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Crazy Horse is an American rock band best known for its association with Neil Young, who they have backed on numberous albums and tours since 1969.
Following the departure of founding member Danny Whitten, Frank Molina and Billy Talbot had released two albums with a variety of other musicians under the Crazy Horse name in 1972. However when Whitten died later that same year they effectively retired the Crazy Horse name. They went back to work with Neil Young, and appeared on his albums Tonight's The Night (with Nils Lofgren and Ben Keith, as The Santa Monica Flyers) and On The Beach (among many other guest musicians).
It was in 1975 that Young decided to record with Crazy Horse again, and so they found a new rhythm guitarist in Frank Sampedro. The four of them recorded the well-received Zuma album, and over the next few years they toured the US, Europe and Japan. Crazy Horse also made appearancess on both 1977's American Stars N Bars and 1978's Comes A Time.
Later in 1978 they recorded another album of their own. Young was heavily involved in Crazy Moon, adding lead guitar to many of the tracks, so that it ended up sounding much like a typical Neil Young album with the lead vocals shared between Molina, Talbot and Sampedro. With a mix of hard rock and country rock styles, it also featured appearances from keyboardist Barry Goldberg, violinist Bobby Notkoff (a past bandmate of Molina and Talbot's), pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith, and old friends Greg Leroy and Michael Curtis, who had both been briefly in the band back in 1972.
At Crooked Lake (1972) <|> Left For Dead (1989)
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Crazy Horse is an American rock band best known for its association with Neil Young, who they have backed on numberous albums and tours since 1969.
At Crooked Lake was the second album Crazy Horse released in 1972, and also featured their second post-Danny Whitten lineup. Guitarist George Whitsell and keyboard player John Blanton had left, to be replaced by brothers Michael and Rick Curtis. This resulted in pretty much an entirely new band again, consisting of Rick Curtis (guitar/banjo/vocals), Greg Leroy (guitar/slide/vocals), Michael Curtis (keyboards/guitar/mandolin/vocals), Billy Talbot (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums). It was just the continuing presence of Talbot and Molina that kept the Crazy Horse name, as the album was essentially a debut from a new group. Their use of the name was probably a bad idea, as it would forever associate them with Danny Whitten and as Neil Young's backing group, when they probably had wanted to start afresh.
At Crooked Lake is actually a fine album, and vastly underrated. The new lineup gave them some quite diverse instrumentation, in particular some really tasty slide playing from Greg Leroy, and there are guest appearances from violinist Bobby Notkoff (a past bandmate of Talbot's and Molina's from their days as The Rockets) and pedal steel guitarist Pete Kleinow. Stylistically, it's a great mix of hard garage rock, country-rock, folk and psychedelia. There are a couple of songs in particular which are worthy of great praise, and show the potential this lineup had. It's a shame that they never recorded anything else, as after the death of Danny Whitten, Talbot and Molina effectively ended the group and let the Crazy Horse name go unused for years. They would return to work sporadically with Neil Young over the next few years, until they finally resurrected Crazy Horse with Frank Sampedro to record Young's 1975 Zuma album, and they remain in that incarnation today.
Loose (1972) <|> Crazy Moon (1978)
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Crazy Horse is an American rock band best known for its association with Neil Young, who they have backed on numberous albums and tours since 1969.
After their fantastic debut album, Crazy Horse appeared to be moving out of the shadow of Neil Young, who they had backed on his Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere album. However singer and guitarist Danny Whitten was not functioning at this point due to his heroin addiction, and was reluctantly forced out of the band. They also lost pianist/producer Jack Nitzsche and guitarist/songwriter Nils Lofgren who had helped out as band members on their debut album, as they went on to other things. This left the sole remaining members of Crazy Horse as bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina. However rather than accept that the band was over, they decided to recruite new members and forge ahead under the Crazy Horse name.First they brought back their old guitarist friend George Whitsell, who had played with them back in their days as The Rockets. They also found a new lead guitarist in Greg Leroy, and a keyboard player in John Blanton. All three new members sang and wrote songs. The result was in all reality an entirely new band, connected to the old one only by the rhythm section of Talbot and Molina and their ownership of the Crazy Horse name.Though it clearly isn't as strong as Crazy Horse, 1972's Loose is still a great album. Whitsell, Leroy and Blanton all contribute strong material and are fine musicians, and the songs are strengthened by great vocal harmonies. Perhaps if Talbot and Molina had decided to rename the band it would have gained more favourable and generous reviews.
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Crazy Horse is an American rock band best known for its association with Neil Young, who they have backed on numberous albums and tours since 1969.
Crazy Horse's origins can be traced back to a band called The Rockets, who released one album in 1968. It did not sell well, but did earn them the attention of Neil Young, who then took guitarist Danny Whitten, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina and recorded his album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, renaming them Crazy Horse.All three members were involved in the recording of Young's 1970 album After The Gold Rush. They appeared as Crazy Horse on three of the album's songs, and independently were featured here and there alongside the other musicians playing with Young. This was where they met producer/pianist Jack Nitzsche and guitarist Nils Lofgren. Nitzsche joined them to back Young on a 1970 tour, and they then expanded into a quintet with Lofgren, getting themselves a contract with Reprise records.Their self-titled album came out in early 1971. Stylistically it ranged broadly across the rock pallete, featuring both country-tinged numbers and heavy rockers, all unified by the band's characteristic stomp. The core trio of Whitten, Talbot and Molina were never the most dazzling instrumentalists, but could sure lay down a steady rhythm together, and Nitzsche and Lofgren complemented this with some instrumental flash. Also appearing on three songs is slide guitarist Ry Cooder, and fiddler Gib Guilbeau plays on one number. The songwriting is shared throughout by Whitten, Nitzsche and Lofgren, alongside "Dance Dance Dance", a Neil Young number he had been playing in concert at the time but would never record himself (though he used the same melody for "Love Is A Rose" six years later). Though Molina, Nitzsche and Lofgren all sing lead vocals on one song each, the star of the show is undoubtedly Whitten, who acts as lead singer for most of the album. Its clear from this album that when they weren't in the shadow of Neil Young, Whitten was perfectly capable of leading the band himself. Sadly this potential was never fully realised, as Whitten's life was beginning to be taken over by drugs. He was kicked out of the band, and was dead by November 1972.
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