JEFF BLACKBURN
with NEIL YOUNG
by Cameron Crowe
In the summer of 1977, a
rumor shot through California music
circles that Neil Young was appearing
nightly in the bars around Santa Cruz. It
was disregarded by most as typical
gossip, but a trip up the coast one
Friday night found a crowd milling around
the entrance to a small bar called the
Catalyst. The marquee simply read: DUCKS.
Inside, the place was filled with the
dull roar of zoo people quacking and
blowing duck calls. After a while, out
wandered four musicians. On lead guitar
was Young, his painter's hat pulled down
low. The Ducks opened with a scorching
version of "Mr. Soul" and
played through an hour of simple, hard
Chuck Berry-esque rock & roll. The
songs, only a few of which were Young's,
celebrated trucks, girls and bars. The
Ducks became a secret, local institution.
For a buck, you came in and Neil Young
burned up the frets, then joined you at
the bar for a drink.
Young had turned up in
Santa Cruz to visit an old friend from
the Springfield days, singer/songwriter
Jeff Blackburn. Once part of the San
Francisco duo Blackburn and Snow, he'd
been playing around the quiet coastal
town with a band that included ex-Moby
Grape member Bob Mosley and drummer
Johnny C. Craviotto. When the group lost
its lead guitarist, Young joined up. They
decided to call themselves the Ducks and
within weeks every duck call within miles
had been purchased.
"These guys play
some great music," Neil told one
local. "Sure they want to go out and
do something, but all I want to do is
play some music right now, and not go out
and do anything. You see, I haven't lived
in a town for eight years. I stayed on my
ranch for about four years and then I
just started traveling all over, never
really staying anywhere. Moving into
Santa Cruz is like my reemergence back
into civilization. I like this town. If
the situation remains cool, we can do
this all summer long."
This exchange was later
written up as a front-page story in a
local newspaper. Crowds began to arrive
from everywhere. Record companies even
sent scouts. Word got out about the house
that the band lived in. There was a
robbery. And one day Neil Young
disappeared again.
"I still have the
team spirit," said Jeff Blackburn
when I called him recently. "It's
almost hard to comprehend it ever
happened. We all knew Neil had
commitments and everything.... I guess we
were in the fairy tale and unable to see
out of it."
Copyright ROLLING STONE,
February 8, 1979
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