‘Human Highway’: the unfinished CSNY album could have been a masterpiece
Some things just aren’t meant to be, including a CSNY album that had the potential to be their best. While it may seem strange given that the quartet’s 1970 debut, Déjà Vu, is an era-defining album that perfectly captured the farewell to the countercultural spirit of the 1960s, but the band members themselves have said that the unfinished Human Highway was shaping up to be a tremendous masterpiece.
Nobody, not even the band members, knows exactly why the album was left incomplete. This enigma stems from various factors: the era’s inherent hedonism and the foggy memories it produced, the members’ prolific artistic pursuits outside of CSNY, and other personal issues that weighed down the group’s mentality and spirit. It is clear, though, that there were simply too many obstacles for the group to complete the album and get it onto the shelves.
To be fair to the CSNY members, all of whom were undoubtedly at their lowest personal points, they tried hard to finish Human Highway. This was despite Neil Young still reeling from the deaths of Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry, Stephen Stills’ escalating abuse of alcohol and cocaine, the relatively temperate Graham Nash being hollowed out by a mix of Percocet and cocaine, and David Crosby grappling with his own struggles.
However, heavy use of the white powder and problems related to their markedly differing characters, which are on record as draining collective energy after a long time in each other’s company, also exacerbated the process.
Together, they worked on the record in 1973, 1974, and 1976, but despite their individual hopes and collective faith in the songs, they simply could not complete it. What sets this project apart from other notable unfinished records is the celebratory praise each member has given it, indicating that it would have been a masterpiece. Numerous songs from the album have since been released in various formats, showcasing its evident artistic excellence. Given this, it’s particularly strange that they never managed to finish it once and for all.
“We had great songs. It was going to be a great album,” Nash once said of the record. “We had a great title. Human Highway? Are you kidding me? That’s fabulous.”
Given the tracks that have since been released, it’s clear that Human Highway could have been a highlight of CSNY’s career. For example, Neil Young’s title track is considered one of his finest moments from this era, while ‘Through My Sails’, which later appeared on the 1975 album Zuma, stands out as a highlight. Additionally, ‘Long May You Run’, from the collaborative album with Stills of the same name, also originated from these sessions.
It wasn’t just Young, though. Nash’s track ‘And So It Goes’, which appeared on 1974’s Wild Tales, and Stills’ effort ‘Black Coral’ from the Carry On boxset, were also birthed during the sessions for Human Highway. These are only a handful of the confirmed songs from the sessions, too, with many other classics released by the members rumoured to have come from them and been re-recorded. This includes Young’s ‘New Mama’ from one of his best efforts, the perenially depressing Tonight’s the Night.
After Young released his mammoth Neil Young Archives Volume II: 1972–1976 in 2020, the counterculture’s busiest Twitter user, Crosby, supported the idea of finally finishing Human Highway. The impish musician wrote: “The shelved ‘Human Highway’ album, would have been a good one? Would have been very good”. Stills echoed his belief, too, sharing monochrome photos of the quartet during the sessions at Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch in 1973 with the hashtag “ItsNeverTooLate”.
Although Crosby passed away in 2023, there’s still hope we might one day hear Human Highway as a complete package.
