Features Disc of the day
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash
(Atlantic, 1969)
Run to the hills! Someone bring the harmonies!
It's 3:00am on a dank Monday morning in Upstate New York and Stephen Stills is peering into the darkness. In front of him are hundreds of thousands of mud-soaked revellers, the last survivors of the first Woodstock weekend. "This is the second time we've ever played in front of people, man," he chuckles. "We're scared shitless!" Not that you could tell from the trio's performance that night - a tightknit, harmony-packed jam made up almost entirely of songs from this album. All three had enjoyed international success with The Byrds (Crosby), The Hollies (Nash) and Buffalo Springfield (Stills), but by 1968 the jingle-jangle optimism of the LA scene had all but disappeared. Its key players retreated to the hills - no doubt with a shaggy dog and a lissom blonde in tow.
To be honest, I often wince at some of this record's '60s mumbo jumbo ("Say, can I have some of your purple berries?"), but although the sentiments are firmly rooted in the past, the sound most definitely isn't. That's why when you turn up Long Time Gone and Wooden Ships they break free from the shackles of hippiedom and become brooding, menacing rock tunes - strangely, the group's celestial vocal blend and acoustic arrangements often mask this. Crosby, Stills and Nash were all in amplified bands and their ditching of noise, effects and weirdness (goodbye psychedelia!) is what makes this a timeless listen whether you want to join the Marrakesh Express or not. "We wanted to take the listener on a journey," said Graham Nash. "Where you smoked a big one, took the shrink wrap off, put the record on the record player... and you were gone!"
Ross Bennett
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 27/01/2010
Further Listening
The Beach Boys – Surf’s Up (Reprise, 1971)
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu (Atlantic, 1970)
The Mamas & Papas – If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (Dunhill, 1966)
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Crosby, Stills & Nash did not play Woodstock: that was Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and I believe it was their first gig together. In any case they were painfully tune-challenged, not the breathtakingly tight outfit they were capable of being. A lot of the music at Woodstock was spectacular, but I found myself wincing pretty often at these guys.
Posted by Bopadopoulos at 2:01 PM GMT 27/01/2010 Report Abuse
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Superb album!!
Posted by don at 11:34 PM GMT 27/01/2010 Report Abuse
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Good call on the "menacing" aspect - these guys tend to get pegged as the Teach Yer Children/Our House goodtime folkie flakes when they really had an undercurrent of creepy darkness running thru from the very beginning, even aside from Neil's "Ohio." Right on.
Posted by sistermidnight at 4:45 AM GMT 28/01/2010 Report Abuse
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