Neil Young - Tonight's the Night

The other day, I stumbled upon an interview where Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings – a duo I hold in very high esteem - were both asked to name their top 5 albums ever. It struck me that they both included Neil Young’s Tonight’s the Night on their list. Even though I consider myself a Young enthusiast, this album had somehow always escaped my attention.

I’m grateful to Welch and Rawlings for directing my attention to this record, because it’s been on high rotation ever since. The album was written and recorded in the aftermath of two people close to Young passing away from heroin overdoses. The grief is almost tangible, as is the consolation that can be found when grieving together. As mentioned by the band in interviews afterwards, the recording of these songs was accompanied by the intake of substantial amounts of booze. This is reflected in the loose, live feel of the record and in the lyrics to Borrowed Tune, where Young mentions stealing a melody from a Rolling Stones song because he’s too wasted to write his own.

Even though not all melodies might be original, this does not detract from the compelling raw and haunting quality of this record. You can really hear that this album was made to deal with loss, rather than written with the listener in mind. It is especially this lack of consideration for the listener that makes this album so worthwhile.

~ Camiel

Listen the EP on Spotify or elsewhere