Tonight’s The Night

NEIL YOUNG’s Dark Masterwork ‘TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT’ Is 50 Today

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

20 June 2025

NEIL YOUNG released his dark masterwork TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT,
his 6th album, on 20 June 1975, 50 years ago today. It peaked at #25
in the US.

It was a direct expression of grief. Danny Whitten, guitarist of Young‘s band
Crazy Horse, Young’s friend and roadie Bruce Berry had both died of drug
overdoses in the months before the songs were written.

Whitten wrote the song I Don’t Want To Talk About It
made famous by Rod Stewart

Young: “At S.I.R. we were playing, and these two cats who had been a close part of our
unit, of our force and our energy – were both gone to junk. Both of them O.D.’d, and we’re playing in a place where we’re getting together to make up for what is gone and try to make ourselves stronger and continue. Because we thought we had it with Danny Whitten, at least
I did.

I thought that I had a combination of people that could be as effective as groups like
the Rolling Stones had been. Just for rhythm, which I’m really into. I haven’t had that rhythm for a while and that’s why I haven’t been playing my guitar; because without that behind me I won’t play. I mean you can’t get free enough. So I’ve had to play the rhythm myself ever since Danny died”.


Back sleeve

Rolling Stone wrote: “Tonight’s the Night finds Neil Young on his knees at the top of the heap, struggling to get back to his feet. The musical difficulties of last year’s On the Beach have been resolved as directly as possible by a return to recording with Crazy Horse and Nils Lofgren, with whom Young recorded his 1970 masterpiece, After the Gold Rush… Crying over the death of his real and imagined friends, Neil Young seems at once heroic and mock heroic, brave and absurd. Like the best of both, he leaves us as he found us, ravaged but rocking.”

I regularly return to that bone-chilling LP. It has an inexplicable magic.

Key tracks: Tonight’s The Night / World On A String / Come On Baby
Let’s Go Down Town / Albuquerque / New Mama / Lookout Joe / Tired Eyes

ALBUM


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Website – All Albums

BIG BLASTS FROM THE PAST – 10 Classic Albums Turning 50 In 2025

Posted on by JL

23 December 2024

Artist: BOB DYLAN
Album: Blood On The Tracks
His fifteenth and one of his most
memorable LPs.

All Music: “This is hardly nostalgia, this is the sound of an artist returning to his strengths, what feels most familiar, as he accepts a traumatic situation, namely the breakdown of his marriage. This is an album alternately bitter, sorrowful, regretful, and peaceful, easily the closest he ever came to wearing his emotions on his sleeve.”

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Instagram – All Albums

Band: FLEETWOOD MAC
Album: Fleetwood Mac
Their 10th.

Pitchfork said: “Though far from their debut, the band’s 1975 self-titled album felt like a debut: a pop-rock statement and the unexpected intersection of two parallel spheres that offered something genuinely new.”

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Instagram – All Albums

Artist: NEIL YOUNG
Album: Tonight’s The Night
His sixth LP.

The record was dedicated to Danny Whitten, guitarist of Crazy Horse,
who wrote the song ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’ made famous by Rod
Stewart.

Rolling Stone wrote: “Tonight’s the Night finds Neil Young on his knees at the top of the heap, struggling to get back to his feet… Crying over the death of his real and imagined friends, Neil Young seems at once heroic and mock heroic, brave and absurd. Like the best of both, he leaves us as he found us, ravaged but rocking.”

STREAM


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Linktree – All Albums

Artist: PATTI SMITH
Album: Horses
Her stunning debut.

Rolling Stone wrote: “Patti Smith’s debut album was a declaration of committed mutiny,
a statement of faith in the transfigurative powers of rock & roll. Horses made her the queen
of punk before it even really existed, but Smith cared more for the poetry in rock.”

STREAM


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Instagram – All Albums

Band: PINK FLOYD
 Album: Wish You Were Here
9th longplayer, dedicated to the late
flamboyant co-founder Syd Barrett.

The Village Voice wrote: “The music is not only simple and attractive, with the synthesizer used mostly for texture and the guitar breaks for comment, but it actually achieves some of
he symphonic dignity (and cross-referencing) that The Dark Side of the Moon simulated so ponderously.”

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Linktree – All Albums
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Band: LED ZEPPELIN
Album: Physical Graffiti
Zep‘s 6th, a double one.

Billboard wrote: “The LP is a tour de force through a number of musical
styles, from straight rock to blues to folky acoustic to orchestral sounds.”

STREAM


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Instagram – All Albums

Band: NEU!
Album: Neu!
3rd one.

AllMusic: “This is music not only for traveling, from one place to the
next, but also for disappearance into the ether at a steady pace.”

STREAM


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Bio – All Albums

Artist: BRIAN ENO
Album: Another Green World
His third.

Pitchfork: “Brian Eno has done everything from producing huge pop stars to creating tiny art installations to touring with rock bands to inventing ambient music. Another Green World remains his definitive album.”

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Instagram – All Albums

Band: QUEEN
Album: A Night At The Opera
Their majestic 4th.

MOJO wrote: “An imperial extravaganza, a cornucopia. A band of hungrily
competitive individualists on a big roll of friendship and delight.”

STREAM


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Instagram – All Albums

Artist: DAVID BOWIE
Album: Young Americans
9th longplayer.

Rolling Stone: “The music works best when Bowie combines his renewed interest in soul
with his knowledge of English pop, rather than opting entirely for one or the other.”

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Instagram – All Albums

HAPPY 75 To The Living Country And Rock Legend NEIL YOUNG!

Posted on by JL

12 November 2020

NEIL PERCIVAL YOUNG was born on 12 November 1945 in Toronto, Canada.

Happy 75 to a living legend with the rock ‘n’ roll heart of a young gunslinger.
He released about a thousand albums since 1963. He worked solo, he regularly
recorded with his electrifying pals Crazy Horse and played a couple of years,
a long time ago, with three other memorable voices, Crosby Stills & Nash
and with Buffalo Springfield.

And he’s not finished yet. His Archives seem to be inexhaustible. And if it wasn’t
for the nasty pandemic, he was definitely on a stage somewhere on the planet.

And of course, here at Turn Up The Volume‘s home, it’s also a Neil Young Day.
With three of my favorite albums: Tonight’s The Night (1975), On The Beach (1974)
and Sleeps With Angels (1994)…

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NEIL YOUNG: Bio – Discography

NEIL YOUNG – His Darkest Masterwork ‘TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT’ Is 45…

Posted on by JL

20 June 2020

Artist: Neil Young
Album: Tonight’s The Night – sixth LP
Dedicated to Danny Whitten, guitarist of Crazy Horse,
who wrote the song ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’ made
famous by Rod Stewart
Released: 20 June 1975 – 45 years ago today
Score: #25 in the US

Rolling Stone wrote: “Tonight’s the Night finds Neil Young on his knees at the top of the heap, struggling to get back to his feet. The musical difficulties of last year’s On the Beach have been resolved as directly as possible by a return to recording with Crazy Horse and Nils Lofgren, with whom Young recorded his 1970 masterpiece, After the Gold Rush… Crying over the death of his real and imagined friends, Neil Young seems at once heroic and mock heroic, brave and absurd. Like the best of both, he leaves us as he found us, ravaged but rocking.”

Key phrase: Neil Young’s darkest masterpiece ever (with ‘On The Beach‘ at #2)
Key tracks: Tonight’s The Night / World On A String / Come On Baby Let’s Go Down Town /
Albuquerque / New Mama / Lookout Joe / Tired Eyes

Full album…

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NEIL YOUNG: Website – All Albums

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