Time Fades Away

About

Time Fades Away is a 1973 live album by Neil Young, consisting of previously unreleased material. Long out of print on vinyl, still unavailable on Compact Disc in the early 21st century and widely pirated, the album is considered to be the "Holy Grail" of all Neil Young album. In an effort to gain wider distribution of what they consider an essential Neil Young recording, fans started a petition in 2005 requesting that the album be officially released. In December of that year, the petition reached 5,000 signature. As of April 27, 2008, the petition has over 10,523. Though "Love In Mind" dates from a 1971 solo tour (the same 1/30/71 concert where "The Needle and the Damage Done" was recorded), all other songs on the album were extracted from recordings made during a 62-date tour in early 1973 that featured an acoustic set with Young followed by an electric set featuring the guitarist and his then-backing band, the Stray Gator. Looming large in Young's mind was the death of longtime collaborator and former Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten of a heroin overdose; Whitten was set to join the Gators as a second guitarist but was sent home after it became evident to all of the players involved that he was in no condition to embark on a rigorous tour. This motif of death and gloom recurred throughout the period, culminating in Tonight's the Night. The tour came on the heels of the megaplatinum success of the singer's previous effort, the quaint, country-tinged Harvest. Audiences did not react positively to the new songs premiered every night; neither were they fond of the Gators' new sound, more reminiscent of the hard-rocking Crazy Horse of old. Guzzling prodigious amounts of tequila, Young grew mentally unstable as the tour progressed, frustrating drummer Kenneth Buttrey to the point where he left the group 2/3rds of the way through. He was replaced by ex-Turtles and CSNY (and future Jefferson Airplane) percussionist Johnny Barbata, who plays on all of the recordings contained on the album. Similarly infuriated by the singer's lack of professionalism was pianist Jack Nitzsche, who according to producer Elliot Mazer in the book Shakey would often spew obscenities into his switched-off vocal microphone. Similarly, pedal steel/dobro player Ben Keith was so inebriated at one soundcheck that he had no idea of what instrument he was playing. For the tour, Young switched from his trademark Gibson Les Paul to a Flying V, an instrument he never truly grew accustomed to. Alcohol abuse, combined with his near-falsetto singing style on the tour, would lead Young to develop a throat infection in the final days of the tour. Called in to supplement the harmonies and add some extra guitar were David Crosby and Graham Nash. Clashes continued, with Nitzsche complaining that he couldn't hear himself playing because Crosby's 12-string electric guitar overpowered the sound mix (this was likely true, as keyboard miking technology was in its infancy at this point). The tour ended in Salt Lake City after ninety day. Along with the soundtrack to Journey Through the Past, Time Fades Away remains the only officially released Neil Young album unavailable on CD. Many Young aficionados like to believe that this is due to bad memories of the tour that spawned the record, though the problem may be due to more of a technical nature than anything else. Time Fades Away was recorded directly from the soundboard to final 2-track masters using the Quad-8 CompuMix, the first and utterly unreliable digital mixing soundboard--against the wishes of producer David Brigg, who referred to it as the "Compufuck" but was forced to yield to the desires of Young. This resulted in a murky-sounding release; because the final mixes were those rough cut, the album cannot be remixed. At the time of its release, Time Fades Away was poorly received in comparison to its predecessor, missing the Top 20 and gaining few critical accolade. However, due to its scarce nature in recent year, consensus among the Young faithful now places the record in the league of his greatest artistic triumph. In 1995, there were plans to release the album on CD using the HDCD encoding which went as far as having several test pressings made. However, the CD release was shelved for unknown reason. In early 2007, Young's management reiterated that there were no plans to release the album on CD. Pristine vinyl copies are still readily available in used stores and on eBay, often with the fold-out liner notes still intact. There are still some CDs in existence from the 1995 test pressings which have made their way outside of the record company. Copies of these CDs are often circulated as bootleg. Additionally, some fans have made CDs from the more readily available vinyl copie. The title track was briefly released as a single and featured "Last Trip To Tulsa" on the B-side, a live version also taken from the "Time Fades Away" tour and unavailable anywhere else. Neil Young commented on Time Fades Away in the original, unreleased liner notes for Decade. "Time Fades Away. No songs from this album are included here. It was recorded on my biggest tour ever, 65 shows in 90 day. Money hassles among everyone concerned ruined this tour and record for me but i released it anyway so you folks could see what could happen if you lose it for a while. I was becoming more interested in an audio verite approach than satisfying the public demands for a repetition of Harvest." In 1999, New York City glam/punk band D Generation, led by Jesse Malin, covered "Don't Be Denied" on their third album Through The Darkne. The Black Crowes included a cover of "L.A." in setlists throughout their 2005–2006 reunion tour, with vocals handled by lead guitarist Marc Ford. In 2006, The Constantine, a popular Canadian rock-band released a cover of "Don't Be Denied" on a limited edition split-record. Los Angeles rock band Jubilee, recorded a cover of L.A. for their debut single release 'Rebel Hiss' Widespread Panic often covers "Don't Be Denied" in concert, usually as an encore. It serves as a tribute to deceased guitarist and band founder, Michael Houser In 2008 Neil played the title track in concert in Germany. .

via Last.fm

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