Six years went by between the release of
Crazy Horse's third album, At Crooked Lake, and its fourth,
Crazy Moon, and a lot of water went under the bridge in the meantime.
Crazy Horse was, in effect, three different bands on its first three albums because the only constants were bassist
Billy Talbot and drummer
Ralph Molina as lead singers, songwriters, guitarists, and keyboardists came and went. The band name seemed to be retired by 1973, but in 1974
Talbot and
Molina hooked up with singer/guitarist
Frank Sampedro as
Crazy Horse, leading to sessions with their erstwhile employer
Neil Young that resulted in the
Young/
Crazy Horse album
Zuma. At the same time, they recorded some
Crazy Horse tracks that sat around for years, finally being finished off in the summer of 1978 for release here. The result is the first album since their debut, 1971's
Crazy Horse, that sounds identifiable as the band that backs
Young. In part, that's because
Young himself is present on guitar on the tracks "She's Hot," "Going Down Again," "New Orleans," "Downhill," and "Thunder and Lighting," and brings along his production associates David Briggs and
Tim Mulligan as well as his pedal steel player
Ben Keith. But it's also because this is a well-realized effort on which
Sampedro proves to be the first of the many successors to original guitarist
Danny Whitten to fit in well with
Molina and
Talbot; because
Molina and
Talbot have upped their participation beyond providing the rhythm and some vocals, contributing to the songwriting as well; and because the guest musicians include a bevy of
Crazy Horse alumni and friends including keyboardist
Barry Goldberg (producer of the pre-
Crazy Horse band the Rockets); Greg Leroy (
Crazy Horse guitarist, 1971-1972);
Bobby Notkoff (Rockets violinist); and Michael Curtis (
Crazy Horse keyboardist, 1972). This is something of a
Crazy Horse reunion effort, and it shows the band off at its best, or at least probably as good as it could be without co-founder
Whitten, who died in 1972. ~ William Ruhlmann