Why Graham Nash was sceptical about Neil Young joining Crosby, Stills and Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash–and by extension its 8-legged version, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young–certainly qualifies as one of the early “supergroups” of rock. When the band formed in 1968, David Crosby had already made his bread in the Byrds; Stephen Stills had scored a couple hits with the Buffalo Springfield; and Graham Nash had sung a few more than that with the Hollies. When a scruffy Neil Young joined the outfit a year later, one might assume that it set off a folk-rock nuclear reaction; a solid trio topping their collective Christmas tree with the biggest Laurel Canyon star of them all. But it’s worth remembering, the Neil Young that joined CSN wasn’t yet the heroic troubadour of the early ‘70s. And in fact, at least one member of his new quartet wasn’t so sure that he was the best fourth wheel available.
“I was the only one reluctant to bring Neil into the band,” Graham Nash told Record Collector News in 2014. “And the reason was that we had spent the last few months making this incredible record (1969’s Crosby, Stills & Nash) and developing this beautiful harmonic sound, right? I said, ‘I can’t commit to this until I meet Neil. I gotta sit down with this cat. I wanna know who he is. I wanna know if I can go on the road with him. I wanna know if I want him to be a part of my life.’ And, that made sense to them.”
At this point, Neil Young had released just one solo album, his self-titled 1968 debut. His first record with Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, was in the can, as well. But from Nash’s perspective, Young was mostly that peculiar guy from the Buffalo Springfield.
“One of my favourite songs is ‘Expecting To Fly’ from Buffalo Springfield Again, that [Young] did with Jack Nitzsche,” Nash said. “So I knew who Neil was and I loved this fucking song. I was a big fan of the Buffalo Springfield. How could you not?”
Nonetheless, despite the endorsement from Young’s former bandmate Stills, Nash wasn’t sure if Neil would make sense for what was needed, which was basically an extra complementary musician for the CSN roadshow.
“We talked with Stevie Winwood,” Nash remembered. “We talked with Van Dyke Parks. We needed somebody just to keep Stephen on his game and competitive and on fire. And I think basically that Stephen and [producer] Ahmet [Ertegun] came up with the idea—or maybe it was Ahmet to Stephen—of getting Neil on board.”
Neil Young was happy enough to join the team, but he’d first need to pass the test of a man-to-man meeting with Graham Nash. As the lone Brit in the band, it would then be up to Nash to determine if CSN would become a tri-nation ensemble by adding a Canadian.
“So, at a coffee shop on Bleecker Street in New York, I went and had breakfast with Neil,” Nash said. “After that breakfast I would have made him the President of Canada. He was incredibly funny. He had an incredibly dry sense of humour…at the end of that breakfast, I walked down to the Village Gate where we were rehearsing, and I said, ‘OK’.”
Any remaining doubts Nash might have had about Young were quickly expunged when the first Crosby, Still, Nash & Young album, 1970’s Deja Vu, became another huge success, topping the US charts and notching three top ten singles. Famously, things didn’t exactly carry on pleasantly after that, as growing internal rivalries (and occasionally a seething hatred) among the members of CSNY—along with Neil Young’s concurrent explosion as a solo artist—made for tough footing and various fallouts and reunions. Overall, though, Nash would always remain pleased that Young had entered the tent.
“It was a different band when Neil joined,” Nash explained. “Not a lot of people understand that. They think it’s just an added voice. But it’s not. It’s an added attitude. Neil brings a sharper edge. I was gonna say a darker feeling, but I don‘t mean that in a negative way. He brings this edge to us that we don’t have. And, of course, you have to take into account his ability to play lead guitar against and with Stephen…Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are a completely different band than CS&N.”
