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Young's Bassist Has Crazy Idea: Go Solo
Joel Selvin, Chronicle Pop Music Critic
Sunday, January 23, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/23/PK104814.DTL
Playing bass behind famous singers has never been a launching pad for stardom or even a sturdy solo career. Just ask John Entwistle of the Who, Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead or Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones. But Billy Talbot wants to try.
Since 1969, Talbot has been making a living at the beck and call of Neil Young. He's not complaining. Life is good as a member of one of rock's best -- and best known -- backup bands, Crazy Horse.
Outside of one low-key trial run last fall, Talbot has never sung his songs in public. But Young fans, who are almost as devoted as Deadheads and call themselves ``Rusties'' after Young's album ``Rust Never Sleeps,'' turned up to support Talbot recently. Last October, the night before Young's annual Bridge Concert, Talbot tried his hand at Old Princeton Landing, the same tiny seaside bar where Young and Crazy Horse played unannounced for several weeks a few years ago. Talbot, 55, will appear Friday at the Paradise Lounge and next Sunday at Mill Valley's Sweetwater.
Talbot, who lives in San Francisco, is grizzled and unkempt in an untucked flannel shirt, the sort of character usually played by Harry Dean Stanton in the movies. Every two or three years, Young calls him, guitarist Frank (Poncho) Sampedro and drummer Ralph Molina together to cut an album and tour -- a process chronicled in the 1997 documentary ``The Year of the Horse.'' In between stints with Young, neither the band nor its members have been able to establish their own names.
Talbot and Molina started making music together in 1962 as part of a vocal group called Danny and the Memories with Danny Whitten on lead vocals. In 1968, the trio decided to learn instruments and form a rock band called the Rockets. The next year, as Crazy Horse, they made ``Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'' with Young.
The band's 1970 debut was produced by the brilliant Phil Spector arranger Jack Nitzsche, but it went nowhere. Whitten died of a heroin overdose in 1972, inspiring Young's ``The Needle and the Damage Done.''
But Crazy Horse wasn't finished. Talbot met Sampedro at a party and convinced him to join the band. The reborn Crazy Horse backed Young on the classic 1975 albums ``Tonight's the Night'' and ``Zuma.''
All this time, Talbot has been writing and recording his own songs. For more than 10 years, he has been working on solo recordings with guitarist Matt Piucci, a member of '80s psychedelic revivalists Rain Parade. ``I'm not prolific,'' Talbot said. ``I write a couple of songs each year that have a lot to do with my life at the time.''
For such a gruff, rough-hewn kind of guy, Talbot sings with a surprisingly fragile, gentle voice, backing himself on acoustic guitar. His music shares a certain spare, midtempo quality with Young's. Two of his songs are available for download at the Crazy Horse Web site (www.crazyhorseweb.com/BillyTalbotBand).
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle Page 37