Crazy Horse

Among the many ensembles that have backed Neil Young across his extended recording and performing history, Crazy Horse endures as the most celebrated, widely regarded as one of the premier garage-rock outfits ever assembled. Its origins trace to the little-known early-1960s doo-wop group Danny & the Memories, whose lineup already included future Crazy Horse members Danny Whitten, Billy Talbot, and Ralph Molina. At that stage the three concentrated exclusively on vocals while the act shuttled repeatedly between the East and West Coasts. Once the musicians settled permanently in Laurel Canyon during 1966, Whitten took up guitar, Talbot bass, and Molina drums, prompting the formation of the Rockets.

The expanded six-piece added violinist Bobby Notkoff along with guitarists Leon and George Whitsell; together they cut the unit’s sole album, the self-titled 1968 debut. Shortly after its release Whitten and Talbot encountered Neil Young, who had recently departed Buffalo Springfield and was preparing his solo debut. Young sat in with the Rockets at the Whisky A Go-Go, then promptly invited Whitten, Talbot, and Molina to record several newly written songs—“Down by the River,” “Cowgirl in the Sand,” and “Cinnamon Girl.” The trio contributed to those tracks and additional material that became Young’s sophomore album, the 1969 landmark Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere; afterward they dissolved the Rockets to join Young on a full-time basis, now operating under the name Crazy Horse.

That record positioned both Young and the band among rock’s most promising acts, and Young recruited them again for his third solo outing, 1970’s After the Gold Rush. Simultaneously, however, he accepted an invitation to join Crosby, Stills & Nash. During the resulting gaps in Young’s schedule, Crazy Horse secured its own contract and issued a self-titled debut in 1971. While the album did not duplicate the commercial impact of the band’s work with Young, it proved a strong collection featuring Grin guitarist Nils Lofgren and producer-pianist Jack Nitzsche, demonstrating that Crazy Horse was more than merely Young’s support unit. Heroin addiction soon overtook Whitten, eroding his playing and commitment; he exited the group by 1972.

Crazy Horse carried on with a succession of replacement guitarists, issuing the uneven albums Loose and At Crooked Lake that same year. As the band’s fortunes waned, Young’s profile rose with the release of his biggest-selling record, the country-rock classic Harvest. Disturbed by reports of Whitten’s worsening condition—the subject of Young’s composition “The Needle and the Damage Done”—Young invited his former bandmate to rejoin the touring ensemble. Whitten’s condition rendered him unusable during rehearsals, and he was dismissed. On the night of November 18, 1972, Whitten died of an overdose.

Deeply shaken, Young completed the tour before reuniting with the remaining Crazy Horse members in summer 1973 to develop a batch of stark, street-life songs. The band toured Europe later that year with Lofgren reinstated, then tracked the material, which remained unreleased until the 1975 masterpiece Tonight’s the Night. That year Frank “Poncho” Sampedro was installed as Whitten’s permanent successor; the reconstituted Neil Young & Crazy Horse delivered Zuma, followed by 1977’s American Stars ’N Bars and selected tracks on the largely country-oriented Comes a Time in 1978. In the midst of these projects Crazy Horse released its own fourth album, 1978’s Crazy Moon, which featured guest appearances by Young and stood as the group’s strongest, most cohesive effort since its 1971 debut.

Young next conceived an elaborate theatrical production built around a new set of songs—half acoustic, half hard-rock—populated by roadies costumed as Jawas from Star Wars and dominated by oversized speaker cabinets. The resulting tour yielded both the 1979 classic Rust Never Sleeps and a concert film of the same name whose soundtrack appeared as the live album Live Rust.

Although Young withdrew from live performance for three years afterward, Crazy Horse still participated on his early-1980s studio releases: the mellow Hawks & Doves and the harder-edged Re-Ac-Tor. Throughout the remainder of the decade Young explored assorted styles with other musicians yet continued to involve at least one Crazy Horse member in most projects. A proposed 1984 Neil Young & Crazy Horse tour collapsed, but the original lineup reconvened two years later for another tour and the commercially disappointing 1987 album Life. With Sampedro remaining alongside Young, Molina and Talbot recruited guitarist-vocalist Matt Piucci and guitarist Sonny Mone, continuing under the Crazy Horse banner to release the lackluster 1989 album Left for Dead.

Eventually Young reassembled the classic lineup, and Crazy Horse—minus Piucci and Mone—rejoined him and Sampedro for the back-to-basics 1990 album Ragged Glory. The ensuing tour produced the definitive live document Weld, issued the following year along with an accompanying video. Further joint releases followed in the 1990s, including Sleeps With Angels (1994), Broken Arrow (1996), the 1995 home video The Complex Sessions, and the 1999 concert album and film Year of the Horse, interspersed with additional touring. In 2001 another tour introduced several new songs slated for a future album. During the intervening periods Talbot formed the Billy Talbot Band and explored a reunion of the 1980s-era Crazy Horse lineup under the name Raw.