Neil Young: Time Fades Away

Original Release: 1973

Musicians:

CODE

Neil Young: vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica
David Crosby: guitar, vocals
Tim Drummond: drums
Ben Keith: lapsteel guitar, vocals
Graham Nash: vocals
Jack Nitzsche: guitar, keyboards

Review:

I've been a hard core Neil Young fan for more than 2 years (I'm only 22) and I first heard about this album from reading the biography "Shakey". Like most fans, I loved the other two albums in the "Doom Trilogy",(more like practically wore them out) so instead of sitting around waiting for Neil to release this on CD (that could be next year, next decade, or never), I finally decided to search the internet for it and when I finally got it all together in the original running order and listened to it .wow. "Time Fades Away" embodies that sense of impending doom - as if Neil had somehow subconsciously knew that everything was about to go from bad to worse.

The first lyrics of the album really tell you what you're in for. "Time Fades Away" starts off with a bar-room barrelhouse piano, rollicking guitar, and Neil shouting "Fourteen junkies too weak to work, one sells diamonds for what they're worth, down on pain street disappointment lurks". Ben Keith adds some amazing lead slide guitar, and the song definitely has that Tonight's the Night, everyone's had several shots of tequila feel to it, with Neil and Ben kind of haphazardly singing the chorus "Son don't be home too late, try to get back by eight, son don't wait till the break of day, cause you know how time fades away".

Next up is "Journey Through the Past". This is one of three amazing solo piano songs on the album, and depending on my mood, the best. It could definitely be a song about how fame can leave as quick as it came and Neil is most likely talking straight to the fans with the line "When the winter rains come pouring down on that new home of mine, will I still be in your eyes and on your mind"? But it's also a song that proves that Carrie Snodgrass (the Oscar-nominated actress who Neil lived with) was Neil's Courtney Love. The lyrics throughout "Journey" are brilliant and are sang with a very sincere, drunken emotion. Neil's piano playing here also ranks right at the top.

"Yonder Stands the Sinner" is kind of weird. Right before the song starts I believe it's David Crosby's voice you hear say "This is kind of experimental, but I think it'd be good to be in on." Musically it's a pretty rocking jam, but what the hell is it about? Some lyrics are talking about "the Great Pretender" and how Neil "went to see him but he's not the same." The chorus is just "yonder stands the sinner, he calls my name without a sound?" and is shouted in such a sneering fashion it makes you wonder who it's directed at in real life and why. All in all, it's a cool, funky song but I've never known what it was about and it's the lowest point of the album.

"Don't you wish that you could be here too?" Neil sings, voice dripping in sarcasm, in "L.A." a song about the "uptight city in the smog." "L.A." is a mellow rocker recorded live with most of CSN. It's one of the catchiest songs here and deep down it's about people who don't listen to advice and need to always learn things the hard way.

"Love in Mind" is Neil solo on piano again, singing about things like how he's got "nothing to lose, but can't go back again" and how "man made rules been holding back my love/churches long preach sex is wrong/Jesus where has nature gone/what am I doing here?" Throughout the slightly less than two minute song, Neil uses his signature soft banging/loud banging piano playing style that must mean he was pretty buzzed, but it works to great effect. Still, out of the three this is the worst of the solo piano songs.

"Don't Be Denied" has to be the most well-known song off this still unreleased album, it being the only one to still be performed live with any semblance of regularity. Lyrically Neil tells a story about his evolution as a professional songwriter, from moving to Winnipeg and getting beat up in school, to dropping out and forming his first band, to cruising the Sunset Strip in limousines with Buffalo Springfield. He somehow also manages to reference the just released at the time "Stairway to Heaven" ("well all that glitters isn't gold/I know you've heard that story told"). The lazy guitar riff throughout the song is very catchy.

"The Bridge" is solo piano ballad numero tre. Neil accompanies himself nicely here with some of his usual harp playing, in a song which is almost definitely about making up with Carrie after a particularly big fight.

"Last Dance" is the loudest, rawest, and longest track of the whole album. It's the only track on which Neil let's Old Black loose in the style of "Everybody Knows" except it's harder, riffier, more emotional, and much drunker than anything on that CD. It's also the masterpiece of the album. "Woke up, it was a Monday morning, no time left to say goodbye?" the first lyrics of the song introduce it as what it really is: a raucous eulogy for Crazy Horse guitarist and close friend Danny Whitten. Throughout the song, it sounds at times as if Neil is playing and singing for his own soul, trying to live with the regret and guilt of feeling he possibly was a little responsible for his friends death. After the song and album's end, it's no wonder Neil hates this CD and hasn't reissued it. Why bring back the memories of undeniably the most painful part of his life?

To sum up "Time Fades Away," it's much more than a drunken eulogy, more than a live album, more than a CD to throw on when you?re drunk and feeling down, more than a masterpiece: it's a piece of album veritae - the brother of cinema veritae - that needs to be heard to be believed. It's a classic that deserves a place beside any of Neil's other classics. It's a record that needs to be released and a CD that you must buy whenever Neil decides to release it. More than that, it's an album that deserves to be sought out and listened to. So do so.

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Neil Young: Time Fades Away

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