Lost and Found: Neil Young

Today's Lost and Found is a two-for-one, mainly because I couldn't decide which Neil Young album I wanted to talk about. Only Neil Young could have such an effect on me. So with out further ado I give you Time Fades Away and Trans.

Neil Young Time Fades Away
So what do you do if you've just released the critically acclaimed best selling album of 1972? Well, if you're Neil Young you launch a nation wide tour during which you play nothing off that album, opting instead for completely new material. Then you release a live album from that tour, completely baffling both fans and critics. Of course, that's only part of the story.

After Harvest was released in 1972, Young suddenly found himself with more fame and fortune than he knew what to do with. Most people would probably relish such success, but Young merely seemed to shy away from it. Then on November 18, 1972, Danny Whitten, guitarist for the band Crazy Horse, died of an apparent Heroin overdose, not long after having been fired during the preparations of what would become the Time Fades Away tour.

The first album in what is known as the Ditch Trilogy, Time Fades Away finds an artist who's not only trying to make sense of his new found celebrity status, but is also coming to terms with the death of a close friend. Young was apparently drunk for most of the tour, much to the frustration of his fellow band mates. As is the general theme of the Lost and Found segment of this blog, the album, which features guest appearances from both David Crosby and Graham Nash, was a total flop. As far as anyone can tell, that was OK with Young, who seemed to be looking for a fast exit from the spotlight. Unfortunately, the travesty does not end there. Possibly due to the use of poor techniques and unreliable equipment during the mastering process Time Fades Away has never been released on CD. Apparently there's a good chance it never will be, since there's almost no way of ever recovering the original master recordings, which were already quite muddy to begin with. This is quite unfortunate since the record contains the only recorded versions of some of Young's more intimate songs including, "Yonder Stands the Sinner," "Love in Mind," "Don't Be Denied," and "Journey Through the Past." As of now the only way to Hear Time Fades Away is to get your hands on a the vinyl, which is certainly hard to find.


Neil Young Trans
Often considered by critics to be one of Young's worst albums, Trans is not the misstep it's cracked up to be. Released in December of 1982, Trans was the first of five albums Young released on Geffen records, none of which were successful for either Young or Geffen. Actually, in 1984, Geffen sued Young for failing to release a commercially accessible album as per his contract. Regardless of Young's intentions behind the five Geffen albums, there certainly seems to be little to link them, except that they're all generally uncharacteristic albums for Young.

Trans is certainly no exception. Running his vocals through a Vocoder and opting to replace his defining guitar sound for synthesizers and a drum machine, Young was clearly stepping out of his comfort zone, but it actually pays off more than you'd think. The opening track, "Little Thing Called Love," as the only straight forward rocker on the album (and the only track to not feature synthesizers or the Vocoder) is actually one of the lesser tracks on the album. Aside from a completely digital reworking of Young's "Mr. Soul" (originally a hit for Buffalo Springfield), songs like "Computer Age," "Sample and Hold," and "Transformer Man" are all very stronge efforts, and sound absolutely nothing like anything Young has done before or since. If anything, these songs have more in common with Kraftwerk and Joy Division than anything else. "Transformer Man," incidentally, has had a life of its own as it is the only track to have survived Trans. The song made an appearance during Young's MTV Unplugged appearance and has also been covered by Sonic Youth.

The Truth is that Trans was such a drastic change from the rest of Young's repertoire that when it was first released no one knew what to make of it. In retrospect it feels more like an artist taking chances and testing his limits in uncharted territories. The results are somewhat varied, but overall successful, and Trans definitely deserves a second chance to redeem its place in rock history.