums from 1975 poll wonder if Zuma might overshadow it from the same year?

whenever detroit tigers reliever Al Albuquerque steps in from the pen I hear that song

lol

"World on a String". Neil's manifesto? great riff & solo too.

Oh god, what a difficult poll. I wanna vote for a sleeper, but even then, can't decide between Mellow My Mind and Speakin' Out. Oh, but Tired Eyes. SO good. And it's far too easy to overlook the title track. Borrowed Tune pretty much invents Deserter's Songs, btw. God, what an album this is.

Ah, fuck it - gotta vote for the best song, not the dark horse. Tired Eyes, dudes.

Look at that craaaaazy cloooooown

Something about that song genuinely terrifies me

Not sure if I’ll vote for it, but ‘Lookout Joe’ has been stuck in my head recently

Just noticed that last June 4th marked the 40th anniversary of Bruce Berry's passing.

The way Neil drawls 'the morning sun has yet to climb my hood ornament' is one of my favourite-ever Neil Moments. This is such a great record - 'bleary eyed' is definitely apt.

I love all of these but 'Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown' is my vote - such a brilliantly loose jam. Really wish there was more Whitten-era Crazy Horse live material officially available out there.

i could pick just about any of these songs. almost all of them have some really significant place in my life at some point.

i love the way speakin' out goes back and forth from this just kind of amazing drunk bar band blues into this really devastating piece that hits me hard. especially when he goes "is it in the notebook / behind your eyes"

like just the way he sings "behind your eyes" just kills me. it's amazing.

there's a part in shakey where somebody mentions neil's voice cracking in mellow my mind, that it gets him every time. me too.

albuquerque is just spectacular. ben keith is the champion of the world. his pedal steel playing on that tune is just mindblowing. albuquerque is one of my favorite songs every, so i'll probably vote that.

I'm singing this borrowed tune
I took from the Rolling Stones

also the part in tired eyes when he sings "well it wasn't supposed to down that way," god this album so gut-wrenching. keith's steel on that is amazing too.

Will probably vote for "Speakin' Out," but "Come On Baby" is a close second, what with the elephants rampaging all over the place.

tell me more tell me more

i think it's Albuquerque but every song on this album is good
Special vote for snake eyes, french fries

FUck yes

also can we talk about the Shakey chapter on this album? surely one of the best pieces of rock music writing ever

fuck yes we can motherufcker

Best album ever

"Roll Another Number," "Albuquerque," and "Tired Eyes" at the top, no permanent favourite among the three (I'll vote the former, since it tends to be overlooked).

Is that the point of the album?
No. No. That's the means to an end. Tonight's the Night is like an OD letter. The whole thing is about life, dope and death. When we (Nils Lofgren, guitars and piano, Talbot, Molina and Young) played that music we were all thinking of Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry, two close members of our unit lost to junk overdoses. The Tonight's the Night sessions were the first time what was left of Crazy Horse had gotten together since Danny died. It was up to us to get the strength together among us to fill the hole he left. The other OD, Bruce Berry, was CSNY's roadie for a long time. His brother Ken runs Studio Instrument Rentals, where we recorded the album. So we had a lot of vibes going for us. There was a lot of spirit in the music we made. It's funny, I remember the whole experience in black and white. We'd go down to S.I.R. about 5:00 in the afternoon and start getting high, drinking tequila and playing pool. About midnight, we'd start playing. And we played Bruce and Danny on their way all through the night. I'm not a junkie and I won't even try it out to check out what it's like...but we all got high enough, right out there on the edge where we felt wide-open to the whole mood. It was spooky. I probably feel this album more than anything else I've ever done.

Why did you wait until now to release 'Tonight's the Night'? Isn't it almost two years old?
I never finished it. I only had nine songs, so I set the whole thing aside and did On the Beach instead. It took Elliot (manager Elliot Roberts) to finish Tonight's the Night. You see, awhile back there were some people who were gonna make a Broadway show out of the story of Bruce Berry and everything. They even had a script written. We were putting together a tape for them and in the process of listening back on the old tracks, Elliot found three even older songs that related to the trip, "Lookout Joe," "Borrowed Tune" and "Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown," a live track from when I played the Fillmore East with Crazy Horse. Danny even sings lead on that one. Elliot added those songs to the original nine and sequenced them all into a cohesive story. But I still had no plans whatsoever to release it. I already had another new album called Homegrown in the can. The cover was finished and everything, (laughs) Ah, but they'll never hear that one.

Okay. Why not?
I'll tell you the whole story. I had a playback party for Homegrown for me and about ten friends. We were out of our minds. We all listened to the album and Tonight's the Night happened to be on the same reel. So we listened to that too, just for laughs. No comparison.

So you released 'Tonight's the Night.' Just like that?
Not because Homegrown wasn't as good. A lot of people would probably say that it's better. I know the first time I listened back on Tonight's the Night it was the most out-of-tune thing I'd ever heard. Everyone's off-key. I couldn't hack it. But by listening to those two albums back to back at the party, I started to see the weaknesses in Homegrown. I took Tonight's the Night because of its overall strength in performance and feeling. The theme may be a little depressing, but the general feeling is much more elevating than Homegrown. Putting this album out is almost an experiment. I fully expect some of the most determinedly worst reviews I've ever had. I mean if anybody really wanted to let go, they could do it on this one. And undoubtedly a few people will. That's good for them, though. I like to see people make giant breakthroughs for themselves. It's good for their psyche to get it all off their chests, (laughs) I've seen Tonight's the Night draw a line everywhere it's been played. People who thought they would never dislike anything I did fall on the other side of the line. Others who thought "I can't listen to that cat. He's just too sad,"or whatever..."His voice is funny." They listen another way now. I'm sure parts of Homegrown will surface on other albums of mine. There's some beautiful stuff that Emmylou Harris sings harmony on. I don't know. That record might be more what people would rather hear from me now, but it was just a very down album. It was the darker side to Harvest. A lot of the songs had to do with me breaking up with my old lady. It was a little too personal...it scared me. Plus, I had just released On the Beach, probably one of the most depressing records I've ever made. I don't want to get down to the point where I can't even get up. I mean there's something to going down there and looking around, but I don't know about sticking around.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-rebellious-neil-young-19750814#ixzz2Yq1CVIsR
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xpost

Was thinking of doing the same thing!

(though truthfully, I wanna give the record a fresh spin and then decide)

http://25.media.tumblr.com/663ee880dbd5dc2eea14513dc6f50f0a/tumblr_mk16cwHAOw1qac7ryo1_500.jpg

well he shot four men in a cocaine deal

please take my advice

what do you mean he had bullet holes in his mirrors?

lonesome whistle on a railroad traaaaaaaack

This and Blue were huge records for me when I was 18. I can't hear them without thinking of the sketchy neighborhood I lived in, or freezing on L platforms.

I'm a million miles away from that helicopter day

"Tired Eyes". Different class, that song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSkf0fHu_iQ

This and Blue were huge records for me when I was 18.

Me too, me too.

Might go with "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown," maybe my favorite 70s classic rock song. But it wouldn't be as powerful if it weren't in between "Borrowed Tune" and "Mellow My Mind."

lol eazy

why did i click on that video why why WHY

haha part of me thinks neil would love that simply red cover

Pfft, like Neil would listen to anything not available on Pono.

Simple Red, more like Simple Shit

Simple Shit Sandwich Shit

Might be how Neil imagined doing "Ain't got nothing on those feelings" before the drinks/weed were passed around.

translation of the liner notes (which were originally printed in dutch)

WELCOME TO MIAMI BEACH, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
--------------------------------------------

On Monday, 5th November, Neil Young was going to play in London's Rainbow Theatre. Of course, I wanted to meet him but I'd been told by people from the record company both in England and in Holland that I really had no chance. Nevertheless I wrote him a letter telling him of the admiration we feel for him in Holland, and of our regret that he was not going to come over for a concert. The Friday before the concert I received a phone call from the Dutch record company asking me if I could go to England with the somewhat strange responsibility of taking Neil 17 bottles of tequila--the extravagant Jose Cuervo Gold brand--as this was unavailable in England. This wasn't the easiest of tasks in Holland either. At first it looked as if I might get hold of one bottle! but, I thought, you can't arrive with just 1 bottle. Imagine my suprise then when I got another call from England saying even one bottle would be a good start and they would even pick me up from the airport with it. Even so, I still didn't have the one bottle and although the company would have arranged everything for me, in the end I spent the whole of Saturday morning calling up half of Amsterdam and screaming for Jose Cuervo Gold. Through courage and persistence, I finally managed to get hold of four bottles of said firewater through a company called Wolters. And these four bottles? Well obviously the only way they were going to get to Neil was if I handed them over personally to him....

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT
-------------------

The next step was to find a good way of running into Neil. The Eagles were playing as support band and as I knew them fairly well I decided to accompany them to the theatre. Once inside the dressing room I hoped to find some opportunity of addressing Neil without going through a thousand people first. When Neil and retinue arrived I caught a brief glimpse...White raincoat, dark flaxy hair and tinted glasses. Although I'd heard reports of moodiness he seemed to be in a good mood. My hope and confidence increased. Once the Eagles were on stage and the dressing room was a bit less crowded, I would try my chance. But, when that time came I began to amble up and down the corridors occasionally passing Neil's dressing room. After a while Neil popped his head around the door and I realized it was now or never. Nervously, I ran up to the door and asked if could come in. Neil and someone else (whom I later knew to be David Briggs) stepped aside and moved towards the corridor.

"Er...could I ask you something?", I asked Neil who was wearing sunglasses, somewhat unsure and dubious, he replied it depended on what it was.

"That tequila, is it a good brand?"

"What tequila?"

"Jose Cuervo"

"Oh, you must be the guy who's brought me the tequila and who wrote me a letter." Oh great, nice to meet you (we shake hands). Thanks very much. I think that's really great." "Do you want to have the other bottles?" "No, not now. After the concert, OK (and walking away). Thanks man. I really like that tequila".

SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE A HELPLESS CHILD

--------------------------------------

The stage set was very strange. At the back a large palm tree; next to the piano and loudspeakers were hanging all sorts of women's boots and there were hubcaps laid all around. We were in total darkness when Neil and his band--Ben Keith, Nils Lofgren, Ralph Molina & Billy Talbot took the stage and slowly began playing the 1st number 'Tonight's the Night.' The sound was miserable, the band's coordination was miserable and Neil's piano and singing were miserable.

After this song - the title track from his new album - Neil got up from the piano and moved over unsteadily to his guitar and mike, at the front of the stage. Another new song was presented and once again Neil couldn't manage to reach the high notes. I began to lose all hope. What on Earth was happening to Neil? Where was the magic gone? He talked a lot, drank tequila by the wine-glass in one gulp and mumbled for minutes on end about anything and more. Jesus Christ, what downer!

After each song he started talking about Miami Beach. He said he'd been there. After the first number he welcomed the audience there and got the stage manager to illuminate the palm tree. The crowd started to applaud, eliciting from Neil a laconic "It's all cheaper than it looks, ladies and gentlemen". Picking up the guitar with some difficulty he started to play the next number "From day to day" a superb song starting with the words "You know I lose, you know I win". Neil fought his way desperately through his set.

Although some numbers indicated he was still capable of composing brilliant songs, their performance was worringly, minimally stimulating. Only Nils Lofgren shone with phenomenal guitar-playing whereas the others just seemed to be playing along, undisciplined. After the truckers song "It's too dark to put the keys in my ignition", Neil explained that all the songs he had played so far were from his new album 'Tonight's the Night'.

"Making this record was a great experience for us all and I hope it'll be that way in the future too". Someone in the audience shouted "Shut Up!" and Neil replied: "Let me just add for those people who are wondering whether I've come to talk or to sing, that I always sing more than I talk. So the more I talk, the longer I'm going to play". The theatre erupted in laughter and applauded at the remark.

DANNY WHITTEN

-------------

"Ladies and Gentlemen. There is one member of the band for whom I feel a special affection. One day he came and knocked at my cellar door in Washington DC where the president of the U.S. lives... Impeach the president, and... eh... What a situation. WHAT A SITUATION, ladies and gentlemen... where's my cigar? I won't be seeing you again for a few years so I can do what I like! Ha ha ha".

The audience laughs.

"I'm going to try and play something now. I've got a song about a 'straight dog' who took no drugs, no hard drugs, nothing at all. Believe me...according to some rumours I'm dead already, but I'm standing here...believe in nature. I'm not Catholic but I believe in a sort of confession....here tonight, ladies and gentlemen. I want to sing a song for Danny...Whitten who can't be with us tonight. I can feel the Jose Cuervo but I think that what I want to say is getting across. I'm talking slowly about a good friend of mine and I don't want to discredit his name. This is a song for him. Perhaps I'll sing fifty songs for him this evening. You never know..."

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.

"Don't Be Denied", the song for Danny develops into a terrible, deep-reaching event. The playing is awful but the emotion is great Neil is incapable of putting any structure into his guitar-playing instead, he comes across as a man possessed, hair flying, pounding his guitar, jumping and screaming: "Oh friend of mine, don't be denied, don't be denied, don't be denied." Confused, he comes up to the microphone and begins to talk gently: "You buy a newspaper on the street in the morning, and you open it at page two straightaway because you can't read page one....photos of all the people....now I'm in the desert....The Americans are there. Let's think about the desert this evening. In the desert there's a lion, some people are standing on one side on the lion and some on the other. Everybody knows what I'm talking about, so everybody can draw their own conclusions. We're going to play a song, ladies and gentlemen, to try to cheer ourselves up. It wasn't very good in the desert was it? I didn't like it much there anyway".

Now Neil plays a few old songs accompanied only by guitar and harmonica. First of all a hopelessly out of tune rendition of 'Flying on the Ground is Wrong', followed by a new song again inspired by Danny Whitten and containing one line laden with significance 'Take my eyes from what they've seen' and a splendid, desperate 'Helpless' almost every note off-key and the guitar playing abyssmal.

The end of 'Helpless' was a duet betweem Neil and Nils who joined in on accordian half way through the song and added his melancholy voice to Neil's. In a trance they played and sang for minutes on end 'Helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless'. And how helpless he looked sitting there, his hair hanging in his face, his voice suffocating, stamping and shaking on his stool, knocking the microphone in his fury and fear. Surprised and confused I just let it all pass over me. Where was I? Who was that man sitting up there? What in the name of Jesus was he doing?

NIXON

-----

After an ovation which lasted several minutes, Neil came back, very drunk by now. He thanks the audience and then begins to crack jokes about the English accent. "I was born over there, so there isn't much I can do about it". Someone in the audience shouts "Nixon" probably referring to one of the 2 dolls on the stage. A sort of English soldier with a plastic Nixon mask.

"Nixon loves me" he says, "I'm good for the economy. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Four dead in Ohio?... (applause) I don't want applause for something like that even though I think I know what you mean. It's strange... Look at it from my point of view. You don't have to, but you can try. Take Miami Beach... There are all sort of people there. And they get up real early ladies and gentlemen".

Neil walks away from the mike to the edge of the stage and shouts: "I can assure you that the people get up at six in the morning. Really, ladies and gentlemen!" Laughter in the audience. Neil introduces the members of the band.

"At last I've found some people who are alive and want to carry on living." A poor version of 'Cowgirl in the Sand' close the concert. When the audience has left the theatre, Neil comes back on stage sits down at the piano and starts to sing and play. "Oh tell me where the answer lies. Is it in the notebook behind your eyes?" The others too have taken out their instruments and join in one by one. After a few minutes Neil stops and goes back to his dressing room. That is where I meet him again, looking like a beaten dog, abandoned on a chair, his head hanging between his shoulders, with him Nils and Briggs trying to convince him that the concert had been good.

"It was better than yesterday, better than ever" says Nils and Briggs adds that it had all been over damn quick.

"But it sounded just like the record".

Timidly, I ventured that I had found it good and then Neil looked up and said, "Really I enjoyed it myself. I tried to be as free as I could, you know" and added desperately, "I tried to be honest... Once I talked to someone for 1 1/2 hours and then I woke up the next morning and realised that the time had come to do something else. These small theatres give me a good feeling. You can make contact with the audience."

"It was f---ing sensational" says Briggs "And they knew that from A to Z".

Neil gets up from his chair and I tell him that he made a credible impression on me.

"Incredible?"

"No, credible" I say.

"The person whom I had been hoping to see was there after all these years."

"Good, good man"

"With all the problems, your words everything... I felt a terrible emotion, I felt it in my heart."

"That's it...yeah....that's it. Hey, you're the guy that brought me the tequila, I recognise your face, come with us in the bus." says Neil in his drawling English, "Don't ask any questions. Just hang around."

In the bus, Neil is still very depressed and Nils and Briggs are trying to restore his self confidence. "I was shocked that they didn't ask for more," he says from the bottom of his heart. "We had another number ready. I would have played anything they wanted to hear, even if I had to play it all night. I only come here once every three years and I give them whatever they want. I was really shocked". I try to explain why the audience didn't ask for more, that the concert had various climaxes and that the audience didn't expect any more encores at half past eleven etc... N ils tries to make it clear to Neil that his playing and his singing are two separate things. I say I don't agree.

"They're two facets of your personality which you're showing and which make you very believable".

Then Briggs makes a joke, "Carry on talking, make problems. As long as you carry on making music, I'll pay for your psychiatrists".

This cheers up the atmosphere a bit and Neil starts to talk and joke with Briggs. I start to tell a long story about the problems which some people in Holland have with his music; about Wim Van der Linden's film: "A great guy" - Neil, in which he appears in one scene speaking to an old man and then it seems to me that he's completely serious for a few seconds as if someone is coming back to life inside him. Neil remembers the scene and says the old man is no longer living with him on his ranch. Then I start talking about the emotion and melancholy in his music, the sadness of our Autumn, the appearance of his new record at this time, the feeling of not being completely alone. Neil listens in silence.

FILM

----

In the speakeasy, the happy atmosphere returns. Neil begins to tell me about his new LP.

"The album 'Tonight's the Night' is the best I have ever made. It's recorded live. On one side there are four songs recorded in one take without stopping. In a hall belonging to Studio Instrument Rentals in LA. The owner of the firm, Ken Berry, is the brother of the former roadie Bruce and he let me use that hall. The atmosphere was so relaxed that we began recording immediately. And it's the most honest thing I have ever done. The guys I'm playing with at the moment make me fee relaxed and that's why I can be so honest. But I think the public thinks I'm trying to trick them". Again the conversation returned with Nils to the relationship between speaking and singing.

"I have the impression that they understand the first half better than the second", remarks Neil.

I said that this isn't so strange as they were playing new songs which the audience hadn't been expecting and couldn't absorb them all at once and that with a spoken text it's much easier. Neil changes the subject and says, "I'm looking for a good theatre for the premier of my film, do you know one in Holland?" "In Amsterdam there is a great old theatre in 1930's style. If you saw it I'm sure you'd want to play there. Why don't you come over to Holland?"

"At the moment, I don't know either, but I'd like to bring my movie to Holland".

When I leave at 3 a.m. he turns to me again and says "Thanks again for the letter and everything. It was real. Say 'Hi!' to your friends in Holland and tell them I'll do my best to get the film shown in Holland".

Moving slowly the slightly stooping figure disappears out of my view leaving me with this final wisecrack: "My style is not so good. As a matter of fact it's minimal".

Goodbye Waterface

P.S. Please take my advice

from shakey, "group art" the chapter on tonights the night:

It was long past midnight on April 19, 1972, and the Doctor was definitely in. An orgy was under way in the Topanga Canyon house on Vision Drive. Outside, a drug deal was going sour. The stereo was cranked, so they wouldn't hear the shots.

Visitors to the sessions were dumbfounded by the grimy, film-noir atmosphere. "It was completely black inside, didn't matter what time it was," said Joel Berstein, who was assigned the task of taking visa photos of the band for a proposed Japanese tour. "I had to get 'em in daylight. It was like doing a documentary on nocturnal animals pulled out from under a rock. They looked like little rodents when you shine a light in their eyes."

You know how it is when you've been up too long, the apartment's trashed, everything is silent, the sun's about to come up and you're feeling like some germ stuckt o a big cold rock hurtling through space -- and somehow you don't mind? Here is a record that induces that state automatically. Hearing somebody so totally fucked up rant about the ills of extremism is liberating. Tonight's the Night made no judgements. Young knew the attraction -- and the rewards -- of being wasted out of your skull, and had no illusions about the price paid, which for some was the boneyard. The record was shot through with a sardonic humor that deflated any pretense of a Big Statement, which somehow made it even heaver.

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.

so down for this

feel like i should cook up a batch of honey slices in readiness

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