The final Neil Young song featuring Danny Whitten: “He wasn’t looking good at that point”
Although Neil Young has worked with many notable names throughout his career, one man who had the most significant effect on him was the late Danny Whitten.
While Whitten’s time in the limelight was brief due to his death from heroin addiction in 1972, his partnership with Neil Young was incredibly significant. Starting in 1967, when the Canadian troubadour was still a member of Buffalo Springfield, Young met Whitten, Ralph Molina, and Billy Talbot when they were performing in the Los Angeles rock band The Rockets.
After releasing his debut solo album in 1968, Young began jamming with the trio. Before too long, after expressing an interest in recording together, the three became Crazy Horse, Young’s most lauded and most important backing band.
This collaboration proved fruitful, with Young’s second album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, remaining a classic to this day. It was the record that kicked off Young’s journey to becoming the ‘Godfather of Grunge’. Songs such as ‘Cinnamon Girl’ and ‘Down by the River’, which boast the gritty, dovetailing guitars of Young and Whitten, were unlike anything anyone had ever heard and remain as powerful as they were upon release.
After the triumph of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Whitten’s life became overwrought by his increasingly extreme heroin addiction, which in addition to his crippling arthritis, would lead to his talent taking the backseat. Tragically, this arc would lead to his death in 1972.
Years after his friend’s death, Young remembered: “That Night the coroner called me and told me he’d died. That blew my mind. Fucking blew my mind. I loved Danny. I felt responsible. And from there, I had to go right out on this huge tour of huge arenas. I was very nervous and… insecure.”
As is well known, Whitten would only partially contribute to Young’s 1970 effort, After the Gold Rush, with him and the rest of Crazy Horse dismissed halfway through the recording sessions. Whitten’s addiction was named as a significant influence in this decision. He was then posthumously credited on 1975’s Tonight’s the Night.
According to Neil Young, the final song of his that features Danny Whitten is ‘When You Dance I Can Really Love’ from After the Gold Rush. The singer-songwriter recalled: “He wasn’t looking too good at that point”.
As is well-known, even after Whitten’s death, he continued to impact Neil Young. The profoundly melancholic ‘The Needle and The Damage Done’ would become a highlight of 1972’s Harvest, and then later, the guitarist would be the main inspiration behind 1975’s Tonight’s the Night.
Listen to ‘When You Dance I Can Really Love’ below.
