''The Rockets'' is the sole release by The Rockets in 1968. Selling only about 5,000 copies, it was far from a success. Nevertheless, the album found among its fans

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

singer-songwriter

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

, who would soon take rhythm guitarist/lead vocalist

Danny Whitten Danny Ray Whitten (May 8, 1943 – November 18, 1972) was an American guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work with Neil Young's backing band Crazy Horse, and for the song "I Don't Want to Talk About It", a hit for Rod Stewart and Every ...

, bassist

Billy Talbot William Hammond Talbot (born October 23, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the bassist of Crazy Horse. Music career Born in New York City, Talbot started his musical career singing on street corners at the age o ...

and drummer

Ralph Molina Ralph Molina (born June 22, 1943) is an American musician, best known as the drummer for Neil Young's backing band Crazy Horse. Born in Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth o ...

for his backing band on the album ''

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'' is the second studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released in May 1969 on Reprise Records, catalogue number RS 6349. His first with longtime backing band Crazy Horse, it peaked at number 3 ...

''. They first dubbed themselves War Babies, but Young renamed them

Crazy Horse Crazy Horse ( lkt, Tȟašúŋke Witkó, italic=no, , ; 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by wh ...

, a name that would stick. The Rockets soon folded due to Young's insistence on having Whitten, Talbot and Molina keep to a strict practice schedule (although the group was honored by the subtitle of one of Young's songs from ''Everybody Knows this is Nowhere'': "Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)"). Talbot and Molina have remained as part of Crazy Horse to this day, and all of the other Rockets, except for Leon Whitsell, would eventually collaborate with Young. "Hole in My Pocket" was released as a single. Whitten's "Let Me Go" was prominently covered by

Three Dog Night Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, with founding members consisting of vocalists Danny Hutton, Cory Wells, and Chuck Negron. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael Allsup ...

on their 1968 debut. "Mr. Chips" was allegedly about

Ahmet Ertegün Ahmet Ertegun (, Turkish spelling: Ahmet Ertegün; ; – December 14, 2006) was a Turkish-American businessman, songwriter, record executive and philanthropist. Ertegun was the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records. He discovered and ch ...

's refusal to sign the band to

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

. The Rockets had been previously known as The Psyrcle on Lorna, a division of Autumn Records.

Track listing

Side one

# "Hole in My Pocket" (Danny Whitten) # "Won't You Say You'll Stay" (Danny Whitten) # "Mr. Chips" (Danny Whitten) # "It's A Mistake" (Ralph Molina, Billy Talbot) # "Let Me Go" (Danny Whitten)

Side two

"Try My Patience" (Leon Whitsell) # "I Won't Always Be Around" (Leon Whitsell) # "Pill's Blues" (George Whitsell) # "Stretch Your Skin" (Leon Whitsell) # "Eraser" (Leon Whitsell)

Personnel

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* George Whitsell – guitar, vocals * Leon Whitsell – guitar *

Bobby Notkoff Bobby Notkoff (31 December 1940 - 5 October 2018) was a violinist who played with The Rockets in the 1960s and Family Lotus in the 1970s. Notkoff was also part of one of the first supergroups Electric Flag, with Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Miles ...

–

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

– bass *

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, vocals

References

1968 debut albums White Whale Records albums {{1960s-rock-album-stub