Classic Albums: Zuma by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

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Written by William

So I’m going to included some very huge name artists, it’s not all going to be odd stuff my little list! Does everyone think you got to included some Neil Young in any kind-of these list of faves? Well, here’s my fave one I do love the very most out of his whole back catalog. Maybe this album don’t unfairly get as much love as some of the more popularly titles he’s got but it’s been my go to Neil Young album for years now! I don’t understand why it’s not one of his biggies, really? Well, I guess it’s the first release after his so-called Ditch Trilogy of records and before that was his earlier ones which everyone knows and are the ones that get name drops the most. The Zuma album came out late 1975, mid-70’s and maybe people were losing a little interest in Young by then because it’s his seventh studio album.

I don’t know what else to say because everything that needs to be said about Neil by now has! So my intro to him was the 1991 live album Weld with off course the track Cortez The Killer on it so I just had to find the studio version of that song. Before that I came to him by way of my old man’s vinyl, he says he totally dislikes Young when I asked him about them records just few years ago so he didn’t know why he keep those records? Maybe for me to discover him!

Another reason I love this album is I really do love artwork album cover by James Mazzeo, it really look like it shouldn’t be an album cover or something? Apparently Young asked Mazzeo for something and these were just some rough sketches or a draft but Young took them and told him “they are complete.” But you can find the finished artwork on his website linked here.

The album is credited as Crazy Horse but is not all just Crazy Horse tracks. On the back cover of they’re little drawings of moons and stars crediting others but Crazy Horse does get six of the nine songs plus Young co-producer with David Briggs which has a crescent moon next to them. The last track Through My Sails is with Crosby Stills & Nash with three little stars, Lookin’ for a Love is a Crazy Horse song but is co-producer with Tim Mulligan with two stars and Pardon My Heart is solo Young with Tim Drummond on bass, backing vocals by Crazy Horse guys and co-producer with Tim Mulligan has just one star.

I do love all these tracks more than his other bigger hit songs, almost all are under-rated gems. I guess, you can’t say that about and because hearing Cortez The Killer before the rest it’s my fave track by him. Fun facts about it is Young wrote while in high school plus according to Neil’s father while recording it an electrical circuit had blown to halting the recording process and it just fades out on the album so a final verse was lost but Neil has said that he “never liked that verse anyway.”

Never seen him play live, funny that because his last Aussie tour he did here was supported by my fave local band The Drones so I really should have gone to that one!

Might be a good point to stop now. The already “Y” artists I’ve added are The Young Gods and You Am I in my now going backwards A-Z countdown of fave albums. Zola Jesus was my “Z” artist yesterday but I guess I could say Zuma is my “Z” album too? My “Y” album would be by The Pop Group but another “Y” artist coming soon!

Zuma track listing:

1. “Don’t Cry No Tears” 2:34
2. “Danger Bird” 6:54
3. “Pardon My Heart” 3:49
4. “Lookin’ for a Love” 3:17
5. “Barstool Blues” 3:02
6. “Stupid Girl” 3:13
7. “Drive Back” 3:32
8. “Cortez The Killer” 7:29
9. “Through My Sails” 2:41

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So this list below are my 100 faves, so far because I’m still counting them up. Now Zuma by Neil Young is the 101st album post today!

Who else digs this Neil Young album? Or do you just what to tell me your fave?

Cheers 🙂

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12 Comments

      2. Cheers again man, I will check it out now!
        Oh yeah, he did released a lot of records back then! They’re all good ones but I guess what I’m saying it’s Zuma for me!

        Liked by 1 person

  2. Hi William. Cortez the Killer is a fabulous song, perhaps Neil Young’s best song, and my second favourite , after On The Beach (also my favourite album, from his Ditch period). Zuma somehow remained one Young album I didn’t listen to much, though it was the favourite of a friend of mine. I think I had it on cassette tape and tended to listen to those albums I had on vinyl more (like Everybody Knows This is Nowhere which I played to death for his long guitar noodles – Cowgirl in the Sand and Down By The River).
    Neil Young is one of the Canadian early 70s holy trinity made up of him, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. Nice to see him featured.

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    1. Cheers man again! Yeah, i do love On The Beach album too! Really any of his records of late 60’s and 70’s are pretty good ones or great ones plus even enjoy almost all of his 90’s stuff too!
      So did you see the Cohen albums, he’s already got two on my list somehow? But i could never get into Mitchell but should be included, hey?

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      1. Songs of Love and Hate is a real favourite, but most Cohen albums are great (and the rest are at least good).

        Joni is not everyone’s taste. Blue used to be my favourite of hers, but I came to like Hissing of Summer Lawns better. But even her last album Shine was good. Cheers

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  3. My favorite Neil Young Album is “Chrome dreams II”; a late one, but I’ve seen him live on this tour and it was a time – neil had fun on his own concerts. Thats kind of rare Moments, because Neil takes it like Bob Dylan: today crap, tomorrow genius moments.

    On Chrome dreams are two super songs: Ordinary people and the believer.
    He told in the “rolling stone magazine” at this time the album came out, that the story of the beleaver is: Once there was a first ride in his own large oldtimer; only he and his mother; a hurricane came, and he stopped, to wait till the storm is over. His Mother gets outside and was standing in the storm, the arms spreaded like wings, and than, she sat back in the car and told him: “This is my place. Here I’m realy free.” Neil was so shattered. He afraid the whole time, that the storm takes his car and blast it to the trees. An his Mother? No fear at all! So they rode home and he was sit down and writes the lyrics: You are like an hurrican with calm in your eyes…
    Some years later his mother died. He wrote the Beleaver and forgot this song in the archive. On Chrome dreams II it was released. The Story is: He takes the ashes of his Mother, drove to that Hurricanroadpoint and was waiting for the Wind. When the wind was blowin’ he gave the ashes of his Mother free: This is her place.

    Sorry for my eastgerman schoolenglish. I hope there are not so many mistakes in the sentences.

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