Neil Young - Time Fades Away (withdrawn 1995 HDCD CD Release)

This album has never been released officially on CD, although in 1995 it was remastered using the HDCD system and was set for release for the first time on CD. This project was ditched (for reasons unknown), although a few promo copies did manage to get into the public domain and are easily available to download on certain websites. This album wasn't mixed in the traditional way, as explained below:

"There were no 2 track masters ever made of this record. The master discs were cut directly from the 16 track masters through the Compumix system. A mix was recorded to a second 16 track machine--we had 2 that would run perfectly together--to feed the variable pitch system of the lathe--but was discarded when we were through. I was the mastering engineer who cut the masters. —Phil Brown"

If this is the case, did they have to do a brand new mix for this album for the aborted CD release? I haven't read anywhere that a new mix was done, just a new remaster.

 

Good question. Since the album was also released at the time on cassette (and, I think, 8-track) as well as vinyl, there must have been *some* type of stereo master tape made during the "direct-to-disc" process, and presumably that would have been the basis for the CD as well.

As for the "reasons unknown" for the CD release being ditched, it's become clear that NY decided that he doesn't like the album and doesn't want it out. I'm hoping he has a change of heart and includes it in Archives Vol. 2, whenever *that* sees the light of day.

 

I'm looking forward to getting it as a 70th birthday present, in 2030.

 

Interesting. I have this CD, and someday it's on my list of things to do, to compare with the lp I have ...

How many lp direct "master discs" were there? Seems like a pretty time consuming way of doing it. Still not sure if I believe that's the way they actually did it. If you manufacture and sell millions of a vinyl album (millions? hundreds of thousands? Whatever the number is/was in this case), how many direct masters would you need? ("Stampers" ?)

I don't know the exact terminology, but hopefully I'm making sense.

 

Neil wanted magic in a bottle. Gone (or not the same) when the last drop came out.

It's not that big of a deal to remix TFA. In fact, I'm thinking it can be done better.

 

Neil Young has recorded some bloody awful albums over the past 40 + years and Time Fades Away is not one of those. I love it.
I find it weird he hates that one when CDs like Trans are available.

 

I recently "acquired" a copy of this album. I had never heard it before. I grabbed it because it doesn't look like it is going to be reissued anytime soon in ANY format ...

I think it is a wonderful album. I will gladly part with cash to obtain an official CD of it, when and if it becomes available.

I am guessing the version I got was sourced from the promo CD, as it does not sound like a needle drop. It sounds excellent, in fact.

C'mon, Neil! Take my money, PLEASE!

 

The HDCD sounds very good, even compared to the vinyl. It is a shame that he pulled the plug after copies were pressed. He did the same thing with Reactor, but then after some bonehead paid $700 on ebay for an original Reactor HDCD that had escaped the factory, Neil pressed it again and released it. That guy would probably like to have his $700 back.

 

The "plan" for this in the next box, which is available in several interviews, is TFA II which uses Johnny on drums instead of Kenny, so a different part of the same year. I don't know the history of all the boots from that year, but if I remember correctly London from November of that year didn't always circulate which MAY be an indicator of things to come.

For me my personal favorite is the Bakersfield show from March. Since it has Kenny on drums it will probablly never see the light of day on an official release. A shame as the Don't Be Denied and Sweet Joni are some of the finest performances I have ever heard from Percival.

Neil has had this idea for TFA II for some time, and may focus more on the later part of that year and more of the Tonight's The Night material, which is cool. All speculation mind you.

The HDCD of TFA is a fine production and sounds great. Would love to have that in high res BD but am happy we have what we have.

I hope with the way things are moving that the next Box Set is in fact a BD offering.

I am not here to defend Joe Yankee, but the tired jokes about the delays and the releases dates in 30 years are more annoying to me now than the actual delays. I have enough of his music and the music of others to last a few lifetimes. When it's time it's time.

 

Correction, Johnny Barbata is the drummer on the Time Fades Away album and on that Bakersfield show in March. Ken Buttrey left the tour around mid February.

 

Thank you sir. I am operating from fading memory. What has Neil been going on about this whole time then? I don't have Shakey here but he has talked about the drummer situation as an excuse to dismiss Time Fade Away and all the bad memories associated with it. I don't have time to dig up all the articles on this, but am more perplexed now than before. I didn't remember the album featuring Johnny.

Here is where my confusion stems, from Wiki:

In October 2009, Young told Guitar World that a disc titled Time Fades Away II will be included in the second volume of the Archives box set series, noting: "It's interesting because [Time Fades Away II] has a different drummer than what was on that album. Kenny Buttrey was in there for the first half, and Johnny Barbata came in for the second. It's a completely different thing, with completely different songs.

I know that he and Buttrey had bad blood over money, so maybe what Neil is really saying is that TFA II will feature the earlier part of the tour.

 

Per Wiki (FWIW) :

The tour came on the heels of the success of the country-tinged Harvest. Audiences did not always react positively to the new songs premiered; neither were they fond of the Gators' new sound,[citation needed] more reminiscent of the hard-rocking Crazy Horse of old. Young grew mentally unstable as the tour progressed, frustrating drummer Kenneth Buttrey to the point where he left the group two-thirds of the way through. He was replaced by ex-Turtles, CSNY, Jefferson Airplane, (and future Jefferson Starship) percussionist Johnny Barbata, who plays on all of the recordings on the album. Similarly frustrated 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 guitars from his trademark Gibson Les Paul to a Gibson Flying V.

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. After ninety days, the tour ended in Salt Lake City.

 

That would appear to be the case. I would love a high-defintion version of TFA but the source for the unreleased CD is a bit of a mystery. Hopefully we'll get more information on it later.

 

I do too. I have the TFA test CD and two LP versions, US and Germany. But a lot of folks don't have access to this music and that's a shame. The "tired jokes about the delays" is gallows humor for a lot of us but Neil's history of promises, teases and non-delivery is also quite tiresome.

 

I remember some interview with Jack Nitzsche - it might be in Sharkey - where he completely blasted Neil on this tour, remarking about his lame solos and how he would turned around from the audience and grimace while he played like it was such heavy stuff and Jack thought it was all just crap. I was shocked and saddened because these two had had such a long and sympatico relationship. Will have check Sharkey again - that thing is like a textbook, I refer to it so often.

I'd be thrilled to hear an alternate TFA. I saw one of those shows and was pretty surprised at what we got, although my mind was open to it. The crowd at the show I saw was fairly restless, I would say, but not outright rude. I thought it was a good show, but not nearly the best of his I've seen over the years. I recall a band version of "New Mama" that I thought was great - hope that shows up on Archives II.

And yes, his voice was really shot on that tour. So many songs were just out of his range but he screamed them anyway. "Yonder Stands The Yeller" I always call that one.....

 

It's a good album, some classic stuff on there. I don't know why Neil is being a curmudgeon about it. To my ears, the leaked official version doesn't sound much different from my vinyl or my needle-drop. I did add the b-side "Last Trip to Tulsa" as a bonus track on the version I made.

 

Two more quick thoughts:

I love the sound of Neil's voice absolutely GONE: Thus the love for the Bakersfield. It suits the material, for instance the Don't Be Denied I referenced above, just has more defiance, and soul. His vocals match up perfectly with the lyrics. He is laying it all out there, stripped bare.

While I love the spirit or to be accurate spirits behind this tour, the looseness, and abandon they play with, the material and songwriting is as weak as anything he released until the 80s if you exclude Don't Be Denied and JTTP. I really dig LA and Last Dance for what they are but most of these songs are near misses at best.

 

It's among his best 10 albums; the personal dislike must be because of bad memories of the tour.

 

Is that the sequel to Shakey?

 

Yes, don't you have it yet?

 

Yeah
Or LIVING WITH WAR

 

Trans is a great record. If you were going to pick a weak one you should've gone with Old Ways.

Time Fades Away is great. Neil is so concerned with fidelity these days that I'm guessing that the condition of the masters is the reason this is not seeing the light of day again.

 

I hear Sharkey deals with how Mr. Young decides his vinyl pricing, thus the title...

 

Is Sharkey's Machine machine analog or digital? Place your bets...