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Billy Talbot
Time warp: It’s 1965. You drop a coin into a funny looking jukebox with a movie
screen attached. Not many selections available on this early pay-per-view MTV,
but “Land of a Thousand Dances” catches your eye. You pick that
one, the music starts, but it’s not Wilson Pickett—it’s four
suave white guys, lined up in tuxedos. They’re singing and grooving, surrounded
by hip young dancers doing those thousand dances. |
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Long before the Thousand Dances “Scopitone” video made its brief
appearance on the scene, Billy Talbot, born in New York City, moved with his
family to New Jersey as an early teen. The son of a musician and a singer, he
followed suit and sang in several doo-wop groups by the time he was 16. Before
long he decided to head out to California to expand his horizons.
It wasn’t too long before Billy met Danny Whitten in LA. Danny was a fellow singer with similar aspirations, and before long they (along with Ralph Molina) were performing as the vocal group Danny and the Memories. They put out a single, made the Thousand Dances video, and ended up moving to San Francisco a couple of years ahead of the Summer of Love. There Billy, Ralph and Danny easily melded into the burgeoning San Francisco scene, and became long-haired “Hippies” before that term was even coined. During this period (about 1966), after catching a Byrds concert one night, they decided it was time for them to learn to play instruments. Before getting too far along the learning curve, they renamed the group “The Psyrcle”, and put out a record produced by Sly Stone. But lack of success drove them back to LA, where they holed up and worked hard at improving their musicianship. Eventually Billy moved into a Laurel Canyon house where legendary jam sessions brought together the musicians who collectively became The Rockets. Besides Billy, Ralph and Danny on bass, drums and guitar, the band included electric violinist Bobby Notkoff and both Leon and George Whitsell on guitars. Yep, three guitars. Their repertoire of hard driving garage rock - mixed with psychedelica - became something of a local underground sensation, but their record label didn’t do much to promote their debut album in 1968. Though the Rockets played a lot of gigs in the LA area, their break-through just wasn’t happening. Enter from stage left: Neil Young... The highly organic sessions, overseen by David Briggs, turned into the seminal album-rock masterpiece “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”. Not many debut albums produce even two songs that live on after 30+ years. But this one featured the AM radio-friendly “Cinnamon Girl” as well as the FM staples “Down By The River” and “Cowgirl In The Sand”, each clocking in at around 10 minutes. The legend of The Horse had begun. Coming into the 70s, Neil took off for other projects. So Billy and the rest of Crazy Horse brought in teenager Nils Lofgren on Guitar and Jack Nitzsche on keyboards to produce the first of several versions of the Horse not fronted by Neil Young. The band put out a well-crafted album, with Danny’s much-covered “I Don’t Want To Talk About It” as one of its highlights. Two other albums (“Loose” and “At Crooked Lake”) followed without Danny, due to his increasing drug problems. Though Billy participated in some of Neil’s non-Crazy Horse activities during this period, it wasn’t until after Danny’s tragic overdose in late ‘72 that Neil rejoined Crazy Horse, on the material eventually released as “Tonight’s The Night”. Nils Lofgren again helped out. Subsequently Billy recruited Frank “Poncho” Sampedro in 1975 to fill the void where Danny once stood. This configuration of the Neil-fronted version of Crazy Horse would be a constant into the next century. Since then, Billy has hit the road with Neil and Crazy Horse on these tours: · 1976 Japan tour And they’ve released these Neil-fronted Crazy Horse albums: Crazy Horse also performed in these films and video compilations: Throughout this period, as Neil came and went, Billy kept busy with other projects. In 1978 another Crazy Horse album was produced without Neil fronting the band—though this time Neil did play guitar on several songs. The LP was called “Crazy Moon”, and Billy, Ralph and Poncho all contributed songs to the album. Billy sang lead on several of them himself this time. Though not a big seller, the album was well received by fans even without Neil’s name on the cover. Through the 80s, whenever Crazy Horse wasn’t active, Billy helped out on various works by friends and acquaintances. As the decade drew to a close, Billy and Ralph reformed Crazy Horse, with Matt Piucci and Sonny Mone contributing this time, and put out an album called “Left For Dead”. Again Billy contributed songs to the album. In the 90s, Billy kept pretty busy working with Neil, but did also join Ralph to contribute on several songs released by Ian McNabb (once of the band Icicle Works) on his album “Head Like A Rock”. Throughout this period, Billy had been working on various songs of his own and decided it was time to do something with them. As the 90s ended, he began doing so. In 1999, Billy put together a band of eclectic performers who he felt could do justice to the songs he’d been honing. He once again called on his “Left For Dead” Crazy Horse cohort Matt Piucci to contribute lead guitar. He recruited a rhythm section of Jeff Chase on bass and Stephan Junca on drums. To round out the sound, versatile musicians Erik Pearson and Tommy Carns were added to the mix. And the Billy Talbot Band was born. Their first public performance was in the Old Princeton Landing club in Half Moon Bay, where Crazy Horse had begun the Year Of The Horse several years before. An appreciative crowd of “Rusties” (Neil Young fans) welcomed them to the stage and enjoyed the public debut of most of the songs later to appear on the first Billy Talbot Band album. Several other public appearances with the BTB followed. Since the turn of the century, Billy has ridden the Horse with Neil, around the world. He’s helped memorialize the victims of 9/11, with somber performances at the 2001 Bridge School Benefit show. He's help publicize the plight of the family farmer at Farm Aid. He’s enjoyed the enthusiastic response to Neil’s Greendale stage show. And he’s worked hard at getting the debut album of the Billy Talbot Band ready for release. Flashback again to that young man in the Tuxedo snapping his fingers and singing “Land of a Thousand Dances”. Has it really been 40 years since then? Maybe so, but Billy’s still keeping the rhythm, singing the songs, and making music worth listening to.
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