Track Listing

1. Tonight's The Night
2. Speakin' Out
3. World On A String
4. Borrowed Tune
5. Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown
6. Mellow My Mind
7. Roll Another Number (For The Road)
8. Albuquerque
9. New Mama
10. Look Out Joe
11. Tired Eyes
12. Tonight's The Night (1)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19860 in Music
• Released on: 1993-06-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
By 1975 Young had written some of the most enduring anthems in rock history. But from the slow, tension-building piano opening of "Tonight's the Night", he downshifts into darkness and Crazy Horse's folk-country melodies take on a guttural hum that would eventually speak to generations of punk and grunge musicians. Inspired by the overdose deaths of two of Young's friends, roadie Bruce Berry and guitarist Danny Whitten, the title track (and its closing reprise) is a hypnotic cry of "why?" Even the relative party songs, "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown" and "Roll Another Number", fit the album's bus-to-nowhere resignation. --Steve Knopper

CD Description
Let's get a popular misconception out of the way. The rap about this being one of Young's darkest, most harrowing albums is utter nonsense, perpetuated by critics who spend more time reading each other than listening to the music. TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT is dedicated to Young's guitarist Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry, who died shortly before this recording was made, and the title cut details that very subject, but the darker moments here are leavened by a generous share of self-parodic humor and general Neil Young loopiness.
Sad, tender ballads like "Borrowed Tune", (itself not without humor) rub shoulders with hearty rockers like "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown". Several tunes find Young and Crazy Horseexploring hard-edged country-rock with their collective tongue stuck firmly in the cheek, as on "Roll Another Number". Young's voice reels sadistically and purposefully out of tune, cutting through the arrangements like strategically placed barbed-wire (and providing a template for the work of WillOldham/Palace two decades later). Sardonic, taunting, mercilessly self-deprecating, often downright funny, TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT is no gloomfest, but a multi-faceted, full-bodied classic.

Customer Reviews

The seedy underbelly of rock and roll
This for me is Neil Young's masterpiece. Most of the songs on this album are inspired by the heroin-related deaths of two of Neil Young's comrades - guitarist Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry. It is an intensely dark exploration into the drug culture associated with rock and roll. The title track (and it's second part later) sets the scene by describing Berry's self-destruction. The album does not really err much from the theme of this opening shot and reaches it's emotional zenith at "Tired Eyes" - it sounds like Young is singing "open up the tired eyes" directly to Berry and Whitten in a futile attempt to bring them back from the grave. "Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown" is sung by Whitten and even though it's an upbeat song, it reinforces the whole tragic theme of the album. The whole album is entrenched in self-loathing and is funereal, the lyrics sung out of tune drunkenly which adds to the horror. The album's sleeve is mainly black - the colour of mourning and in the picture of the band onstage in the centre of the album sleeve there is an empty space onstage with Whitten's name underneath. The sheer emotional weight of this album makes it irresistable to anyone who wants to know Neil Young; this is basically his bleeding heart on CD. It is for these reasons why the has to be the greatest Neil Young album no question.

An album to play when you're drunk
It took me years to get this and it may require you're perseverence but whenever you're down and you reach for that bottle or three.... just put this album on and try to sing along without crying. It's impossible! That's what this is all about - EMOTION! An antidote to the computer controlled music of the noughties for sure. This is as close to the blues that you can get. Every song is raw and hewn from the sorrow and useless loss of life that Young was feeling at the time. But this also a celebration of life and a fitting remembrance of those who had passed away so young, cut short by drug abuse. 'Tonight's The Night' can be a wake every night if you want it, if you'll just 'Mellow your mind' and 'Roll another number (for the road)'

A poignant reminder of how the needle effected Young!!
This album ranks alongside "On The Beach","Zuma" and "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" as his best work. It is an album which is terribly dark in its execution it shows real feeling! Just as the listerner is getting over depressed by the amazing "Borrowed Tune" , where Young sounds at his most wasted,Young uplifts them with a poignant reminder of what this album is about, Danny Whitten and this is the pattern for the whole album. the eirie opener "Tonights the Night" sets the scene perfectly. "Mellow My Mind" is the highpoint of this album and the cracked vocals of Young just add to the pathos and who knows what the record company thought when he announced he would release this song in its raw state! Overall the album is amazing, and the CD sleeve adds more atmosphere with the name of Danny Whitten appearing on the photo but he is not there a final reminder of what the needle has done!

Breathtaking!!!!!!!!!!