Neil Young and Crazy Horse Neil Young News
---------- Forwarded message ---------- First off all: flowers to RE*AC*TOR for bringing rust back so fast!
Saturday July 6 1996, about a month ago already, I went to see
Neil & the Horse at the Torhout festival. At the entrance they
handed out free papers with information and articles about a
lot of groups that were performing. Included was also a great
interview with Poncho. When I came back home, the article got
lost, but a few days ago I found it back. So I deceided to
translate it for you. The article was written by Hans-Maarten
Post, and re-translated from Dutch to English by me (without
permission). Sorry for the errors in the translation.
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"Even if we played flute, it would be GREAT"
"We are the only constant factor is his career". It may be
true. No matter how many times Neil Young changes his mind,
whatever band or styles he uses, he always returns to CRAZY
HORSE. Since 1969 the trio can be heard regulary on records
and during tours. Moveover: if Neil Young is being regarded by
a whole generation as God the Father, Crazy Horse must be
something like the Holy Spirit. They come with hundreds, who
try to imitate the sound of Crazy Horse, but never fully
succeed. Neil Young & Crazy Hors on Torhout/Werchter, the big
dream of Schueremans [I think this is the man who is in charge
of this festival] is becoming true. The absolute culminating-
point of 20 years T/W? We called guitarist Frank "Poncho"
Sampedro and seached for the secret.
"We are so tired", Sampedro smiles. "To prepare ourselves for
this new tour, Neil didn't come up with anything better than
perform night after night in small bars. For only hundred
people each night. It has happened that we had to play three
sets on one night. Nice of course, but quite tiring for people
our age."
*** Go sit down. And do explain this: after one thing Neil
Young tends to do something completely different. Do you have
any idea why it is that after his collaboration with the also
heavy rocking Pearl Jam last year, he now comes out with Crazy
Horse for an album and a tour?
"No idea. One of our producers once said: Neil is not making
turns, he ricochets. It's just like a bullet that glances off
and than flies into a totally unpredictable direction. You
never know which direction he will go to. It has only been a
few months ago that we wanted to make a record, a solo record
as you could call it, with Neil only as a member of the group,
not Neil Young & Crazy Horse. From that on it grew into this
cd."
*** So if it all happens without agreements, can you explain
your working-relation? There are whole periods, sometimes even
years, he doesn't need your help. Is there nothing else for
you to do than sitting by the phone and waiting till he calls
again?
"Yes. I'm always impatiently waiting for him to give us a
call. But I'm never without work, restlessly waiting next to
the phone, while my life passes, because I have nothing else
to do. I do have another job. I'm technician for the house-
orchestra of Jay Leno, in the Tonight Show on the American
television. So I do have another life. But of course I'm
always hoping that Neil will call, because I love to play with
him. It's always exciting."
"Neil has been playing with a lot of other bands, but we are
the only group where he always returns to. We are the only
constant factor in his career. We are part of one of the main
units of his music."
"Of course, when he is going to play with somebody else
again, we don't like it. It just feels like you've been fired.
Than there's hostility in the air. But at the same time I see
it as something positive. It keeps us fresh. When he returns
to us after such a period, we feel renewed. When we play with
Neil three or four years in a row, it becomes tiring for all
of us. So for whatever reason he leaves us, it's good for all
of us."
*** Sometimes that changebility should not be too much fun at
all. Consider that Pearl Jam-thing. You played "Act of Love"
with him at the yearly Rock'n'roll Hall Of Fame night, the
next day he plays the same song with Pearl Jam on a benefit
concert and when he noticed that it worked, he decided to go
to the studio with them. What has Pearl Jam what you don't
have?
"Yes, it was a strange experience. But well, it was not the
first time a thing like that occured. After so many years you
get used to it. The comforting thought is that you are sure
that he will come back to us. It would be strange when we
would know that he would never return to us again."
"And about Pearl Jam, Neil loved their energy. And even though
their sound and ours is a bit alike, it are two completely
different worlds. They are one of those young, angry grunge-
bands. Crazy Horse is not angry. We are from the peace and
love-generation. (laughs) Our music is melodious, more etheri-
cal. We may rock as hard as they do, but we don't rock out of
anger, but out of passion. (laughs)"
IMITATING
*** Crazy Horse is like Coca Cola. There are hundreds of bands
that try to imitate you, but nobody succeeds in doing so for
100%. What's the secret of your formula?
"Hmmmm, I should remember that comparision. (laughs) Why they
don't succeed is because most of those people who try to
imitate us are much better musicians than we are. (laughs) We
don't have much to offer. We are no super-musicians. We play
emotionally, from the heart. We play what we feel. And the
more we "feel", the more we exceed our capacities. In that we
that we keep surprising ourselves. Many good musicians stay
within themselves, within their opportunities. It looks like
we can exceed ourselves. And those are the magic moments. The
moments when the audience is thinking "wow, what's happening
out there", those are the very moments we say to each other:
"holy shit, is this us who are playing?" That unreachable
thing is on of the things other bands lack. Our imperfection
and our raw emotion work in our benefit. Having said that, I
cannot imagine that a group would want to sound like we do.
(laughs)"
*** But: there are plenty of reasons why. What kind of thrill
did it give that a whole generation of new guitarbands stood
up in the early nineties inspired by Crazy Horse. Bands like
Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth and The Pixies, who you even inven-
ted with a tribute-cd "The Bridge"?
"I was flattered. To be honest: I thought that all those
groups who tried to imitate us didn't do very good. (snigge-
ring) What I did like was that there was an opportunity for
young bands to get there music heard. Without having to be
technically perfect. A good idea for a song and a good fee-
ling, that was enough. In the late eighties and early nineties
there was a new chance for groups like that and that kind of
music.
*** Many guitarists love the Crazy Horse-guitar sound. What is
the most interesting guitar sound you heard lately by any
other band? Something you think of: never heard before.
"No Idea. I'm still listening quite often to my Jimi Hendrix-
records. And I keep saying: wow, I have never heard that
before. I still think noone else has reached his level. I read
an article in which he said that it happened that he fell
asleep while practicing on his guitar. Because he never wanted
to hear a sound in his head and not being able to really play
it. That kind of devotion is what does elavate him above so
many other artists. And: the things he heard in his head were
so incredible. Simply from another dimension that what other
excellent musicians do hear."
*** The people of ZZ Top once said: you have to know your
limitations. Why shoud we as a bluesgroup try to learn a fouth
chord? If we would play more than three chords it would no
longer be ZZ Top. Is there something that you know you
shouldn't do, because Crazy Horse would be Crazy Horse no
longer?
"Not at all. That for example why I love our CD Sleeps with
Angels so much, because there is so much variety in the music.
We play piano, purcussion, acoustic ballad, rhythm & blues and
heavy rock on that record. I do prefer those kind of our
records above something like Ragged Glory. Though that seems
to be one of the favourites of many people, because it's
nonstop rock'n'rol from start to end. I love the variation and
we can handle that. All I want to say is: even if we would
play flute there would still be something in it. If only we
mean what we play. That's the only thing that counts."
*** Talking about "Sleeps with Angels": Neil Young didn't give
any interview with that cd, because the contents are so very
personal. He didn't want to talk about it. For example there
is a song on it about Curt Cobain. I'm wondering: do you know
what it's all about? Do you know the deeper feelings behind a
song?
"Absolutely. We are there. In those days a daughter of a
friend of ours was murdered. We know very good which song is
about what on that cd. There is no other possibility. We work
together with him on a very emotional level. With Neil it are
the lyrics that get the music moving. It are not our musical
capacities. It's only emotion. I'm not going to say more about
it. If he doesn't do that, I'm not going to do it either.
*** Does it ever happen that he comes up with a new song and
you have to say: sorry Neil, but this song was already on our
first album.
"No. But he, we keep repeating ourselves all the time.
(laughs) I mean: there only exist seven notes in the whole
world. You have to get it somewhere. And as long it all starts
with the lyrics... Each other group of sentences has another
meaning. It's always something different. It is just like with
your girl-friend, with whom you can have the same problems but
at a different time. It's not exactly the same. It's always
just a bit different. But we never had to send Neil home
because he didn't do his homework properly, no."
LOU REED
*** Strange that when you do something not with Neil, it has
to be with a relatively unknown British musician like Ian
McNabb, formerly with The Icicle Works. The other two Crazy
Horse members did make a record with him and did perform with
him.
"I didn't cooperated with that on purpose. I don't like it. I
think that Crazy Horse belongs to Neil. Neil is port of Crazy
Horse. Everything we do without him, only affects the magic
that's surrounding the things we do with him."
*** But, hypothetically spoken, could you mention somebody who
would benefit from such a Crazy Horse-treatment?
"There a quite a lot of people. Lou Reed is top of the list.
(laughs) He could use us. I personally would like to play
something with Willy Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis or Bob Dylan. But
I doubt if it would be the same as with Neil Young. It is just
as I said, if you remove a part, it's no longer the same.
Though it is called Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Crazy Horse
without Neil is something completely different. If Neil would
play with us together with those people I just mentioned, it
would be very exciting, but just us with thim? That would be
strange."
*** Final question, is there after all these years still
something about Neil Young you don't understand?
"His abillity to leave the things they are. When we are wor-
king in the studio, he keeps big mistakes and thing that do
sound very out of tune unchanged. If it would be my record, I
would change it. But he doesn't. He always says: that's the
way we did it, that's the way it happened, let it be that way.
I still don't understand that."
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Bas vd Meer B.M.vanderMeer@stud.far.ruu.nl
INTERSTATE: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/5998
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Date: Mon, 5 Aug 96 01:39:17 CET
From: "B.M.vanderMeer"
To: rust@death.pobox.com
Subject: interview with Frank Poncho Sampedro in T/W festival paper
Also, see another interview with Crazy Horse's "Poncho" Frank Sampedro from "Year of the Horse" tour.
Also, see interview with Crazy Horse's bass guitar player Billy Talbot.
Thrasher's Wheat - A Neil Young and Crazy Horse Archive