Everybody’s Rockin’

Young touched on this topic in a 1995 interview, stating:

Well [the album] was as good as Tonight’s The Night as far as I’m concerned. The character was strong, the story was great but unfortunately, the story never got to appear on the album. Before I got a chance to finish it – I got stopped from recording. Geffen cancelled a couple of sessions where I was going to do two songs – “Get Gone” and “Don’t Take Your Love Away From Me” – that would’ve given a lot more depth to The Shocking Pinks. But if you didn’t see the shows you wouldn’t be able to get into it fully. Of course, it wasn’t anywhere near as intense as Tonight’s The Night. There was very little depth to the material obviously. They were all ‘surface’ songs. But see, there was a time when music was like that, when all pop stars were like that. (Ardently) And it was good music, really good music.

“See, when I made albums like Everybody’s Rockin' and everyone takes the shit out of ‘em…l knew they could do that. What am l? Stupid? Did people really think I put that out thinking it was the greatest fuckin’ thing I’d ever recorded? Obviously I’m aware it’s not. Plus it was a way of further destroying what I’d already set up. Without doing that, I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing now. If I build something up, I have to systematically tear it right down before people decide, Oh that’s how we can define him.