The one group David Crosby thought were too good: “I loved their stuff”
For any great rock ensemble, harmony singing is a bit of a sacred art. Many people spend their entire lives trying to get just the right guitar sound in the studio or practice their chops until they are a virtuoso, but it’s anyone’s guess whether certain voices will blend once they start singing together. Crosby, Stills, and Nash had already hit upon something powerful when they got together in the late 1960s, but David Crosby thought that no one could compete with the harmonies of The Everly Brothers.
Because when you think about it, the old guard of rock and roll didn’t really have that many harmony vocalists. No matter how much people loved to sing along to Chuck Berry or Little Richard songs, they got most of their power from the storytelling of the tunes or the raw aggression that came out of their throat whenever they sang.
Just as rock started coming into its own, though, The Everly Brothers were a rare breed out of the American South. They still had all the trademarks that a rock and roll band should have, but as soon as tunes like ‘Bye Bye Love’ and ‘All I Have To Do is Dream’ started, hearing both of them singing together was unlike anything traditional rock fans had heard.
Artists like Brian Wilson had already started taking inspiration from vocal groups like The Four Freshmen, but in terms of execution, there was something a lot more authentic about the Everlys. Many of the greatest girl groups knew how to harmonise, but whenever listening to Phil and Don sing together, they were practically singing two lead vocals at the same time, with each melody being equally strong.
And it’s not like Crosby was first introduced to them once he started his supergroup. He had already done his stint in The Byrds, and considering their lineage, it’s not hard to draw a straight line from The Everly Brothers straight through to The Beatles to the chiming guitars and harmonies of Crosby’s first act.
Despite Crosby, Stills, and Nash having a great rapport with each other, Crosby thought that The Everlys were close to untouchable in his mind, saying, “Everly Brothers were a huge influence – huge – they just rang my bell. I loved their stuff. It was just too goddamn good. I loved harmony right from the get-go. That affected how I heard folk music when I started hearing folk music.”
But coming out of the 1960s, Crosby, Stills, and Nash had a combination almost too perfect to fail. They had the vocal ability of acts like The Beatles and The Everlys, but when combined with lyrics as cutting as Bob Dylan’s, they reflected their own time in a way that hasn’t really been seen since.
That was just one side of Crosby’s musical taste, though. He would venture into any type of music that he thought had merit, but whenever he opened his mouth, chances are he kept coming back to those country-leaning legends who got the ball rolling for him.
