Neil Young greatly dislikes his 1973 live recording, Time Fades Away.
During a 1987 interview with Dave Ferrin Young said:
My least favorite record is Time Fades Away. I think it’s the worst record I ever made—but as a documentary of what was happening to me, it was a great record. I was onstage and I was playing all these songs that nobody had heard before, recording them, and I didn’t have the right band. It was just an uncomfortable tour. It was supposed to be this big deal—I just had Harvest out, and they booked me into ninety cities. I felt like a product, and I had this band of all-star musicians that couldn’t even look at each other. It was a total joke.
So when Young’s albums started being reissued on CD, there was one that just didn’t get released.
Yep, Time Fades Away.
The album was mostly cut at a number of venues while Young toured the U. S. following the huge success of Harvest.
I saw several of shows during that tour and I thought the music was incredible. And I’ve always liked the album.
Now, finally, it’s being reissued.
The reissue will be remastered from the original analog studio recordings and pressed on 180-gram black vinyl.Problem is, it won’t be available as a stand-alone release. It’s being packaged in the Official Release Series Discs 5-8 Vinyl Box Set, which also includes On the Beach, Tonight’s the Night, and Zuma. Only 3,500 boxes will be released.
A Warner Bros. publicist told Pitchfork that there won’t be a wider reissue of the album until the second volume of the Archives box sets are released—no word on when that will be.
Young toured with the Stray Gators when the album was recorded: Tim Drummond, Johnny Barbata, Jack Nitzsche, and Ben Keith.
Check it out:
“Time Fades Away”:
“Journey Through The Past”:
“Yonder Stands the Sinner”:
“L.A.”:
“Love In Mind”:
“Don’t Be Denied”:
“The Bridge”:
“Last Dance”:
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Funny how Young disses that record which in fact established the sound he would milk for years to come on stage, until that noise became quite harmless and repetitve. For me when it came out it was really getting into me, thought it was an emotional step forward from the superb everybody knows this is nowhere that was just better in musical terms. Later this concept became a bit tedious to me, but back then it was a revelation, an extension of what Bob Dylan and the Band an The Velvet Undergound had explored. When punk came it got bogged down in simple reverb and loud energy, and guys like Young trying to stay young joined them and lost their inventiveness.
I have always thought this Neil Young’s best release…by far. And THAT is saying something.
Jim Linderman
There’s some good stuff on there. There are certainly plenty of things from Neil that is way worse than this and now available on cd. I like the fact that it’s not available on cd, because it makes owning the material a little bit special. It’s obviously not difficult to get an unofficial copy. Plus having the vinyl is very cool, a great cover.
It’s a wonderful album, a great live recording of terrific songs, very glad I have a bootleg !
C’mon, even Trans is officially available on CD, there’s no excuse for having left TFA this long.
Love TFA…sometimes the results are great despite problems with the journey…Last Dance is roaring !