The one thing that
hasn’t changed has been his work with backup band Crazy Horse.
When he first played with them in 1969, they were named the
Rockets and were comprised of guitarist Danny Whitten, bassist
Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina. The band was renamed and
they performed with Young on his second album Everybody Knows
This is Nowhere, which featured such unforgettable songs as
“Cowgirl in the Sand”, “Down by the River” and “Cinnamon Girl”.
The album subsequently went platinum. This was only
the beginning of what would turn out to be over thirty years of
various collaborations.
When Young wasn’t working with Crazy Horse, he was busy recording
solo albums or teaming up with Crosby, Stills & Nash. He would
always return to Crazy Horse when he felt the times were right.
In 1970, After the Gold Rush was released, an album which
Crazy Horse backed Young on. It was well received and yielded the
hit “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”. Then in 1972, Crazy Horse
guitarist Danny Whitten died of a drug overdose. Young, backed by
Molina and Talbot, responded with the album Tonight’s the Night
as a tribute to Whitten and Bruce Berry, the CS&N roadie who also
died of a drug overdose. The album wasn’t released until 1975. By
this time, Frank Sampedro had joined Crazy Horse and this same
year Young and the band released Zuma.
In 1978, they joined up for the rockin’ Rust Never Sleeps
tour. It was structured so that Young played solo for half the
concert and was backed by Crazy Horse for the other half. After
the tour, they released a double live album and documentary of the
tour titled Live Rust.
The eighties were filled with Young’s stylistic experimentations
that began with the 1981 hard rock album Re-ac-tor, which
Crazy Horse played on. From there, his style varied from
computer-generated music to rockabilly to pure country and then
blues. After a six-year break from the band, he again collaborated
with them on Life. It wasn’t their strongest showing, but
Neil turned things around with his release of Freedom in
1989. The album was a huge success with “Rockin’ in the Free
World” as its anthem.
He reunited with
Crazy Horse for Ragged Glory in 1990, thus beginning
another decade in their career. They went on tour after its
release and brought along the young rockers Sonic Youth as the
opening act. The tour was recorded and released on the album
Weld, which also included the instrumental extra Arc.
In 1994, they released Sleeps With Angels and then Young
went off to record an album with Pearl Jam in 1995. Broken
Arrow, released in 1996, brought Young and Crazy Horse back
together in a big way as it was nominated for a Grammy for Best
Rock Album. They followed this with the Year of the Horse
tour, which was filmed for a documentary and also generated their
double live album of the same name.
Young is now back
touring with Crazy Horse and has an album slated for
release this summer titled Greendale, (a concept album that
follows the lives of a family living in a small town).
Few performers stay around as long as Neil Young has managed to
and he has done this while still experimenting musically instead
of catering to the masses. His stylistic meanderings have given
him a textured career, making him a living musical legend.
~Rachel K. Evans
