Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse is a must for Neil Young fans not just because it's by his backing band, or because it's one of the only places you can hear the late, legendary Danny Whitten -- it's truly a great album. The band rocks as always, and Young appears on a song previously only heard on bootlegs: "Dance, Dance, Dance."

At the time of their debut album's release in 1971, Crazy Horse had garnered notice as Neil
Young's band on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and After the Gold Rush. The core
members had previously been in the Rockets, a California sextet that released one
promising album and were eulogized by Young on "Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)"
on Everybody Knows. All too soon, Young would be literally eulogizing the band'... More >

The rhythms are deliberately deliberate, and maybe the reason four different guys sing lead is that they don't really trust Danny Whitten with the job. But this should throw a good scare into Neil Young even if they moved on with his blessing. It's literate both verbally (Jack Nitzsche's "Gone Dead Train" is white blues poetry) and musically (they hoe down, they rave up, they phase out, they rock and roll). With temp worker Nils Lofgren pitching them two titles, there's not a bad song on the record. Not a bad cut, either. (Grade - A-)