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

“I’ve done it all. All of it,” Stills insisted. It seemed almost a penitent’s pride. “I’ve been the most obnoxious, arrogant superstar to walk the streets of Hollywood . . . I’m still arrogant. I can be an absolute bastard. I have a bad habit of stating things pretty bluntly. I’m not known for my tact. But look, I can see that I really got carried away with myself. Being a rich man at twenty-five is sometimes difficult to deal with . . . you make mistakes. I’ve made all of ‘em. But I’m thirty now and at this point it’s all very funny.

“Ever since I got married, life is just a gas. This tour should be incredible. Joni Mitchell and I had a great discussion about that a couple of weeks ago. I’m basically a blues singer and blues singers are supposed to suffer. I almost feel guilty. I’m trying harder than I have in years. I’m determined to do the best I can. I want to be good.”

holy shit

Don & Glenn were clearly taking notes.

Then, CSNY represented a sophisticated harmonic oasis amid the parching acid rock of the time. Now they are the Founding Fathers, the inspiration for the current generation of prosperous L.A. country rockers. “Hey, man,” Eagle Glenn Frey once said, “I bought that first album and freaked out right along with everyone else. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are, in essence, The Great American Supergroup.” And the kids, more than the fanatical original wave of fans, seem compelled to examine the sweet-singing artifacts.

Years later...

DON: Stephen Stills was the key component amongst many key components in CSN. His vision always came through, be it in his guitar playing, harmonies, and outspoken political views. We took what we could from him--even working down to David Geffen as representation. You can't with 'em all.

GLENN: We had it all--the football jerseys, the French chicks, harmonies. But what threw us was the mutton chops. We tried and tried, but our afros and Fu Manchus didn't quite cut it.

DON: Well, yeah.

I saw both groups in '74, and while the Eagles' harmonies were thin and strained, they suited the butthurt macho wannabeeizm of their songs, well not all their songs, but a lot. CSNY were actually worse,like their voices were changing ("Sweet Judy Bloop Eyes", yeesh). But Crosby and Young were good solo, while Stills-Young guitar wars were worth the ticket and more.
In Stills' defense (!), Dylan did re-record those songs at the last minute, after receiving negative feedback from various sources (xgau said the original promo sounded like "a sell-out to the memory of Dylan's acoustic period," for instance.
Speaking of oral history, don't miss the Cros's autobio, which sometimes looks like the Synoptic Gospels, with ancient heads giving various accounts of the same incident, on the same page (of the book, that is).

christ i almost want to do a poll of stills' claims

For a few years of my solo career the bourbon king showed up and it was just messy. I don't run from it. I own it. It left my voice shot. It's cool now because I've gotten it back. I'm hitting the high notes again. The present for me is fine.

Rehearsing outdoors at Neil's ranch was my idea.

I wore football jerseys before it was cool. People like Jann Wenner would always ask me, 'What's with the football uniform?' I'd say, 'We're in a football stadium and they're loud and colorful. And I like football.' The next year Mick Jagger shows up with a Philadelphia Eagles uniform at a show.

I went to New York and tried to sell these pretty heavy-duty guys on how to do concerts. I said to them, 'You should have drive-in screens with a closed circuit feed of the show if you're doing things this big.' They looked at me like I was from Mars. Who knew that would become the standard for the industry?

I just listened to a piano solo from that tour. I could have sworn we didn't have a piano player on the stage and was I was like, 'What? Who? I can't play piano like that.' Turns out I can.

I saw the cards all lining up for Nixon to resign before they could impeach him. I had friends in Washington.

The last one, of course.

Of all the dynamic duos in rock, i can't imagine any beat stills/young in terms of Mutual Confidence That They're Doing The Other One A Favor.

for how many of you was Shakey the first time you ever thought more than a few seconds about CSN(Y)?

Re what I said about bad "harmonies," good solo shots, excellent guitar wars: all in the one show I saw, which may well have been an off night, and proved they weren't nearly harmony-dependent. Alfred, the way I remember it: for lots and lots of people, CSN and CSNY were a big deal before solo Neil. Harvest was big, yeah, but solo albums before and fairly soon after that, not as much (commercially, anyway).

well, I meant anyone born after 1972, say.

I think that applies to me. I was vaguely aware of them beforehand but always ignored them because everyone in it who is not Neil Young was awful.

shakey otm

haha i knew csn(y) were hugely successful and i was familiar w/ some of the music but yeah hadn't given them any thought at all and was generally anti-hippie enough that i'd never consider listening to them. the degree to which to the world neil young was neil young of crosby, stills, nash, & young and they wondered why he didn't work w/ csn more and kept wasting his time w/ crazy horse was some real 'o right' for someone from a generation where generally the only time you encountered that side of neil was the stuff on decade. i've mellowed enough and become more...hippie sympathetic to enjoy more while not being remotely tempted to dig deep. i think the avalanches working 'carry on' into some mixes was what turned the tide, i had liked 'southern cross' but i think i assumed it was by pure prairie league or something for the first twenty odd years i knew it.

da croupier you should include the stories about Paul McCartney and Dylan even if they're secondhand.

and wow these guys totally did set the stage for the eagles didn't they

'almost cut my hair' is grebt but damn

Every time I hear a tolerable tune like "Dark Star" garbage like "Just a Song Before I Go" and "Marrakesh Express" interferes.

I gave Crosby's If Someone Could Remind Me I Suck thanks to ILM last year, and, sorry, it blows. Maybe I have to like Animal Collective to appreciate the harmonies and echo and shit.

Nah I like all that other stuff and still think its terrible. My least favorite Byrd.

when I discovered Young in the nineties it didn't once occur to me to check out the CSN(Y) materiail; even then I thought it was embarrassing pay-the-bills shit

I really like CSN(Y) - the first 2 albums at least

i know it's not really all that defensible but it's kinda like the Eagles, I'm happy listening to them sing because it beats the hell out of them talking about how great they are

My parents had the CSNY hits album, so I heard that a lot. The best song on it was "Ohio," which set me up for further Neil explorations later.

I'm no great CSN(Y) stan but the first two CSN(Y) records run circles around any full-length the Eagles recorded.

After surviving the Eagles listening thread, deep in my heart I know this to be true

CSN each had one classic solo album in them imo. songs for beginners, if I could only remember my name, and manassas (which is hardly solo at all but I'll throw stills a bone.)

Crosby and Nash were a good duo. idk I think CSN overall had a pretty solid run.

nah

al leong otm, obviously 2 of these guys are buffoons, one of them is a genius who's still pretty easy to mock, but the sum of all their recorded output has truly awesome moments and a lot of pretty good ones.

I think that applies to me. I was vaguely aware of them beforehand but always ignored them because everyone in it who is not Neil Young was awful.

― Οὖτις, Friday, June 20, 2014 9:29 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sorry but this is absolutely ridiculous. Makes no sense. Every guy in that band except for Nash had some transcendent moments. This kind of post does nobody any good.

lol

oh shit bill magill is otm

i want to elect bill magill sheriff of oldtimey ilxtown

I mean idon't post on a csny board is u think 75% of the group is "awful". I don't post on one direction or 5 seconds of summer boards, this clown should steer clear.

haha

bill otm though i do need to offer a rebuttal to that last point:

http://factmag-images.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/zeppelin19102013.jpg

is there really a band called 5 seconds of summer? how is bill magill more in touch w/ the streets than me????

Being a young Zep-head is why I initially resisted the dulcet harmonies of CSN, but thankfully I eventually began to enjoy music that didn't rock with a capital-R

no offense to Zep, legends forever obviously, and a group I still enjoy more than just about any of their contemporaries.

I'll take Nash's best songs w the Hollies over any shit Crosby or Stills ever wrote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbgYwHEneP8

Plant and Bonham covering Stills pre-Zep:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq_7Dz4txY0

also: guitar riff in Zep's "Friends" = guitar riff from CNS&Y "Carry On"

Thanks. Little bit of "For What It's Worth" at the end of this: Zep with Neil playing lead, "When The Levee Breaks."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aFqjP1iuzY

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/10/01/22_nystillsnash_co-2f31c432a2fa73d960e1c7e0012fffc01c42dbcc.jpg?s=6

I’m basically a blues singer and blues singers are supposed to suffer.

http://cdn.mos.totalfilm.com/images/j/jake-blues-the-blues-brothers-_142168-fli_1375801117.jpg

lol al

Would pay good money to see CSNY take on the Illinois Nazis.

Side 2 of led zep III is not that far away from the first CSN record. That was my entrance.

So the songs are copy and paste jobs...does it matter? Doesn't bother me but glad I know.

Also see link to Neil arcana at the bottom of this article:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/crosby-stills-nash-young-may-release-deja-vu-box-set-20140626?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Really like the long electric jams, which for a while were Down By The River but I think became something else later. I have one version of that by them that's 20 minutes long of 3 or 4 guitars blazing with a zen like repetitive rhythm instrument that keeps repeating. Think it may be a '69 Balboa Park set.

AQ lotof the '74 sets have been turning up on Dime recently. Haven't really taken in what the new '74 box set is, is that Wembley? Would explain why there wouldn't be overlap with US and Canadian shows being upped if so

Love the clip of them doing Down By The River from the Festival at Big Sur film. Don't really like the Stills scene elsewhere in that film, guess that would be 'telling it like it is' at the time or something.

Still not familiar with the 4 Way street set, saw that it used to not get much critical recognition but was taht because of the band or it not being a good live lp by them, since I do love them, at least the electric sets by them, elsewhere.