Mark Lansing wrote:
In Jimmy McDonough's book Shakey, David Briggs claims there's a far superior version of Tonight's The Night that Neil opted not to release, but I have a hard time imagining how that album could be improved. As far as messed-up dark-night-of-the-soul rock records go, that album is one of the champs.
I think that the song order and some of the songs themselves were different. There are a couple of so which weren't recorded by Briggs in those sessions that are included in the released album. As one of those songs is
Lookout Joe, I'm happy for this interruption of the original sessions. That song rocks.
The other aspect that I recall is that there was a lot of tequila-fueled backchat on the unreleased version, surreal skits from the description that I read. I could see how they might add to the atmosphere; certainly they would change it.
I agree, though: I cannot see the released version being improved upon with such a restoration. I would be fascinated to hear it, nonetheless, as it sounds like that it might be a very disconcerting record. To hear those familiar songs in an altered, but original setting (as opposed to some horrid retrospective one), would be spooky.