Neil Young greatly dislikes his 1973 live recording, Time Fades Away.

During a 1987 interview with Dave Ferrin Young said:

My least favorite record is Time Fades Away. I think it’s the worst record I ever made—but as a documentary of what was happening to me, it was a great record. I was onstage and I was playing all these songs that nobody had heard before, recording them, and I didn’t have the right band. It was just an uncomfortable tour. It was supposed to be this big deal—I just had Harvest out, and they booked me into ninety cities. I felt like a product, and I had this band of all-star musicians that couldn’t even look at each other. It was a total joke.

So when Young’s albums started being reissued on CD, there was one that just didn’t get released.

Yep, Time Fades Away.

The album was mostly cut at a number of venues while Young toured the U. S. following the huge success of Harvest.

I saw several of shows during that tour and I thought the music was incredible. And I’ve always liked the album.

Now, finally, it’s being reissued.

The reissue will be remastered from the original analog studio recordings and pressed on 180-gram black vinyl.Problem is, it won’t be available as a stand-alone release. It’s being packaged in the Official Release Series Discs 5-8 Vinyl Box Set, which also includes On the Beach, Tonight’s the Night, and Zuma. Only 3,500 boxes will be released.

A Warner Bros. publicist told Pitchfork that there won’t be a wider reissue of the album until the second volume of the Archives box sets are released—no word on when that will be.

Young toured with the Stray Gators when the album was recorded: Tim Drummond, Johnny Barbata, Jack Nitzsche, and Ben Keith.

Check it out:

“Time Fades Away”:

“Journey Through The Past”:

“Yonder Stands the Sinner”:

“L.A.”:

“Love In Mind”:

“Don’t Be Denied”:

“The Bridge”:

“Last Dance”:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news —