Crazy Horse - Left For Dead (1989)

Crazy Horse is an American rock band best known for their association with Neil Young. They have been co-credited on many of Young's albums, co-billed as "Neil Young (and/with) Crazy Horse" on 11 studio albums and numerous live albums. They have also released six studio albums of their own between 1971 and 2009.

The original lineup of Billy Talbot (bass), Danny Whitten (guitar), and Ralph Molina (drums) first came together in 1963 in the group Danny & The Memories, who later became The Rockets (14). Neil Young renamed the trio "Crazy Horse" when he recruited them as his backing band in 1969. Nils Lofgren first worked with the group alongside Neil Young in 1970, and has continued to record and perform with them intermittingly through the years. Danny Whitten died of a heroin overdose in November 1972, and the Crazy Horse name was briefly retired. Talbot, Molina, and Lofgren continued to play with Young as part of The Santa Monica Flyers on the album Tonight's The Night and touring during this time.

Talbot & Molina reconvened Crazy Horse with guitarist Frank Sampedro in 1975 and the band was once again co-billed with Young on the 1975 album Zuma. After several accidents and injuries to his hands, Sampedro retired in 2014. Nils Lofgren joined the band full time in 2018.

Several other musicians have recorded and performed with the band or as full members, both alongside Young and on their own.

Made while Crazy Horse guitarist Frank "Poncho" Sampedro was otherwise engaged with Neil Young (having been the only member of Crazy Horse that Young did not fire from his late-eighties band the Bluenotes), Left For Dead was the first Crazy Horse album in 11 years and the album's title was a defiant statement of alienation felt by the other band members having been left behind. In 1990, Talbot and Molina would again reunite with Young and Sampedro for Ragged Glory.