NEIL YOUNG Tonight's The Night 1975 UK REPRISE 1st PRESSING w/INNER & INSERT
£
50
$
66
£ 50
Sold For
Mar 20, 2015
Sold Date
Mar 10, 2015
Start Date
£ 20
Start price
4
Number Of Bids
Great Britain
Country Of Seller
eBay
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Description
NEIL YOUNG Tonight's The Night 1975 UK REPRISE 1st PRESSING w/INNER & INSERT
NEIL YOUNGTonight's The Night
UK REPRISE (K 54040) FIRST PRESSING (June 1975)
WITH THE ORIGINAL PRINTED INNER SLEEVE & FOUR PANEL "WATERFACE" INSERT
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 FIRST ISSUE REPRISE LABELS
MATRIX & ETCHINGS: K 54040 A2 "HELLO WATERFACE" / K 54040 B1
THE ALBUM IS HOUSED IN THE ORIGINAL 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 - barley a spindle trace to be seen
VINYL Visual: EXCELLENT
Some marks/scuffs are visible but these are mostly in-vinyl pressing blemishes of little audible significance
VINYL Audio: EXCELLENT
Plays beautifully with generally very clean sound - just an occasional tick noted - nothing really - sounds great
SLEEVE: EXCELLENT
Some wear to the edges and spine but good, clean and solid
INNER SLEEVE: EXCELLENT
Again, some sign of wear but no seam splits
INSERT: EXCELLENT
The insert, folded in four to create a small booklet is also clean and unmarked with just a cease to one corner and a small split on the central fold (please see close-up photographs)
POST & PACKING:
A PROTECTIVE POLY SLEEVE, NEW ANTI-STATIC INNER, QUALITY BOX (NOT ENVELOPE) MAILER AND AMPLE STIFFENERS ARE ALWAYS USED TO ENSURE THAT YOUR RECORD ARRIVES SAFELY
UK: FREE (2nd class standard)
UK: £9.00 (Royal Mail Special Delivery Next Day by 1pm)
EUROPE: Airmail: £14.00 (International Signed For delivery)
INTERNATIONAL: Airmail: £17.00 (International Signed For delivery)
I will combine postage for items purchased within any 10 day period.
However, at the end of each 10 day period, all outstanding items will need to be paid for in full and will be posted to you.
Any items purchased after payment will be included in the next 10 period.
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Guarantee: All records are unconditionally guaranteed (including sealed and/or unplayed) and I will offer a complete, no quibble refund upon return of the item should you not be pleased with it in any way I will email you when payment has been received to let you know when the item will be posted. Please leave feedback upon receipt of the item so that I know you have received it safely. Thanks 566 (GS 6.7.1 (566))
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