Danny Ray Whitten (1943-1972) was born in Columbus, Georgia on May 8, 1943. Not much is known of his early life, but soon after reaching majority he joined with Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina among others in the doo-wop group Danny and the Memories. After recording an obscure single,"Can't Help Loving That Girl of Mine", which failed to light up the charts, the core members of the group moved to San Francisco. There they morphed into a psychedelic rock act with Whitten taking up the guitar, Molina the drums and Talbot bass and piano.
By 1967, the group expanded to include the brothers Whitsell, George and Leon, on additional guitars and vocals as well as violinist Bobby Notkoff, and the sextet were calling themselves The Rockets . Noted independent label White Whale signed the group and paired them with producer Barry Goldberg, releasing the group's self-titled album in mid-1968. Selling poorly, only about 5,000 copies left the shelves, the album seemed destined for obscurity. The group, though, had one significant fan, Canadian singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Neil Young.
Young, whom had left his group Buffalo Springfield and issued his own self-titled release was eager to record with Whitten, Molina and Talbot. The trio agreed, so long as they were allowed to simultaneously continue on with The Rockets. Young agreed to their request, but imposed a rehearsal schedule that made it impossible. At first dubbed "War Babies" by Young, they soon became known as Crazy Horse.
Issued in early 1971, Crazy Horse could be best described as a Neil Young record which did not feature him. Mostly written by either Whitten or Nitzsche, it highlighted by Whitten's ultra-personal "I Don't Want To Talk About It".
Over the next year Whitten drifted, encompassed almost totally by drugs. In October 1972, after receiving a call from Young to play rhythm guitar on the upcoming tour behind Young's Harvest album, Whitten showed up for rehearsals at Young's home outside San Francisco. While the rest of the group hammered out arrangements, Whitten lagged behind, figuring out the rhythm parts, though never in sync with the rest of the group. Young, who had more at stake after the success of Harvest, could not handle Whitten's behaviour, and fired him on November 17, 1972. Young gave Whitten a plane ticket to Los Angeles and $50 to get himself some help. Once in Los Angeles, Whitten spent the $50 on heroin and overdosed a final time, he died that night at the age of 29. There has been some dispute since his death, whether it was indeed heroin, or a mixture of Valium and alcohol that finally killed.
Whitten was the subject of one of the most endearing songs on Harvest, "The Needle and the Damage Done", written by Young about Whitten's heroin addiction. And in 1975, was the subject of Young's Tonight's The Night
Whitten's own claim to fame, "I Don't Want To Talk About It", has been covered by numerous artists since his death, including Rod Stewart.
