Roxy: Tonight’s The Night Live is a priceless document after all these years

At one point, Young introduces himself as smooth swing band leader Glenn Miller. Elsewhere, he states that after “10 big years in the business” he feels like MOR crooner Perry Como. The proceedings captured on Roxy: Tonight’s The Night Live are about as far removed from cosy crowd-pleasing as possible, however. It’s startling to imagine that only a year or so separate these recordings (culled from two sets at the club) from the release of Young’s US Number 1 album Harvest, the deceptively laidback country-rock vibes of which catapulted the Canadian songwriter into super-stardom. Such unpredictability would became Young’s trademark and remains so to this day: in stark contrast to contemporaries who are keen to avoid messing with their heritage with new product, Young seemingly never stops creating: this release almost coincides with the soundtrack for improvised Western Paradox (starring Young), which came out very soon after The Visitor, Young’s latest studio album and one of the more consistently enjoyable records he’s put out since his 90’s renaissance slowed down with 1996’s Broken Arrow.

The high times in a professional sense coincided with acute personal tragedy. On the eve of a tour of arena-sized sheds booked to capitalise on the huge success of Harvest, Young’s musical sidekick - and a hugely talented songwriter and singer in his own right - Danny Whitten, freshly dismissed from the post of a guitarist in the touring band due to severe drug issues, died of an overdose. Not long after, Bruce Berry, a roadie for the hippie-era supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, passed away in similar circumstances. Young’s subsequent sorrow over the loss and, by extension, disillusionment with the sweet yet hollow promises of consequence-free hedonism promised by the hippie dream reverberated throughout 1973’s battered, dispirited yet deeply compelling live album Time Fades Away. It found its full fruition on the nine tracks Young, backed by Whitten’s Crazy Horse colleagues Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina, Nils Lofgren and pedal steel virtuoso Ben Keith, recorded in a rehearsal studio not situated far from Roxy in boozy all-night sessions later described as a wake for Whitten and Berry.

It’s these tunes that Young’s performances at the Roxy and as such also this set focus on: the only other tune included here is a galloping, coming-apart-at-the-seams cruise through “Walk On”, opening track from 1974’s On The Beach which also hadn’t been released yet. You’d expect a party crowd expecting to hear Number 1 smash “Heart of Gold” and other familiar favourites would promptly reach out for the tar and feathers when faced with in places surreal set consisting entirely of new material that for the most part foregoes the heartbroken balladry Young was by now renowned for in favour of heavy-hearted, road-weary laments, head-hung-low autopsies of the gilded hippie dream, and - in two distinctive takes on “Tonight’s The Night” - nothing short of a blues-drenched - check out Lofgren’s stinging lead guitar - requiem for fallen comrades.

Yet it’s clear Young and co. have the crowd on their side from the start. Rightly so: nothing could replace the twilit majesty of the Tonight’s The Night album (which was eventually released in 1975 following the first of Young’s many sudden U-turns that led to a fully prepared album called Homegrown being booted off the release schedule at the last minute in favour of one of the least commercially viable recordings ever put out by an artist at the peak of their pulling power). However, these by turns tougher (“World On A String” crackles with gritty energy), sadder (a mesmerising “Albuquerque”, complete with a wonderful drunken choir of harmony vocals, seems ready to stumble under the immense weight of the world) and looser (Young gets so deep into character on the desolate “Tired Eyes” that the band end up trekking precariously through uncharted territory) constitute an absolutely essential counterpart to the original album which went on to become one of Young’s universally acknowledged masterpieces after a frosty initial reaction. Roxy: Tonight’s The Night Live deserves a similar status.