Neil Young’s 1973 live album, Time Fades Away, has never been issued on CD, and has been unavailable in any format for decades despite demand from fans.
There was some excitement when Warner Bros. announced recently that for Record Store Day, April 19, a four-album box vinyl box set that would include a remastered Time Fades Away would be released.
Now we learn that project has been pushed back until November 2014.
The delay is due to “several other projects that Young has in the works that he wishes to focus on,” according to a press release.
Young recently told Spin that his next album, A Letter Home, is “likely” to be released in the spring, and that a second memoir, “Special Deluxe,” is coming on October 7, 2014, according to Amazon. And of course he’s got PonoMusic and an upcoming tour. Busy guy.
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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In early 1973 Neil Young went on 62-date tour following the huge success of his album, Harvest, with the hit single “Heart Of Gold.”
Young surprised his fans by performing many new songs, as well as more familiar ones. He recorded the tour and released an album of eight live songs which he called, Time Fades Away.
He later regretted that album and it’s never been released on CD.
