Crazy Horse

From the Rockets to Crazy Horse

The group began in 1963 as a doo-wop outfit, Danny and the Memories, built around the singer and guitarist Danny Whitten with the bassist Billy Talbot and the drummer Ralph Molina. They went electric after seeing the Byrds, became the Psyrcle, which made a single produced by Sly Stone, and then the Rockets, who made a self-titled album for White Whale in 1968 that sold about 5,000 copies, according to Talbot. Three Dog Night covered Whitten's "Let Me Go" on their 1968 debut.

In August 1968 Neil Young sat in with the Rockets at the Whisky a Go Go and recruited Whitten, Talbot and Molina for his second solo album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (May 1969, as Neil Young with Crazy Horse), which reached number 34 on the Billboard 200 and included "Cinnamon Girl". The band's name came from the encounter, as Reprise's 1997 biography tells it. Jack Nitzsche joined on electric piano in October 1969 and toured with Young in early 1970; Live at the Fillmore East, recorded that March, appeared in 2006.

Their own records

After the 1970 tour Young let the band go and they signed their own Reprise deal, with Whitten, Talbot, Molina, the young guitarist Nils Lofgren and Nitzsche. Crazy Horse came out in February 1971 and reached number 84; Christgau wrote of it, "there's not a bad song on the record. Not a bad cut, either." Lofgren and Nitzsche left after it, and Loose and At Crooked Lake (both 1972, on different labels, with George Whitsell and Greg Leroy) did badly; Whitten died in November 1972. Later albums under the band's name were Crazy Moon (1978) and Left for Dead (1989), with Trick Horse, recorded in 1986, posted in 2009.

Talbot, Molina, Lofgren and Ben Keith backed Young in 1973 on what became Tonight's the Night (1975). Frank "Poncho" Sampedro joined in the mid-1970s, and the group played on Zuma (1975), Rust Never Sleeps and Live Rust (1979), Re-ac-tor (1981) and Life (1987); in late 1987 Young replaced Talbot and Molina with the Bluenotes, keeping Sampedro. The original rhythm section returned for Ragged Glory (1990), followed by Weld, Arc, Sleeps with Angels (1994), Broken Arrow (1996), Year of the Horse (1997), Greendale (2003), Americana and Psychedelic Pill (2012), Colorado (2019), Barn (2021) and World Record (2022). Lofgren rejoined in 2018 and Micah Nelson joined later; a Love Earth tour began in April 2024, and its remaining dates were cancelled on June 26, 2024.

Legacy

Whitten's "I Don't Want to Talk About It" has been recorded by Rod Stewart, the Indigo Girls and Everything but the Girl. Young wrote "The Needle and the Damage Done" with Whitten in mind. Early Daze (2024) is an archival release of the 1969 sessions. Fifteen studio and eight live albums have been billed as Neil Young and Crazy Horse; Talbot and Molina are the only members present throughout.