Revisit the final Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young performance
There had been endless mutations and permutations of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young by 2013. Sometimes Young returned to the fold, sometimes CSN went out on their own, and sometimes all four members couldn’t stand to be around one another. But as the new millennium came around, the classic four-man lineup seemed to achieve something they never had before: stability.
Between 1997 and 2013, CSNY were a consistently active unit. 1999 saw the release of the album Looking Forward, and in 2000, the group embark on the ‘CSNY2K’ tour. Two years later, the group was still solid enough to tour America once again, but the 2006 ‘Freedom of Speech Tour’ proved to be the final time all four members hit the road together. CSN kept performing, but Young opted out until reconvening his bandmates for the 2013 Bridge School Benefit.
Young had his own set, as was customary considering that he founded the benefit concert. Nash had also performed with Elvis Costello at the shows. Nobody knew it at the time, but the second night of the Benefit on October 27th would prove to be the final time Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young shared the stage together.
The quartet kicked off their set with their highest charting single in the US, ‘Just a Song Before I Go’. Young’s ‘Human Highway’ came next, which has a history unique to the band. The song was originally meant to be the title track for CSNY’s proposed follow-up to Déjà Vu, but when those sessions fell through, Young included the track on his 1978 album Comes a Time instead.
Nash introduces the next track as a “new song of Stephen’s.” ‘Don’t Want Lies’ probably could have been a CSNY track as well, but instead, Stills recorded the song with his supergroup The Rides on their 2013 album Can’t Get Enough, released two months prior. Young dusts off his own new solo song, ‘Singer Without a Song’, as the next track.
Crosby then steps up to the mic, joking that the band isn’t actually very political and that they “only sing love songs.” With that, Crosby launches into ‘What Are Their Names’, the fiery album cut from If I Could Only Remember My Name. As Young skulks around in the background, all four singers dig into the song’s polemic lyrics without instrumental accompaniment.
Crosby isn’t done either. From there, the first (and only) real CSNY song of the set comes up, ‘Déjà Vu’. As Crosby and Nash harmonise on the line “We have all been here before,” a hypnotic groove takes over, with Stills and Young trading solos and Young blowing out notes on the harmonica. Young and Stills then lead into the title track from their collaborative 1976 album Long May You Run.
To end the night, the quartet bust out two classics from CSN’s debut. The first is ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’, which finds Crosby, Stills, and Nash revamping their signature harmony blend. Young even adds his voice to the overlapping vocal parts. When comes time to end the show with ‘Teach Your Children’ nearly all the other performers join CSNY on stage. It’s a warm ending to what would be the final chapter for Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.
Check out CSNY’s set at the 2013 Bridge School Benefit down below.
