Ever since I was small, I have been drawn to the music and the mystery of Neil Young. I could not imagine my life without his music in it, without his concerts, without the inspiration his words, music, and the patterns of his career have given to me. This is the first of two rare Neil Young streams I plan to present to you.
Part of being a hunter and collector of beloved music, as most of you know, is giving in to accepting that there are some things we will never be able to find in our lives in exactly the condition we would want them. Such has been the case with Time Fades Away, Young’s critical and commercial failure of 1973 and one I long dreamed of owning. Never in my life have I eyed a truly mint-condition copy of the record, and never have I heard anything other than scratchy tapes or bootlegs of the album. That was the case, of course, until today.
Recorded during a very dark period in Neil’s life and career that seemed to begin with the firing and subsequent death by heroin overdose (the day following his firing) of friend and bandmate Danny Whitten, Time Fades Away consisted entirely of live recordings of songs from Neil’s 1973 tour with backing band The Stray Gators — songs which he had not previously released. The songs were recorded in front of audiences who had never heard the songs before, and there was frequently a chilly response. Young was known for the upbeat Harvest album and hit songs like “Heart of Gold” at the time. Time Fades Away contained very little of that upbeat flair. The disaffected live performances created an album which proved as brooding in its disposition as it was ambitious. Neil Young himself calls Time Fades Away “the worst record I ever made,” yet acquiesces that it is a document of what was happening to him at the time.
The listening public at the time was not prepared to embrace such an album, and the criticism of TFW was both harsh and swift. After peaking at #22 on the album chart, the album slowly became cut-out and soon after went out of print. To music lovers and fans of Neil Young today, the album is a monumentally important part of Neil Young’s catalogue and is referred to as the “Holy Grail” of Neil Young albums.
The honest, bare-knuckle Neil Young represented in this album begs to be heard by modern listeners. A petition was started some time ago to urge the release of this record to the modern listening public, and it has collected over 6000 signatures online. As it happens, an incredibly clean-sounding set of audio files from the album have come into my possession, and I could see no reason not to stream them here for you. What you’re going to hear is pure Neil Young at some of his most experimental, erratic and emotionally powerful. If you’re a fan of Neil Young and you’ve never heard of this album, you’re not alone. It is my hope that by making this music available to you, you’ll sign that petition or, as fate would have it, perhaps Mr. Young will see this and ingratiate himself to fans by making the album available again.
Far from being the worst thing he ever made, it is instead a historical document of an artist whose immeasurable historical and modern relevance and importance to music is still writing itself.
TRACKLISTING:
Time Fades Away [5:36]
Journey Through The Past [3:19]
Yonder Stands The Sinner [3:17]
L.A. [3:11]
Love In Mind [2:02]
Don’t Be Denied [5:16]
The Bridge [3:05]
Last Dance [8:47]
(with thanks to thrasherswheat.org for the plethora of information and the petition and to Human Highway for the complete album notes)
Click here to stream Time Fades Away by Neil Young (High Bandwidth Cable/DSL/T1)
