"Night After Night" by NILS LOFGREN - October 1977 Double Live Album on A&M Records -Fourth Album Overall (25 February 2022 UK Beat Goes On (BGO) 2CD Reissue and New Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry....

 

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"...A Little Bit Of Courage Is All We Lack..."

 

After a stint with Neil Young on the "After The Gold Rush" album in 1970 and the first album with the short-lived Crazy Horse (their debut "Crazy Horse" was released February 1971) - Nils Lofgren formed GRIN and promptly popped out four studio albums in a row - "Grin" in January 1971, "1+1" in January 1972, "All Out" in February 1973 and their final "Gone Crazy" in October 1973. But despite good reviews and catchy tunes in tow - the first three albums barely scarped the American Top 200 and for only a few weeks at a time (chart positions of 192, 180 and 186 respectively) - while the really rather good LP "Gone Crazy" did not chart at all. With Grin played out, Lofgren began to focus at last on a proper solo career.

 

Newly signed to A&M Records (who were making a lot of smart signing choices in the early to mid Seventies) - up jumps the LP "Nils Lofgren" (or the Fat Man album as its often known because of the front cover artwork) - his fabulous March 1975 debut solo album. Quite rightly, it received mucho praise and actual Billboard LP chart action - pushing up to No. 135. Helped by the brilliant single and album title track, his second solo platter "Cry Tough" from April 1976 was a genuine smash (peaking at No. 32) - while the lesser-received "I Came To Dance" from March 1977 made a very respectable No. 36. As was deriguere for the day, it was time for the inevitable Seventies 'live' set which was always going to be a double-album and was always going to showcase his amazing guitar prowess and maybe even highlight that Lofgren could pen a tune that moved as well as excited.

 

And that's where this long-overdue Beat Goes On (BGO) twofer comes a trampolining in. Cleverly combining tracks from three of the Grin LPs mentioned above with the cream on the three solo LPs - the live double "Night After Night" shone big time and actually acted as something of a Nils Lofgren Greatest Hits to date. To the Moon Tears...

 

UK released 25 February 2022 - "Night After Night" by NILS LOFGREN on Beat Goes On BGOCD1473 (Barcode 5017261214737) is a Reissue of his first official Live Double-Album Newly Remastered in 2022 onto 2CDs. It plays out as follows: 

 

CD1 (43:35 minutes): 

1. Take You To The Movies [Side 1]

2. Back It Up 

3. Keith Don't Go (Ode To The Glimmer Twin)

4. Like Rain

5. Cry Tough [Side 2]

6. It's Not A Crime

7. Goin' Back 

8. You're The Weight

 

CD2 (42:53 minutes): 

1. Beggars Day [Side 3] 

2. Moon Tears

3. Code Of The Road 

4. Rock And Roll Crook [Side 4]

5. Goin' South

6. Incidentally...It's Over 

7. I Came To Dance

 

NOTES:

Tracks 1 to 8 on CD1 and 1 to 7 on CD2 are the live 2LP set "Night After Night" - released late October 1977 in the USA on A&M Records SP-3707 and late October 1977 in the UK on A&M Records AMLM 68439. Produced by DAVID BRIGGS and NILS LOFGREN - it peaked at No. 44 on the US Billboard LP charts and at No. 38 in the UK. Recorded at The Hammersmith Odeon in London, Apollo Theatre in Glasgow and The Roxy in Los Angeles. All songs by NIls Lofgren except "Goin' Back" by Jerry Goffin and Carole King

 

Tracks 1 and 4 on CD1 originally on the Grin album "Grin" from January 1971

Tracks 2, 3, 7 on CD1 and Track 4 on CD2 originally on the album "Nils Lofgren" from March 1975

Tracks 5 and 6 on CD1 and Track 6 on CD2 originally on the Nils Lofgren album "Cry Tough" from April 1976

Tracks 8 on CD1 and 1 on CD2 originally on the Grin album "Gone Crazy" from October 1973

Track 2 on CD2 originally on the Grin album "1 + 1" from January 1972

Tracks 3, 5 and 7 on CD2 originally on the Nils Lofgren album "I Came To Dance" from March 1977

 

BAND:

NILS LOFGREN - Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar, Piano on "Goin' Back"

TOM LOFGREN - Guitar, Organ, Backing Vocals 

(Rev.) PATRICK HENDERSON - Paino, Organ, Backing Vocals 

WORNELL JONES - Bass, Timbales, Backing Vocals

DAVID PLATSHON - Drums and Percussion 

The outer card slipcase and 16-page booklet with new liner notes from ROGER DOPSON give this 2CD Reissue a look and feel of class. The artwork front and rear and inner photos of Lofgren's band that graced the inside of the gatefold are all here - as is Dopson's blow-by-blow account of the great axeman's heyday (he is now a permanent member of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band). Dopson uses quotes up to 2021 when Nils reminisces and comments on his career - he's in the best of places - working for the Boss with the freedom to release solo projects (studio and live) to his heart's content. This double-album from 1977 is a case in point. It hasn't been on CD excepting Lofgren's stupendous but now deleted and expensive 9CD Box Set "Face The Music" from April 2014. So Beat Goes On (BGO) have pulled off a wee bit of a blinder here in issuing "Night After Night". The new 2022 ANDREW THOMPSON Remaster is fabulous - the live vibe still in tact - not that much hiss to worry anyone and the muscle now there where it was always needed. 

Lofgren opens the account with a track from Grin's self-titled debut all the way back in 1971 - "Take You To The Movies". He does it almost Acapella - even throwing in a joke about taking his girl to see "Stars Wars" - which given that the gigs are 1977 - elicits huge cheers from the crowd. The band then launches with "Back It Up" - the band all lending Backing Vocals (it was a hugely popular choice on the "Nils Lofgren" debut). About one and half minutes in, Nils launches into his guitar soloing - then more towards the end of the song - and man is it hair-raisingly good. Then in comes his Rolling Stones fixation which he craftily disguises in a soloing intro that has the crowd whooping before WALLOP - the riff kicks in with that Satisfaction undertow - and it Rocks. A write away letter - straight to his main inspirer - urgent from the USA. 

He calms things down with another "Grin" forgotten song in "Like Rain". It's a lovely vibe even if the monitors are humming a tad in the background and some of the crowd can't keep their traps shut. About one minute in, he suddenly launches into an heavy electrifying solo - only to calm it back down. Then it starts - probably everybody's fave - "Cry Tough" has the crowd clapping loudly - Doctor Feelgood lives right down his street - son Cry Tough. When he starts in on that solo with those fantastic harmonics - it's great Rock 'n' Roll - backed up by the Drums and Organ. But while that Rocks - LP1 always had my heart with his utterly stunning cover of Goffin/King classic "Goin' Back" made famous by The Byrds. It was on 1975's debut, but here he again opens with a gorgeously melodic lead him - all him on the piano. Lyrics from it entitle this review and by the time the band reaches the kick in, I'm in floods. I find his live version of "Goin' Back" uplifting and moving and it's been in my Top Ten of tracks from that whole decade for 30-years hence. Oh look out indeed!

"Beggars Day" that opens CD2 harks all the way back to the first "Crazy Horse" album from early 1971 - a band that featured Jack Nitzsche, Nils Lofgren, Billy Talbot and the fated singer-singwriter Danny Whitten. Lofgren returned to the song for Grin's fourth and last album "Gone Crazy" where the song was re-done and given the full title of "Beggars Day (Tribute To Danny Whitten)" after Whitten's passing. He then whomps that rocker with an even better Grin tune - the brilliant "Moon Tears". When I used to hang with Face To Face in Dublin, every Friday night at Toner's Bar where they had a semi-residency in the late Seventies - a choppy riffing rocking cover of "Moon Tears" was always a highlight - and its no different here. He funks it up with the Little Feat-ish piano boogie of "Code Of The Road" replete with stunning soloing about four minutes in and band harmonizing towards its rollicking nine-minutes-plus finish. And on it goes to an even longer crowd pleaser "I Came To Dance" (almost eleven-minutes) - where Lofgren and his super tight band slay all in view.

Are we mellow inside, can we take it through the night - I think so. England's Beat Goes On have done top quality twofer reissues in the past - but this Nils Lofgren is one of the most enjoyable plays I've had in yonks - a timely reminder of a massive talent - and a Remaster that fans will adore. 

 

He's not Bob Dylan, but he never misses a beat. Never mind the Glimmer Twin, NL don't go...