The Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album Graham Nash thinks Neil Young ruined: “A piece of sh*t”
There have been more than a few over the years, but Crosby, Still, Nash and Young may well be the greatest supergroup of all time.
Bringing together the bullish folk rock of Stephen Stills with the unfiltered lyricism of Neil Young was a gift that helped Buffalo Springfield thrive. But now, coupling that duo with the harmonising brilliance of The Byrds’ David Crosby and The Hollies’ Graham Nash was a match made in heaven.
As the 1960s came to a close, the sounds of folk rock seemed to be dying out. Along with the idealistic dreams of the decade, artists talking about bringing change in the world through music started to look more passe by the day. Although most bands were falling by the wayside, Graham Nash was ascending with Crosby, Still, Nash and Young.
Rather than focus on the warm and comforting sounds of their namesake genre, the folk-rock supergroup made their projects as a response to the harsh evils in the world. When they acquired Neil Young from Buffalo Springfield, his hard-rock edge gave them more room to weave in dark topics, like the tragic events of the Kent State Shootings immortalised in ‘Ohio’.
After years apart, though, each member started to go through their share of problems. Having been through the wildest solo career, Young had spent most of the 1980s trying to run away from his label, which eventually sued him for not delivering the kind of music they expected of him.
While Young was floundering, though, Crosby, Stills, and Nash were going through a career resurgence, getting a second wind as a legacy act on the back of songs like ‘Wooden Ships’ with Young eager to work with anyone other than his record company, the announcement of a new CSNY album sent fans into a frenzy, as they eagerly awaited the album, American Dream.
The decision seemed like it pleased everybody. Fans of the supergroup got the chance to see them. combine once more, and Young got to satisfy his insatiable desire to upset his record label at every turn. However, for some, the decision would create a disparity within the record that would ultimately ruin it.
Although the fans took kindly to the album at first, nearly every band member started to reel back on the idea of working together from the moment they started. While the title track gave them another decent protest song, the production seemed off as every member absent-mindedly worked their way through their songs.
Regardless of how much goodwill was put into the project, Graham Nash was the most cutthroat when discussing the album’s legacy, recalling: “I think it didn’t work for a couple of reasons. We actually had a great time making it. They were some good songs on it. We may have over-harmonised some of them. We kind of over-compensated.”
Since the album was also made during David Crosby’s recovery period, most of his songs tend to feel half-hearted, no doubt caused by his many years wasted on drugs and booze, combined with the scattered production from the vocal harmonies, each song tends to feel like it drags on longer than it needs to.
While Nash initially took the high road, Young’s preference for Stephen Stills’s material did get to him, explaining, “My feeling – and I think David agrees with me – is that Neil over-indulged Stephen on that record.”
Now it might feel harsh to say that Young ruined the record, but he is a serious, imposing figure in the studio and had already further gilded his own reputation before rejoining for the LP, so he was likely a little more bullish than usual in the studio. Rather than push his own track, though, he seemed intent on giving Stills as much airtime as possible. “He put a couple of Stephen tracks on there that should not have been on there at all,” explained Nash.
And, with any supergroup, that means someone else’s track gets bumped: “And left out a version of CSN doing ‘Climber’, that was written by David, that was just stunningly beautiful,” Nash continued. “It was decided to take that off and put on ‘Driving Thunder’, which, to me, is a piece of shit. In an effort to please Stephen, I think Neil made some wrong choices.”
By the time the album was out, though, Young seemed to have already washed his hands of the project, not even appearing for the photo shoot alongside the rest of the band. Although he can be seen on the cover, his likeness was Photoshopped in afterwards. Considering that Young was about to go on another career renaissance with the album Freedom later, it seems he was stockpiling a couple of songs for his solo career.
