NEIL YOUNG And CRAZY HORSE Released ‘ZUMA’ Album This Day 50 Years Ago
10 November 2025
NEIL YOUNG and his CRAZY HORSE released their 2nd collaborative LP
and Young‘s 7th one, named ZUMA on 10 November 1975, today 50 ago.
Zuma was the first album released after the so-called Ditch Trilogy,
consisting of the three LPs Time Fades Away, On the Beach and Tonight’s
the Night.
It wasn’t a huge commercial success.
It peaked at #25 in the US and #44 in
the UK.
All Music/William Ruhlmann wrote: “Having apparently exorcised his demons
by releasing the cathartic Tonight’s the Night, Neil Young returned to his commercial
strengths with Zuma, named after Zuma Beach in Los Angeles, where he owned
a house.
Young had abandoned the ragged, first-take approach of his previous three albums, but Crazy Horse would never be a polished act, and the music had a lively sound well-suited to the songs, which were some of the most melodic, pop-oriented tunes Young had crafted in years, though they were played with an electric-guitar-drenched rock intensity.”
Young: “It’s about the Incas and the Aztecs. It takes on another personality.
It’s like being in another civilization. It’s a lost sort of form, sort of a soul-form
that switches from history scene to history scene trying to find itself, man,
in this maze.”
Last year the record was reissued on vinyl, including 7 previously unreleased songs from the Zuma recordings sessions. For the re-issue occasion, the album was rebaptized DUNE and came in 2 LPs. Still available, right here.
KEY TRACK
ALBUM
