Here is a video review of Neil Young's albums "Comes A Time" & "Time Fades Away" by Davy's Cinema Flicks & Music Picks.
As folks may recall, for literally decades now, we here at TW have campaigned for the re-release of "Time Fades Away".
Re-Release "Time Fades Away" Petition: http://timefadesawaypetition.thrasherswheat.org
After
all, folks have only been waiting since well ... we started the TFA
Petition back in 2014 and have gathered 10's of thousands of signatures.
All to little or no avail, deeply and sadly.
As Neil says on NYA, "TFA was never one of my favorites".
Well, lo and behold TFA has finally been re-released on CD format. (Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking this link
Slightly off topic, there will be another Zoom meeting call with Neil this afternoon. I’m at work but my wife is going to record it so I don’t miss any important details shared.
ReplyDeletePeace 🙏
Thanks for heads up Dan.
ReplyDeletemaybe someone will provide some notes as with previous chats?!
Drop it here, if so.
In the meantime: Comes A Time & Time Fades Away - Underrated? Over rated? neither? Both?
Patron call was too late for me in Europe so unfortunately no info from me this time around. Anyone else able to share the highlights?
ReplyDeleteI don't like Motorcycle Mama much, but I don't feel as passionately about it like to guy in the vlog seems to. It feels like a track that might have better suited inclusion on, say, American Stars & Bars.
ReplyDeleteI just checked my stats, and Comes a Time is equal 4th in terms of frequency of playing over the past couple of years. TFA is in 6th position.
I guess that means that, if anything, I tend to 'overrate' these albums, as I probably don't regard them as his 4th and 6th best albums respectively.
Broken Arrow would be my candidate for 'most underrated NY album' as it doesn't seem to receive much attention and, when it is mentioned, it is usually in the context of marking the end of a good run of albums.
I just gave my father in law a newly pressed CD copy of TFA
ReplyDeleteHe’s waited decades for to finally get a CD upgrade
My two cents: TFA is brilliant - essential Neil
Speaking of this early 70s period - TFA’s predecessor Harvest is getting the 50th anniversary treatment:
https://store.warnermusic.com.au/artists/neil-young/harvest-50th-anniversary-edition-3cd-2dvd
And for the vinyl heads:
ReplyDeletehttps://store.warnermusic.com.au/artists/neil-young/harvest-50th-anniversary-edition-vinyl-dvd
@ Greying Rider - many thanks for your previous reports.
ReplyDeleteFrom what we've heard thru the grapevine is no your plans anytime soon.
Not only is the electric bus a hold up, but now seems quite focused on improving the food quality at his concerts.
So it seems neil will tour once he has an electric bus and the food at his concerts is organic, non-factory farm, etc.
@ Steve L - Motorcycle Mama is definitely a track that seems to get a rise from some.
Agree on BA. Some super jams by CH.
@ Thomas - thanks. Posted on TW @ http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2022/10/harvest-50th-anniversary-edition-deluxe.html
The LP box seems to be much better thought out than ATGR. Although a bonus disc w/ 3 songs seems to be irking collectors. imagine that?!
so who's going in on this box???
I don't think Time Fades Away can be overrated because it can't be rated in any usual sense. I mean, the sheer and raw originality of the whole album is, by usual standards, inconceivable. Post Harvest, he releases what? But then the songs cannot be dismissed. For many good songwriters, "LA" might be a career type achievement. For Neil Young it is almost a throw-away. The album pulses with urgency and lingers on the edges of nihilism without going over. As always, Neil seeks redemption. Everything that is remarkably angry, ugly or dismal is balanced back by rough dignity, forgiveness and grace. ("Don't Be Denied" is at the base of self-respect and so it reaches out to others, it is relational, not insulated or isolating. In high school it was my theme song and if I cared about theme songs now, it would still be my theme song.) Neil Young always touches those on the margins and as it turns out that seems to most of us: in other words, he speaks in universals buried deep in his particular experience.
ReplyDeleteComes a Time is weirdly good, not the expectation. "Look Out For My Love" has that roughed up emotional need that seems a base of human love- the song picks up an urgency that becomes dramatic in the best ways. "Comes a Time" bluntly expresses what is universal without being banal- who can do this except a great artist? I can actually recall my mother saying once- to someone who was inquiring about my wayward sister- that there "comes a time when people find stability." Yes, a cliche but one that is surrounded on all sides by truth and danger. One wonders: is it possible to keep drifting, to never find stability? And the answer is yes, which is why we wonder about how anything can be stable and secure.
Finally, Time Fades Away is a sharp slap in the face to an embedded hegemony of success thinking and it is then beautifully liberating. No, the artist does not simply follow up with some unilinear progress, but might actually break in half, which Neil does on this album. His expressed brokenness is part of our healing, the hope of art and the human spirit, that we can come back from the brink. But we have to go to the brink. Many thought he had lost his marbles when in fact he was the one who was dealing with reality. Our reality.
Comes A Time? Kind of underrated.
ReplyDeleteTime Fades Away? Kind of overrated
There's a reason why it's never been re-released by Neil. He never thought that much of it, and I am in agreement with him on that. "Don't Be Denied" and the title track are great, but the rest is just filler to me. Maybe that puts me in the minority, but I'm okay with that.
For me, “Comes a Time”, as an album, is a case of largely good songs (hell, I think Motorcycle Mama is kinda funny…) but slightlu soupy, mawkish production. I prefer the title song solo acoustic from “Live Rust”, for instance.
ReplyDeleteTFA is its own creature. Two great songs, Journey Through the Past and Love in Mind, you can get cleaner versions from the Massey Hall disc. Very rough around the edge, TFA is best when most jagged: Yonder Stands the Sinner, Last Dance. Sinner is one of the heaviest, most hair-raising pieces of rock ‘n’ roll I’ve ever heard. Makes Almost Cut my Hair sound tame and restrained. (Sorry, Croz.)
Earlier this year, Noise & Flowers gave me TFA vibes in a very broad sense. The Real remind me a little of the Gators, just a little louder and considerably tighter than TFA.