“We kick its ass into next week”: the Crosby Stills and Nash song that David Crosby thought was better live
What makes a good live show? For me, it’s the unpredictability. Not the kind that manifests itself in the form of a drunken tirade from the performer or perhaps a streaker, rushing the stage and descending the set into chaos. Not the sort of unpredictability where a song’s performance can be slightly altered to match a venue’s unique emotion and atmosphere at any given time. The sort of difference that would allow Crosby, Stills, and Nash‘s vocals to be just as beautiful as the record, but more reactive and more in tune to the moment, so that it reminds me that the show I am seeing is unique.
Because, generally speaking, it’s a misconception that the show needs to follow the album. Of course, it needs to loosely follow the same structures, but it can’t be expected to sound exactly the same. While their arrangements are indeed accomplished, it’s their voices that sit at the heart of their sound. A unique blend of three different artists coalescing together to create one unified voice of perfection.
But of all instruments, the voice is the most emotive and in a live setting, the most susceptible to adaptation. And while I want to see the three of their voices, floating over the crowd in unison, maybe there is something extra to be squeezed from them all that the studio can’t replicate.
So as you start to reel off the tracklist of their stunning self-titled debut album, you would be forgiven for thinking it’s maybe ‘Helplessly Hoping’ or ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ that becomes an entirely different entity live, for those are the three songs which showcase the sort of emotive tenderness that flourishes in a live setting.
But David Crosby insists it is ‘Long Time Gone’ that stood out from the rest during their live shows. He explained, “We do it live better than the record. We kick its ass into next week. I guess it’s kind of blues, but if you’re in a band with Stephen Stills, you really don’t want to be singing the blues, because he’s drastically better at it than I am.”
While the harmonies on ‘Long Time Gone’ are of the Crosby, Stills and Nash signature, it’s the guitar that plays centre stage. So, rather than rely on the emotive power of their voice in the live context, they hang the performance off the moody blues riff that sits at the heart of it and explore the jam space.
It’s the sort of song that nodded to the band’s future, when a certain songwriter by the name of Neil Young would join the ranks and bring a slightly darker guitar tone to the band’s sound. And like Crosby, Stills’s vocals left him both wanting to be involved in the project and in desperate awe of him. Because when Young was asked what compelled him to get involved with an otherwise enigmatic musical trio, the Canadian simply answered, “His voice.”
