Neil Young :: Time Fades Away (Vinyl Transfer)

time fades awayHeart of Gold put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch.” — Neil Young

The 1973 Live album, Time Fades Away, marks the first LP in Neil Young’s early 1970s Ditch Trilogy (see also: On The Beach, Tonight’s The Night). Somehow, 30+ years later, with the vinyl long out of print, it has yet to see the light of day in terms of a proper CD release. This is most definitely due to numerous accounts of Neil Young disparaging the album as his “worst,” which is unfortunate, because if you like your Shakey with a little dirt on ’em, Time Fades Away is as good as it gets.

Thankfully, this super-slick vinyl transfer of Time Fades Away has been widely traded in bootleg circles for years. If you’re a Neil Young fan and, somehow, have not gotten your hands on this album, then by Zod, man, stop what you’re doing and download the following eight tracks immediately. You’ll thank me later. These will be available for a limited time only.

Also: Stay tuned for Neil’s new, studio album Chrome Dreams II due out October 16th on Reprise Records. And via Billboard: “The first volume of “Archives,” expected Feb. 18, also will include the previously released concert sets “Live at the Fillmore East” and “Live at Massey Hall.” The remainder will feature material cut with Young’s early Canadian band, the Squires, and scores of previously unreleased studio tracks.” (via)

Download:
MP3:
Neil Young :: Time Fades Away
MP3: Neil Young :: Journey Through The Past
MP3: Neil Young :: Yonder Stands The Sinner
MP3: Neil Young :: L.A.
MP3: Neil Young :: Love In Mind
MP3: Neil Young :: Don’t Be Denied
MP3: Neil Young :: The Bridge
MP3: Neil Young :: Last Dance
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Neil Young :: Journey Through The Past, Pt I 1973 (Video)

Not unlike Time Fades Away, Neil’s dabbling in filmmaking, what became the documentary Journey Through The Past (1973) is also not commercially available. But, like most everything in the 21st century, the film has found its way to the hallowed halls of YouTube.

Ostensibly a random collection of rehearsals, performances, general mayhem, and other bizarre “happenings,” the film is an interesting, if very uneven, look at Young and his bandmates during a highly creative point in time. The above is the first eight minutes of Journey Through The Past.

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+ Check out additional Neil Young tracks at the Hype Machine.

25 thoughts on “Neil Young :: Time Fades Away (Vinyl Transfer)

  1. sublime…! having owned the vinyl of ‘time fades’ for years and fearing the eventual wearing of the grooves i’ll take the downloads without hesitation. being too lazy to scour the internet for boots, and my own moral debate of ‘downloading’, your site is always my first stop for choice happenings. thanks for posting all of this…!

  2. Time fades away have been remastered but never released, with Last trip to Tulsa as bonus track.

    This is the first Neil’s album I ever bought, back in 1976, I was 15…

  3. I discovered this album last summer after hearing the Black Crowes cover L.A. at the Greek and wondering where the song came from. I was shocked to find a Neil album this good out of print – it is SO not his worst release, ask Geffen.

  4. Anyone who has followed Neil Young’s career knows enough not to expect a simple evening of mellow good times when they see him in concert, but in 1973, when Young hit the road after Harvest had confirmed his status as a first-echelon rock star, that knowledge wasn’t nearly as common as it is today. Young’s natural inclinations to travel against the current of audience expectations were amplified by a stormy relationship between himself and his touring band, as well as the devastating death of guitarist Danny Whitten, who died of a drug overdose shortly after being given his pink slip during the first phase of tour rehearsals. The shows that followed turned into a nightly exorcism of Young’s rage and guilt, as well as a battle between himself and an audience who, expecting to hear “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold,” didn’t know what to make of the electric assault they witnessed. All the more remarkably, Young brought along a mobile recording truck to capture the tour on tape for a live album and the result, Time Fades Away, was a ragged musical parade of bad karma and road craziness, opening with Young bellowing “14 junkies, too weak to work” on the title cut, and closing with “Last Dance,” in which he tells his fans “you can live your own life” with all the optimism of a man on the deck of a sinking ship. While critics and fans were not kind to Time Fades Away upon first release, decades later it sounds very much of a piece with Tonight’s the Night and On the Beach, albums that explored the troubled zeitgeist of America in the mid-’70s in a way few rockers had the courage to face. If the performances are often loose and ragged, they’re also brimming with emotional force, and despite the dashed hopes of “Yonder Stands the Sinner” and “Last Dance,” “Don’t Be Denied” is a moving remembrance of Young’s childhood and what music has meant to him, and it’s one of the most powerful performances Young ever committed to vinyl. Few rockers have been as willing as Young to lay themselves bare before their audience, and Time Fades Away ranks with the bravest and most painfully honest albums of his career — like the tequila Young was drinking on that tour, it isn’t for everyone, but you may be surprised by its powerful effects.

  5. Forgot to credit my source: that above backgrounder on ‘Time Fades Away’ is from the All Music Guide.

    Thanks for the posts.

  6. Good stuff, cheers for that. I’ve got an mp3 set of this one but I’ll take this too as I think it’s at a higher bit rate. Any more Neil Young entries would be most welcome, it’s how I discovered your page. You don’t happen to have an mp3 rip of the Journey Through The Past soundtrack by any chance?
    Thanks again.

  7. Fantastic! I ripped my old vinyl to mp3 but I have no doubt that these mp3’s will be higher quality. You can only get so far on a $99 Aiwa phonograph. When I think about my favorite Neil records, the three in the Ditch trilogy are right up there at the top… I really do like a little dirt on it. Or in the case of the Ditch trilogy, especially Time Fades Away and Tonight’s the Night, a LOT of dirt.

  8. THANK YOU. i hit up your site every time i jump on the net. you have given me such MAD shit over the past 18 months… and Time Fades Away ROCKKKKKS.

    thank you.

  9. I know the links gone dead but I would be very, very grateful if someone could send me this. I’ve been looking for it for so long, its like the holy grail.
    So, once again if anyone culd help me out it would really make my year

  10. man. been looking for a long time! one of my favorite Neil albums….it’s 3am, now I can’t go to sleep! thanks!!

  11. guess I can go to sleep now…links still dead…very sad….like Chris, I’d be EXTREMELY grateful if someone could send me this…it is my fave, and I can’t even find it on vinyl…..thanks

  12. just now I discovered this link and great offer of TFA mp3’s. Pity I’m too late and you seem to have closed down the downloads. Any chance of getting them still?

  13. Top Man for putting this out! Fantastic. I have everything else the man has done so I do not feel to guilty about it.
    He has got to release it! You cannot second guess the man!
    Tonights the night is my fave. Just started digging all the old stuff out after finishing the Neil Young Biog by Jimmy McDonough. Fantastic read! Long though!

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