Neil Young: Tonight's the Night (2LP, 50th anniversary) [REPRISE]

Why you'll love it

This 50th anniversary 2LP set adds six bonus tracks never before on vinyl, including an unheard "Walk On" and "Raised on Robbery" with Joni Mitchell, with an etched side D and fold-out inserts in a gatefold jacket. Rolling Stone ranks the album among the 500 greatest of all time.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 50th anniversary edition
• Six bonus tracks
• Etched side D
• Gatefold jacket
• Fold-out insert and large-format insert
• Stereo mix
• Pressed in the Netherlands

About the album

Neil Young followed the biggest hit of his life with the rawest record of his life. After Harvest, he lost Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and his friend and roadie Bruce Berry within months, and in August and September 1973 he gathered a band at S.I.R. studios in Los Angeles to play through the grief, mostly in a single night.

Nils Lofgren, Ben Keith, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina join him, and the takes are loose, late-night and live in the room. The title song appears twice, bookending the album, "Mellow My Mind" cracks right where it should, "Albuquerque" and "Tired Eyes" ache, and "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown" comes from a 1970 Fillmore East show with Whitten himself on vocals. This edition swaps in an unheard session take of "Lookout Joe" and adds "Wonderin'," "Everybody's Alone," a "Speakin' Out" jam and a third take of the title track.

Reprise held it back until 1975, when it reached No. 25 on the Billboard 200. It closes his so-called Ditch Trilogy, a name that suggests a muddy field, which, to be fair, is where some of us first heard it.

Also at Kops: more Neil Young on vinyl · browse CDN Pop / Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Reprise, a reissue of the 1975 album.