Disc of the day
Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement
From Sheffield, synth pop and funk to stick it to Thatcher. Currently being played live!
Features Disc of the day
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
(Reprise, 1971)
You may know the name, but have you heard this?
They may forever be associated with old Shakey, but Crazy Horse were so much more than Neil Young's on-call foot soldiers. As The Rockets, Danny Whitten, Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina, Bobby Notkoff and Leon and George Whitsell were the archetypal Californian schlubs, spending their days in Laurel Canyon smoking cheap weed and jamming loud country-blues. An album of vaguely psychedelic R&B slipped out in 1968, but Whitten, Talbot and Molina soon broke off on their own, quickly enlisting the talents of producer/arranger Jack Nitzsche and guitar wunderkind Nils Lofgren to record this, their deliciously primordial debut. The band's instrumental work on Young's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and After The Gold Rush was enough to secure them a deal with Reprise and the sessions for Crazy Horse began in late 1970. At its heart are the five contributions from guitarist Danny Whitten. The hard-driving honky-tonk of Downtown and Dirty, Dirty (the latter featuring Ry Cooder on slide guitar) and - best of all - the redemptive ballad I Don't Want To Talk About It, point towards a great songwriter just warming up. Unlike the huge West Coast successes of the early '70s (Déjà Vu, Eagles, Young's Harvest) Crazy Horse is copper-bottomed rock, the band's garage origins gleaming through on the blunt grooves of Gone Dead Train and Nobody. Sadly, Whitten's heroin use soon became uncontrollable. Ditched by his band mates, he drifted for a year before Young once again came to his rescue. It wasn't enough. Whitten died of an overdose on November 18, 1972. Listen to Lofgren's ravaged rocker Beggar's Day; it's difficult not to think of Whitten's losing battle when over the pugilistic crash of cymbals we hear: "I've lost control of my darker side / A world all for free on a nastier side."
Ross Bennett
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 06/05/2009
Further Listening
Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Reprise, 1969)
The Black Crowes - Shake Your Money Maker (Def American, 1990)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River (Fantasy, 1969)
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Comments
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i 've had the record,yes record for years.If you love Neil Young you'll love this. a great hidden gem of an album few have ever heard.
Posted by Texas Chance at 5:45 AM GMT 20/05/2009 Report Abuse
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This cd exemplifies the darker side of LA rock. Reminds me of early wasted Tom Petty and Steely Dan at times even more than Neil. It's a shame that Danny Whitten wasn't recorded even more. This cd and the Neil Young & CH live at the Fillmore East make a nice companion.
Posted by Anonymous at 9:00 AM GMT 24/12/2009 Report Abuse
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