The band began in 1962 as the doo wop group Danny & the Memories, with Danny being guitarist Danny Whitten, and counting future Crazy Horse stalwarts Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina as members, the latter two the only individuals present in every incarnation of the band. The group evolved through nascent San Francisco folk-psychedelia, eventually ending up in Los Angeles and becoming The Rockets by 1966 with Whitten on guitar, Talbot on bass, and Molina on drums, along with Bobby Notkoff on violin and guitarist brothers Leon Whitsell and George Whitsell, who played on the Rockets' only album, a self-titled set in 1968.
During that year, Whitten had encountered Young, recently departed for good from Buffalo Springfield, playing gigs at the famed sixties Whisky a Go Go club in L.A. Young jammed with the Rockets on several occasions, and asked Whitten, Talbot and Molina to back him up for his second solo album Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, which included "Cinnamon Girl," "Down By The River," and "Cowgirl in the Sand", all distinctive guitar work-outs that would be vastly influential on alternative and grunge bands in the 1980s and 1990s, and remain staples of Young's concert sets to this day. The trio broke up the Rockets and formed Crazy Horse in 1969 as a permanent unit, touring with Young in early 1970. This tour would be featured on the 2006 album Live at the Fillmore East.
Young accepted an invitation to join Crosby, Stills & Nash, but used Crazy Horse on his third solo album After the Goldrush, the band riding the coattails of Young's high visibility as a result of his recent projects. With Young experiencing health problems and committed to other projects from late 1970 through most of 1971, Crazy Horse capitalized on its new-found fame and signed its own recording contract, releasing two albums on Young's label, Reprise Records. Adding producer/keyboardist Jack Nitzsche and guitarist Nils Lofgren as semi-permanent members, whom the band met while recording Gold Rush, this quintet recorded its eponymous album, the debut arriving in stores in early 1971. The album contained many strong compositions, the highlight being a song by Whitten that received several cover versions, "I Don't Want to Talk About It," most prominently that by Rod Stewart on his Atlantic Crossing album of 1975. Also in 1971, the core band with Young recorded in a support capacity for Buffy Sainte Marie, appearing on her She Used to Wanna Be A Ballerina album.
Lofgren departed to continue his own career, and Nitzsche moved on to work on Young's Harvest album, leaving Whitten as the remaining creative force. Unfortunately, Whitten's promise as both guitarist and songwriter was cut short, as he developed a serious drug habit, becoming problematic and a liability in meeting commitments. Talbot and Molina drafted several musicians to replace Whitten, bringing back George Whitsell and several others for the pair of Crazy Horse albums from 1972, but by mid-year Whitten had begun to unravel. During the fall of 1972, Whitten was placed on retainer by Young, purportedly to join Young's band for a tour, recordings from which would become the Time Fades Away album. After failing to pass audition with the group who had backed Young on the Harvest, a depressed Whitten returned to Los Angeles, dying days later alone of a heroin overdose on November 18.[1] Given the fact that these musicians, dubbed The Stray Gators, consisted of a group of highly talented and seasoned Nashville session professionals, it seems inevitable that such an audition would be flunked by a Whitten operating at far less than peak capacity. After Whitten's death, Crazy Horse would not release an album of their own for almost six years, and by then their recording career had fizzled out.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse live circa 2000. Left to right: Frank Sampedro, Billy Talbot, Neil Young.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse live circa 2000. Left to right: Frank Sampedro, Billy Talbot, Neil Young.
In early 1973, Young re-assembled the 1971-era Crazy Horse with Talbot, Molina, Lofgren, and Nitzsche, with Young sideman Ben Keith on board to tour and play Young's new songs. Because of its dark themes and uncommercial sound, the album documenting the songs auditioned on these concerts, Tonight's the Night was initially rejected by Reprise, its release delayed two years until 1975. That same year, Crazy Horse, down again to Talbot and Molina, announced Frank "Poncho" Sampredo as their new guitarist, his recording debut with the band being Young's Zuma album of 1975. With the exception of a brief hiatus in the late 1980s, Sampedro has remained a member of the line-up since.
In 1978, the band released its fourth album Crazy Moon before rejoining Young for his classic albums Rust Never Sleeps and Live Rust, both appearing in 1979. The groups's oft-criticized sloppy garage-band approach fit in well in the post-punk rock and roll world of the late seventies, with Young and the Horse running through songs old and new with fire and abandon. Hailed as two of the best in Young's career, the exuberant drive of the Rust albums owed greatly to the presence of Crazy Horse.
While sessions with Young had led to appearances by the band on each of his albums during the seventies with the exceptions of Harvest, Time Fades Away, and the Journey Through the Past soundtrack, Young spent the eighties experimenting with genres that were mostly outside the band's idiom. They backed Young sporadically during that decade, playing only on Re·ac·tor, Life, and a few tracks on Trans and Hawks and Doves, although the sessions for the latter had taken place years earlier. The entire band had initially folded into Young's Blue Notes outfit for This Note's for You, but after the trials of making Life and its poor reception, Young fell out with the band, dismissing them during the sessions.[2] While Sampedro remained in various band permutations with Young over the next two years, in early 1988 Molina and Talbot recruited two new Crazy Horse members to record the spitefully-titled album Left for Dead in 1989. To date, it is the band's last album of new material.
The split was short-lived, as Young and Crazy Horse reunited in 1990 for the acclaimed album Ragged Glory and its subsequent tour and live album Arc-Weld in 1991. They continue to be Young's "on call" band, backing the singer on his albums Sleeps with Angels, Broken Arrow, Year of the Horse and Greendale. Sampredo did not appear on the Greendale CD, but he did rejoin the band on the subsequent tour, playing keyboards for the Greendale material and guitar for the encores.
In the Neil Young biography Shakey, it was mentioned that Crazy Horse was working on a new album in 1995 and 1996, interrupted by Young's recall of the band for Broken Arrow. The album remains unfinished and unreleased.
In 2005, Rhino Records Handmade division released a handsome two-disc set, Scratchy: The Complete Reprise Recordings, in a limited edition of 2500 copies. It included the entirety of their first two albums on one disc, with a second containing nine rarities and outtakes, including both sides of a single by Danny and the Memories. It is currently out of print. That same year, the Australian reissue label Raven Records put out a twenty-track retrospective of four of the band's five albums, Gone Dead Train: The Best of Crazy Horse 1971-1989, omitting any tracks from Loose.
