Blackfoot’s Crazy Horse

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33512, 18 April 1974, Page 4

Blackfoot ’s Crazy Horse

Truly we are a lucky people! As I swim across the great lakes of cola and climb the mighty hills of tear-tab cans, I often wonder what sort of miserable life it would be if we weren’t well and truly plugged into the Great American Dream Machine.

Why, if we weren’t, there might not be any breath fresheners, fried chicken, or charming armpits And that would be a terrible shame. So it was that I shuddered when 1 first encountered an album, recorded in New Zealand, which nevertheless devoted one whole side to a 19 minute song about the Red Indian chief. Crazy Horse (“The Song of Crazy Horse” by J. D. Blackfoot. Pye PZL 2001). Great Scott, I thought, what’s wrong with our local warblers 0 Why not a song about old Hone Heke and the flagpole? We have a past nch in incident. I thought. A bit of decent P.R. work could make the Maori Wars and the West Coast gold rushes sound every bit as exciting as the 15-odd vears when smelly men galloped around Oklahoma pointing unreliable guns at each other.

But on closer inspection I found that J. D. Blackfoot is an American who just happened to have recorded most of this record in Auckland, so it stands to reason that he should have drawn on his country’s history for inspiration. He certainly seems to have been inspired for "The Song Of Crazy Horse” is quite an impressive piece of work.

The song begins rather flatly but quickly acquires blood and fire as Crazy Horse proudly lists his victories over the white man, including a confrontation with Custer at Big Hom. and derides the

white man’s holy trinity, "alcohol, tobacco and guns ” This is a strong and pungent song, which applies every bit as much to nineteenth century Australia and New Zealand as it does to the American experience. And there’s a fine curling lash in the tail: "A hundred years have seen the setting sun But his sad country still is run

On his alcohol, tobacco and guns.”

As the song continues, Crazy Horse is captured and killed but not before his grim prophecies and dreams of freedom have been passed on, and he continues to exist as a spirit for anyone trying to "find a way ... of leaving the illusion behind.”

This section of the song is conveyed in the tune “Ride Away," which has been released as a single, and a good single at that, but which is that much more impressive as the climax of J. D. Blackfoot’s ambitious and generally successful concept There are seven songs on the second side of the record, none of which is as substantial as "Crazy Horse.” The first four—two tight rolling boogie numbers and two slower songs—are satisfying to listen to. but after them the album peters out. at least for me. The last track, "Cornin’ Down,” is another song in the lonesome freight-train blues division, which must by now be thoroughly overcrowded with battalions of moist-eyed solo singers chuffing along on their way to the recording studio. "The Song of Crazy Horse,” is quite expensively packaged, with a lavish lyrics book and glossy poster. Pye deserves a pat on the back for giving a local release the “star” treatment. —Mike Lombard