Post by ChrisB on Nov 13, 2014 9:05:51 GMT
CRAZY HORSE – 'Crazy Horse' (1971, Reprise Records)
This is something I wrote a few years ago for another website. It's no longer viewable there, so I though it might be good to have it here instead to bring a great album to the attention of folks who might not know it, or perhaps inspire those who do know it to spin it once again.
l
I'm going to discuss one of those albums from rock history that had everything going for it, yet somehow failed to sell well and became a slightly lost classic, floundering in the list of records that you only stumble across because it has a connection to another band or artist. This is exactly how I found this album about twenty years ago.
During a visit to a second-hand record shop I fell on an album which I'd never seen or heard of. My interest was sparked because I had been exploring Neil Young's back catalogue. I'd not known that they had recorded in their own right as well as acting as his band – I was later to discover that there were several more albums from the same source. But this one is the very best, towering above the others and perhaps, on a par with most of what their more famous benefactor has done with or without them. Sadly, after this record and the subsequent loss of the keystone member, the band would never be the same again.
I said before that the album had everything going for it. In 1971 there was a band straining at the leash to be masters of their own destiny, hungry for success in their own right after recording two of the finest albums in rock music with one of the most respected musicians in the business. They had a producer and arranger who had the very best credentials available. The recording reflected the live energy of a band that had an extraordinary empathy with each others' playing. The songs were inspired and an energy and vitality crackled through the whole album. A major label was paying the bills and the aforementioned multi-million selling musical genius was telling the world what a great band they were.
The critics swooned over the release:
Rolling Stone magazine (29th April 1971) "...this album, if you've even the tiniest place in your heart for bouncy tunefulness, will make you feel as good as MEET THE BEATLES and THE HOLLIES: HEAR! HERE! Things are looking up..."
So what went wrong? Why didn't the album sell in the quantities it deserved to? Why did it stick at number 84 in the US charts?
Some background
First there was a Los Angeles doo-wop group called Danny and the Memories. Danny was Danny Whitten and two of the Memories were Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot. There is a Scopitone clip (see Note 1, below) on You Tube of them performing 'Land of the Thousand Dances'.
They made a flop single, 'Can't Help Loving That Girl of Mine', a close harmony vocal. After the failure of the single some of the key members of the group moved north picked up instruments and became The Psyrcle (how else would you spell Circle in San Francisco in the 1960’s?) trying to build on the Byrds' blueprint of psychedelic folk rock. Whitten played guitar, Ralph Molina drums, and Billy Talbot played bass and piano.
Next, there came The Rockets: Whitten, Talbot, Molina, Bobby Notkoff and Leon and George Whitsell, who released an album in 1968 called ‘The Rockets’ which was more in the vein of sub-psychedelic garage band R&B. They were also playing a night-spot at the Whiskey A Go-Go when Neil Young joined them onstage to play. He’d already heard their album and had jammed with them previously in the early days of The Buffalo Springfield.
Young had just finished with the Springfield and had already recorded his first solo album when he talked with the band about the possibility of them joining him to record a song he’d written called ‘Cinnamon Girl’. So Whitten Molina and Talbot went to a fruitful session in his studio in Topanga Canyon in March 1969.
More sessions followed and the work they did became the album 'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere' which included a track called ‘Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)’ Young renamed the band, first calling them War Babies, then Crazy Horse. Others were involved, such as Jack Nitzsche and Nils Lofgren and work was extended to touring the album and recording a follow up – ‘After the Gold Rush’. It was the strength of their contributions to those two discs that allowed Crazy Horse to secure a contract with Reprise Records and they began to work on the sessions for their first album towards the end of 1970.
The Album
It just had to be a great one. The core musicians had sweated it out in dives night after night until they were almost telepathically connected. Their confidence had grown through working with one of the biggest rising stars in rock music. They built on this solid foundation by hanging on to Young's pianist (Nitzsche) who'd been a songwriter and producer in the industry for twenty years, and as Phil Spector’s arranger he had been the virtual hod carrier during the building of the Wall of Sound. Nils Lofgren was a talented songwriter and guitarist and they found slide guitarist Ry Cooder to pitch in for good measure.
However, the secret weapon was Whitten who had talent aplenty and was up to the challenge that he'd been denied while working as Neil Young's sideman. The first Rockets album had been a warm up and now Whitten was ready to soar. The songs he wrote for Crazy Horse were different from those that the LA music scene had been turning out of late. The CSN(Y) albums, Neil Young's 'After The Gold Rush' and 'Harvest', The Eagles and singer songwriters like James Taylor – all massive sellers, were pointing the way by 1971 to a mellow and contemplative kind of music that wasn't anywhere in Whitten's game plan. The songs on the Crazy Horse album are rock music through and through, with the band's garage and rock and roll origins laid open for all to see. It's not that the songs were dumb, anachronistic or simple, but rather they were cut from a different cloth to those of his peers and there was a studious avoidance of some of the self serving smug attitude that had started to emerge. If some people thought the new west coast sounds were becoming a little bland, then they were able to find some solace in the roller coaster ride that Crazy Horse were about to embark on.
Danny Whitten's songs can evoke the feeling that something was not quite right in his world. There's a nervous intensity there which is emphasised in some of the playing and laid bare when you start to concentrate on some of the lyrics. The playing seems undisciplined and maybe even a little unskilled but there's majesty in the sound of a band playing well together and bouncing off one another. The feel is more important than technical expertise – similar to something Led Zeppelin called 'Tight but Loose' and Neil Young was to later christen 'Ragged Glory'. It just sounds like a good live band, something that we have to thank Jack Nitzsche and Bruce Botnick for skilfully capturing it.
So, now to the songs themselves:
The album rattles into life with a song written by Nitzsche & Russ Titelman: 'Gone Dead Train,' which is a propulsive bluesy monster of a thing that rocks along like the train in the title. The track was recorded earlier by Randy Newman and released on the soundtrack to 'Performance'. An analysis of the lyrics reveals that this has nothing to do with Ivor the Engine or Casey Jones, but it's about impotence. Then you start to think there may be another slightly edgy side to what is about to follow.
Next up is a track donated by the band's patron, Neil Young and was unsuccessfully released as a single. Ralph Molina's singing on 'Dance, Dance, Dance' injects some fun into the proceedings with violin playing from Gib Guilbeau, giving an almost Cajun feel to this barn dance stomper. The provenance is obvious and apart from the voice, it could have been lifted from any number of Young's albums.
'Look at All the Things' is the first of five offerings from Danny Whitten and is a gem of a song. Almost hypnotic and with huge phase shifting in the chorus sections, it's a revealing self-examination of a troubled man.
Another failed single, 'Beggars Day' is also about Mr Whitten, but this time the writer was Nils Lofgren. This is rock, plain and simple, lots of phasing effects and up-front, distorted guitar playing. Whitten sings the vocal harmony which is just one of the many really tight vocal arrangements throughout the whole album, with backing vocals being especially strong – as you would expect when you consider who was the producer and arranger behind the sound. If you know of Danny Whitten's heroin-fuelled fate just a few months later, it's hard to hear the lyric "All your mercy can't save me" without thinking that Lofgren had an idea about what might be on the cards. This thought is reinforced when you hear a huge cymbal crash punctuated with the words "I've lost control of my darker side. A world all for free on a nastier side." The song later re-emerged on Lofgren's band Grin's fourth album, but was re-titled 'Eulogy to Danny Whitten' while Scottish band Nazareth turned it into a heavy rock live favourite.
The track that really should have been a single follows. 'I Don't Want to Talk About It' must be among the saddest songs ever written. Of course we're now somewhat jaded through over-familiarity from cover versions by Rod Stewart, Rita Coolidge, Everything But the Girl and others. To fully appreciate it though, Whitten's song has to be heard in proper context, sung by the man who wrote the words and had experienced what inspired him to write them. It's a shamelessly sentimental ballad about heartbreak and the vocal melody is highlighted by some sensitive slide guitar playing by Ry Cooder.
Side Two fires up with another up-tempo track: 'Downtown' is another Whitten song. In contrast to the previous one it's a jaunty good spirited ride with that now familiar dark and edgy side to the lyrics which are about scoring drugs. Some have described it as the LA version of the Velvet Underground's 'I'm Waiting for the Man', which is sort of apt as it's bright and breezy, contrasting the cruising West Coast with the dark and dirty side of New York. However, as Whitten was to prove, the result is often the same tragic end. The infectious groove makes it obvious that there is a strong Neil Young influence here and indeed, it turns out that Young contributed some lyrics and a key guitar riff. He recorded the song later himself for the harrowing 'Tonight’s The Night' album. This track is held by many as Whitten's finest hour – an endorsement indeed after the previous high point of 'I Don't Want To Talk About It'. The public didn't agree at the time - another single, another flop.
Time for another song from Nitzsche and Titelman. 'Carolay' was where Jack got to stretch out and Spectorize this track, producing a sweeping melodramatic soundscape. His piano playing and the guitar perfectly complimented each other to round off this tightly played, inspired chunk of pop.
More of Cooder's slide guitar turned up on 'Dirty, Dirty', which is a fine example of your basic grinding rocker lashed together with sarcastic lyrics, again from Whitten.
'Nobody' is the second and final contribution from Nils Lofgren, a love song, nicely contrasting the bump and grind of the previous track.
'I'll Get By' which is Whitten's final song is another high point for me. It's a big song with more of that architectural production heaped on layer after layer, great backing vocals and a big lead from Whitten on his huge pronouncement of never-ending love.
The album is finished off with another slice of American rock: barrelhouse blues by way of that now familiar big garage band sound. 'Crow Jane Lady' has Nitzche at the microphone, which is a little unusual – he didn't even sing on his own 1963 single 'The Lonely Surfer' and perhaps, here, we can see why. He really wasn't the most natural choice for the job of microphone operator! Apparently, according to Ralph Molina, during the sessions, poor old Jack was so self conscious about his limited singing talent that he had to hide behind a screen for every take. Despite the slightly frog-like tones of the vocalist, this is a great bluesy album closer. If you really want to hear how a Crazy Horse song can be murdered by woeful singing, you need to hear the version of 'I Don't Want To Talk About It' that turned up on the 'North West Coast' limited issue live disc that came with Ian McNabb's 'Merseybeast album. This has Crazy Horse members playing on it and Ralph Molina's vocal is truly, truly dreadful!
Lost Opportunities
The band began to fall into disarray as Whitten's drug use became more serious. It had been of concern to his friends and fellow band members since mid 1970. After the album was released, the band couldn't tour to promote it because of his condition, so they fired him, hoping that it would be the shock that he needed to bring him back from the brink.
Neil Young wrote a song about Danny called 'Needle and the Damage Done' and recorded it for the 'Harvest' album. Despite having used a different band for the album because of Crazy Horse's recording commitments, he invited Whitten to be the second guitarist on the Harvest tour to try to give him some support. So Whitten turned up for rehearsals but proved incapable of performing, and was fired. Neil gave him a plane ticket back to LA and money to get himself some medical help, but he didn't spend the money as was intended and died that same day of a drug overdose. He was 29 years old.
Danny Whitten was the focal point of Crazy Horse, but he was also the fault line that ran through it. Like many a troubled genius, the greatness of his art was partly a product of his own tragic life. He left us with a slice of magic in this album but also with the thought that he could have given us so much more had he given himself a chance to.
'Crazy Horse' doesn't appear to be on Spotify, but the first eleven tracks of a good anthology called 'Scratchy - The Reprise Recordings' constitute the entire album.
It's on Grooveshark - you'll find it here
Further Listening
Crazy Horse went on to release several other albums without Whitten, two of which were released before his death:
'Loose'
1972 – slack and without the direction or solid songwriting of the previous effort.
'At Crooked Lake'
1972 – has much the same sort of qualities as 'Loose'.
'Crazy Moon'
1978 – something approaching a return to form, though still far behind the debut album. Featuring Neil Young playing guitar on several tracks, this was the best of the post Whitten albums.
'Left for Dead'
1989 – disappointing, especially so, given what was to come in their future collaborations with Neil Young (Ragged Glory, Sleeps With Angels etc)
Apart from the debut album, the way to hear the band at their best is to listen to the albums they made with Neil Young. They made some great contributions to his music over a catalogue of some 20-odd albums so far, both with and without Whitten. The Ragged Glory is still there. 'Tonight's The Night', the last album pictured, though not completely a Crazy Horse album is a vital part of the story, because it was about Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry (one of Young's roadies and close friends). The two of them died from heroin overdoses, events which profoundly affected Young.
Neil Young: "I always wince when I hear 'Neil Young and Crazy Horse,' because it's really Crazy Horse. I know its Crazy Horse."
Neil Young: "The time I've spent with Crazy Horse has been great; it's just been a wonderful experience to know people like that, to be able to create things on the spot. You never know what's going to happen next."
Note 1: Scopitone was an early incarnation of the idea of the video jukebox.
This is something I wrote a few years ago for another website. It's no longer viewable there, so I though it might be good to have it here instead to bring a great album to the attention of folks who might not know it, or perhaps inspire those who do know it to spin it once again.
lI'm going to discuss one of those albums from rock history that had everything going for it, yet somehow failed to sell well and became a slightly lost classic, floundering in the list of records that you only stumble across because it has a connection to another band or artist. This is exactly how I found this album about twenty years ago.
During a visit to a second-hand record shop I fell on an album which I'd never seen or heard of. My interest was sparked because I had been exploring Neil Young's back catalogue. I'd not known that they had recorded in their own right as well as acting as his band – I was later to discover that there were several more albums from the same source. But this one is the very best, towering above the others and perhaps, on a par with most of what their more famous benefactor has done with or without them. Sadly, after this record and the subsequent loss of the keystone member, the band would never be the same again.
I said before that the album had everything going for it. In 1971 there was a band straining at the leash to be masters of their own destiny, hungry for success in their own right after recording two of the finest albums in rock music with one of the most respected musicians in the business. They had a producer and arranger who had the very best credentials available. The recording reflected the live energy of a band that had an extraordinary empathy with each others' playing. The songs were inspired and an energy and vitality crackled through the whole album. A major label was paying the bills and the aforementioned multi-million selling musical genius was telling the world what a great band they were.
The critics swooned over the release:
Rolling Stone magazine (29th April 1971) "...this album, if you've even the tiniest place in your heart for bouncy tunefulness, will make you feel as good as MEET THE BEATLES and THE HOLLIES: HEAR! HERE! Things are looking up..."
So what went wrong? Why didn't the album sell in the quantities it deserved to? Why did it stick at number 84 in the US charts?
Some background
First there was a Los Angeles doo-wop group called Danny and the Memories. Danny was Danny Whitten and two of the Memories were Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot. There is a Scopitone clip (see Note 1, below) on You Tube of them performing 'Land of the Thousand Dances'.
They made a flop single, 'Can't Help Loving That Girl of Mine', a close harmony vocal. After the failure of the single some of the key members of the group moved north picked up instruments and became The Psyrcle (how else would you spell Circle in San Francisco in the 1960’s?) trying to build on the Byrds' blueprint of psychedelic folk rock. Whitten played guitar, Ralph Molina drums, and Billy Talbot played bass and piano.
Next, there came The Rockets: Whitten, Talbot, Molina, Bobby Notkoff and Leon and George Whitsell, who released an album in 1968 called ‘The Rockets’ which was more in the vein of sub-psychedelic garage band R&B. They were also playing a night-spot at the Whiskey A Go-Go when Neil Young joined them onstage to play. He’d already heard their album and had jammed with them previously in the early days of The Buffalo Springfield.
Young had just finished with the Springfield and had already recorded his first solo album when he talked with the band about the possibility of them joining him to record a song he’d written called ‘Cinnamon Girl’. So Whitten Molina and Talbot went to a fruitful session in his studio in Topanga Canyon in March 1969.
More sessions followed and the work they did became the album 'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere' which included a track called ‘Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)’ Young renamed the band, first calling them War Babies, then Crazy Horse. Others were involved, such as Jack Nitzsche and Nils Lofgren and work was extended to touring the album and recording a follow up – ‘After the Gold Rush’. It was the strength of their contributions to those two discs that allowed Crazy Horse to secure a contract with Reprise Records and they began to work on the sessions for their first album towards the end of 1970.
The Album
It just had to be a great one. The core musicians had sweated it out in dives night after night until they were almost telepathically connected. Their confidence had grown through working with one of the biggest rising stars in rock music. They built on this solid foundation by hanging on to Young's pianist (Nitzsche) who'd been a songwriter and producer in the industry for twenty years, and as Phil Spector’s arranger he had been the virtual hod carrier during the building of the Wall of Sound. Nils Lofgren was a talented songwriter and guitarist and they found slide guitarist Ry Cooder to pitch in for good measure.
However, the secret weapon was Whitten who had talent aplenty and was up to the challenge that he'd been denied while working as Neil Young's sideman. The first Rockets album had been a warm up and now Whitten was ready to soar. The songs he wrote for Crazy Horse were different from those that the LA music scene had been turning out of late. The CSN(Y) albums, Neil Young's 'After The Gold Rush' and 'Harvest', The Eagles and singer songwriters like James Taylor – all massive sellers, were pointing the way by 1971 to a mellow and contemplative kind of music that wasn't anywhere in Whitten's game plan. The songs on the Crazy Horse album are rock music through and through, with the band's garage and rock and roll origins laid open for all to see. It's not that the songs were dumb, anachronistic or simple, but rather they were cut from a different cloth to those of his peers and there was a studious avoidance of some of the self serving smug attitude that had started to emerge. If some people thought the new west coast sounds were becoming a little bland, then they were able to find some solace in the roller coaster ride that Crazy Horse were about to embark on.
Danny Whitten's songs can evoke the feeling that something was not quite right in his world. There's a nervous intensity there which is emphasised in some of the playing and laid bare when you start to concentrate on some of the lyrics. The playing seems undisciplined and maybe even a little unskilled but there's majesty in the sound of a band playing well together and bouncing off one another. The feel is more important than technical expertise – similar to something Led Zeppelin called 'Tight but Loose' and Neil Young was to later christen 'Ragged Glory'. It just sounds like a good live band, something that we have to thank Jack Nitzsche and Bruce Botnick for skilfully capturing it.
So, now to the songs themselves:
The album rattles into life with a song written by Nitzsche & Russ Titelman: 'Gone Dead Train,' which is a propulsive bluesy monster of a thing that rocks along like the train in the title. The track was recorded earlier by Randy Newman and released on the soundtrack to 'Performance'. An analysis of the lyrics reveals that this has nothing to do with Ivor the Engine or Casey Jones, but it's about impotence. Then you start to think there may be another slightly edgy side to what is about to follow.
Next up is a track donated by the band's patron, Neil Young and was unsuccessfully released as a single. Ralph Molina's singing on 'Dance, Dance, Dance' injects some fun into the proceedings with violin playing from Gib Guilbeau, giving an almost Cajun feel to this barn dance stomper. The provenance is obvious and apart from the voice, it could have been lifted from any number of Young's albums.
'Look at All the Things' is the first of five offerings from Danny Whitten and is a gem of a song. Almost hypnotic and with huge phase shifting in the chorus sections, it's a revealing self-examination of a troubled man.
Another failed single, 'Beggars Day' is also about Mr Whitten, but this time the writer was Nils Lofgren. This is rock, plain and simple, lots of phasing effects and up-front, distorted guitar playing. Whitten sings the vocal harmony which is just one of the many really tight vocal arrangements throughout the whole album, with backing vocals being especially strong – as you would expect when you consider who was the producer and arranger behind the sound. If you know of Danny Whitten's heroin-fuelled fate just a few months later, it's hard to hear the lyric "All your mercy can't save me" without thinking that Lofgren had an idea about what might be on the cards. This thought is reinforced when you hear a huge cymbal crash punctuated with the words "I've lost control of my darker side. A world all for free on a nastier side." The song later re-emerged on Lofgren's band Grin's fourth album, but was re-titled 'Eulogy to Danny Whitten' while Scottish band Nazareth turned it into a heavy rock live favourite.
The track that really should have been a single follows. 'I Don't Want to Talk About It' must be among the saddest songs ever written. Of course we're now somewhat jaded through over-familiarity from cover versions by Rod Stewart, Rita Coolidge, Everything But the Girl and others. To fully appreciate it though, Whitten's song has to be heard in proper context, sung by the man who wrote the words and had experienced what inspired him to write them. It's a shamelessly sentimental ballad about heartbreak and the vocal melody is highlighted by some sensitive slide guitar playing by Ry Cooder.
Side Two fires up with another up-tempo track: 'Downtown' is another Whitten song. In contrast to the previous one it's a jaunty good spirited ride with that now familiar dark and edgy side to the lyrics which are about scoring drugs. Some have described it as the LA version of the Velvet Underground's 'I'm Waiting for the Man', which is sort of apt as it's bright and breezy, contrasting the cruising West Coast with the dark and dirty side of New York. However, as Whitten was to prove, the result is often the same tragic end. The infectious groove makes it obvious that there is a strong Neil Young influence here and indeed, it turns out that Young contributed some lyrics and a key guitar riff. He recorded the song later himself for the harrowing 'Tonight’s The Night' album. This track is held by many as Whitten's finest hour – an endorsement indeed after the previous high point of 'I Don't Want To Talk About It'. The public didn't agree at the time - another single, another flop.
Time for another song from Nitzsche and Titelman. 'Carolay' was where Jack got to stretch out and Spectorize this track, producing a sweeping melodramatic soundscape. His piano playing and the guitar perfectly complimented each other to round off this tightly played, inspired chunk of pop.
More of Cooder's slide guitar turned up on 'Dirty, Dirty', which is a fine example of your basic grinding rocker lashed together with sarcastic lyrics, again from Whitten.
'Nobody' is the second and final contribution from Nils Lofgren, a love song, nicely contrasting the bump and grind of the previous track.
'I'll Get By' which is Whitten's final song is another high point for me. It's a big song with more of that architectural production heaped on layer after layer, great backing vocals and a big lead from Whitten on his huge pronouncement of never-ending love.
The album is finished off with another slice of American rock: barrelhouse blues by way of that now familiar big garage band sound. 'Crow Jane Lady' has Nitzche at the microphone, which is a little unusual – he didn't even sing on his own 1963 single 'The Lonely Surfer' and perhaps, here, we can see why. He really wasn't the most natural choice for the job of microphone operator! Apparently, according to Ralph Molina, during the sessions, poor old Jack was so self conscious about his limited singing talent that he had to hide behind a screen for every take. Despite the slightly frog-like tones of the vocalist, this is a great bluesy album closer. If you really want to hear how a Crazy Horse song can be murdered by woeful singing, you need to hear the version of 'I Don't Want To Talk About It' that turned up on the 'North West Coast' limited issue live disc that came with Ian McNabb's 'Merseybeast album. This has Crazy Horse members playing on it and Ralph Molina's vocal is truly, truly dreadful!
Lost Opportunities
The band began to fall into disarray as Whitten's drug use became more serious. It had been of concern to his friends and fellow band members since mid 1970. After the album was released, the band couldn't tour to promote it because of his condition, so they fired him, hoping that it would be the shock that he needed to bring him back from the brink.
Neil Young wrote a song about Danny called 'Needle and the Damage Done' and recorded it for the 'Harvest' album. Despite having used a different band for the album because of Crazy Horse's recording commitments, he invited Whitten to be the second guitarist on the Harvest tour to try to give him some support. So Whitten turned up for rehearsals but proved incapable of performing, and was fired. Neil gave him a plane ticket back to LA and money to get himself some medical help, but he didn't spend the money as was intended and died that same day of a drug overdose. He was 29 years old.
Danny Whitten was the focal point of Crazy Horse, but he was also the fault line that ran through it. Like many a troubled genius, the greatness of his art was partly a product of his own tragic life. He left us with a slice of magic in this album but also with the thought that he could have given us so much more had he given himself a chance to.
'Crazy Horse' doesn't appear to be on Spotify, but the first eleven tracks of a good anthology called 'Scratchy - The Reprise Recordings' constitute the entire album.
It's on Grooveshark - you'll find it here
Further Listening
Crazy Horse went on to release several other albums without Whitten, two of which were released before his death:
'Loose'
1972 – slack and without the direction or solid songwriting of the previous effort.
'At Crooked Lake'
1972 – has much the same sort of qualities as 'Loose'.
'Crazy Moon'
1978 – something approaching a return to form, though still far behind the debut album. Featuring Neil Young playing guitar on several tracks, this was the best of the post Whitten albums.
'Left for Dead'
1989 – disappointing, especially so, given what was to come in their future collaborations with Neil Young (Ragged Glory, Sleeps With Angels etc)
Apart from the debut album, the way to hear the band at their best is to listen to the albums they made with Neil Young. They made some great contributions to his music over a catalogue of some 20-odd albums so far, both with and without Whitten. The Ragged Glory is still there. 'Tonight's The Night', the last album pictured, though not completely a Crazy Horse album is a vital part of the story, because it was about Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry (one of Young's roadies and close friends). The two of them died from heroin overdoses, events which profoundly affected Young.
Neil Young: "I always wince when I hear 'Neil Young and Crazy Horse,' because it's really Crazy Horse. I know its Crazy Horse."
Neil Young: "The time I've spent with Crazy Horse has been great; it's just been a wonderful experience to know people like that, to be able to create things on the spot. You never know what's going to happen next."
Note 1: Scopitone was an early incarnation of the idea of the video jukebox.
