Crazy Horse – Scratchy: The Complete Reprise Recordings

No one is likely to mistake Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina for Wyman and Watts, but with the right leader (Neil Young, say), their irregular pulse and off-kilter kerplunkety provide crucial warmth and character. Crazy Horse’s 1971 self-titled debut, with Danny Whitten, Nils Lofgren and Jack Nitzsche, remains a roots-inflected, heavy-rock touchstone, boasting a uniformly strong set balancing mournful ballads and left-field rockers (notably, an ode to erectile dysfunction and a party stomper about scoring heroin). Just a year later, the follow-up Loose found Talbot and Molina fronted by an anonymous collection of minor leaguers, delivering limp country-rock several notches below the not exactly hearty CSN/Eagles standard. Rhino’s “limited edition” supplements the official releases with the usual oddments and arcana, but given the original lineup’s too-brief run, these barrel scrapings inspire a benevolent indulgence. The simulated innocence of the early-’60s close harmony and Brill Building knockoffs that close the set is sweet enough to induce tears.