The oft-neglected third part of the so-called Ditch Trilogy that also comprises On The Beach and Tonight’s The Night, Time Fades Away has been commercially unavailable for years: as of this publication, it is joined only by the Journey Through The Past soundtrack as the only Neil Young album not available on CD. This obscurity may explain, in part, its current status as ugly duckling. At first listen, Time Fades Away also appears sunnier, if only relatively so, than the tormented Tonight’s The Night and the down-and-out On The Beach. The truth is far more complicated: for all of the talk of Tonight’s the Night as Neil’s booziest, bleakest LP (it is surely one of the booziest and bleakest ever made), it is the tequila-fueled Time Fades Away that captures Neil at his most blasted and punk-petulant. Performed and recorded entirely live to arena crowds unfamiliar with the new material and waiting to hear “Heart Of Gold” and “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” Time Fades Away is the sound of an increasingly estranged Neil actually going through the dark stuff he’d write about and perform later on Tonight’s the Night. The album casts Neil as both the sadist and the masochist, baiting his faithful audience like some hostile punk rocker hocking gobs of mucus into the crowd, only to have the spurned, disapproving crowd spit back. As for the songs, they’re great: “L.A.” is a cutting ode to the seedy ‘city in the smog’ of its title; the homicidal-sounding title track throws the same sort of barrelhouse haymakers as “Tonight’s the Night” or “Southern Man”; and the resplendent piano ballads “Journey Through The Past” and “The Bridge” are clinics in heartfelt, honest songwriting. Fans of On The Beach and Tonight’s the Night who are unacquainted with Time Fades Away should consider tracking it down at any cost; I’m envious of anyone who gets to hear it for the first time.