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CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH were one of rock's first supergroups, and to this day, people still can't leave well enough alone.
Alternative Press - Rob Ortenzi on 3/29/06 @ 3:19 PM - altpress.comYEARS OF DECENT EXISTENCE: 1968-1970
BEST RECORDS: Crosby, Stills And Nash (1969), CSN (1977)
WORST RECORDS: Daylight Again (1982), Live It Up (1990), After The Storm (1994)
GO DOWNLOAD: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Marrekesh Express," "Long Time Gone, "Cathedral," "Wasted on The Way"
FILE UNDER: The Five-Percent Nation Of Singer/Songwriter Wusses
SIMILAR SOUNDING DINOSAURS: The Eagles, the Grateful Dead, James Taylor and legions of pot-smoking troubadours toting acoustic guitars and having a knack for harmony and a need to get their "message" heard.
THE MUSIC: Debuting at the first Woodstock festival, David Crosby (the Byrds), Graham Nash (the Hollies) and Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield) were one of the first supergroups, melding their significant talents with a collection of songs that appealed to country, folk and pop-music fans. On their self-titled debut, they came off as light-hearted ("Marrekesh Express"), brooding ("Long Time Gone") or poignant ("Wooden Ships") at a time when the American psyche was in a state of flux and the revolution wasn't for sale—yet. ("$3 off CSN album with each buckskin-fringed jacket sold!") When Stills' fellow Buffalo Springfield refugee Neil Young was enlisted in 1970, the music got significantly grittier (really, it's like a different band). Thanks to the beauty of egos, conflict, Cosby's tenure as a seemingly immortal drug sponge and a dearth of strong songs, CSN have only made four albums in 37 years. Of course, in that time span, they have inspired (intentionally or indirectly) more vacuous music from nincompoops whose stone-eared friends told them, "Your poetry is pretty cool" or "you have a great voice, you should perform."
WHAT THEY SAY: "Strong lyrics, solid acoustic musicianship and staggeringly faultless three-piece harmonies was the mixture they conceived, and it was enough to influence a generation of American performers for the next decade." —Guinness Encyclopedia Of Popular Music
WHAT I SAY: To borrow a precept from Public Enemy, it's takes a nation of baby boomers to make us nap. Look this album up on Amazon and read all the customer reviews. I guarantee you won't trust anyone over 45, ever again.
WHY YOUR (GRAND)PARENTS LIKE THEM: You know how young punks complain about jocks and preps glomming onto their favorite bands? Well, CSN's popularity began with the support of counterculture types (read: hippies), and inevitably spread toward the well-dressed, shorthaired, hygiene-conscious regular folk (read: "plastics"). There's a good chance Mam-Maw and Pap-Pap rolled their first joint on the cover of CSN's debut and smoked it while "Wooden Ships" was playing. Afterward, they either joined the freak scene or they developed so much guilt, they became intellectually and sexually repressed and moved to Ohio.
CURRENT WHEREABOUTS: The Rhino label has recently remastered and reissued their first album, along with Daylight Again, adding the requisite bonus tracks. CSN toured from May to September in 2005, to the glee of septuagenarians still holding strong metaphysical opinions on the beauty of tie-dying and third-generation hippies who helplessly buy into those Grateful Dead-quorum spinoffs. Frickin' baby boomers…—Jason Pettigrew
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