It’s hard to imagine Neil Young feeling at all dissatisfied with his work. You don’t earn the kind of reputation that he has by having a middling track record. Despite the opinions of his fanbase, Young has credited Time Fades Away as being his least favorite record to date.
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His qualms with the record are less about the content and more about what was going on behind the scenes at the time.
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Time Fades Away saw Young take a risk. Never one to just play the hits, Young decided to debut previously unreleased material in a live setting on this record. Not too many other musicians would have the gall to do such a thing, but this is Young we’re talking about. The Godfather of Grunge isn’t too worried about sticking to the status quo.
The record was released to relatively rave reviews. They may not have measured up to his previous record, Harvest, but they certainly weren’t indicative of Young’s displeasure with the album.
Neil Young Talks “Least Favorite Record”
According to the folk icon, the setup of the accompanying tour wasn’t up to snuff.
“My least favorite record is Time Fades Away,” Young once revealed in a radio interview. “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,” he continued. “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. I had this band of all-star musicians that couldn’t even look at each other. It was a total joke.”
Revisit the album, below. Can you hear the lack of camaraderie that Young is talking about?
(Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
