In the summer of not-love (1971?) Crazy Horse actually played at the fairgrounds in Malone. A guy in my class just decided one day that he was going to create a concert event in our town and then… did it!
Dennis was like a middle guy: not the smartest, not the dumbest, not the most popular, not despised… you get the idea. The one thing that you could say about him that set him apart from anyone else in the class was that he was really… VISIBLE. “Hold the phone!” he would shout from his desk if he knew the answer to a question (or not) “I’ve got it!” We would all look at each other and roll our eyes, but not in a nasty way – like I said, he was pretty likable.
Anyway, he set up this concert. I can’t even plan a birthday party for my kid now, so I really can’t imagine how a guy in his mid-teens could’ve possibly pulled this thing off. I remember on the afternoon of the show they were broadcasting “special reports” on the local radio station that cars were lined up at the border full of Canadians on their way to the show. I’m pretty sure I was rolling my eyes at that point but I was still hoping that it was true and that the concert would be a huge success.
When I got to the fairgrounds my heart sunk – there couldn’t have been more than 150 or so people there. I’d seen the grandstand at the fairgrounds absolutely packed 3000 strong for a damn tractor-pull, but here we were, and no number of Quebecois latecomers were going to get here in time to make it OK. Dennis was a mess, but an unsinkable, hold your head up, show must go on kind of mess, and I instantly had a new respect for the guy.
So Crazy Horse did the show, and even though I’d never heard any of the songs before I thought they were tremendous. People kept screaming for “Down By The River” and they finally gave in and played it, and after the show a bunch of us walked around to the side of the stage and just kind of hung out with the band, who didn’t seem down about the turnout, but weren’t particular talkative either. I asked one of them (I have no idea who) just about the worst question you could possibly ask: “What’s it like to play with Neil Young?” His answer was to point to another member of the band and say “Ask him.” I was just a kid, you know?
Last part of the story. That night I actually wrote a letter to the Malone Evening Telegram saying (basically) that Malone didn’t support this event, and now nobody should ever complain about having nothing to do ever again. I was a pretty shy person, and it took a lot to write that letter but I felt good for two days… until somebody wrote a rebuttal letter(!) saying (basically) “…but I don’t happen to like Crazy Horse.” The girl who wrote it was my friend, too… obviously not a candidate for the debate club, though.
Crazy Horse went on to be Crazy Horse, Dennis wound up broadcasting and promoting concerts in Central New York State (more people => more concert-goers), Elizabeth the rebutter remained my friend, and I never wrote another letter to an editor ever again. That first Crazy Horse solo album (can a band do a solo album?) is still tops on my list, and I’d love to think it was Danny Whitten who told me to ask someone else what it was like to play with Neil Young. I think I’m going to remember it that way anyway – no one will mind.
