The CSNY song David Crosby and Graham Nash refused to sing: “They wouldn’t touch it”
For a group with as many legends in one band, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young were about as democratic as they could be. Not every one of them had the best songs to work with across each of their records, but by working off each other, a fairly mundane track could turn into any other artist’s greatest hit once it was laid down. Once Stephen Stills came to the group with ‘4 + 20’, though, he was shocked to find that none of his bandmates volunteered to sing on it.
And not singing on an album isn’t something to be taken lightly in CSNY. Their trademark harmonies are half the reason why people buy their records, so the idea of them only having one singer for a tune is the equivalent of saying that you’re buying a Van Halen record because you have to hear the basslines.
Then again, the whole concept behind their records seemed to be “anything goes” half the time. After all, they had always insisted that this was just a side project spread out amongst their other ventures, so making an album with only a handful of tracks you contribute isn’t exactly going to be given the same attention as a true solo outing.
When putting together Deja Vu, the entire project feels like a glorified jam session that came along surprisingly well. Every one of the songwriters’ respective moments could have been a standout for any other rock act, and it’s not like ‘4 + 20’ doesn’t fall into that category. Stills had hit on something really powerful with a basic setup, but when it came time to put the icing on the cake, his bandmates insisted on not singing on it.
Given that it already sounded phenomenal on its own, Stills remembered getting constant pushback from David Crosby and Graham Nash when it came time to do the harmony parts, saying, “They told me they wouldn’t touch it, so it always stood alone.” But in this case, ‘less is more’ might have been the best approach.
There had already been a lot of overblown sentimental tracks like ‘Our House’, so having a tune that’s nothing but one singer at a microphone could have been the best way to take the edge off the listener. Despite the rest of the project being carefully orchestrated behind the scenes, this is the closest it comes to being a fly-on-the-wall in the studio as Stills sings his heart out.
And considering the lyrical content, it wasn’t like it needed a sentimental vocal to go along with it. In fact, the short snippet reads almost like a folk song from decades past, so to hear just one person singing it evokes the feeling of someone sitting on the edge of a dock trying to get a sea shanty singalong going.
The fact that they kept their biggest strength away from the song also says a lot more about CSNY as musical thinkers. They knew when something wasn’t right for a song, and they were never going to bother layering on four voices for something that could be achieved with just one.
