NEIL YOUNG Tonight's The Night 1975 UK REPRISE 1st PRESS w/INSERT

NEIL YOUNG
Tonight's The Night

1975 UK REPRISE (K 54040) FIRST PRESSING
COMPLETE WITH THE ORIGINAL PRINTED INNER SLEEVE & FOUR PANEL INSERT
GREAT COPY WHICH HAS SEEN LITTLE, IF ANY USE AND PLAYS BEAUTIFULLY THROUGHOUT

RECORDED IN 1973 BUT DISLIKED SO MUCH BY REPRISE THAT IT'S RELEASE WAS DELAYED FOR OVER TWO YEARS
IT HAS SUBSEQUENTLY BECOME ONE OF NEIL YOUNG'S MOST CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED WORKS

Written and recorded in 1973 shortly after the death of roadie Bruce Berry, Neil Young's second close associate to die of a heroin overdose in six months (the first was Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten), Tonight's the Night was Young's musical expression of grief, combined with his rejection of the stardom he had achieved in the late '60s and early '70s.
The title track, performed twice, was a direct narrative about Berry: "Bruce Berry was a working man/He used to load that Econoline van." Whitten was heard singing "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown," a live track recorded years earlier. Elsewhere, Young frequently referred to drug use and used phrases that might have described his friends, such as the chorus of "Tired Eyes," "He tried to do his best, but he could not."
Performing with the remains of Crazy Horse, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina, along with Nils Lofgren (guitar and piano) and Ben Keith (steel guitar), Young performed in the ragged manner familiar from Time Fades Away -- his voice was often hoarse and he strained to reach high notes, while the playing was loose, with mistakes and shifting tempos. But the style worked perfectly for the material, emphasising the emotional tone of Young's mourning and contrasting with the polished sound of CSNY and Harvest that Young also disparaged.
He remained unimpressed with his commercial success, noting in "World on a String," "The world on a string/Doesn't mean anything." In "Roll Another Number," he said he was "a million miles away/From that helicopter day" when he and CSN had played Woodstock. And in "Albuquerque," he said he had been "starvin' to be alone/Independent from the scene that I've known" and spoke of his desire to "find somewhere where they don't care who I am."
Songs like "Speakin' Out" and "New Mama" seemed to find some hope in family life, but Tonight's the Night did not offer solutions to the personal and professional problems it posed. It was the work of a man trying to turn his torment into art and doing so unflinchingly.
Depending on which story you believe, Reprise Records rejected it or Young withdrew it from its scheduled release at the start of 1974 after touring with the material in the U.S. and Europe.
In 1975, after a massive CSNY tour, Young at the last minute dumped a newly recorded album and finally put Tonight's the Night out instead.
Though it did not become one of his bigger commercial successes, the album immediately was recognised as a unique masterpiece by critics, and it has continued to be ranked as one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever made.

PRESSED WITH THE TAN REPRISE LABELS WITHOUT THE WB LOGO AND WITH "MADE IN UK"
MATRIX SIDE ONE: MS-2221 31884-RE-1 1C, EXPORT, HELLO WATERFACE, K-54040-A2
MATRIX SIDE TWO: MS-2221 31885-1B, EXPORT, GOODBYE WATERFACE, K-54040-B2
THE ALBUM IS HOUSED IN THE ORIGINAL TEXTURED MATT GATEFOLD SLEEVE PRINTED BY "Shorewood Packaging Co. Ltd., England"
COMPLETE WITH THE PRINTED INNER SLEEVE
AND FOLD-OUT INSERT "K54040 P 1975 WARNER BROS. RECORDS, PRINTED IN UK"

Included with the vinyl release of Tonight's the Night was a seemingly strange insert that added to Neil Young's claim that Tonight's the Night was the closest he ever came to art. Emphasising the personal nature of the album, the self-penned liner notes contained an apology: "I'm sorry. You don't know these people. This means nothing to you."
The insert has a printed letter to the mysterious "Waterface" character, no explanation is given to their identity, although in Shakey: Neil Young's Biography by Jimmy McDonough, Young says that "Waterface is the person writing the letter. When I read the letter, I'm Waterface. It's just a stupid thing—a suicide note without the suicide."
Other text is equally puzzling, as it appeared in the insert superimposed over the credits to Young's On the Beach album, released a year prior. This passage is reportedly the lyrics to an unreleased song titled "Florida", referred to in Shakey as "A cockamamie spoken-word dream, set to the shrieking accompaniment of either Young or (Ben) Keith drawing a wet finger around the rim of a glass."
When unfolded, and comprising a whole side is a lengthy article printed entirely in Dutch and is in fact a review of a Tonight's the Night live show by Dutch journalist Constant Meijers for the Dutch rock-magazine "Muziekkrant Oor". In 1976 Young said he chose to print it "Because I didn't understand any of it myself, and when someone is so sickened and screwed up as I was then, everything's in Dutch anyway."

Side 1:
Tonight's The Night (4:39)
Speakin' Out (4:56)
World On A String (2:27)
Borrowed Tune (3:26)
Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown (3:35)
Mellow My Mind (3:07)
Side 2:
Roll Another Number (For The Road) (3:02)
Albuquerque (4:02)
New Mama (2:11)
Lookout Joe (3:57)
Tired Eyes (4:38)
Tonight's The Night - Part II (4:52)

LABELS: NEAR MINT
Clean, unmarked labels with no real evident spindle traces
VINYL Visual: NEAR MINT
Both surfaces shine like-new and even under bright light there is barely a mark to be seen
VINYL Audio: EXCELLENT+
This barely played copy plays beautifully throughout with little to fault.
A tiny touch of low-level surface noted on some of the quietest moments (nothing really) but no scratches, clicks, ticks or pops and generally exceptionally clean
SLEEVE: EXCELLENT
The textured gatefold is as crisp, clean, sharp and fresh as the day it was made with just some rub marks on the spine and a bump to the top spine corner
INNER SLEEVE: NEAR MINT
The inner is clean and unmarked without any seam splits
INSERT: MINT
Untouched and as-new

POST & PACKING:
A PROTECTIVE POLY SLEEVE, NEW ANTI-STATIC LINERS, QUALITY BOX (NOT ENVELOPE) MAILER AND AMPLE STIFFENERS ARE ALWAYS USED TO ENSURE THAT YOUR RECORD ARRIVES SAFELY
UK: £5.00 (Recorded Delivery)
UK: £11.00 (Royal Mail Special Delivery Next Day by 1pm)
EUROPE: Airmail: £15.00 (International Signed For delivery)
INTERNATIONAL: Airmail: £18.00 (International Signed For delivery)

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 841 (GS 7.0.16 (841))