Time Fades Away

Will Neil Young's Time Fades Away ever be released on CD? (individually I mean).

 

Apparently, "Time Fades Away II" will be in the NY Archives Vol. 2 box. According to Neil, that's an alternate version of the album, recorded during the second half of the tour. In addition to different songs, it also features Johny Barbata on drums (as opposed to Kenny Buttrey). There's no word on whether the original Time Fades Away will be included. I daresay it deserves it, though.

 

Thanks, I have not bought Archives V1, and do not intend to. I have purchased the individual remastered CDs available. I was hoping all the original CDs would eventually be released as a byproduct of the Archives project.

 

There are unauthorized versions out there if you look hard enough. Supposedly a CD master was created once for release, HDCD encoded too, but never officially put out. I came across a real silver Al CD of the HDCD version a while back. If you listen to it in the context of his other albums (and CDs of that period), it fits right in.

But now that there's an official download for it on Pono, not real reason to look for it on CD.

 

http://thepowerofindependenttrucking.blogspot.com/2010/06/essential-neil-young-time-fades-away.html

 

Other way around. The original Time Fades Away was from the second half of the tour with Barbata (except for two of the solo Young tracks "Journey Through The Past" and "Love In Mind"), and I recall Young saying he would release earlier versions with Buttrey.

 

Well if Neil allows it on Pono, I wonder why he won't release it on CD? I bet it will be on Archives Vol 2, but I do not want 90% of the stuff he made after around Rust Never Sleeps. In fact I had all his CDs through Greendale and sold all after Rust Never Sleeps except for Sleeps With Angels. I was excited when they finally put Tonight's The Night, Zuma and On The Beach on CD and was SURE Time Fades Away would soon follow. Then he started reissuing his albums individually coinciding with the Archive release and oh boy after the first 4 albums, Time Fades Away should be in the next batch. But NOOO. Only as a download now. WTF?

 

I think it's largely due to his dissatisfaction with the CD format. TFA is currently available (albeit limited edition) as an LP in this box set.

What I'm wondering about is why he seems to be ignoring the potential of the SACD format.

On top of that, what's wrong with releasing it now on CD (HDCD?), and then reissuing it later on, once (if) there's a better format available?

 

Well isn't BluSpec the ultimate physical media these days? (I do not have any, so I do not know). But as far as physical media goes, CD is still the most common/popular.

 

"Time Fades Away" is my favorite album of 1973. I was fortunate to have seen Neil on this tour. It was my first Neil Young concert. I love the concept of a live album with all new songs. It's the only vinyl album I purchased that never made it on CD. I've read many reasons over the years for not releasing TFA. Only Neil knows for sure, but it's one more crazy thing that makes Neil one of the most interesting guys in the history of rock and roll.

 

Just to clarify, Tonight's The Night and Zuma were issued on CD way back in the late 80s along with a bunch of Neil's other Reprise titles. On The Beach was indeed part of a more recent batch of reissues, along with American Stars 'N Bars, Hawks & Doves, and Reactor.

As we know, Neil completely held back Journey Through The Past and the subject of this thread.

 

The common story with TFA is because it was mixed down directly to disc, there was no 2-track master tape. This was done via an early automated console called the Quad Eight CompuMix. I found this post from the inventor Bill Whitlock:

http://prorecordingworkshop.lefora.com/topic/19403585/1973-AND-Compumix#.VlBjc2IayK0

About Compumix

I conceived and developed Compumix while I was chief engineer at Quad-Eight from 1971 to 1974 (replacing Deane Jensen, who left to start Jensen Transformers - which I would later come to own after Deane's suicide in 1989). Compumix was, as was mentioned earlier, simply an array of (analog) voltage-controlled amplifiers (dBx 202's) that were inserted between multi-track outputs and console line inputs during the mixdown process. During mixdown, fader positions (and a switch function per channel) were digitally encoded (bi-phase code in the audio frequency range ... as is SMPTE time code) and recorded on a spare track. There were no floppy disks or microprocessors in those days). To refine the mix, a second pass was made and selected channels put in "update" mode. This would alter the original fader positions of the selected channels by adding or subtracting level (depending on the fader position relative to the -15 dB mark, a standard we seemed to establish). This updated code was recorded on a second spare track. The process could be continued, bouncing data back and forth between those two spare tracks ... the downside was that there was a small time lag for each update that, given enough passes, could become noticeable. Compumix was instantly popular since it was relatively low-cost and didn't require replacement of the existing mixing console. Units were bought and used by Neil Young, Ken Nordine (made lots of high-profile commercials in Chicago), and many others. I personally "hung out" with Neil during the mixdown of "Time Fades Away". He was thrilled to be the first to ever cut a disc directly from the original 16-track live concert recording - with no master tape (an added tape copy generation) ... and requested that it say so on the record label. The criticism of "murky sounding" or "unreliable" are unfounded and likely come out of ignorance - or possibly just resistance to change. Compumix did not digitize the audio signal, it was just a digitally-controlled analog system. Of course, the system got better as computer technology became available later, but Compumix I overcame some serious shortcomings of competing systems by Allison Research (level repeatability depended on tape machine calibration) or Olive (who did a lot of advertising but never delivered), At Quad-Eight we made a photo of the Compumix controller with an olive (bitten in half) sitting on the corner as a joke. Bud Bennett, owner of Quad-Eight and known as a penny-pincher, gave me a huge bonus that year. I left Quad-Eight in 1974 because Laserium, a laser light show company, was just getting started and made me an offer I couldn't refuse! --- Bill Whitlock (recently retired from Jensen Transformers and now self-employed as Whitlock Consulting in Oxnard, CA)

He later posts....

Thanks for the kind comments! I'll try to have at least an occasional presence here. Sorry if my Compumix post ended up on the wrong thread ... I was doing a search for early Compumix ads in connection with a "History of Jensen Transformers" that I'm writing for Jensen's new owner (Radial Engineering of Vancouver, BC ... makers of the famous Radial JDI direct box). The search landed me on a post in which someone asked if anyone knew more about Compumix ... and, of course, I had to set the record straight. On a related matter, if I knew how to contact Neil Young directly, I'd offer to repair or set up an old Compumix which would allow re-creation of his "Time Fades Away" album but this time directly to a CD (or HDCD) mastering machine (rather than directly to the master disc cutter at the Lacquer Channel in Sausalito as was done forr the original LP). Of course, Neil would still have to have the original 2" 16-track tapes ... but Compumix could certainly re-create the original mix. Those were wonderful days in the recording industry ... analog was reaching its pinnacle, quality wise. I agree with Neil that it's been a rather downhill slide toward mediocrity since then ... where convenience and portability trumps technical quality. If you keep your ears "calibrated" to the sound of real acoustic (unamplified) music, almost anyone can hear how bad MP3s are, for example. And personally, I'll put up with a bit of background hiss with a first-generation analog recording over any digital format I've ever heard. Anyway, I do digress! Incidentally, now that I'm semi-retired from Jensen, I'll be putting together my own website (domain name, already mine, iswww.billwhitlock.com) ... stay tuned. I'll be posting tutorial seminars on audio system grounding and interfacing (my specialty for the last 15 years and why the AES made me a Life Fellow) as well as other interesting audio stuff. I don't post on a lot of forums because 1. I tend to stay busy with paying work, and 2. the moronic "flamers" on some forums make it just not worth it to participate. The Syn-Aud-Con listserve is the only one I follow regularly ... but it's well monitored and only open to members (member list is a bit of a "Who's Who in Audio" list), which costs money. Anyway, thanks guys! - Bill Whitlock

So if anyone here knows how to reach Neil, Bill Whitlock is offering to fix his CompuMix.

 

Thanks for the link to that box set pal. I really didn't know it was available.

 

Yes, it's a 'common story', but it's baloney, and has been debunked here many times. Of course there is a 2-track master tape. It was used for the unreleased HDCD and the hi-res download.

 

Having only recently discovered this album for myself (and I listen to it constantly), it just now occurred to me to look up some of his set lists from that tour to see what else he played. I've read that in true Neil fashion he had fans/critics scratching their heads with a show of mostly previously unknown songs such as those on the official release, but he played plenty of other stuff as well. I hope Time Fades Away II, if the Archives II is ever released, is a whole show or representative of one. I think these were great sets!

Neil Young & The Stray Gators Setlist at The Forum, Inglewood »

 

To employ an overused phrase of our times, "Right???"

How about this one:

Neil Young & The Stray Gators Setlist at Cobo Arena, Detroit »

 

Oddly enough, it's apparently the only time he played Words (Between the Lines of Age) live with the Stray Gators.

http://www.setlist.fm/stats/songs/neil-young-6bd6b662.html?song=Words+(Between+the+Lines+of+Age)

 

Unless you want a CD

 

Detroit wasn't professionally recorded.

 

Yes, that's a bit of history revisionism going on with that tour - he usually played oldies, most of the songs from Harvest and new songs.

 

Future Record Store Day item?...although it was in a bundle a couple years ago right?

 

It's purely an irrational, arbitrary decision, rooted, no doubt ,in his second thoughts, misgivings and guilt about the whole project

 

Still no luck with a CD release but looks like it is about to be reissued on vinyl along with On The Beach and Tonight's The Night
Neil Young’s On The Beach finally reissued as standalone vinyl LP | superdeluxeedition »