Zuma, the seventh studio album by Canadian/American musician Neil Young, was released on Reprise Records in November 1975.
Co-credited to Crazy Horse, it includes "Cortez the Killer," one of Young's best-known songs.
Upon release, it peaked at #25 on the Billboard 200.
In 1997, the album received a RIAA gold certification.
In 2000, it was voted number 410 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.
Background
The death of former Crazy Horse guitarist and bandmate Danny Whitten from an alcohol/diazepam overdose in 1972 affected Neil Young greatly and contributed to a hiatus of Crazy Horse.
Late in 1973, Young went on tour with the Crazy Horse rhythm section of bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina; the multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren, who had played on Young's After the Gold Rush (1970) before joining the Whitten-led iteration of Crazy Horse from 1970 to 1971; and the Stray Gators holdover Ben Keith.
This group,  initially billed as Crazy Horse at its first engagements, became known as the Santa Monica Flyers.
They recorded most of the tracks on Tonight's the Night (1975).
After the 1974 stadium tour with Crosby, Stills & Nash and another abandoned attempt at a second CSNY studio album, Young formed a new version of Crazy Horse in 1975 with rhythm guitarist Frank Sampedro alongside of Talbot and Molina.
Aside from a brief period in the late 1980s, this line-up would remain stable until 2018, when Sampedro retired and was replaced by Lofgren.
Content
Zuma was the first album released after the so-called Ditch Trilogy, of the albums Time Fades Away, On the Beach, and Tonight's the Night.
The melody and lyrics of "Don't Cry No Tears" are partially derived from "I Wonder", a song Young wrote in high school which appeared in his Archives (2009).
During a show in 1996, Young claimed  that he'd also written "Cortez the Killer" in high school while suffering from "Montezuma's Revenge".
The song ends with a fade out because a power surge caused the original cut to stop abruptly, and an additional final verse was not recorded.
Young's reaction to hearing of this was that he "never liked that verse anyway" and it has never been performed live.
In "Danger Bird" Young interpolates sections of an unreleased song called "L.A. Girls and Ocean Boys" that had related to Young's breakup with Carrie Snodgress, specifically the line "'Cause you've been with another man / there you are and here I am."
Jimmy McDonough.
Shakey: Neil Young's Biography.
New York: Random House, 2002, pp.
488-506.
Track listing
All tracks are written by Neil Young.
;Side one
"Don't Cry No Tears" – 2:34
"Danger Bird" – 6:54
"Pardon My Heart" – 3:49
"Lookin' for a Love" – 3:17
"Barstool Blues" – 3:02
;Side two
"Stupid Girl" – 3:13
"Drive Back" – 3:32
"Cortez the Killer" – 7:29
"Through My Sails" – 2:41
Personnel
Neil Young – vocals, guitars, piano
Crazy Horse
Frank Sampedro – rhythm guitar
Billy Talbot – bass , backing vocals
Ralph Molina – drums , backing vocals
Additional musicians
Tim Drummond – bass
Stephen Stills – bass, backing vocals
David Crosby, Graham Nash – backing vocals
Russ Kunkel – congas
Charts
Chart performance for ''Zuma''
Certifications
References
External links
"Neil Young With Crazy Horse – Zuma".
Discogs.
Zuma at Myspace (streamed copy where licensed)
