Jeff’s Playlist: Zuma

Neil Young Crazy Horse — Zuma

This is prob­a­bly one of my favorite albums of all time. I have been a fan of Neil Young’s music for over 50 years now.

Zuma is Young’s sec­ond stu­dio album with Crazy Horse and is a clas­sic by any stan­dard. Released in 1975, this album found me wan­der­ing around aim­less­ly only a year out of high school. I had already man­aged to get into a bunch of trou­ble, with more to come. But at least I had some fine music to lis­ten to while I dithered my way through life. It took me anoth­er decade to get my feet on the ground.

This may be Neil Young’s best received album although I think his entire cat­a­log is impres­sive. If you’ve nev­er heard Zuma, give it a lis­ten. If you have heard Zuma, give it anoth­er lis­ten; you prob­a­bly won’t be sorry.

Album Information

Track list­ing

All tracks are writ­ten by Neil Young.

Side one

No.      Title    Length
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

Side two

No.      Title    Length
6.         “Stupid Girl”   3:13
7.         “Drive Back”  3:32
8.         “Cortez the Killer”    7:29
9.         “Through My Sails”  2:41

Personnel

Neil Young – vocals, gui­tars, piano
Crazy Horse
Frank Sampedro – rhythm gui­tar (all tracks except “Pardon My Heart” and “Through My Sails”)
Billy Talbot – bass (all tracks except “Pardon My Heart” and “Through My Sails”), back­ing vocals (all tracks except “Through My Sails“
Ralph Molina – drums (all tracks except “Pardon My Heart” and “Through My Sails”), back­ing vocals (all tracks except “Through My Sails”)

Additional musi­cians
Tim Drummond – bass (“Pardon My Heart”)
Stephen Stills – bass, back­ing vocals (“Through My Sails”)
David Crosby, Graham Nash – back­ing vocals (“Through My Sails”)
Russ Kunkel – con­gas (“Through My Sails”)

Technical
Mazzeo — cov­er art­work
Released   November 10, 1975
Recorded   June 16, 1974 – August 29, 1975
Studio        Broken Arrow Ranch, Redwood City, CA and Pt. Dume, CA
Length       36:34
Label          Reprise
Producer    Neil Young, David Briggs Neil Young, Tim Mulligan “Pardon My Heart”, “Lookin’ for a Love”, and “Through My Sails”

Hear here: