HEADED FOR THE DITCH

* Neil Young – lead guitar, piano, harmonica, vocals
* Ben Keith – pedal steel, harmony vocals (on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 8)
* Jack Nitzsche – piano (on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 8)
* Johnny Barbata – drums (on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 8)
* Tim Drummond – bass (on tracks 1, 3, 6, 8)
* Joe Yankee – bass (on track 4)
* David Crosby – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (on tracks 3, 6, 8)
* Graham Nash – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (on tracks 3, 6, 8)

Time Fades Away

Neil Young's 1973 "Time Fades Away" is one of the most remarkable live albums ever recorded. Certainly at the time of release, it was almost unprecedented for an artist to release a live concert recording of previously unreleased material. Long out of print on vinyl and still unavailable on CD in the early 21st century, the album is considered to be the "Holy Grail" of all Neil Young albums and the "missing link" of the "Ditch Trilogy".

"Time Fades Away" is the first installment of the trio of albums known as the "Ditch Trilogy". The edgy moody darkness of recording and brilliantly erratic song selection offer the portrait of the artist undergoing a deep catharsis and excorcising demons which is so palpable that most listeners turned away -- or worse ignored completely.

Neil Young's three consecutive early 1970's albums "Time Fades Away", "On The Beach" and Tonight's The Night are considered by many fans the Rosetta Stone to understanding his entire body of work. Because of their dark, haunting brilliance, the albums are known as "The Ditch Trilogy".

In the often quoted hand written liner notes of Decade, Neil writes: " 'Heart of Gold' put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch." Hence, the origin of the "Ditch" term -- which is sometimes also referred to as the "Doom" period or "The Wilderness Years".

The impetus for the heart of darkness spiral can be traced back to Harvest's "The Needle and The Damage Done", Young's legendary anti-drug plea based on the heroin trouble's of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten.

Here is a link to the HDCD that was briefly released to a very select few before Neil yanked it back .This is a blog site that has a nice review and information posting on this LP. The file download is in the FLAC format Burn this one to CD for a copy of a great LP

http://thepowerofindependenttrucking.blogspot.com/2010/06/essential-neil-young-time-fades-away.html

I hope you have enjoyed the Neil Young series. Please give me some feedback.