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Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young)
Encyclopedia
Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) is a folk rock
supergroup
made up of David Crosby
, Stephen Stills
and Graham Nash
, also known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) when joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young
. They are noted for their intricate vocal harmonies, often tumultuous interpersonal relationships, political activism, and lasting influence on music and culture. All four members of CSNY have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
twice, though Young's multiple inductions were for work not involving the group.
Initially formed by the trio of David Crosby
, Stephen Stills
and Graham Nash
, the genesis of the group lies in two 1960s rock bands, The Byrds
and The Hollies
, and the demise of a third, Buffalo Springfield
. Friction existed between David Crosby and his bandmates in the Byrds, and he was dismissed from the Byrds in late 1967.
By early 1968, Buffalo Springfield had also disintegrated over personal issues, and after aiding in putting together the band’s final album
, Stephen Stills found himself unemployed by the summer. He and Crosby began meeting informally and jamming, the result of one encounter in Florida on Crosby’s schooner
being the song “Wooden Ships
,” composed in collaboration with another guest, Paul Kantner
of Jefferson Airplane
.
Graham Nash had been introduced to Crosby when the Byrds had toured the UK
in 1966, and when the Hollies ventured to California in 1968, Nash resumed his acquaintance with Crosby. At a party in July 1968 at Cass Elliot
's house, Nash asked Stills and Crosby to repeat their performance of a new song by Stills, “You Don't Have To Cry,” with Nash improvising a second harmony part. The vocals jelled, and the three realized that they had a unique vocal chemistry.
Creatively frustrated with the Hollies, Nash decided to quit and throw his lot in with Crosby and Stills. After failing an audition with the Beatles' Apple Records
, they were signed to Atlantic Records
by Ahmet Ertegün
, who had been a fan of Buffalo Springfield and was disappointed by that band's demise. From the outset, given their respective band histories, the trio decided not to be locked into a group structure, using their surnames as identification to ensure independence and a guarantee against the band simply continuing without one of them, as had both the Byrds and the Hollies after the departures of Crosby and Nash. Their record contract with Atlantic reflected this, positioning CSN with a unique flexibility unheard-of for an untested group. The trio also picked up a unique management team in Elliot Roberts and David Geffen
, who had engineered their situation with Atlantic and would help to consolidate clout for the group in the industry. Roberts kept the band focused and dealt with egos, while Geffen handled the business deals, since, in Crosby’s words, they needed a shark and Geffen was it. Roberts and Geffen would play key roles in securing the band’s success during the early years.
When it was announced that the band was forming, they ran into a slight contractual problem. Nash was already signed to Epic Records
, the North American distributor of records by the Hollies, while Crosby and Stills were signed to Atlantic. In order to resolve this problem, Geffen engineered a deal whereby Nash was essentially traded to Atlantic for the rights to Richie Furay
's band Poco
; Furay was signed to Atlantic as a result of his membership in Buffalo Springfield.
, was released in May 1969 and was an immediate hit, spawning two Top 40 hit singles and receiving key airplay on the new FM radio format. With the exception of drummer Dallas Taylor
, Stills had handled the lion's share of the instrumental parts himself, which left the band in need of additional personnel to be able to tour, now a necessity given the debut album’s commercial impact.
who was already occupied with newly formed group Blind Faith
. Atlantic label head Ahmet Ertegün suggested Canadian singer/songwriter Neil Young, also managed by Elliot Roberts, as a fairly obvious choice. Initial reservations were held by Stills and Nash, Stills owing to his history with Young in Buffalo Springfield
, and Nash, due to his personal unfamiliarity with Young. But after several meetings, the trio expanded to a quartet with Young a full partner. The terms of the contract allowed Young full freedom to maintain a parallel career with his new back-up band, Crazy Horse
.
The band initially completed the rhythm section with bassist Bruce Palmer
, who previously played with Young in the short-lived Mynah Birds (fronted by a young Rick James
) and with both Young and Stills in Buffalo Springfield
. However, whether due to Palmer's persistent personal problems (he had a tendency to get busted for drugs and get deported back to Canada) or due to the simple fact that, with Stills, Young and Palmer handling the instruments, the band looked and sounded like Buffalo Springfield with Crosby and Nash doing little more than some background vocals. Whatever the true reason, Palmer was forced out of the band, and, at Rick James' recommendation, nineteen-year-old Motown bassist Greg Reeves
replaced him.
With Young on board, the restructured group went on tour in the late summer of 1969 through the following January. Their first gig was on Aug. 17, 1969 at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago with Joni Mitchell as their opening act. They mentioned they were going to some place called Woodstock the next day, but they had no idea where that was. They began their second set that night with the same line they uttered at Woodstock, "This is only the second time we've performed in front of people. We're scared shitless." They opened with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
" before launching into a harmony-drenched version of the Beatles' "Blackbird
".
Their second show was a baptism by fire
at the Woodstock Festival
. CSNY's recording of the Joni Mitchell
song memorializing Woodstock
would later become a hit and the recording most associated with the festival. By contrast, little mention is made of the group's following appearance at the violence-plagued Altamont Free Concert, with CSNY having escaped mostly unscathed from the fallout of the show. The group's Altamont performance was not included in the subsequent Gimme Shelter
film, at the band's request.
Great anticipation had built for the newly expanded supergroup, and their first album with Young, Déjà Vu, arrived in stores in March 1970 to zealous enthusiasm, topping the charts and generating three hit singles. Déjà Vu was also the first release on the Atlantic Records SD-7200 "superstar" line, created by the label for its highest-profile artists; the subsequent solo albums by Crosby, Stills, and Nash would also be the next releases in this series.
In April 1970, Greg Reeves began behaving erratically and was fired by Stills. Reeves was replaced by Fuzzy Samuels.
Young and Crosby were staying at a house near San Francisco
when reports of the Kent State shootings
arrived, inspiring Young to write his protest classic "Ohio", recorded and rush-released weeks later and providing another Top 20 hit for the group.
However, the deliberately tenuous nature of the partnership was strained by its success, and the group imploded after their tour in the summer of 1970. Concert recordings from that tour would end up on another chart-topper, the 1971 double album
Four Way Street, but the group would never completely recapture momentum as years would pass between subsequent trio and quartet recordings.
in September; Stills' eponymous debut
in November; Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name
in February, and Nash's Songs for Beginners
in May. All four solo LPs placed in the top 15 on the Billboard 200
, with Stills' entry peaking the highest at #3. Stills released an additional record in 1971, Stephen Stills 2
, which also went top ten. Crosby and Nash embarked on a successful acoustic tour accompanied only by their own guitars and piano, captured for the 1998 documentary Another Stoney Evening
. For a while, it seemed as if the group could simply not fail, either singly or in any permutation.
Though there were no official CSN or CSNY projects during the year, 1972 proved a fruitful year for all the band members in their solo efforts. Young achieved solo superstardom with the chart-topping Harvest and its attendant #1 single, “Heart of Gold
”. Stills joined with ex-Byrd Chris Hillman
to form the country-tinged band Manassas
, releasing a self-titled double album; counting the three CSN records, Manassas
became Stills' sixth top ten album in a row. Nash also joined Young to record Young's single "War Song
". On tour, Nash and Crosby rediscovered the joy they had originally felt with CSN, minus the egotistic in-fighting that had made the last CSNY shows so difficult. That enthusiasm led to their first album as a duo, Graham Nash David Crosby
, which peaked at #4 on the pop album chart.
The group members fared less well in the following year. Young embarked on a solo tour noted for its dark tone and his erratic behavior, with Crosby and Nash joining in mid-tour for recordings that would be issued on Time Fades Away
; his Crazy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten had died of a heroin overdose before the tour. Crosby spearheaded a reunion album
of the original Byrds quintet which proved a critical debacle and sold only marginally well. Nash delivered his bleak second solo album, and Stills released a second Manassas record; neither disc sold to expectations.
In June and July of that year, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young met at Young's ranch and recording studio in Hawaii
for a working vacation, ostensibly to record a new album, tentatively titled Human Highway. However, the bickering that had sunk the band in 1970 quickly resumed, scattering the group again.
on bass, Russ Kunkel
on drums, and Joe Lala
on percussion, to embark on the first-ever outdoor stadium tour, arranged by San Francisco impresario Bill Graham
, fresh off the large-scale indoor arena tour he had developed for Dylan’s return to the spotlight
earlier in the year. The band typically played three and a half hours of old favorites and new songs, many of which never appeared in a definitive CSN or CSNY studio format. Graham Nash's unreleased film of the Wembley Stadium show highlights the scope and quality of these performances; the four principals would often switch instruments within the context of the same song.
While they would have the press believe that their characteristic arguments were a thing of the past, excesses typical to the era took their toll. Stills began supplementing his trademark wardrobe of football jerseys with military fatigues, insinuating that he was a deep-cover CIA agent. Crosby's entourage included two quarreling girlfriends, furthering the tension. Throughout the tour, Young isolated himself from the group, traveling in an RV with his son and entourage and was reportedly resentful that his songs made up the bulk of the group's new material. An attempt at the new CSNY LP in the fall was scrapped, the label having compiled So Far
to have something to promote during the tour. Nash viewed the re-shuffling of items from only two albums and one single as absurd; it topped the charts anyway. Songs performed on the 1974 tour later appeared on various releases including Stills
, Zuma
, American Stars 'n Bars, Long May You Run
, Comes a Time
, Hawks & Doves
, Wind on the Water
, and Whistling Down the Wire
.
Reaching an impasse with the parent band, Crosby and Nash decided to re-activate their partnership, inaugurating the duo act Crosby & Nash
, touring regularly, signing to ABC Records
and producing two additional studio albums, Wind On The Water in 1975 and Whistling Down The Wire in 1976. They continued to use the sidemen known as “The Section
” from their first LP. This crack session group contributed to records by many others of similar idiom in the seventies, such as Carole King
, James Taylor
, and Jackson Browne
, in addition to the CN concert album released in 1977, Crosby-Nash Live
. Crosby and Nash also became a cottage industry themselves, their vocal prowess adding to the appeal of various songs, including hits like Taylor’s "Mexico" and Joni Mitchell’s "Free Man in Paris
."
Stills and Young returned to their own careers, with Young gaining in critical accolades during the remainder of the century and beyond. The non-aligned pair also united for a one-off tour and album credited to The Stills-Young Band Long May You Run. At one point in the spring of 1976 in Miami the album promised to be the third attempt at a CSNY reunion, but when Crosby and Nash were bound to return to LA to finish Whistling Down the Wire, Stills and Young wiped the vocal contributions of the other pair off the master tape
. The old tensions between the pair, dating back to the Buffalo Springfield days, resurfaced, exacerbated by Stills’ choice of professional studio musicians to back them rather than Young’s preferred Crazy Horse. After their July 18, 1976 show, Young's tour bus took a different direction. Waiting at their July 20 show, Stills received a laconic telegram: Dear Stephen, funny how things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach. Neil. Young's management claimed that he was under doctor's orders to rest and recover from an apparent throat infection. Stills was contractually bound to finish the tour, though Young would make up dates with Crazy Horse later in the year.
Stills' copious drug use and collapsed marriage sent him into freefall. Crosby & Nash also faced diminishing returns, although their Wind On The Water album was the only disc by any member of the quartet to fare well in the marketplace during the period from 1973 to 1976. Stills approached the pair at one of their concerts in Los Angeles, setting the stage for the return of the trio.
, 1977, to reappear with CSN
. It was propelled by solid songs from all three principals, trademark vocals, contemporary production, and as usual a hit single from Nash in “Just a Song Before I Go
”. The album soared up the pop albums chart, just missing being their fourth number one in a row, held off the top slot by one of the best-selling LPs of all time, Fleetwood Mac
's Rumours. The meticulously crafted CSN fit right in with the ruling commercial sounds of the day, just as Young was imagining his reaction to punk with the Rust
tour and albums, illustrating how far the two camps had diverged. Regrouping as a regular touring unit, after a five-year lay-off between releases which saw a solo album apiece by Stills and Nash, they hit the top ten one more time with Daylight Again
in 1982. Complications were brewing due to Crosby's increasing dependence on freebase cocaine, making his participation problematic. The Nash record of 1980, Earth & Sky
, was to be another Crosby-Nash project, but Crosby’s participation discontinued due to excessive drug use. Daylight Again was initially undertaken by Stills and Nash alone owing to Crosby’s subsequent decline in productivity; however, Atlantic Record executives refused to release the latter LP until Crosby was reinstated. Crosby joined his partners for the tracks “Delta” and "Might as Well Have a Good Time", and the album contained two hits, Nash’s “Wasted on the Way” and Stills’ “Southern Cross,” the latter accompanied by a popular video
on the nascent MTV
network. But the group now relied on outside composers and singers to augment their material and had thus all but ceased to be the force they had been ten years past. The trio continued to tour, but the bottom fell out for Crosby, arrested and jailed on drug and weapons charges in Texas
in May 1982. Having recorded a potential title song for the film WarGames
that was never used, the band released it as a single and hastily assembled concert recordings around two studio tracks for the album Allies
, their lowest charting record to date. Crosby was sentenced to two terms, but the conviction was overturned; arrested several more times, he finally turned himself in to the authorities in December 1985. He would spend eight months in prison, and Nash and Stills released another round of solo albums in the mid-1980s.
Based on a promise he made to Crosby should he clean himself up, Young agreed to rejoin the trio in the studio upon Crosby’s release from prison for American Dream
in 1988. Stills and Crosby were barely functioning for the making of the album, and the late eighties production completely swamped the band. It did make it to #16 on the album chart, but the record received poor critical notices, and Young refused to support it with a CSNY tour. The band did produce a video for Young’s title-song single, wherein each member played a character loosely based on certain aspects of their personalities and public image.
CSN recorded two more studio albums in the 1990s, Live It Up
and After the Storm, both low sellers by previous standards and mostly ignored by all except for their remaining core fans. A well-conceived box set
arrived in 1991, four discs
of expected group highlights amidst unexpected better tracks from various solo projects. Owing to certain difficulties, manager Roberts, no longer with the trio but still representing Young, pulled most of Neil’s material earmarked for the box; only seven CSNY songs in total remained to be included.
In 1994, CSN collaborated with Suzy Bogguss
, Alison Krauss
, and Kathy Mattea
to contribute "Teach Your Children
" to the AIDS
benefit album Red Hot + Country
produced by the Red Hot Organization
.
After the Storm barely made the top 100 on the album chart, and by the late nineties CSN found themselves without a record contract, Atlantic having released a musical team that had once been one of its cash-flow titans. They began financing recordings themselves, and in 1999 Stills invited Young to guest on a few tracks. Impressed by their gumption, Young increased his level of input, turning the album into a CSNY project, Looking Forward
, released on Young's label Reprise Records. With writing credits mostly limited to band members, the disc was better received than the previous three albums, and the ensuing CSNY2K tour in 2000 and the CSNY Tour of America of 2002 were major money-makers.
CSN was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1997; CSNY is the only band to have all its members inducted into the Hall twice. Crosby has also been inducted as a member of the Byrds (1991), and Stills as a member of Buffalo Springfield (1997). In 2010, Nash was inducted as a member of the Hollies. Young has been inducted for his solo work (1995) and for Buffalo Springfield (1997), but has not been inducted with CSN.
The CSN logo that Crosby, Stills and Nash have used since the mid-1970s was designed by comedian Phil Hartman
.
Various compilations of the band’s configurations have arrived over the years, the box set being the most comprehensive, and So Far being the most commercially successful. Individual retrospective sets have been slated for release from Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. In 2007, Crosby's well received box - Voyage - chronicled his work with various bands and as a solo artist.
In 2006, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young set off on their "Freedom of Speech" tour in support of Young's album Living with War
. The long setlists included the bulk of the new protest album as well as material from Stills' long delayed solo album Man Alive!
and newer material
from Crosby and Nash. On May 16, 2006, Crosby, Stills & Nash were honored as a BMI
Icon at the 54th annual BMI Pop Awards. They were honored for their "unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers." In February 2007, CSN were forced to postpone a tour of Australia and New Zealand due to David Crosby's illness. Also in 2006, long-time manager Gerry Tolman died in a car accident.
The popular song, "Teach Your Children
" was performed by Crosby, Stills, and Nash on The Colbert Report on July 30, 2008 with host Stephen Colbert
filling in the fourth harmony (Neil Young's portion) and wearing a Young-mocking outfit and being referred to by Nash as "Neil." In 2009, Crosby, Stills & Nash released Demos
, an album made up of demos recordings of popular group and solo songs. In June 2009 Crosby, Stills and Nash performed at the Glastonbury Festival
, England. Stephen Stills was praised for his exceptional guitar playing. Neil Young did not appear onstage with them but did perform as a solo artist. In July 2009, they headlined the 14th annual Gathering of the Vibes
festival. Halfway through their set, they enthusiastically announced to the crowd that they would be back next year.
as the calendar rolled over from the sixties to the seventies. By 1970, with protest against both the establishment
and the Vietnam War
gearing up, the group made no secret of their political leanings, Crosby in particular.
The release of "Ohio" following the Kent State shootings in 1970 marked the boldest musical statement made to that date regarding the Vietnam War
, calling out Richard Nixon
by name and voicing the counterculture's rage and despair at the events. Between "Ohio", their appearance in both the festival and movie of Woodstock
, and the runaway success of their two albums, the group found themselves in the position of enjoying a level of adulation far greater than experienced with their previous bands, as evidenced by the 27 Platinum certifications they received across 7 albums.
The collective talents allowed the band to straddle all the flavors of popular music eminent at the time, from country-rock to confessional balladry, from acoustic guitars and voice to electric guitar and boogie. Indeed, with the Beatles break-up made public by April 1970, and with Bob Dylan
in reclusive low-key activity since mid-1966, CSNY found itself as the adopted standard bearers for the Woodstock Nation, vouchsafing an importance in society as counterculture figureheads equaled at the time in rock and roll only by The Rolling Stones
. CSNY was originally commissioned to create the soundtrack for Easy Rider
, but Stills' offering, "Find the Cost of Freedom" was rejected.
An entire sub-industry of singer-songwriters in California either had their careers boosted or came to prominence in the wake of CSNY, among them Laura Nyro
, Joni Mitchell
, Jackson Browne
, and The Eagles. All were managed, incidentally, by Roberts, and all but Nyro signed to Geffen’s Asylum
label, which would be the home for what came to be known as the Mellow Mafia for the remainder of the decade.
The band has been continuously associated with political causes throughout its existence.
, Stephen Stills
, Graham Nash
, and Neil Young
. See also Crosby & Nash
for duo discography.
Studio albums
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
made up of David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
, Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
and Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
, also known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) when joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
. They are noted for their intricate vocal harmonies, often tumultuous interpersonal relationships, political activism, and lasting influence on music and culture. All four members of CSNY have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
twice, though Young's multiple inductions were for work not involving the group.
Formation
One of the most prominent groups of the late 1960s and early 1970s was Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Each was a member of another prominent group before forming CSN. David Crosby played with folk-rock group The Byrds, Stephen Stills was a member of Buffalo Springfield and Graham Nash sang with the Hollies, one of the "British Invasion Groups." The group recorded two songs in response to political events. The first was "Chicago." The reference here is the trial of the "Chicago 7," seven anti-war activists indicted for their role in the demonstrations and police riots in downtown Chicago during the Democratic National Convention of 1968. One of the defendants, Bobby Seale, was disruptive in the court room and, as a result, was gagged and bound to his chair during the trial. The second song, "Ohio," was written in response to the deaths of four students at Kent State University. The students were shot by Ohio National Guardsmen during an anti-war protest on the campus in May 1970.Initially formed by the trio of David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
, Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
and Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
, the genesis of the group lies in two 1960s rock bands, The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
and The Hollies
The Hollies
The Hollies are an English pop and rock group, formed in Manchester in the early 1960s, though most of the band members are from throughout East Lancashire. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style, they became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s and 1970s...
, and the demise of a third, Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield is a North American folk rock band renown both for its music and as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Among the first wave of North American bands to become popular in the wake of the British invasion, the group combined...
. Friction existed between David Crosby and his bandmates in the Byrds, and he was dismissed from the Byrds in late 1967.
By early 1968, Buffalo Springfield had also disintegrated over personal issues, and after aiding in putting together the band’s final album
Last Time Around
Last Time Around is the third and final album by folk rock band Buffalo Springfield, released in 1968 . The members included Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Dewey Martin, Bruce Palmer, and Jim Messina.- History :...
, Stephen Stills found himself unemployed by the summer. He and Crosby began meeting informally and jamming, the result of one encounter in Florida on Crosby’s schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
being the song “Wooden Ships
Wooden Ships
"Wooden Ships" is a rock song written and composed by David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Paul Kantner in the late 1960s. The song was written and composed in Florida on Crosby's boat...
,” composed in collaboration with another guest, Paul Kantner
Paul Kantner
Paul Lorin Kantner is an American rock musician, known for co-founding the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off band Jefferson Starship.- Overview :...
of Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
.
Graham Nash had been introduced to Crosby when the Byrds had toured the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1966, and when the Hollies ventured to California in 1968, Nash resumed his acquaintance with Crosby. At a party in July 1968 at Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot , born Ellen Naomi Cohen and also known as Mama Cass, was an American singer and member of The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. Elliot was found dead in her room in London, England, from an apparent heart attack after two weeks of sold-out...
's house, Nash asked Stills and Crosby to repeat their performance of a new song by Stills, “You Don't Have To Cry,” with Nash improvising a second harmony part. The vocals jelled, and the three realized that they had a unique vocal chemistry.
Creatively frustrated with the Hollies, Nash decided to quit and throw his lot in with Crosby and Stills. After failing an audition with the Beatles' Apple Records
Apple Records
Apple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston...
, they were signed to Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
by Ahmet Ertegün
Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...
, who had been a fan of Buffalo Springfield and was disappointed by that band's demise. From the outset, given their respective band histories, the trio decided not to be locked into a group structure, using their surnames as identification to ensure independence and a guarantee against the band simply continuing without one of them, as had both the Byrds and the Hollies after the departures of Crosby and Nash. Their record contract with Atlantic reflected this, positioning CSN with a unique flexibility unheard-of for an untested group. The trio also picked up a unique management team in Elliot Roberts and David Geffen
David Geffen
David Geffen is an American record executive, film producer, theatrical producer and philanthropist. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970, Geffen Records in 1980, and DGC Records in 1990...
, who had engineered their situation with Atlantic and would help to consolidate clout for the group in the industry. Roberts kept the band focused and dealt with egos, while Geffen handled the business deals, since, in Crosby’s words, they needed a shark and Geffen was it. Roberts and Geffen would play key roles in securing the band’s success during the early years.
When it was announced that the band was forming, they ran into a slight contractual problem. Nash was already signed to Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
, the North American distributor of records by the Hollies, while Crosby and Stills were signed to Atlantic. In order to resolve this problem, Geffen engineered a deal whereby Nash was essentially traded to Atlantic for the rights to Richie Furay
Richie Furay
Richie Furay is an American singer, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member who is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin, and Poco with Jim Messina, Rusty Young, George Grantham and Randy Meisner...
's band Poco
Poco
Poco is an Southern California country rock band originally formed by Richie Furay and Jim Messina following the demise of Buffalo Springfield in 1968. The title of their first album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, is a reference to the break-up of Buffalo Springfield. Highly influential and creative,...
; Furay was signed to Atlantic as a result of his membership in Buffalo Springfield.
Initial success
The trio's first album, Crosby, Stills & NashCrosby, Stills & Nash (album)
Crosby, Stills & Nash is the first album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, released in 1969 on the Atlantic Records label. It spawned two Top 40 hits, "Marrakesh Express" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," which peaked respectively at #28 the week of August 23, 1969, and at #21 the week of October 25, 1969, on...
, was released in May 1969 and was an immediate hit, spawning two Top 40 hit singles and receiving key airplay on the new FM radio format. With the exception of drummer Dallas Taylor
Dallas Taylor (drummer)
Dallas Woodrow Taylor Jr. was born in Denver, Colorado, 7 April 1948. He is a session drummer who has played on several rock records of the 1960s and 1970s...
, Stills had handled the lion's share of the instrumental parts himself, which left the band in need of additional personnel to be able to tour, now a necessity given the debut album’s commercial impact.
Neil Young joins the group
Retaining Taylor, the band decided initially to hire a keyboard player. Stills at one point approached Steve WinwoodSteve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...
who was already occupied with newly formed group Blind Faith
Blind Faith
Blind Faith were an English blues-rock band that consisted of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood and Ric Grech. The band, which was one of the first "super-groups", released their only album, Blind Faith, in August 1969...
. Atlantic label head Ahmet Ertegün suggested Canadian singer/songwriter Neil Young, also managed by Elliot Roberts, as a fairly obvious choice. Initial reservations were held by Stills and Nash, Stills owing to his history with Young in Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield is a North American folk rock band renown both for its music and as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Among the first wave of North American bands to become popular in the wake of the British invasion, the group combined...
, and Nash, due to his personal unfamiliarity with Young. But after several meetings, the trio expanded to a quartet with Young a full partner. The terms of the contract allowed Young full freedom to maintain a parallel career with his new back-up band, Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse (band)
Crazy Horse is an American rock band best known for its association with Neil Young. It has been co-credited on a number of albums throughout Young's career and has released five albums of its own.-Early years:...
.
The band initially completed the rhythm section with bassist Bruce Palmer
Bruce Palmer
Bruce Palmer was a Canadian musician notable for playing bass guitar in the folk rock band Buffalo Springfield.-Early years:Palmer was born and raised in Toronto Ontario, Canada...
, who previously played with Young in the short-lived Mynah Birds (fronted by a young Rick James
Rick James
James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. , better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. James was a popular performer in the late 1970s and 1980s, scoring four number-one hits on the U.S. R&B charts performing in the genres of funk and R&B...
) and with both Young and Stills in Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield is a North American folk rock band renown both for its music and as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Among the first wave of North American bands to become popular in the wake of the British invasion, the group combined...
. However, whether due to Palmer's persistent personal problems (he had a tendency to get busted for drugs and get deported back to Canada) or due to the simple fact that, with Stills, Young and Palmer handling the instruments, the band looked and sounded like Buffalo Springfield with Crosby and Nash doing little more than some background vocals. Whatever the true reason, Palmer was forced out of the band, and, at Rick James' recommendation, nineteen-year-old Motown bassist Greg Reeves
Greg Reeves
Greg Reeves is an American musician. He is best known for playing bass on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Déjà Vu album in 1969.-Biography and career:...
replaced him.
With Young on board, the restructured group went on tour in the late summer of 1969 through the following January. Their first gig was on Aug. 17, 1969 at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago with Joni Mitchell as their opening act. They mentioned they were going to some place called Woodstock the next day, but they had no idea where that was. They began their second set that night with the same line they uttered at Woodstock, "This is only the second time we've performed in front of people. We're scared shitless." They opened with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
"Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is a suite of short songs written by Stephen Stills and performed by Crosby, Stills and Nash. It appeared on the group's self-titled debut album in 1969. It was also released as a single , going to #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart...
" before launching into a harmony-drenched version of the Beatles' "Blackbird
Blackbird (song)
"Blackbird" is a Beatles song from the double-disc album The Beatles . Blackbird was written by Paul McCartney, but credited to Lennon–McCartney.-Origins:...
".
Their second show was a baptism by fire
Baptism by fire
The phrase baptism by fire or baptism of fire, known in English since 1822, is a translation of the French phrase baptême du feu and is a reference to a soldier's first experience under fire in battle....
at the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
. CSNY's recording of the Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
song memorializing Woodstock
Woodstock (song)
"Woodstock" is a song about the Woodstock Music and Art Festival of 1969.Joni Mitchell wrote the song from what she had heard from then-boyfriend, Graham Nash, about the festival. She had not been there herself, since she was told it would be more advantageous to appear on The Dick Cavett Show by...
would later become a hit and the recording most associated with the festival. By contrast, little mention is made of the group's following appearance at the violence-plagued Altamont Free Concert, with CSNY having escaped mostly unscathed from the fallout of the show. The group's Altamont performance was not included in the subsequent Gimme Shelter
Gimme Shelter
"Gimme Shelter" is a song by English rock band The Rolling Stones. It first appeared as the opening track on the band's 1969 album Let It Bleed. Although the first word was spelled "Gimmie" on that album, subsequent recordings by the band and other musicians have made "Gimme" the customary spelling...
film, at the band's request.
Great anticipation had built for the newly expanded supergroup, and their first album with Young, Déjà Vu, arrived in stores in March 1970 to zealous enthusiasm, topping the charts and generating three hit singles. Déjà Vu was also the first release on the Atlantic Records SD-7200 "superstar" line, created by the label for its highest-profile artists; the subsequent solo albums by Crosby, Stills, and Nash would also be the next releases in this series.
In April 1970, Greg Reeves began behaving erratically and was fired by Stills. Reeves was replaced by Fuzzy Samuels.
Young and Crosby were staying at a house near San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
when reports of the Kent State shootings
Kent State shootings
The Kent State shootings—also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre—occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970...
arrived, inspiring Young to write his protest classic "Ohio", recorded and rush-released weeks later and providing another Top 20 hit for the group.
However, the deliberately tenuous nature of the partnership was strained by its success, and the group imploded after their tour in the summer of 1970. Concert recordings from that tour would end up on another chart-topper, the 1971 double album
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
Four Way Street, but the group would never completely recapture momentum as years would pass between subsequent trio and quartet recordings.
Shifting configurations
Between September 1970 and May 1971, each of the quartet released high-profile solo albums: Young's After the Gold RushAfter the Gold Rush
After the Gold Rush is the third studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young. Released in August 1970 on Reprise Records, it was one of the four high-profile albums released by each member of folk rock collective Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping 1970 album Déjà Vu...
in September; Stills' eponymous debut
Stephen Stills (album)
Stephen Stills is an eponymous rock album by Stephen Stills, famous for his long-time membership in Crosby, Stills, & Nash. It consists of songs written by Stills and is one of four high-profile albums released by each member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their 1970 chart-topping...
in November; Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name
If I Could Only Remember My Name
-External links:*...
in February, and Nash's Songs for Beginners
Songs for Beginners
Songs for Beginners is Graham Nash's first solo album, released in May 1971, and one of four high-profile albums released by each partner of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping Déjà Vu album of 1970...
in May. All four solo LPs placed in the top 15 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, with Stills' entry peaking the highest at #3. Stills released an additional record in 1971, Stephen Stills 2
Stephen Stills 2
Stephen Stills 2 is the second solo album by Stephen Stills and was released in 1971. He had already performed "Bluebird Revisited" on tour with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young in 1969....
, which also went top ten. Crosby and Nash embarked on a successful acoustic tour accompanied only by their own guitars and piano, captured for the 1998 documentary Another Stoney Evening
Another Stoney Evening
-Personnel:* David Crosby — vocal, guitar* Graham Nash — vocal, guitar, piano-Additional personnel:* Stephen Barncard — producer* Bill Halverson — recording engineer* Steve Silberman — liner notes...
. For a while, it seemed as if the group could simply not fail, either singly or in any permutation.
Though there were no official CSN or CSNY projects during the year, 1972 proved a fruitful year for all the band members in their solo efforts. Young achieved solo superstardom with the chart-topping Harvest and its attendant #1 single, “Heart of Gold
Heart of Gold (song)
"Heart of Gold" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young. Released from the 1972 album Harvest, it is so far Young's only U.S. #1 single. In Canada, it reached #1 on the RPM national singles chart for the first time on April 8, 1972, on which date Young held the top spot on both the...
”. Stills joined with ex-Byrd Chris Hillman
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....
to form the country-tinged band Manassas
Manassas (band)
Manassas was an American rock band, formed by Stephen Stills in 1971. The nucleus of the band had already backed Stills on his July 1971 album, Stephen Stills 2, and in May 1972, the double album, Manassas, was released. Down The Road was released in 1973, but in October of that year the band split...
, releasing a self-titled double album; counting the three CSN records, Manassas
Manassas (album)
Manassas is the 1972 debut double album from Stephen Stills' band of the same name."It Doesn't Matter" was released as a single and peaked at #61...
became Stills' sixth top ten album in a row. Nash also joined Young to record Young's single "War Song
War Song
"War Song" is a 1972 single credited to Neil Young & Graham Nash, backed by The Stray Gators. It was released in support of George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign, who was running against incumbent President Richard Nixon...
". On tour, Nash and Crosby rediscovered the joy they had originally felt with CSN, minus the egotistic in-fighting that had made the last CSNY shows so difficult. That enthusiasm led to their first album as a duo, Graham Nash David Crosby
Graham Nash David Crosby
Graham Nash/David Crosby is the first album by the partnership of David Crosby and Graham Nash, released on Atlantic Records in 1972, catalogue SD 7220. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, and a single taken from the album, "Immigration Man," peaked at #36 on the Billboard Hot...
, which peaked at #4 on the pop album chart.
The group members fared less well in the following year. Young embarked on a solo tour noted for its dark tone and his erratic behavior, with Crosby and Nash joining in mid-tour for recordings that would be issued on Time Fades Away
Time Fades Away
Time Fades Away is a 1973 live album by Neil Young, consisting of previously unreleased material. It was recorded with The Stray Gators on the tour following 1972's highly successful Harvest and has not been reissued on CD due to Young's dissatisfaction with that particular series of concerts...
; his Crazy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten had died of a heroin overdose before the tour. Crosby spearheaded a reunion album
Byrds (album)
Byrds is the twelfth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in March 1973 on Asylum Records . It was recorded as the centerpiece of a reunion between the five original members of The Byrds: Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke...
of the original Byrds quintet which proved a critical debacle and sold only marginally well. Nash delivered his bleak second solo album, and Stills released a second Manassas record; neither disc sold to expectations.
In June and July of that year, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young met at Young's ranch and recording studio in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
for a working vacation, ostensibly to record a new album, tentatively titled Human Highway. However, the bickering that had sunk the band in 1970 quickly resumed, scattering the group again.
Shaky reconciliation
Roberts finally prevailed upon the group to realize their commercial potential. The quartet reassembled once again in the summer of 1974, with sidemen Tim DrummondTim Drummond
Tim Drummond is an American bass guitarist who has toured and recorded with many notable artists including Conway Twitty, Bob Dylan, James Brown, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Ry Cooder, J. J. Cale, Lonnie Mack, Miles Davis, B.B...
on bass, Russ Kunkel
Russ Kunkel
Russell Kunkel , also known as Russ Kunkel, is an American drummer and producer who has worked as a session musician with a number of well-known artists.Kunkel was born in Pittsburgh, PA...
on drums, and Joe Lala
Joe Lala
Joe Lala is an actor and voice actor, notable for his dubbing of Kun Lan of the video-game Killer7.He also played drums and percussion on 32 gold and 28 platinum albums. His credits include Blues Image, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Manassas, The Bee Gees, Whitney Houston, and many...
on percussion, to embark on the first-ever outdoor stadium tour, arranged by San Francisco impresario Bill Graham
Bill Graham (promoter)
Bill Graham was an American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death.-Early life:...
, fresh off the large-scale indoor arena tour he had developed for Dylan’s return to the spotlight
Before the Flood
Side threeSide four-Personnel:* Bob Dylan – vocal, guitars, harmonica, piano* Robbie Robertson – electric guitar, backing vocal* Richard Manuel – vocal, piano, electric piano, organ, drums* Garth Hudson – Lowrey organ, clavinet, piano, synthesizer, saxophone...
earlier in the year. The band typically played three and a half hours of old favorites and new songs, many of which never appeared in a definitive CSN or CSNY studio format. Graham Nash's unreleased film of the Wembley Stadium show highlights the scope and quality of these performances; the four principals would often switch instruments within the context of the same song.
While they would have the press believe that their characteristic arguments were a thing of the past, excesses typical to the era took their toll. Stills began supplementing his trademark wardrobe of football jerseys with military fatigues, insinuating that he was a deep-cover CIA agent. Crosby's entourage included two quarreling girlfriends, furthering the tension. Throughout the tour, Young isolated himself from the group, traveling in an RV with his son and entourage and was reportedly resentful that his songs made up the bulk of the group's new material. An attempt at the new CSNY LP in the fall was scrapped, the label having compiled So Far
So Far (album)
-Personnel:*David Crosby - vocals, guitar*Stephen Stills - vocals, bass, guitar, organ, piano, percussion*Graham Nash - vocals, guitar, organ, piano*Neil Young - vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano-Additional personnel:*Dallas Taylor - drums...
to have something to promote during the tour. Nash viewed the re-shuffling of items from only two albums and one single as absurd; it topped the charts anyway. Songs performed on the 1974 tour later appeared on various releases including Stills
Stills (album)
Stills is a 1975 studio album by Stephen Stills. It is his third solo album and his first release on Columbia Records.Stills began recording a solo album in 1973 under the tentative title As I Come of Age, and it was "almost completed" by February 1974...
, Zuma
Zuma
-People:* Jacob Zuma , the President of South Africa and the African National Congress* Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma , South African Minister of Foreign Affairs and Jacob Zuma's ex-wife* Sibusiso Zuma -People:* Jacob Zuma (b. 1942), the President of South Africa and the African National Congress*...
, American Stars 'n Bars, Long May You Run
Long May You Run
-Side two:-Personnel:* Neil Young – vocals, guitars, piano, harmonica, synthesizer* Stephen Stills – vocals, guitar, piano* Jerry Aiello – organ, piano* George "Chocolate" Perry – bass, backing vocals...
, Comes a Time
Comes a Time
Comes a Time is the ninth album by Neil Young, and a return to the country/folk rock sound of Harvest . Many of the tracks include harmony vocals from Nicolette Larson. Originally, it had started out as a solo record, but when Young played it for Reprise executives they asked him if he wouldn't...
, Hawks & Doves
Hawks & Doves
Hawks & Doves is the tenth studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young. Its two sides were recorded in different circumstances, side one being culled from sessions dating from approximately 1974 through 1977, and side two from sessions specifically for the album in early 1980. The record peaked at...
, Wind on the Water
Wind on the Water
Wind on the Water is a 1975 album released by Crosby & Nash.This was Crosby & Nash's second album as a duo; it was also their first for ABC Records, although, interestingly, cassette and 8-track versions of the album were distributed by their previous label, Atlantic Records...
, and Whistling Down the Wire
Whistling Down the Wire
Whistling Down the Wire is a 1976 album released by Crosby & Nash, the second of the duo's three album deal with ABC Records. David Crosby and Graham Nash left a potential CSN&Y reunion to record this album, leaving the other half of the quartet to form The Stills-Young Band and release Long May...
.
Reaching an impasse with the parent band, Crosby and Nash decided to re-activate their partnership, inaugurating the duo act Crosby & Nash
Crosby & Nash
In addition to solo careers and within the larger aggregate of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the musical team of David Crosby and Graham Nash have performed and recorded regularly as a duo, mostly during the 1970s and the 2000s.-History:...
, touring regularly, signing to ABC Records
ABC Records
ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company . ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H....
and producing two additional studio albums, Wind On The Water in 1975 and Whistling Down The Wire in 1976. They continued to use the sidemen known as “The Section
The Section (band)
The Section was an American rock band formed in the early 1970s encompassing both studio and stage work by musicians Danny Kortchmar, Craig Doerge, Leland Sklar, and Russ Kunkel...
” from their first LP. This crack session group contributed to records by many others of similar idiom in the seventies, such as Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, and Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
, in addition to the CN concert album released in 1977, Crosby-Nash Live
Crosby-Nash Live
Crosby-Nash Live is a 1977 album released by Crosby & Nash. It was remastered and re-released in 2000 with one previously unreleased recording , and one previously unreleased recording and song .-Track listing:...
. Crosby and Nash also became a cottage industry themselves, their vocal prowess adding to the appeal of various songs, including hits like Taylor’s "Mexico" and Joni Mitchell’s "Free Man in Paris
Free Man in Paris
"Free Man In Paris" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. It appeared on her 1974 album Court and Spark, as well as her live album Shadows and Light. It is one of her most popular songs...
."
Stills and Young returned to their own careers, with Young gaining in critical accolades during the remainder of the century and beyond. The non-aligned pair also united for a one-off tour and album credited to The Stills-Young Band Long May You Run. At one point in the spring of 1976 in Miami the album promised to be the third attempt at a CSNY reunion, but when Crosby and Nash were bound to return to LA to finish Whistling Down the Wire, Stills and Young wiped the vocal contributions of the other pair off the master tape
Master recording
A multitrack recording master tape, disk or computer files on which productions are developed for later mixing, is known as the multi-track master, while the tape, disk or computer files holding a mix is called a mixed master.It is standard practice to make a copy of a master recording, known as...
. The old tensions between the pair, dating back to the Buffalo Springfield days, resurfaced, exacerbated by Stills’ choice of professional studio musicians to back them rather than Young’s preferred Crazy Horse. After their July 18, 1976 show, Young's tour bus took a different direction. Waiting at their July 20 show, Stills received a laconic telegram: Dear Stephen, funny how things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach. Neil. Young's management claimed that he was under doctor's orders to rest and recover from an apparent throat infection. Stills was contractually bound to finish the tour, though Young would make up dates with Crazy Horse later in the year.
Stills' copious drug use and collapsed marriage sent him into freefall. Crosby & Nash also faced diminishing returns, although their Wind On The Water album was the only disc by any member of the quartet to fare well in the marketplace during the period from 1973 to 1976. Stills approached the pair at one of their concerts in Los Angeles, setting the stage for the return of the trio.
CSN Redux
Ironically, the sweet-sounding hippie symbols of the Woodstock Nation chose the zero year of punkPunk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, 1977, to reappear with CSN
CSN (album)
CSN is a Crosby, Stills & Nash album released in 1977, the fifth album by the group, and the first without Neil Young since his entry into the band...
. It was propelled by solid songs from all three principals, trademark vocals, contemporary production, and as usual a hit single from Nash in “Just a Song Before I Go
Just A Song Before I Go
"Just a Song Before I Go" is a song from Crosby, Stills and Nash that appeared on the 1977 album CSN. It was also released as a single and made it to number seven on the Billboard singles charts and ended up being the band's highest climbing hit....
”. The album soared up the pop albums chart, just missing being their fourth number one in a row, held off the top slot by one of the best-selling LPs of all time, Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
's Rumours. The meticulously crafted CSN fit right in with the ruling commercial sounds of the day, just as Young was imagining his reaction to punk with the Rust
Rust Never Sleeps
Rust Never Sleeps is an album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse released in 1979. The bulk of the album was recorded live at San Francisco's Cow Palace, with overdubs added. Audience noise is removed as much as possible, although it is clearly audible at certain points, most noticeably on the opening...
tour and albums, illustrating how far the two camps had diverged. Regrouping as a regular touring unit, after a five-year lay-off between releases which saw a solo album apiece by Stills and Nash, they hit the top ten one more time with Daylight Again
Daylight Again
Daylight Again is a 1982 studio album by the band Crosby, Stills & Nash, their fourth of completely original material, and seventh in total. It peaked at #8 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, the final time the band has made the top ten to date...
in 1982. Complications were brewing due to Crosby's increasing dependence on freebase cocaine, making his participation problematic. The Nash record of 1980, Earth & Sky
Earth & Sky (album)
-Track listing:All tracks composed by Graham Nash; except where indicated#"Earth & Sky" – 3:35#"Love Has Come" – 3:27#"Out of the Island" – 4:20#"Skychild" – 3:55#"Helicopter Song" – 2:47#"Barrel of Pain" – 5:16#"TV Guide" – 1:54...
, was to be another Crosby-Nash project, but Crosby’s participation discontinued due to excessive drug use. Daylight Again was initially undertaken by Stills and Nash alone owing to Crosby’s subsequent decline in productivity; however, Atlantic Record executives refused to release the latter LP until Crosby was reinstated. Crosby joined his partners for the tracks “Delta” and "Might as Well Have a Good Time", and the album contained two hits, Nash’s “Wasted on the Way” and Stills’ “Southern Cross,” the latter accompanied by a popular video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
on the nascent MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
network. But the group now relied on outside composers and singers to augment their material and had thus all but ceased to be the force they had been ten years past. The trio continued to tour, but the bottom fell out for Crosby, arrested and jailed on drug and weapons charges in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
in May 1982. Having recorded a potential title song for the film WarGames
WarGames
WarGames is a 1983 American Cold War suspense/science-fiction film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film stars Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy....
that was never used, the band released it as a single and hastily assembled concert recordings around two studio tracks for the album Allies
Allies (CSN album)
Allies is a 1983 live album by Crosby, Stills & Nash which is currently out of print. The album was released on the heels of the popular Daylight Again album. It spawned one live concert clip, "Wasted On The Way", which got some play on MTV and VH1 at the time."War Games," written by Stephen...
, their lowest charting record to date. Crosby was sentenced to two terms, but the conviction was overturned; arrested several more times, he finally turned himself in to the authorities in December 1985. He would spend eight months in prison, and Nash and Stills released another round of solo albums in the mid-1980s.
Based on a promise he made to Crosby should he clean himself up, Young agreed to rejoin the trio in the studio upon Crosby’s release from prison for American Dream
American Dream (album)
American Dream is the 1988 reunion album for Crosby, Stills & Nash with Neil Young.Released on November 3, 1988, there was great anticipation for the quartet's first studio album in eighteen years, but all four performers were in fact at various ebbs in their songwriting. The harmonies still...
in 1988. Stills and Crosby were barely functioning for the making of the album, and the late eighties production completely swamped the band. It did make it to #16 on the album chart, but the record received poor critical notices, and Young refused to support it with a CSNY tour. The band did produce a video for Young’s title-song single, wherein each member played a character loosely based on certain aspects of their personalities and public image.
CSN recorded two more studio albums in the 1990s, Live It Up
Live It Up (CSN album)
Live It Up is an album released in 1990 by Crosby, Stills & Nash, produced by the band with Joe Vitale and J. Stanley Johnson.-Track listing:1. "Live It Up" – 3:54...
and After the Storm, both low sellers by previous standards and mostly ignored by all except for their remaining core fans. A well-conceived box set
CSN (box set)
CSN is a box set released in 1991 by Crosby, Stills and Nash. It features material from their albums as a group in addition to selections from their various solo and duet albums. It also features many outtakes, including from sessions that did not result in an album by the group...
arrived in 1991, four discs
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
of expected group highlights amidst unexpected better tracks from various solo projects. Owing to certain difficulties, manager Roberts, no longer with the trio but still representing Young, pulled most of Neil’s material earmarked for the box; only seven CSNY songs in total remained to be included.
In 1994, CSN collaborated with Suzy Bogguss
Suzy Bogguss
Susan Kay "Suzy" Bogguss is an American country music singer. In the 1980s and 90s she released one platinum and three gold albums and charted six top ten singles, winning the Academy of Country Music's award for Top New Female Vocalist and the Country Music Association's Horizon Award.After...
, Alison Krauss
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...
, and Kathy Mattea
Kathy Mattea
Kathleen Alice "Kathy" Mattea is an American country music and bluegrass performer who often brings folk, Celtic and traditional country sounds to her music. Active since 1983 as a recording artist, she has recorded seventeen albums and has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot...
to contribute "Teach Your Children
Teach Your Children
"Teach Your Children" is a song by Graham Nash. Although it was written when Nash was a member of The Hollies, it was never recorded by that group, and first appeared on the album Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released in 1970. The recording features Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar...
" to the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
benefit album Red Hot + Country
Red Hot + Country
Red Hot + Country was the follow-up to No Alternative in the Red Hot Series of compilation albums, a series produced to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues...
produced by the Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...
.
After the Storm barely made the top 100 on the album chart, and by the late nineties CSN found themselves without a record contract, Atlantic having released a musical team that had once been one of its cash-flow titans. They began financing recordings themselves, and in 1999 Stills invited Young to guest on a few tracks. Impressed by their gumption, Young increased his level of input, turning the album into a CSNY project, Looking Forward
Looking Forward
Looking Forward is an album by folk rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, released on Oct 26, 1999.-Track listing:#"Faith in Me" – 4:21 Take 1, recorded 5:26 PM, January 23, 1997 at Ga Ga's Room, Los Angeles, CA...
, released on Young's label Reprise Records. With writing credits mostly limited to band members, the disc was better received than the previous three albums, and the ensuing CSNY2K tour in 2000 and the CSNY Tour of America of 2002 were major money-makers.
CSN was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
in 1997; CSNY is the only band to have all its members inducted into the Hall twice. Crosby has also been inducted as a member of the Byrds (1991), and Stills as a member of Buffalo Springfield (1997). In 2010, Nash was inducted as a member of the Hollies. Young has been inducted for his solo work (1995) and for Buffalo Springfield (1997), but has not been inducted with CSN.
The CSN logo that Crosby, Stills and Nash have used since the mid-1970s was designed by comedian Phil Hartman
Phil Hartman
Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States when he was 10...
.
Various compilations of the band’s configurations have arrived over the years, the box set being the most comprehensive, and So Far being the most commercially successful. Individual retrospective sets have been slated for release from Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. In 2007, Crosby's well received box - Voyage - chronicled his work with various bands and as a solo artist.
Living With War
Living with War is the twenty-ninth Grammy and Juno Award-nominated studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released in 2006. The album's lyrics, titles, and conceptual style are highly critical of the policies of the George W. Bush administration; the CTV website defined it as "a musical...
. The long setlists included the bulk of the new protest album as well as material from Stills' long delayed solo album Man Alive!
Man Alive!
Man Alive! is a Stephen Stills solo album released in 2005. It featured guest appearances by Herbie Hancock, Graham Nash, and Neil Young.-Track listing:#"Ain't It Always" – 3:25#"Feed The People" – 4:24...
and newer material
Crosby & Nash (album)
Crosby & Nash is a double album released by David Crosby and Graham Nash of CSNY in 2004.-Track listing:#"Lay Me Down" – 3:37#"Puppeteer" – 4:06#"Through Here Quite Often" – 4:05#"Grace" – 0:46...
from Crosby and Nash. On May 16, 2006, Crosby, Stills & Nash were honored as a BMI
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
Icon at the 54th annual BMI Pop Awards. They were honored for their "unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers." In February 2007, CSN were forced to postpone a tour of Australia and New Zealand due to David Crosby's illness. Also in 2006, long-time manager Gerry Tolman died in a car accident.
The popular song, "Teach Your Children
Teach Your Children
"Teach Your Children" is a song by Graham Nash. Although it was written when Nash was a member of The Hollies, it was never recorded by that group, and first appeared on the album Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released in 1970. The recording features Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar...
" was performed by Crosby, Stills, and Nash on The Colbert Report on July 30, 2008 with host Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
filling in the fourth harmony (Neil Young's portion) and wearing a Young-mocking outfit and being referred to by Nash as "Neil." In 2009, Crosby, Stills & Nash released Demos
Demos (CSN album)
Demos is a 2009 compilation album released by Crosby, Stills & Nash on June 1, 2009. It consists of demo versions of solo and group songs recorded between 1968 and 1971...
, an album made up of demos recordings of popular group and solo songs. In June 2009 Crosby, Stills and Nash performed at the Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, England. Stephen Stills was praised for his exceptional guitar playing. Neil Young did not appear onstage with them but did perform as a solo artist. In July 2009, they headlined the 14th annual Gathering of the Vibes
Gathering of the Vibes
Gathering of the Vibes is an annual four-day music, camping and arts festival that celebrates the Grateful Dead & showcases a very diverse variety of music. Over the course of the event, styles often include; Funk, Bluegrass, Rock, Jam Band, Jazz, Reggae, R&B & Folk music. Since 1996, GOTV has...
festival. Halfway through their set, they enthusiastically announced to the crowd that they would be back next year.
Influence and activism
CSNY's music unerringly reflected the tastes and viewpoints of the countercultureCounterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
as the calendar rolled over from the sixties to the seventies. By 1970, with protest against both the establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
and the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
gearing up, the group made no secret of their political leanings, Crosby in particular.
The release of "Ohio" following the Kent State shootings in 1970 marked the boldest musical statement made to that date regarding the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, calling out Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
by name and voicing the counterculture's rage and despair at the events. Between "Ohio", their appearance in both the festival and movie of Woodstock
Woodstock (film)
Woodstock is a 1970 American documentary on the Woodstock Festival that took place in August 1969 at Bethel in New York. Entertainment Weekly called this film the benchmark of concert movies and one of the most entertaining documentaries ever made...
, and the runaway success of their two albums, the group found themselves in the position of enjoying a level of adulation far greater than experienced with their previous bands, as evidenced by the 27 Platinum certifications they received across 7 albums.
The collective talents allowed the band to straddle all the flavors of popular music eminent at the time, from country-rock to confessional balladry, from acoustic guitars and voice to electric guitar and boogie. Indeed, with the Beatles break-up made public by April 1970, and with Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
in reclusive low-key activity since mid-1966, CSNY found itself as the adopted standard bearers for the Woodstock Nation, vouchsafing an importance in society as counterculture figureheads equaled at the time in rock and roll only by The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
. CSNY was originally commissioned to create the soundtrack for Easy Rider
Easy Rider
Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and South with the aim of achieving freedom...
, but Stills' offering, "Find the Cost of Freedom" was rejected.
An entire sub-industry of singer-songwriters in California either had their careers boosted or came to prominence in the wake of CSNY, among them Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved considerable critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and The 5th...
, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
, and The Eagles. All were managed, incidentally, by Roberts, and all but Nyro signed to Geffen’s Asylum
Asylum Records
Asylum Records is an American record label founded in 1971 by David Geffen, and partner Elliot Roberts, who had previously worked as agents at the William Morris Agency. Founded specifically to provide a record contract for Jackson Browne, the label signed Tom Waits, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell...
label, which would be the home for what came to be known as the Mellow Mafia for the remainder of the decade.
The band has been continuously associated with political causes throughout its existence.
Themes
- Anti-war and counterculture
- Like many other artists of the late '60s and early '70s, anti-war politics and countercultural issuesCountercultureCounterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
pervade much of their music, notably in "Wooden Ships" (co-written with Paul Kantner of Jefferson AirplaneJefferson AirplaneJefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
), Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair" and "Long Time Gone," Nash's "Soldiers of Peace" and "Teach Your Children," Young's "Ohio," Crosby and Nash's "Yours and Mine," and, of course, their cover of Mitchell's "Woodstock." This anti-war stance is particularly evident on the group's live 2008 release Déjà Vu LiveDéjà Vu LiveDéjà Vu Live is a live release from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, recorded on the 2006 Freedom of Speech tour. It also serves as the soundtrack to the Neil Young-directed movie CSNY Déjà Vu....
, which contains many of their solo anti-war songs.- Sailing and ships
- Experience with sailing and nautical references provide the basis for many songs as well, most likely initially driven by Crosby, who learned to sail at age 11 and lived on a boat for many years. The cover of their 1977 album CSN shows the three on Crosby's 59-foot Alden sailboat "Mayan". Songs which feature this theme include "Wooden Ships," Crosby's "The Lee Shore" and "Shadow Captain," Stills' "Southern Cross," and Young's "Through My Sails".
Discography
For individual discographies, see main entries on David CrosbyDavid Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
, Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
, Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
, and Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
. See also Crosby & Nash
Crosby & Nash
In addition to solo careers and within the larger aggregate of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the musical team of David Crosby and Graham Nash have performed and recorded regularly as a duo, mostly during the 1970s and the 2000s.-History:...
for duo discography.
Studio albums
- Crosby, Stills & NashCrosby, Stills & Nash (album)Crosby, Stills & Nash is the first album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, released in 1969 on the Atlantic Records label. It spawned two Top 40 hits, "Marrakesh Express" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," which peaked respectively at #28 the week of August 23, 1969, and at #21 the week of October 25, 1969, on...
(1969) - Déjà Vu (1970)
- CSNCSN (album)CSN is a Crosby, Stills & Nash album released in 1977, the fifth album by the group, and the first without Neil Young since his entry into the band...
(1977) - Daylight AgainDaylight AgainDaylight Again is a 1982 studio album by the band Crosby, Stills & Nash, their fourth of completely original material, and seventh in total. It peaked at #8 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, the final time the band has made the top ten to date...
(1982) - American DreamAmerican Dream (album)American Dream is the 1988 reunion album for Crosby, Stills & Nash with Neil Young.Released on November 3, 1988, there was great anticipation for the quartet's first studio album in eighteen years, but all four performers were in fact at various ebbs in their songwriting. The harmonies still...
(1988) - Live It Up (1990)
- After the Storm (1994)
- Looking ForwardLooking ForwardLooking Forward is an album by folk rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, released on Oct 26, 1999.-Track listing:#"Faith in Me" – 4:21 Take 1, recorded 5:26 PM, January 23, 1997 at Ga Ga's Room, Los Angeles, CA...
(1999)
External links
- Official CSNY site
- 4 WaySite - The unofficial CSNY site
- Official CSN site
- Official David Crosby site
- Official Stephen Stills site
- Official Graham Nash site
- Official Neil Young site
- Official Crosby-Nash site
- A Neil Young Archives - Concert and album/CD reviews
- Concert Pictures 2006
- 'Crosby, Stills and Nash' Vocal Group Hall of Fame Page
- http://www.inthestudio.net - Interviews with Crosby, Stills & Nash