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REVIEWNeil Young is struggling for a stardom that fadedBy DAVE MARSHNeil Young: Tonight’s the Night (Reprise MS 2221). Tonight's the Night finds Neil Young at the tup of the heap, but .on his knees, struggling to get back to his feet. The musical difficulties of Iasi year's. On the Beach, which made some fine ideas almost impossible to jisten to, have been resolved in the most direct way possible; Young is once again working with the members of Crazy Horse and Nils Lofgren, with whom he made I he 1971 album, which is generally considered his masterpiece, After theGold Rush. . ' : .But even Crazy Horse isn’t what it used to be: lead guitarist Danny Whitten died of a drug overdose early last year, and his presence haunts the album. The track on which he does appear, “Come on Baby, Lei’s Go Downtown, ’’ recorded live, at the Fillmore four years ago, serves as a metaphor for the haunted,. frightened emotions Young wants to express. Whitten’s guitar and , voice complement, inspire and challenge Young, and the rest of the album struggles to keep up.Only rarely docs the music approach the standard which “Come on Baby,. Let's Go Downtown” has set. but when it does, on “Tired Eyes.” “Look Out Joe” and the reprise of the title song. Young is making the best music he has made since After , the Gold Rush. Nils Lofgren's piano and guitar are . as forceful and direct as they were on that album, and Ralph Molina’s drumming is perfect on both the most relaxed and the most tense songs. Still, there arc echoes of the desperation of On the Beach, not all of them lyrical. “Borrowed Tune. for example, is set starkly against Young’s * harp and piano while he bemoans his inability to write. The Umdem playing guilar and bass on the opening version of the title tunc sounds like the .crack of doom itself, and Young’s. singing is equally gloomy. “Tonight’s the night,” he sings over andNEIL YOUNGover,.while telling the story of roadie. Bruce Barrie, who died last year of a drug overdose. Young sings, it. sometimes as though has accepted it. buL never us though lie quite believes it.Tonight’s the Night, like On the Beach, is preoccupied with death. Its characters are either dead, shell-shocked, homeless oi' simply too wasted to move. The happiest man in any of the songs sings “I'm living a dreamland.” in “New Mama. But the terrors are too enormous to escape; in New Mama,” they track Young down as he sits on his farm, looking out at the frozen lake. And, tie brings it home to everyone when he sings, so calmly it’s spooky, in “Tired Eyes/’ “Please take my advice, please take my advice.” Neil Young leaves us as he found us, ravaged, but rocking.
Newspaper Details
The Gastonia Gazette
Gastonia, North Carolina, US
Mon, Jul 14, 1975
Page 19
Full Page
Clipped by
Olav S.
NO 30 Jul 2020
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