Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young: C/D, S/D

Only CSNY song I like is "Pre-Road Downs" from that first album, with just the three of them. Otherwise, I can't stand 'em. Smug, and those harmonies bore into my brain like a dentist's drill.

i'm more interested in the fact that CSN(Y) (or whatever) were actually REALLY POPULAR and BIG -- as in springsteen in '85/outkast or britney spears BIG. that's such a radical sea-change in mass public musical taste that deserves some comment, no?

they seem like songs that want to appear "relevant" without actually saying anything at all (see also "ball of confusion" by the temptations).

no, that recording is utterly beautiful in every respect.

"teach yer children," OTOH, was just hippy sermonizing.

well, it would be if not for CSN harmonies. i guess we'll just have to agree to disagree here ... :-)

yeah i know the context, but the song still seems hopelessly equivocal and sometimes incoherent.

the reason i can't remember which one it is is because they look identical.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf300/f330/f33067crhvi.jpg http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd900/d947/d94749sn54p.jpg

what else would you recommend along these lines that isn't related to csn or y?

I found $41 on the ground today, so let's talk about Psychedelic Country!

and all the byrds related projects (even though that is related to c)

Still does, to me.

1. Rock and Roll Doctor
2. Two Trains
3. The Fan
4. On Your Way Down
5. Spanish Moon >
6. Skin It Back >
7. Fat Man In The Bath Tub
8. Oh Atlanta
9. Willin'

It's a really, really excellent quality Pre-FM broadcast recording. Out of my entire bootleg collection, this is the one show I keep coming back to the most. It's just so fuckin' good. Better than the studio recordings, even (IMHO). They're on fire, I tells ya! Now go get it! *pant pant pant* ;)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre300/e349/e34945e0x9d.jpg

I got to see them on a free ticket a few years ago and I was really amazed by how well they can hit those harmonies live.

Hating on CSNY is like making fun of your ex-hippy uncle that teaches middle school.

thats really good then? i always look at it in the store but am suspicious of it. maybe its the book cover packaging

CSNY is pretty great and I've been wanting to check out "If I Could Only Remember My Name" for awhile now

People be saying crazy things.

No thread just on Graham Nash, so I thought I'd just revive this instead.

I'm listening to Songs For Beginners and it's gorgeous. I can't get enough of the group of musicians surrounding CSNY around 1970, including Garcia, Lesh, Grace Slick, and so on; the PERRO thing. This record is part of this group. "I Used To Be A King" is a highlight.

Evidently Nash has a retrospective box set coming out later this year. Does anyone know anything else about this?

And did any of you pick up the Crosby box last year? And was it any good? I love the outtakes from "If I Could Only Remember My Name" (linked to earlier in this thread), but evidently these didn't come out on the box. I'd love a box of just the PERRO stuff.

and i'm listening to the self titled crosby/nash and there have been moments where i've literally had to stop writing/reading and just listen because they're so beautiful

Yes - this is a really really good record and I don't know anything at all about the rest of the CSNY universe. Search "Immigration Man" if nothing else.

definite case of lost potential. the solo debut and the box set covering all the rest are really all you could need:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_(David_Crosby_album)

i like the debut far far more than any solo stills (inc manassas) or nash and probably better than the majority of Neil solo lps. a shame it's so solitary.

saying that, his recent few jazzy things with his son in the band are not terrible listens. not strong songs but he still sounds nice.

Crosby gave a free show at Lincoln Center two summers ago. The first and only time I've gone to any of his solo shows - I mean, it was FREE, and by the end, I was standing more or less right in front of the stage. Anyway, it was surprisingly good - not only was the band good, but his voice held up really well and the setlist hit all of the high points from the Byrds and CSN&Y ("Long Time Gone" and especially a pissed off "Ohio" that closed the show). The one disappointment was "Eight Miles High," which had a poor arrangement. Coincidentally, Roger McGuinn played a show a few months earlier - his first solo show in NYC in quite a while (his only other recent show was the Sweetheart of the Rodeo 50th anniversary tour stop), and it was at a venue that was within walking distance of Lincoln Center. The highlight of that show was "Eight Miles High," and even with just McGuinn on acoustic with no backing, it was amazing to hear as he turned it into an extended improvisation. No surprise, his guitar playing always made that record.

it seems a fairly obscure point to make now, but CSN/CSNY would have been considered the dominant American rock group in the early 70s up to 74

Their main competition for that honor would have been Grand Funk Railroad, who amazingly scored five platinum and two gold albums during that time frame plus broke all kinds of live attendance records, though seemingly without accumulating any gravitas along the way. It's kind of a mystery where all the Grand Funk fans went, and why they're a non-entity to younger generations. Contrastingly, it appears that the CSN(Y) catalog has had a long commercial afterlife.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXKmsvRXE4A

I'm not a fan, but Dez Dickerson was, so they did influence some of my absolute favorite music. Maybe not the primary influence, but Dez had some great guitar solos ("Little Red Corvette" in particular).

https://resources.mynewsdesk.com/image/upload/t_open_graph_image/xzzq35exgfiudfsrt90o.jpg

"LET'S FOLK ROCK!"

OMG

'No Nukes: Muse Concert For a Non-Nuclear Future' publicity shot, NYC, 1979 (with David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Jesse Colin Young, John Hall, Phoebe Snow, Carly Simon, Michael McDonald, James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt) pic.twitter.com/WpqJ7l7VXJ

— Barney Hurley (@barneyhurley1) April 18, 2021

Nuclear weapons: bad!
Now let’s party

JT not sure which one is his wife.

Carly's plaid jumpsuit is quite something.

Seeing Crosby, Stills and Nash & Cypress Hill in the same event sounds like a dream tbh.

— VIKKA/LILSATAN 👁👅 (@lil_satan_) April 21, 2021

(The event in question being Woodstock '94)

ALSO: Just noticing in that No Nukes pic that Crosby appears to be wondering why he's both at the side w/Stills, but also on the other end standing next to Nash.

"Marrakesh Express" is f-ing awful, so much that when I tried the first CS&N album without playing that track, the whole thing actually improved immensely - a more cohesive and unified album that managed to stay afloat and keep me engaged the whole time. I guess having it in the #2 slot always derailed the whole thing for me.

The LP still doesn't feel like a *great* album, but when I think of it as a one-off lark rather than the core music of any of those three (similar to the Traveling Wilburys later on), it at least feels like a commendable side project, as long as I ditch that awful track.

Agree
Wasn’t that the “single” to boot?

Not sure why I put that in quotes

Yup, the first single and peaked at #28. In retrospect, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" should've been the first (it was the second and peaked at #21), and they could've tossed "Marrakesh Express" on to the B-side as a non-LP release.

I like it, although I will concede it's easily the cheesiest hippie-dippy thing on the debut. IIRC, it--along with all the other Nash tracks on that album--was rejected by the Hollies in favor of their Dylan album. It probably was the first single because at that point Nash had the most hits to his name than the other guys.

what do y'all have against piffle?

it--along with all the other Nash tracks on that album--was rejected by the Hollies in favor of their Dylan album

You had taste, Hollies. You had taste.

I always disliked this song til I heard the latter-day Hollies records with Nash, and then I was at least able to see what he was going for. I find this similar, a lot better, quite charming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiflXrTsKLU

Hollies >>>>>>>>> Crosby, Stills & Nash

Nash is easily my least favorite member of CSN and sometimes Y. “Just a song before I go” from CSN is lovely, though.

That “black keys” song of his seems …lazy

Like yeah, anyone who’s ever played piano knows the sharps and flats have a nice harmonic resonance with other

I think he made it up on the spot, in his defence.

ok, recast csn - who would you replace graham nash with? for americans i'd probably go with someone like tandyn almer or curt boettcher. can't think of a britisher who would fit in the role tho!

John Sebastian?

how about a female singer? Oh, right -- these guys were pigs.

Mama Cass? She didn't write songs though. But how about Dave Mason?

how about a female singer? Oh, right -- these guys were pigs.

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

right, i mean, we're assuming that they're basically pigs, also, we start getting women involved and crosby/stills are pretty quickly outclassed

mike patto might be interesting. dave mason! yeah, that's definitely gotta be it, it'd have to be dave mason in that role.

Duh, Mike Love.

Although in reality it would have been Stills' buddy Peter Tork.

Richie Furay would have fitted in pretty well but then it would just have been Buffalo Springfield.

Rick James

the thing is that Nash’s voice is a really vital component of their gorgeous awesome vocal harmonies… Dave mason sounds too much like stills, imo

Art Garfunkel actually substituted for Crosby on CSN albums for awhile.

Crosby, Stills, Parsons, and Garfunkel

There's a hot 16-minute "Down By The River" on the new Fillmore '69 album.

Oh yeah. Maybe too much of a good thing

How does Fillmore 1969 compare to 4-Way Street? I know both have been edited substantially (cut songs or cut banter), but I guess the former is much closer to an actual show, all drawn from the final night of their 1969 run at Fillmore, while 4-Way is sort of a best of compilation from the whole 1970 tour? Also, Fillmore sounds like there wasn't any overdubbing, they leave in way too much to suggest any "fixes," but was 4-Way heavily overdubbed?

FWIW, I wasn't really a fan of CSN&Y - I'm far more of a Neil Young fan and much prefer Buffalo Springfield - but in recent years I've grown to appreciate Crosby, Stills & Nash (i.e. the debut) and Deja Vu, and I like their Woodstock appearance. Still don't like the later stuff at all, but I figure it may be worth seeing what else they've recorded from those first couple of years.

Stills reportedly didn't like 4-Way Street because Nash (who ultimately oversaw the production) refused to allow overdubs or sweetening. There's certainly flab on it (Stills' gospel shouting on "49 Bye Byes"/"America's Children"--YIKES!).

I haven't listened to all of the Fillmore '69 album, but it is shorter and has a more appealing setlist.

Nash oversaw the expansion of 4WS for CD in the '90s to make it (sort of) more representative of a typical set by added one more acoustic solo set song per member--although in typical Neil fashion his track is a 'medley' of three full songs that were mixed and mastered by someone other than who handled the rest of the album.

If you're a hardy sort, you might want to check out the 1974 Live box, which is sourced from multiple shows to create a "Dream Set" over three discs. Lots of terrific Neil stuff, but also some obviously tinkered with harmonies (autotune!) and other stuff that they couldn't airbrush away (Stills is very phlegmy at points in his leads).

Ultimately though, if you're interested in what else they were doing in those years, you might be better off trying out some of the early solo albums: Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name; the Crosby & Nash S/T; Stills' Manassas (with Chris Hillman); and Nash's Songs For Beginners and Wild Tales (which is an interesting Neil footnote as it was cut right after the tour that gave us Time Fades Away and has 3/5ths of the Stray Gators as the backing band with occasional Neil cameos--it's the closest any of the other guys came to making a "Ditch Trilogy" album.

the 1974 doom tour box is good - lots of great ditch-era neil on there.

I actually got If I Could Only Remember My Name - I was surprised Elvis Costello was a fan of that album and after seeing Crosby in 2019 (what may have been his last NYC show), I picked it up. The 1974 box set sounds very intriguing, especially since the “ditch” era is my favorite, so will check that out - thank you C. Grisso/McCain!

That '74 live release is great -- CSNY's decadence in full force, and one of Neil's great unrecorded, time-signature-shifting epics.

I always think CSN would have been so much better if every song on every album was just Stills on acoustic and the three of them harmonizing. Instead they believed themselves rock gods of some sort and leaned into that mode hard. 1974 is the one time I think they made the excess sound compelling.