Crosby, Stills, Nash (And Young) (Music) - TV Tropes YMMV CSNY during their heyday. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (or Crosby, Stills and Nash) are a Super Group consisting of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash originally, until they were joined by a fourth member, Neil Young , and eventually became known under this name instead. The band came about after David Crosby had left The Byrds due to internal conflict. Around the same time Stephen Stills' old band Buffalo Springfield had split and he was on his own feet too. Graham Nash was a member of The Hollies in those days, but had felt long frustrated about just being second violin to the group as a whole. When the three musicians came together in 1968 they realized they could start a new band by themselves and thus Crosby, Stills And Nash was born. They decided to use their own names , because it would better showcase their individuality and prevent the tensions they all had experienced by operating as an anonymous musician under a collective band pseudonym. From the start the band had immediate success.

Their debut record Crosby, Stills And Nash from 1969 spawned the Top 40 singles "Marrakesh Express" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and got great reviews. Stills brought a fourth band member aboard, Neil Young , who had played alongside him in Buffalo Springfield . Restructured, the band now became Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young. They played during the legendary Woodstock festival in 1969, where their song "Woodstock" (a cover of Joni Mitchell ) became the unofficial anthem of the concert. They also played at Altamont, but due to the violence and murder associated with the festival their performance was cut at their own request from the documentary Gimme Shelter from 1970. 1970 also saw the release of Dï¿½jï¿½ Vu , which generated the hits "Woodstock", "Teach Your Children" and "Our House", and the occurrence of the Kent State Shootings, which inspired their Protest Song "Ohio", criticising the fact that the Ohio National Guard (US Army reserve units under the command of the state's governor) had shot at protesting students in Kent State University, Ohio.

Each individual member released a solo album ( Neil Young 's After The Gold Rush from 1970, Stephen Stills' Stephen Stills from 1970, David Crosby If I Could Only Remember My Name from 1971 and Graham Nash's Songs For Beginners from 1971. Crosby And Nash even started a duo together, with their first album being Graham Nash/David Crosby from 1972. Although they performed on each other's solo albums they start spending more attention to their own work than working together as a group. Tensions and drug abuse took their toll. Only after seven years the next collective album came out and by that point Young had already left the group, causing them to name the album CSN, short for the first names of the remaining band members. Only "Just A Song Before I Go" became a hit. During the 1980s the band kept performing. "Daylight Again" from 1982 had a hit song in the title track, but that same year Crosby was arrested for drug and weapon charges and spent 8 months in jail.

He decided to go into rehab afterwards and Young rejoined the band briefly for "American Dream" in 1988. By that point the band effectively became more popular as a concert experience and their social activism than for their newer albums. In 1997 they were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, however Neil Young was excluded.

Principal Members (Founding members in bold, current members in italic): David Crosby - lead vocals, guitar, keyboard, tambourine (1968ï¿½1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977ï¿½Present) Graham Nash - lead vocals, guitar, piano, organ, keyboard, harmonica, percussion, sound effects (1968ï¿½1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977ï¿½Present) Stephen Stills - lead vocals, guitar, bass, keyboard, piano, synthesizer, banjo, timbales, maracas, percussion (1968ï¿½1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977ï¿½Present) Neil Young - lead vocals, guitar, keyboard, piano, harmonica, banjo, tiple, celeste (1969ï¿½1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1

988, 1991, 1999-2006, 2013) Studio Discography (* = CSN, ** = CSNY): 1969 - Crosby, Stills And Nash* 1970 - Déjà Vu** Uncle Joe's Record Guide - Crosby, Stills & Nash Crosby, Stills & Nash Crosby, Stills & Nash (21-21) 1st LP, released 5/2969.

Stephen Stills and David Crosby had been close friends since David's group the Byrds had helped Stephen's band Buffalo Springfield get started. As Buffalo Springfield was breaking up in early 1968, the 23-year-old Stills started writing songs with Crosby, who was 26. In June, the 26-year-old Graham Nash was planning on leaving the Hollies when he first met and sang with the other two in Los Angeles. (Graham and David remember that first performance being at Joni Mitchell's Laurel Canyon home; Stills swears at was in the kitchen at Mama Cass Elliot's house.) Encouraged by producer Paul Rothchild (who'd been working with the Doors and Janis Joplin), the trio recorded a five-song demo in New York on a single day in August 1968. The next morning, Graham returned to England. Soon, Crosby and Stills joined Nash in London to write more songs and extract him from the Hollies. Those songwriting sessions and the musicians' interpersonal relationships progressed extremely well. Within six months of recording their demo, Nash officially joined forces with Crosby and Stills, and the three signed a lucrative record contract.

The trio rehearsed in a house owned by their friend John Sebastian (of the Lovin' Spoonful) in Sag Harbor, Long Island during January 1969. They started recording the following month. Stills played virtually all of the instruments on this album except drums-which were handled by Dallas Taylor (of the Clear Light band)-and some rhythm guitar that David Crosby strummed. The engineering was done by Bill Halverson (who'd also worked with the Rolling Stones) and all three principals shared the production job. Partway through the sessions, the group finally decided to call themselves Crosby, Stills & Nash - to emphasize that they were three individuals. The trio realized that they needed additional musicians to tour, so just before this album was released, they approached Stills' old Buffalo Springfield partners, guitarist Neil Young and bassist Bruce Palmer. Palmer was soon replaced by session man Greg Reeves (who'd worked with the Temptations), and Young agreed to become a full partner. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's first gig was at the Chicago Auditorium with Joni Mitchell opening.

Their second public performance was in front of 500,000 hippies at the Woodstock Festival a month after this album was released. By the release of their second album seven months later, CSN&Y had become the biggest, most influential and successful American group of the early Seventies. This debut album was on every radio station turntable throughout the summer and fall of 1969 and earned Crosby, Stills & Nash the Best New Artist Grammy Award for that year. It charted at #6 and sold over two million copies by October, when CSN&Y went into the studio to record their follow-up, Deja Vu. This effort has aged very well, and the clarity of the compact disc enhances the sterling instrumental work by Stills and the intricate vocal work by David, Graham and Stephen. Crosby, Stills & Nash - Side One "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes was written by Stephen Stills for his girlfriend, singer Judy Collins. An edited version of this song reached #21 on the singles charts in October 1969. "Long Time Gone" was used as the B-side. Graham Nash wrote "Marrakesh Express" while in Morocco.

His band, the Hollies attempted to record it, but failed miserably. CSN recorded "Marrakesh Express" before the rest of the album. The drumming was supplied by Jim Gordon (who then went to work with Eric Clapton in Derek & The Dominos). As CSN's first single release, "Marrakesh Express" hit #28 on the American charts in July and #17 in the U.K. in September. Because it gave the group a good laugh, David Crosby's gibberish was left at the beginning of this album track. "Helplessly Hoping" was used as the flipside. Crosby's girlfriend, Christine Hinton, provided the inspiration for "Guinnevere." This was one of the songs included on CSN's first demo. "You Don't Have To Cry" was another Stills composition inspired by Judy Collins. The trio also recorded this for their first demo. Graham said he knew he had to work with Crosby and Stills when they first sang him their early rendition of this song. Graham and David remember that first performance being at Joni Mitchell's Laurel Canyon home; Stills swears at was in the kitchen at Mama Cass Elliot's house.

Cass Elliot (of The Mamas & Papas) provided some backing vocals on "Pre-Road Downs," a Graham Nash tune. Stills recorded the backwards-guitar part in the early morning hours when everyone else had gone out for a burger. Crosby, Stills & Nash - Side Two "Wooden Ships" was co-written by Paul Kantner (of the Jefferson Airplane), David Crosby and Stephen Stills a month before forming CSN. Although contractual problems prevented Kantner from receiving a writing credit or royalties for this until 1993, the Airplane later recorded their own version. "Lady Of The Island" a Graham Nash song, was recorded on the first take. Graham's previous band, the Hollies, had refused to record this. "Helplessly Hoping" a Stills song, was one of the five tracks the trio recorded for their first demo. Crosby wrote "Long Time Gone" the night Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles (June 6, 1968). This was another track included on the group's first demo.

"49 Bye-Byes" was a compilation of two Stephen Stills songs, "49 Reasons" and "Bye Bye Baby." This was also part of the first demo that secured their record deal. Richmond.com: Crosby, Stills & Nash: Interview With Graham Nash | Crosby, Stills & Nash h1.title Richmond.com: Crosby, Stills & Nash: Interview With Graham Nash It all began in the summer of 1968, when Graham Nash encountered David Crosby and Stephen Stills at Joni Mitchell's house. Crosby had left The Byrds and Stills had only recently become unemployed with the demise of Buffalo Springfield, and when Nash joined in three-part harmony on a new Stills song it became apparent to Nash that what he was hearing would require his departure from The Hollies - and soon. "I knew that my life had just changed in a major way," recalled Nash, speaking from his home in Hawaii.

"I knew that I would have to go back to England and quit The Hollies, and leave my bank account and all my equipment and friends and family and start a new life, but that's how important, and that's how great, that moment was for me." "I am a harmony singer. David Crosby is a harmony singer. Stephen Stills is a harmony singer. We know what we're doing. The Byrds and The Hollies and the (Buffalo) Springfield know what harmony singing is, but this was completely different. There was something about us singing together that was magic, and we all recognized it immediately." The release of "Crosby, Stills & Nash" in May 1969 catapulted them to popularity that rivaled The Beatles at the time, driven by the hits "Marrakesh Express" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." With Neil Young on board as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, they walked onstage that summer at Woodstock for what was only their second live performance. And with the singles "Teach Your Children," "Woodstock," and "Our House," their first album as a quartet, 1970's "Déjà Vu," was another major hit.

Over the following decades, the group has worked in various configurations. Crosby, Stills & Nash have always been at the core, with Crosby and Nash working together at times and Young occasionally reappearing while maintaining his successful solo career. Nash just completed work on a 3-CD/1-DVD box set of CSN&Y from their 1974 tour (due for release this July), and he's enthusiastic about those recordings finally reaching the public. Nash's recent autobiography, "Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life," is a colorful and glaringly unstinting look at the band's evolution, detailing the drug use that threatened the group's existence. He managed to produce the book wholly from his own recollections, which can't have been easy for anyone calling rock & roll their vocation in the late '60s and '70s. "I have a good brain. I've taken my share of drugs; everybody knows that. I was a little hazy on a couple of details, but nothing substantial.

And the only two people that I worried about, frankly, were my wife, Susan, and my friend David (Crosby); Susan, because everybody wants to know what it's like to sleep with Joni Mitchell, and David, because I was pretty ruthless and brutal about how he affected me with what he was up to (regarding Crosby's drug use)." After all these years, everything still comes down to those voices. And Nash seems to be as excited and mystified as ever by what happens when those sounds meet in the air. "When we do ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,' not only does it thrill us to still be able to sing it and harmonize like that, but the effect on the audience is thrilling for us." "It's not supposed to work. I'm from England, Stephen was from Texas and Costa Rica, and David was from California, but there's something about the way that we sing. We have absolutely no claim on any of the notes that we sing, but no one in the world can sound like us when we're singing together." Crosby, Stills & Nash When: Tues., March 4, 7:30 p.m. Where: Carpenter Theatre, 600 E. Grace St.

Cost: $97.50 Crosby, Stills and Nash | Rolling Stone artists > C > Crosby, Stills and Nash > Bio Crosby, Stills and Nash Bio The close, high harmonies and soft-rock songs of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash as Crosby, Stills, & Nash—or CSN&Y, with the frequent addition of Neil Young —sold millions of albums and were widely imitated throughout the Seventies. The members were as volatile as their songs were dulcet, and since 1970 have continually split up and regrouped. Rock's first supergroup, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young each had successful recording careers before coming together—Crosby with the Byrds, Stills and Young with Buffalo Springfield, and Nash with the Hollies—and each has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at least twice. Stills and Crosby began writing songs together in 1968, after Buffalo Springfield broke up (The Byrds had already split, in 1967). Nash, who had just quit the Hollies, joined them soon thereafter and the trio performed together for the first time at the L.A.

home of Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas. Recorded early in 1969, Crosby, Stills and Nash was an immediate hit, with singles "Marrakesh Express" (Number 28) and Stills' "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" (Number 21) (about Judy Collins). At the helm was Stills, playing nearly every instrument on the album, a feat that earned him the nickname Captain Manyhands. Young joined the trio in the summer of 1969—after John Sebastian, formerly of the Lovin' Spoonful, turned them down—and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young began touring. Their second live performance was in front of half a million people at Woodstock. The quartet's first album, Déjà Vu, took just two months to make and had advance orders for 2 million copies—it eventually went on to sell over 7 million—and included three hit singles: "Woodstock" (Number 11, 1970), "Teach Your Children" (Number 16, 1970), and "Our House" (Number 30, 1970).

A few weeks after Déjà Vu's release, the National Guard shot and killed four students during an antiwar demonstration at Kent State University. In response, Young wrote "Ohio," which the group recorded and released as a single (Number 14, 1970). They toured that summer, but by the time the double live album Four Way Street was released, they had disbanded. The planned next album, Human Highway, was started in 1973 but was left unfinished. Young later recorded a single and produced a motion picture of the same title. Released in 1982, it failed to find a distributor, but came out on video in 1995. Crosby and Nash released solo and duo albums in the early '70s and toured together, while Young returned to his solo career, and Stills started his. Stills' solo debut, which included "Love the One You're With" (Number 4, 1971), featured guest guitarists Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. In 1974, the quartet toured together for the first time since 1970, although tensions remained high: Young traveled separately.

Stills and Young made a duet album, Long May You Run, in 1976, but Young suddenly left Stills mid-tour. In 1977 Crosby, Stills and Nash regrouped for the quadruple-platinum CSN, which included "Just a Song Before I Go" (Number 7, 1977). The next summer they toured as an acoustic trio, and in the fall of 1979 they performed at the antinuclear benefit concerts sponsored by Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE). In 1982 the trio released Daylight Again, for which Stills wrote most of the songs, and toured arenas once more. Daylight was a Top-Ten LP and boasted two Top 20 singles, "Wasted on the Way" (Number 9) and "Southern Cross" (Number 18). In 1985 Crosby—who'd already had a number of run-ins with the law and been charged with drug and weapons possession—was sentenced to prison for nine months after leaving the drug rehabilitation program he was allowed to enter instead of serving a five-year prison sentence for possessing cocaine and carrying a gun.

He appeared with Stills, Nash and Young at Live Aid while out on appeal bond. Shortly after his release from prison in 1986, he wrote a compelling account of his long-term drug abuse entitled Long Time Gone, which was published in 1990. The four reunited to record American Dream (Number 16, 1989), after which Young refused to tour with his ex-band mates. Crosby, Stills, and Nash reconvened as a trio for 1990's Live It Up (Number 58). By the 1990s, Young was a hugely respected elder statesman of rock. Nash had been successful as a photographer with Nash Editions, specializing in digital fine-art printing, and as a host of his own cable television talk show. Crosby had received a liver transplant in 1994 shortly after CSN's After the Storm (Number 98). In 1995 he reunited with a son, James Raymond, whom the child's mother had given up for adoption in 1962. David and Raymond have recorded three albums as CPR.

By the decade's end, Crosby had also achieved notoriety as the sperm donor for celebrity lesbian mothers Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypher. In 1999, largely at the instigation of Stephen Stills, CSN&Y re-formed to record Looking Forward (Number 26). Earlier that year, Nash had broken both legs in a boating accident, but the group's spirits and creativity were sufficiently high for the album to garner critical praise. It was followed by the band's first tour since 1974, a heavily hyped cross-country trek entitled the CSNY2K Tour that featured studio veteran Jim Keltner on drums and Donald "Duck" Dunn of Booker T. and the MG's on bass. The quartet re-grouped once again in 2006 for the "Freedom of Speech" tour to promote Young's new album, Living With War (Number 15). Portions of this biography appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Evan Serpick contributed to this story.

Top 10 Graham Nash Songs Top 10 Graham Nash Songs By Michael Gallucci February 2, 2013 9:35 AM REDDIT Paul Hawthorne, Getty Images Like his Crosby, Stills and Nash bandmates, Graham Nash is a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But that’s what happens when you’re a founding member of two historic groups before the ’60s were even over. Nash started his career in 1962 with the Hollies, one of the most pop-oriented and successful British Invasion groups. By the end of the decade, he joined a pair of other rock refugees (the Byrds ‘ David Crosby and Buffalo Springfield ‘s Stephen Stills ) as the only Englishman in the popular trio that would expand to a quartet, break up and regroup countless times over the past 45 years. He’s also made records as a solo artist and with pal Crosby. Our list of the Top 10 Graham Nash Songs covers his entire career.

10 Crosby, Stills & Nash — Free listening, videos, concerts, stats and photos at Last.fm 70s Crosby, Stills & Nash is a pioneering folk/rock supergroup formed by David Crosby , Stephen Stills and Graham Nash - refugees from three 1960s bands: The Byrds , Buffalo Springfield , and The Hollies . The band is primarily known for their three-part vocal harmonies. They are strongly associated with the 1969 Woodstock Festival. They are commonly referred to by their initials CSN. The trio's first eponymous album was released in May 1969 and was an immediate hit, spawning two Top 40 hit singles… read more David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young Box Set | RECORD COLLECTOR NEWS Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young New David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young Box Set by Harvey Kubernik ~ David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young release the new box set: CSNY 1974.

Plus an interview with musician-producer, Graham Nash This July, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young will release their CSNY 1974, boxed set recorded during their historic 1974 tour. The 40 previously unreleased tracks recorded 40 years ago will be packaged in several formats and configurations for release July 8 in the United States. The material was compiled from multi-track master tapes recorded during eight U.S. concerts and one in London at Wembley Stadium. The Graham Nash and Joel Bernstein-produced box set includes 40 tracks, a 188-page booklet of never before seen tour photos, and a bonus DVD of previously unreleased concert footage; the box is available as a 3CD/DVD set or Pure Audio Blu-Ray (192kHz/24-bit)/DVD set. The CSNY 1974 collection captures the band’s harmonic alchemy during its outdoor stadium tour, a trek that spanned more than two months, and included 31 concerts, in 24 cities, with combined audiences of over a million people.

The box set houses some of CSNY’s best-known music; songs like “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helpless,” “Wooden Ships,” and “Teach Your Children.” During the 1974 tour, CSNY also introduced new songs that emerged later on various albums, like Crosby’s “Time After Time,” Nash’s “Fieldworker,” and Stills’ “First Things First.” Several songs by Young are previously unreleased, including “Traces,” “Love/Art Blues,” “Goodbye Dick,” and “Hawaiian Sunrise.” CSNY 1974 will be available from CSNY and Rhino in several different configurations, including CSNY 1974 (a Starbucks Exclusive for U.S. and Canada)-12 acoustic/semi-acoustic tracks on a single CD, plus full album digital download. Also scheduled is a CSNY 1974 (Deluxe Limited Edition Boxed Set)- individually numbered edition of 1,000 copies, available exclusively through CSNY. Contained in custom wood box featuring: All 40 tracks on six 180-gram 12” vinyl records, placed in hardbound LP folio case.

Graham Nash was born in the seacoast town of Blackpool England, and raised near Manchester. The singer, songwriter/guitarist was a founding member of the Hollies, (named for Buddy Holly). The band’s mid-to-late 1960s chart parade success rivaled that of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones with hits including “Bus Stop,” “On a Carousel,” “Carrie Anne,” “Pay You Back With Interest” and “Stop! Stop! Stop!” 2011 marked the DVD documentary release, The Hollies: Look Through Any Window 1963-1975, which featured live performances, vintage television appearances, and new interviews with the group. On April 27, 1968, after a Hollies’ press party event was held at Imperial Records in Hollywood, GO! magazine weekly music columnist Rodney Bingenheimer invited Nash to attend a nearby Mamas and Papas recording session of “Dancing Bear” at Western Recorders on Sunset Boulevard. Graham then met and talked at length with group member Cass Elliot. “You know the truth is there’s a part of me that really believes none of this would have happened without Rodney.

Incredible music has been made from that moment,” Graham volunteered in a June 2014 phone call from Hawaii. During the afternoon of April 28, ’68, matchmaker Cass picked up Graham at the Knickerbocker Hotel and introduced him to David Crosby at her house in Laurel Canyon. Crosby subsequently connected Nash to Stephen Stills, and Crosby, Stills and Nash was formed. “You gotta understand,” Graham earlier told me in a 2009 interview, “David, Stephen and I came from harmony bands. I mean, we were harmony freaks. As I’ve said before, CS&N never had any claim on any of the notes that we sang. It’s just when that sound happened it was instantly recognized by me, David and Stephen as something stunning.” Graham Nash is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee—with CSN and with the Hollies. He was also inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame twice, as a solo artist and with CSN. In 2009, Nash’s own recording life was issued in the three-CD retrospective box set Reflections.

Graham Nash was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth during 2010 for his contributions as a musician and philanthropist. An activist for social and environmental justice, Nash is an internationally renowned photographer and digital imaging pioneer. In September 2013, Nash published his autobiography Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life by Crown/Archetype. To demonstrate what kind of mensch Graham is, in his book acknowledgements, Nash listed Rodney Bingenheimer, “who helped the story to unfold,” immediately after the Everly Brothers and the Hollies, and above the names Cass Elliot, David Crosby and Stephen Stills. Graham embarks on a summer tour in July with Crosby, Stills and Nash. He lives in Hawaii with his wife Susan. (Left-right) Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, David Crosby and Neil Young, 1974. GRAHAM NASH INTERVIEW Q: We always knew the Hollies were a great group. A: I was more happy with the Hollies getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame than I was with CS&N getting into the Hall of Fame.

‘Cause, with all due respect, I kind of expected me and David and Stephen to be in there, you know. I never expected, especially after waiting so long, that the Hollies would be in there. So I was happier for the Hollies’ induction then I was for CS&N. Of which I was also proud of, of course. “When I joined David and Steven I didn’t talk about my time with the Hollies. It’s almost like you don‘t talk to your new lover about your past lover. You just don‘t do it if you’re smart. My relationship with the Hollies was pretty sour after I left, obviously. They felt that I deserted them. I personally felt very bad about leaving my friend Allan Clarke behind. “For the first ten or fifteen years I had been with David and Stephen I didn’t listen to any Hollies music. And then I got sent a DVD of sixty Hollies tracks from BBC radio broadcasts we had done. And I began to realize that we were a great fuckin’ band. We were really energetic. We were musical. We were accurate. We had written some really good pop songs for want of a better word.

And I began to realize that we were in deed a great band. Q: In 1966 you wrote “Marrakesh Express” for the Hollies. And another of your compositions, “King Midas in Reverse,” was penned initially for the Hollies. Later you played an acoustic rendition of it on the 1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young tour. A: I knew “King Midas” was a good choice. It works. It’s now heard from a 1970 Fillmore East show in the 1992 re-release of CSN&Y’s 4 Way Street. “You know, the truth is, a song has got to live if I am sittin’ you down in the kitchen and playing it to you on one acoustic guitar. It has to live. Q: As your book documents and as we look at the legacy and mythology of CSN&Y, I know as a child your family were bombed in World War II. So I guess that prepared you for a life in rock ‘n’ roll, let alone dealing with the personalities that make up CSN&Y. Band tensions, hassles, and Neil Young’s isolationist stance.

What is the secret of surviving within your band? On stage and on recordings it’s harmonious. But you’ve taken some real silly crap dealing with these self-centered musicians and careerists. A: That’s right. And so what. You know, it’s whatever it is. I let people be who the fuck they want to be. And Neil sometimes is a difficult man to deal with. And sometimes he’s a very easy man to deal with. But I respect him completely. “It doesn’t matter what we’re going through. We all realize that the most important part of our relationship is the music. And it is the music that drowns out all the other shit. “I mean, I remember when I hated Stephen Stills. He was in my house in San Francisco and we were arguing about an overdub I was doing. He took a razor blade to a master two-track demo tape of my song “Wind on the Water” done with Joel Bernstein on guitar and destroyed it. But then three weeks later he sits me down and plays me a beautiful fuckin’ song that melts my heart. And all off a sudden all of that shit I was feeling disappears.

“I started and finished my book with ‘It all comes down to the music.’ ‘Cause it does. And we know it. Q: In 1973 you, David and Stephen joined Neil Young for some dates on his Times Fades Away solo tour. Did those appearances convince you that a summer 1974 stadium tour could work aesthetically in stadium venues? Did you have any trepidation about playing nearly three dozen stadium shows? In terms of presenting an acoustic set and your vocal harmonies in outdoor settings? A: Not really. ‘Cause we had done that at Woodstock. You know, we had played “Guinevere” with one guitar and two voices to how many hundreds of thousands of people. We had already done that. We had no concerns. You bring ‘em on and we’ll entertain them. “We knew we had the magic. We’ve always known. We’ve always know our music speaks to people’s hearts. We’ve always know it’s been as real as possible. We’ve always know that we’ve taken incredible chances. We’ve always known that we do things that are not normal for a band.

Neil has always been in his own Very special bubble “I mean, a great example is my song ‘Teach Your Children’ going up in the top twenty and Ahmet Ertegun (Atlantic Records) telling me I was ‘going to have a number one hit.’ Then there’s the killing of four students (shot by National Guardsman) at Kent State (in Ohio). And we do Neil’s song ‘Ohio.’ And we think America killing its children is more important than us having another hit record. And so I told Ahmet to pull ‘Teach Your Children,’ and put ‘Ohio’ out. We decided on ‘Find the Cost of Freedom’ as the B-Side. “We’ve always known that we’ve been completely in control. Once you sell millions of pieces of fuckin’ plastic you have control. I say in my book that in the early days of recording with the Hollies we weren’t allowed to even touch the board. If I wanted more bass I’d have to ask Ron Richards (producer) who then would have to ask Peter Bown (engineer) to bring up the bass. After we’d had hit records that all changed.

Because they began to realize that these guys who were not wearing white lab coats really knew what they were doing. “And we never lost the ability to do what we do. We always wanted to be winners and not victims. If you don’t have the ability to call up a studio and say, ‘I’m coming in next Thursday through next Thursday and this is the band,’ and getting all the tape and engineers together, and if you lose that ability, that is a dreadful thing. And we have never lost that ability. Q: I seem to recall when you were rehearsing for the 1974 tour at Neil Young’s Broken Arrow ranch in Northern California you wanted to have “When You Dance I Can Really Love” from Neil’s After The Gold Rush album in the show. A: I wanted to open with that song! There’s lots of Neil Young songs I want to do. I want to do “Expecting to Fly.” Are you kidding! I brought it up in the CSN&Y 2006 tour. “Can we do ‘Expecting To Fly.’” And he looked at me and said, “Ahhh. I don’t think you can sing the high part.” And I thought, “You fuck!

You know damn well that if I’m asking you to do it I have my fuckin’ part down.” Q: As you were preparing for that summer CSN&Y jaunt you made very firm choices about the repertoire that would be played at the concerts. Not a re-staging of your successful 1970 gigs. A: Absolutely. Because we had heard what we’d been writing and what Neil had been writing. And God bless his cotton socks. Neil Young hit a streak of writing that was just un-fuckin’ believable: “Don’t Be Denied,” “On the Beach,” “Hawaiian Sunrise,” “Pushing It Over The End.” “We knew. And that’s why Neil has more songs on CSN&Y 1974 than me, David and Stephen. Because what would you take off? Would you take off ‘Pushing It Over The End?’ Fuck no! Would you take off ‘Don’t Be Denied?’ No! We are still a band that understands its power within the recording business, you know. And we understand our connection to our audience. All we want to do is communicate. That’s all we want to do.

Q: That 1974 CSN&Y tour was not a continuation of the 1970 tour after Neil Young joined CS&N in 1969. A: It was a different band when Neil joined. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young is a completely different band than CS&N. And not a lot of people understand that. They think it’s just an added voice. But it’s not. It’s an added attitude. Neil brings a sharper edge. I was gonna say a darker feeling but I don‘t mean that in a negative way. He brings this edge to us that we don’t have. And, of course, you have to take into account his ability to play lead guitar against and with Stephen. Which is very very evident in this box set CSNY 1974. Q: Talk to me about the musicians that worked with CSN&Y on the 1974 tour: Drummer Russ Kunkel, bassist Tim Drummond, and the late percussionist Joe Lala.

A: When we wanted to put that band together we wanted to play with the best musicians that understood our music and would play our music with us rather than just this one track that they are used too. Russell Kunkel, without question, is one of the finest drummers in the world. As Tim Drummond is one of the greatest bass players in the world. And one of the things that make me sad is that Joe Lala passed away about three months ago. Before he heard a note of this. It makes me very sad for Joe because he would have been thrilled with what we did. “We wanted the best band. And we got it. And God bless Russell Kunkel, man. He’s keeping that groove through the whole 40 songs that he plays on. He plays on his heart. And so does Tim. You’ve gotta be a hell of a fuckin’ musician to be the only white man in James Brown’s band. You got too. What Timmy does is that he understands two things: Melody and heartbeat. That’s what he knows. And he plays it brilliantly. I think Tim Drummond’s bass playing on this box set is phenomenal.

Tim and Russell’s kick drum are the heartbeat of this entire thing. Q: What was it like reviewing and assembling CSN&Y 1974 forty years after the recordings were caught on tape? I’ve always felt and read some of the tour dates were not so great. At Wembley you admitted singing out of tune. Upon recent hearing of the source tapes were they collectively even better sounding then you thought? A: Yea. Because all the personal animosities are forgotten in the face of the music. And when I saw the bootleg DVD of our (’74) Wembley show it was horrifying to us. It was the last show of the tour. We had done it. We were excited about playing in London. We had snorted too much cocaine. We were playing too fast. We were singing a little out of tune. It was an awful show. And I did not want our CSN&Y fans and future fans to think that that is who we were. “And I knew that occasionally we had made great music. And, I knew when I was facing this load of tape that by diligently exploring and moving grains of sand away from this thing I can uncover a beautiful jewel.

And I think I managed to do that. Q: Tell me about the methods of productions putting this it together and working with Joel Bernstein and Stanley Johnson. You must have bounced a lot of things off them. A: That’s true, but don’t forget I had the last say. And we went from this position: We set an incredibly high bar for the music. We listened to every single thing and only the performances that knocked us on our ass made the list in which we compiled the final 40 songs. “That’s one of the reasons there’s no ‘Carry On’ on there. It’s one of our best known songs. It’s one of Stephen Stills’ best songs. It’s not on the album. The reason is we didn’t find a performance. “Now you gotta understand something, I worked for over 120 hours on ‘Carry On.’ I tried to find sections of it that made sense and sections where we weren’t too speedy. I couldn’t create a performance that knocked me on my ass. And I told Stephen. And he said, ‘Really? I trust you. I know that you want the best from us.

If it’s not there it’s not there.’ So every single song of those 40 songs are performances that personally knocked me on my ass. Q: What is it like to re-visit songs on recordings four decades after they were first cut? Were your topical songs from 1969-1971 still relevant in 1974? What have these songs become to you right now? A: It’s the same thing, kid. If I can sing you a song with my guitar and piano and knock you on your ass it’s a great song. And it doesn’t matter how many people you are playing it for. The essence of the song and what the song says still lives. To this day. Q: On the ’74 tour you would play several political-themed songs: “Chicago-We Can Change the World,” “Ohio,” “Military Madness,” and “Long Time Gone,” along with many new tunes. Do the older songs somehow resonate even deeper because more history is attached to them? A: That’s because the history has never changed. You could take the word Vietnam War and replace it with Afghanistan and IRAQ.

You can take a song like “Great Concern,” that I wrote about Washington during the Watergate hearings. It’s the same thing going on now. We have refused to learn. Holy shit, with the Afghanistan war. If fuckin’ Genghis Kahn and the British and the Russians can’t fuckin’ defeat this country, who the fuck can say that America can do it? Q: I always felt some of your songs like “Military Madness” were supposed to help us end wars or at the very least educate people about the war game. You personally know what it’s like to be bombed by the Germans during World War II and see your neighborhood reduced to rubble. War is still happening globally. A: I know. It’s very depressing. The Hollies in New York City in September 1966. Q: You are overseeing tapes first done on analog tape and now have a digital world for them. What was the first thing that entered your mind around your final playback? A: Well, I fell back in love with who David and Stephen and Neil were. And myself. It was incredibly emotional. I had to stand outside of the four of us. I know I’m one of them. Right?

I had to not be one of them and look at those four people and make sure I represented them in the best possible way. I didn’t care that I have less songs on the album than anybody. I have less musical time on this box set than anybody. And that wasn’t because I’m humble. “It was because musically, Neil Young, for instance, had hit a writing streak that was brilliant. ‘Don’t Be Denied.’ Even ‘Goodbye Dick.’ That fuckin’ one and a half minute unknown Neil Young song was only performed once. But we got it. Q: What was another aspect that stuck out to you and your ears assembling and producing the tapes for commercial release? A: I think one of the things that was apparent to me during this whole process of putting these 40 songs together was listening to Neil Young play on other peoples’ songs. He was an unbelievable generous musician on other people’s songs. And that’s unusual for an artist. Normally they want to deal with their stuff or make their stuff the best etc. and fuck you and your other songs. “On every song that Neil Young plays on, that’s not written by Neil, he’s playing his best.

And that was very obvious to me when we were putting this album together. Just how much of a generous musician Neil Young is. Q: One other reality about Neil Young and one of the photos in the liner note booklet illustrates it all. He can sit in a chair with a guitar in front of 40,000 people and is so relaxed. For a moment reducing his solo performance to a living room type scene. Then another photo shows you and Crosby with Stills standing and on stage it seems you guys have to try a little harder to reach the audience in your presentation. A: Yea. That’s true. Neil has always been in his own very special bubble. Q: On the CSN&Y 1974 project, Young offered guidance and technical advice about sound restoration and mixing. A: Absolutely. And even to the point of I had already worked, and mixed and tuned beautifully mixed about 12 songs. And then Neil called one day. “What we doing it at?” I said, “24 bit 96 k.” He goes, “No. No. No. We need to do it at 24 bit 192 k.” (a much more deeper digital sampling rate).

“OK.” Here’s one of my partners telling us that we need to do it a different way. How do I react to this? Do I say fuck off? I’ve already done 12 things I’m doin’ it. Or do you respect him. And I chose to respect him. “So we threw away those 12 songs. And we started again. It wasn‘t just the question of startin’ again mixing. When you are doing lower resolution stuff most of the software just can’t handle the high resolution stuff. And so we had to find different pieces of software. We had to find different machines. Don’t forget: The file sizes are incredibly high at that hi res. But we respected Neil enough to do what he asked. And we did. Even though we had to throw away weeks and weeks of work. Q: And how about the artwork and design? A: That picture that’s the front cover is a perfect example. First of all, it’s a black and white picture. It was hand colored. When I showed Neil my idea for the cover was he was completely against it. And I said, “Why?” He said, “We’re aggrandizing ourselves. We’re makin’ ourselves too important.

We’re making ourselves bigger than we were.” And I said to him, “Neil. Did we not do this? Did we not play 31 shows? Did we not play for many many many thousands of people every night?” He said “Yea.” I said, “Don’t you see graphically this is an incredible cover?” And he finally came ’round to my way of thinking. Harvey Kubernik’s Turn Up the Radio! Rock, Pop, and Roll in Los Angeles 1956–1972 published last April by Santa Monica Press is garnering international acclaim.

Question: Graham Nash left which group in 1968 to join David Crosby and Stephen Stills?
Answer: The Hollies