Review Summary: Colorless, tasteless, odorless. Proceed with a beer in hand.
For reasons I cannot -for the life of me- comprehend,
Tonight’s The Night has always been received as a milestone not only of Neil’s catalogue, but of rock music in general. It has been noted that the record offers a violent, decadent look into the 70’s, that it is a rare concept album from Young and many other rich accolades since its release in 1975. And since I
do love me some Young from time to time, imagine my surprise when, 45 minutes after the opening title track, all I witnessed was a bunch of…good , inoffensive, barroom/country numbers.
To get started, the main problems of the record which will be fleshed out soon enough are: a)
Everyone is under-rehearsed; the whole performance here seems like one big rehearsal, with Neil’s vocals seeming strained at nearly every song, b) the songwriting is virtually non-existent; for example, the only true standout vocal hooks lie on the title track and
Come On Baby, whereas the majority of the record is more or less laced with cliched roots-rock motifs, c) the prominent ensemble here, the Santa Monica Flyers, are essentially a bunch of good players with next to no personality whatsoever, while the far superior Crazy Horse band appears on only one bloody track and d) the production values are plain and simple generic, as little is done to distinguish the boring ensemble from your local pub band.
The first defect is the most apparent one. On virtually every song here Neil’s singing is messy as he often delivers slightly off-key harmonies or tries to scream and instead replaces the scream with a wheezy, choked cry. The Santa Monica Flyers are also very sloppy for the most part as there’s little nuance or dynamics in their playing, thus giving the impression that they really didn’t care about polishing their parts on each song before recording. Examples include, well, the majority of the record, but lend an ear to
Speaking Out,
World On A String or
Roll Another Number and tell me the group was fully committed to the performance.
And if you ask
‘’it’s rock’n’roll, what did you expect, the Miles Davis Quintet?’’, let me just say that I was expecting something like
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,
After The Gold Rush, or
On The Beach, all of which had committed and focused performances unlike the ones found here. The best performances come from the other two backing bands here, namely the Stray Gators and of course Crazy Horse on
Lookout Joe and
Come On Baby respectively. And they’re the only songs they appear on! To summarize, the whole affair feels like the first ever rehearsal the guys did for the songs. And it’s not that good of a rehearsal.
As far as songwriting goes, now, there are very few standout songs here to convince me this is actually a record released from Neil Young. The reason is that there aren’t a lot of riffs, chord progressions or vocal melodies that offer anything more than standard (nice word for clichéd) country rock motifs. Where a song like
For The Turnstiles offered interesting banjo rhythm playing and a memorable chorus, a tune as bland as
Roll Another Number is just your standard country rock shuffle with the typical tender melody and the worn-out, laid back structure. Similar results arise from most of the other songs here; they're cute, melancholic and even a bit memorable, but there is simply no "punch" to them, melodically.
Of course, all of these faults would have been somewhat forgiven if the record showcased some personality throughout its run. If we exclude the main star here (Young, for those that ask), what is to be said of the rest? The prominent ensemble oozes triviality from every pore, as there is no visible chemistry or interaction between the members, not to mention the very undistinctive way they play their instruments throughout. It sounds as if the group members are disconnected one with the other, so to speak; for instance, listen to the title track to understand what I’m hinting at. The day is saved, as you might have guessed, from the guest groups mentioned above, whose members clearly are much more in sync and also provide Neil with a great background for stretching out his guitar techniques.
Finally, the production is as lazy as they come; the songs sound muffled and not undistinguished one from the other at all. The instruments are all hastily thrown in the mix without using a clever guitar/piano/drum sound or studio trickery here and there to make the final result more involving. Not that this is generally a bad attribute, but here it drags the album further to the average level, as the ‘’live’’ atmosphere reminds me more of sloppy, amateur bar-room groups with no identity at all rather than a band with a ‘’raw’’ and ‘’visceral’’ force that only comes out on live performances (which I guess was the goal of the
whole album). Again, the other backing bands offer less trivial and thus more enjoyable production, but it is only two songs overall…. is it just me or is anyone else beginning to see a pattern here?
To summarize, this record is terribly inadequate; Neil has poorly chosen a bunch of good, but eventually under-rehearsed and identity-free players (they surprisingly have the same rhythm section as Crazy Horse -chemistry in music works wonders it seems!), instead of profiting from the much more talented and prepared Crazy Horse and Stray Gators ensembles to reach maximum potential. Add to this the average, passably memorable songwriting and the cheap production and you’re in for an experience that can easily be traded for a couple of cold beers and a good seat at your favorite pub.
