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Neil Young - Time Fades Away

I first "discovered" this incredible record around 1980, when a friend that I had known since school, Darren, bought it, along with the equally brilliant "On The Beach". I, of course taped it, along with "On The Beach", although neither albums made much impression on me at the time. They were too dense, too angst-ridden for an average 17 year old in Kent in 1980. I much preferred the sweeter country harmonies of "Harvest" & "After The Goldrush", or even the crashing noise of side 2 of "Rust Never Sleeps" - at least that seemed more honest!

However, I was only 17 - what did I know. A few years later, I found the tape, played it & it knocked me off my feet. The angst-ridden wailings of "Don't Be Denied" suddenly made sense. "The Punches Came Fast & Hard, Laying On My Back In The Schoolyard" no longer sounded like self pitiful whinings, but an exorcism of the hurt & pain of constantly moving, of always feeling like an outsider.

To understand the background to the creation of this masterpiece, you need to go back a few years. In 1969, Neil Young needed a full time backing band after his parting with Crosby Stills Nash. He turned to local Los Angeles band "The Rockets", not because they were the best musicians, but they certainly played the best. They had real fire and energy in the gut. That was far more important than knowing scales & complex chord changes.

Neil immediately rechristened them Crazy Horse and a beautiful but turbulent marriage began that still exists today. (As a point of interest, to hear what Crazy Horse (The Rockets) sounded like without Neil, The album "Crazy Horse" cannot be recommended highly enough). The line up of Neil Young (Guitar & Vocals), Danny Whitten (Guitar), Ralph Molina (Drums), & Billy Talbot (Bass), recorded the seminal "guitar-hero" album "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere", with it's trademark howling guitar solos & improvised playing that showed an artist & band at the peak of their powers & understanding of each other. I could easily write pages on this album alone, but that will have to wait until another time.

The following year (1970), Neil along with an augmented version of Crazy Horse recorded "After The Goldrush", a much sweeter, folkier album (the blistering "Southern Man" aside) and achieved huge commercial success. On the back of this success, he went for the commercial jugular & recorded & released "Harvest" just a few months later. This was the album that really established him as an international superstar.

However, all was not sweetness & light for Neil. He famously quoted on the sleevenotes for 1977's "Decade" compilation of "Heart Of Gold": "This song put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there".

The ditch is precisely where he went to (Commercially at least) although with the benefit of hindsight, the three proper albums recorded there (excluding "Journey Through The Past") make some of the most rewarding & compelling listening of his entire career. "Time Fades Away", "On The Beach" & "Tonight's The Night" stand head & shoulders above virtually everything else recorded by anyone anywhere between 1973 & 1975. They are harsh, uncompromising and deal with drugs, death, regrets, alienation and serial killers. They scarcely offer any solace or hope.

However perversely, they do. Maybe it's knowing what someone else has lived through that gives you the courage to overcome the trials & tribulations of your own life. Maybe it's just voyeurism, but somehow this music uplifts, transforms and makes life make sense. Maybe it's just some of the finest rock'n'roll ever made.

During the recording of "After The Goldrush", Danny Whitten's health was rapidly deteriorating and becoming a real cause for concern. Subsequently, loyally helping out an old friend, Neil told Danny Whitten that he could play with his new band - "The Stray Gators" - if Danny was off of the heroin. He did come off but compensated by consuming huge quantities of anything & everything else. When he turned up at Neil's ranch for rehearsals, he was incapable of playing a note. "We were rehearsing with him & he just couldn't cut it" he told Rolling Stone's Cameron Crowe in 1975. "He couldn't remember anything. He was too out of it. Too far gone. I had to tell him to go back to LA. "It's not happening man. You're not together enough." He just said "I've got nowhere else to go Man. How am I gonna tell my friends?" And he split. "That night the coroner called me from LA & told me that he'd OD'd. That blew my mind. Fuckin' blew my mind. I loved Danny. I felt responsible. And from there I had to go right out on this huge tour of huge arenas. I was very nervous and insecure."

That, I believe is the key to understanding these albums. Under huge commercial & public pressure, he went out on a major tour playing to people who were expecting a nice cozy evening of gentle sing along songs and instead gave them a vision of the hell that he was going through. To make matters worse, partway through the tour the band & roadies demanded a payrise. Neil gave in but the atmosphere was irreparably damaged. In an attempt to shore up morale, he enlisted Dave Crosby & Graham Nash (Croby's mother was dying & Nash's girlfriend had just been murdered - not the people that I would choose to cheer me up!)

Somehow from this miasma of despair, something beautiful arose. The friction & sparks fly from the groove. (This album along with "On The Beach" have never been re-issued on CD. Track down an original vinyl if you can - there are illicit CD copies about, but the scratch/hiss removal removed half the music as well.) On the quiet songs ("LA" and "The Bridge") the crowd are too noisy, on the louder songs ("Don't Be Denied" and "Last Dance") they are frustratingly quiet, as Neil & band in turns work harder to fire up the crowd & then just seem to give up. At the end of "Last Dance" is one of the most thrilling moments of music that I have ever heard (others include the end of "Ascension Day" by Talk Talk and the drum solo in "Bad Reputation" by Thin Lizzy.) Neil chants mantra like "NO NO NO" over & again starting with just feedback for company, before the rest of the band cotton on & improvise around him, prompted by the barely audible Graham Nash's "Sing With Us". Suddenly everything gels, and from the ashes of a song going nowhere comes the most glorious 90 seconds that you will ever hear.

Maybe it's just some of the finest rock'n'roll ever made.