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Time Fades Away

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Untitled

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 bootlegged, the album is considered to be the "Holy Grail" of all Neil Young albums[1].

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 signatures. As of October 9 2006, the petition has over 10,000.

History

Though "Love In Mind" dates from a 1971 solo tour (the same 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 Gators. 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[citation needed], 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 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 days.

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 Briggs, 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 cuts, 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 no critical accolades.[citation needed] However, due to its scarce nature in recent years, consensus among the Young faithful now places the record in the league of his greatest artistic triumphs.[citation needed] 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. While bootleg CD copies of the album have shown up, fans have made their own versions by transferring vinyl sources to disc.

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.

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 Constantines, a popular Canadian rock-band released a cover of "Don't Be Denied" on a limited edition split-record.

Widespread Panic has been sporadically placing "Last Dance" and "Don't Be Denied" in their setlists since the late 80's. Each song has appeared around 40 times each with both popping up a handful of times a year. "Don't Be Denied" took on an even deeper meaning for the members of Panic and their fans in August 2002 when guitarist and band co-founder Michael Houser succumbed to Pancreatic Cancer.

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Time Fades Away" – 5:36 Recorded at Myriad Oklahoma City
  2. "Journey Thru The Past" – 3:19 Recorded at Public Hall Cleveland
  3. "Yonder Stands The Sinner" – 3:17 Recorded at Coliseum Seattle
  4. "L.A." – 3:11 Recorded at Myriad Oklahoma City
  5. "Love In Mind" – 1:58 Recorded at Royce Hall UCLA

Side two

  1. "Don't Be Denied" – 5:16 Recorded at Coliseum Phoenix
  2. "The Bridge" – 3:05 Recorded at Memorial Auditorium Sacramento
  3. "Last Dance" – 8:47 Recorded at Sports Arena San Diego

All tracks written by Neil Young

Group Members and Other Participants

References in pop-culture

External links

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