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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Three singers from the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Hollies who found a harmony in 30 seconds, added Neil Young, and made Deja Vu.

Origin
Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California, United States
Years active
1968-2015
Genres
folk rock, country rock
Labels
Atlantic, Reprise
Also known as
CSNY, Crosby, Stills & Nash, CSN

Three singers

David Crosby was sacked from the Byrds in October 1967, and Buffalo Springfield had broken up by early 1968. After the Monterey Pop Festival Crosby and Stephen Stills began meeting and jamming. In July 1968, at a party in a Laurel Canyon house, Graham Nash of the Hollies asked the two to sing Stills's song You Don't Have to Cry. By the third run-through Nash had learned the words and improvised a harmony, and the three realized how well their voices fitted. Nash later said the sound of the trio was "born in 30 seconds".

Nash quit the Hollies in December 1968. After an unsuccessful audition for the Beatles' Apple Records in London, they signed to Atlantic through Ahmet Ertegun and took on Elliot Roberts and David Geffen as managers. They used their surnames as the name so that the band could not carry on without one of them. Crosby, Stills & Nash came out on 29 May 1969 and reached number six. Stills played nearly every part apart from the drums and the acoustic guitars Crosby and Nash played on their own songs, so going on the road meant adding players. Ertegun suggested Stills's old Buffalo Springfield bandmate Neil Young.

Deja Vu

Young joined on terms that let him keep working with Crazy Horse. The expanded group's first major public gig was at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago on 16 August 1969, and two days later they played Woodstock in the early hours of the morning. Stills told the crowd it was only the second time they had played in front of people.

Deja Vu followed on 11 March 1970. Made between July 1969 and January 1970 at Wally Heider's studios in San Francisco and Hollywood and produced by all four members, it was mostly assembled from individual sessions. Nash said he usually recorded his tracks alone and brought them back to add voices. Stills put the work at about 800 hours and said getting the album out of them was like pulling teeth. It opened with Stills's Carry On and produced three Top 40 singles: Woodstock, Joni Mitchell's song sung by Stills, then Nash's Teach Your Children and Our House. The album topped the Billboard chart and sold more than eight million copies in the United States.

Ohio

After the Kent State shootings of 4 May 1970, Young wrote Ohio. The band recorded it on 21 May and Atlantic released it in June, while Teach Your Children was still climbing the chart. It reached number 14. It was banned from some AM radio stations, including in the state of Ohio.

The 1970 tour ended in July with shows at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. Recordings from the Fillmore East, the Forum in Los Angeles and Chicago became the live double album 4 Way Street, which also topped the chart. Between September 1970 and May 1971 each member released a solo album: Young's After the Gold Rush, Stills's Stephen Stills, Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name and Nash's Songs for Beginners.

Reunions

The four came back together for a 31-date tour in summer 1974, directed by Bill Graham, with Joni Mitchell, Santana, the Band and the Beach Boys among the opening acts. Atlantic issued the compilation So Far to have something to promote, and it topped the chart in November. A new studio album was never finished. Decades later Nash and the archivist Joel Bernstein chose songs from five recorded shows for CSNY 1974, released by Rhino on 8 July 2014.

Crosby, Stills and Nash returned as a trio on CSN in 1977, which peaked at number two. Young rejoined for American Dream in 1988 and for Looking Forward in 1999, which came out on Reprise and led to the CSNY2K Tour in 2000 and the CSNY Tour of America in 2002. In 2006 they toured in support of Young's Living with War. Their last concert as a quartet was an acoustic set at the Bridge School Benefit on 27 October 2013, and the trio kept touring until 2015. Crosby, Stills and Nash were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, and Young was inducted separately as a solo artist in 1995 and with Buffalo Springfield in 1997. In 1970 Bill Graham called them "The American Beatles".

Members

Records

Songs

Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, The Hollies, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Writing and criticism

Sources

  1. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Wikipedia
  2. Déjà Vu (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album), Wikipedia
  3. Crosby, Stills & Nash (album), Wikipedia
  4. 4 Way Street, Wikipedia
  5. 55 Years Ago: Crosby Stills Nash & Young Combine for 'Deja Vu', Ultimate Classic Rock
  6. Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Songfacts
  7. Graham Nash, grahamnash.com