The three musicians Graham Nash says people will remember in 100 years
What the world will look like in 100 years is anyone’s guess. Will there be floating cars? Will Silicon Valley technocrats rule the earth? Who knows. According to Graham Nash, though, three musicians of his generation will still be remembered fondly.
To be fair to Nash, he has more insight into how people are celebrated and remembered than most. After all, he was in one of the most influential and commercially successful bands of the 1960s, The Hollies, the Mancunian answer to The Beatles, and following his departure, became a member of arguably the finest supergroup of all time in CSN, who were soon to be CSNY when Neil Young entered the fold.
So, not only was he a component of the global, culture-shifting movement of the British invasion, but he was the heart of the counterculture that followed it later in the decade. He also played a key role in musically capturing the storied, narcotic essence of it. When you add his many historic musical efforts and his life story to that of those he was friends with, you get a man who is far more well-versed in what it takes to etch your name in the history books than most.
In his time, Nash has witnessed a mass of legendary figures come to the fore and cement their place in the annals of music with their creative prowess and natural star power. One of those he knows most closely is the Canadian folk heroin, Joni Mitchell. While the countercultural period is famed for its free love, the pair were a couple for two years, and at one point, Nash even asked the flaxen-haired lady of the canyon to marry him, but she turned him down.
Famously, Nash wrote CSNY’s ‘Our House’ about a moment of domestic bliss he and Mitchell shared when he was living with her and her cats in Laurel Canyon, which occurred before their doomed romance unfolded and became particularly painful. Their intense romance would also bleed into her work, with the album deemed her masterpiece, 1971’s Blue, written just after it ended. Many of the songs are thought to be about her British ex, including the heartbreaking ‘River’.
Despite their relationship ending so severely, Nash has never lost respect for Mitchell as a person or artist. Not only does he know her better than most, but he’s also seen first-hand just how immense her talent is, watching her in action, bringing classic songs to life in real-time.
When speaking to The Guardian in 2021, Nash reflected on his time with Michell, her brilliance, and the two other classic artists he thinks will be remembered in 100 years. Unsurprisingly, the other two were The Beatles and Bob Dylan, the most consequential artists of his era.
He said: “I remember leaving the house to give her the space to finish ‘My Old Man’. I’m sad that it’s about me again, but it’s so brilliant. Like the song suggests, I asked her to marry me, but I think she thought I wanted a ‘wife’ to cook meals and so on, which was never my intention. I wanted her to be as free as possible, to be as brilliant as possible. She’s an amazing woman. I’m proud to have been a part of her life. In 100 years’ time, people will remember the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Joni.”
It’s hard to imagine the world forgetting the trio in the next 100 years, but one might bet that if Nash were to place his heart and wallet on which artist he would prefer to remain timeless, then the wondrous brilliance of Joni Mitchell would likely be it. But, over the years, Nash has also shared his love for the other two.
“They weren’t even called The Beatles,” he said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2016. “It was after The Quarrymen. I think they were Johnny and the Moondogs… Everybody knew, every girl, every kid knew, when they looked at them, something special was about. They were four kids, and you couldn’t get inside that; they took care of themselves, and everybody knew it.”
For Nash, Dylan is one of a kind, “No one comes close to Dylan in my humble opinion. ‘Blowing in the Wind’, ‘Masters of War’, ‘A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall’, ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’… what incredible pieces of poetry.”
Unless something dramatic happens in the coming years and people stop listening to music, it’s certain that Joni Mitchell, The Beatles and Bob Dylan will be remembered in a century. As for the biggest stars of today, who knows?
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