Tired Eyes - a Neil Young Cover from the emotionally raw Tonight's The Night album

[g6120]

This is a song from my favorite Neil Young album Tonight's the Night. This album is a must have for anyone seriously interested in Neil Young's music. If you haven't heard the album you won't understand the context or the ragged raw performance of this song. The band gathered in the studio one afternoon and shot pool and drank tequila, two of their close friends had died from overdose. In the early morning hours once they were feeling no pain and totally open and vulnerable they turned the tape on and played all the songs for the album and captured the moment. No re-takes, just playing their friends to heaven, like a wake. A true masterpiece. Here's some more info from wikipedia about this great album:

 

Tonight's the Night is a 1975 album by Neil Young.

 

Dark, heartfelt, and raw, Tonight's the Night was recorded in 1973 but initially rejected by Young's record company (a running theme in Young's career) as the second uncommercial release in a row and an unacceptable follow-up to his popular breakthrough, Harvest, and too stark a contrast with Young's work with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

 

Young's album was a startlingly direct expression of grief: Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and Young's friend and roadie Bruce Berry had both died of drug overdoses in the months before the songs were written.

 

Dave Marsh wrote in the original Rolling Stone review:

 

"The music has a feeling of offhand, first-take crudity matched recently only by Blood on the Tracks, almost as though Young wanted us to miss its ultimate majesty in order to emphasize its ragged edge of desolation. More than any of Young's earlier songs and albums-even the despondent On the Beach and the mordant, rancorous Time Fades Away -- Tonight's the Night is preoccupied with death and disaster. There is no sense of retreat, no apology, no excuses offered and no quarter given. If anything, these are the old ideas with a new sense of aggressiveness. The jitteriness of the music, its sloppy, unarranged (but decidedly structured) feeling is clearly calculated."

 

A new version with harmonica:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsHE8kZaoBA

[way2fat]

 

This is a song from my favorite Neil Young album Tonight's the Night. This album is a must have for anyone seriously interested in Neil Young's music. If you haven't heard the album you won't understand the context or the ragged raw performance of this song. The band gathered in the studio one afternoon and shot pool and drank tequila, two of their close friends had died from overdose. In the early morning hours once they were feeling no pain and totally open and vulnerable they turned the tape on and played all the songs for the album and captured the moment. No re-takes, just playing their friends to heaven, like a wake. A true masterpiece. Here's some more info from wikipedia about this great album: Tonight's the Night is a 1975 album by Neil Young. Dark, heartfelt, and raw, Tonight's the Night was recorded in 1973 but initially rejected by Young's record company (a running theme in Young's career) as the second uncommercial release in a row and an unacceptable follow-up to his popular breakthrough, Harvest, and too stark a contrast with Young's work with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Young's album was a startlingly direct expression of grief: Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and Young's friend and roadie Bruce Berry had both died of drug overdoses in the months before the songs were written. Dave Marsh wrote in the original Rolling Stone review: "The music has a feeling of offhand, first-take crudity matched recently only by Blood on the Tracks, almost as though Young wanted us to miss its ultimate majesty in order to emphasize its ragged edge of desolation. More than any of Young's earlier songs and albums-even the despondent On the Beach and the mordant, rancorous Time Fades Away -- Tonight's the Night is preoccupied with death and disaster. There is no sense of retreat, no apology, no excuses offered and no quarter given. If anything, these are the old ideas with a new sense of aggressiveness. The jitteriness of the music, its sloppy, unarranged (but decidedly structured) feeling is clearly calculated." A new version with harmonica: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsHE8kZaoBA

 

 

I thought I was the only one who thinks that Tonite's the Night is his best album. (followed closely by Everybody Knows This is Nowhere).