The angry song Graham Nash aimed at Neil Young and Stephen Stills: “Wasn’t fair”
The 1970s was the start of the golden age for the singer-songwriter. Although many people tend to remember the era as the moment when people started paying attention to hard rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, there were just as many artists sporting nothing but a piano or an acoustic guitar and talking about the real problems in the world outside of modern suburbia. Graham Nash may have already laid the groundwork for the genre with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, but ‘Chicago (We Can Change the World)’ showed that he wasn’t always in agreement with every band member.
Because when you’re talking about CSNY, that means talking about many different protest songs. The world was still dealing with the fallout of the Vietnam War when they formed, and the supergroup was often talking about dense topics in between their gorgeous harmonies.
If you know anything about Neil Young, he’s not willing to pull his punches most of the time. When something’s on his mind, it doesn’t take long for him to translate that to his fingers, either singing about the harsh feelings he has on ‘Helpless’ or protesting against the violence going on in America on ‘Ohio’.
Just a few years after the horrific massacre at Kent State, Nash wanted to document the accusations levelled against the Chicago 7. After protestors were boycotting the Democratic National Convention in 1968, they were brought up on charges where they were alleged to have intended to start a riot.
While Young could have made a brilliant piece of commentary on a topic like this, it’s interesting that the song came from Nash. Here was the man known for the friendlier songs in their catalogue like ‘Teach Your Children’ and ‘Our House’, and so too does this song take a more delicate approach, talking about the right for everyone to be given their just day in court.
When the supergroup was eventually asked to play at a benefit concert for the Chicago 7, Nash was disheartened to see Young and Stephen Stills drop out. Rather than get into an argument, Nash let ‘Chicago’ do the talking for him, writing about the importance of standing up for what’s right.
Nash didn’t even try to hide the fact that Young prompted him to write it, saying, “I wrote this song to Neil and Stephen and to everybody that I thought might want to hear about the fact that what was happening to the Chicago 7 wasn’t fair”. Once you start bringing politics into the equation, though, you can’t be that surprised when you end up rubbing some people the wrong way.
In the next few years, Young figured that he didn’t really need his buddies to become the biggest act in the world, striking out on his own and turning in some of the best folk music of the era. Although Nash would release ‘Chicago’ on his own album, Music for Beginners, and Young would continue to get political with his material, their differences might just be down to the tone their songs were using.
What makes ‘Chicago (We Can Change the World)’ endure is its sense of invitation rather than confrontation. Nash does not accuse or demand, instead framing the song as a communal appeal rooted in fairness and empathy. By grounding the protest in shared values rather than outrage, he creates space for listeners who may not already be politically aligned to step closer rather than recoil. It is activism shaped by harmony, both musically and philosophically.
In hindsight, the song also clarifies the subtle fault lines within CSNY that would continue to widen over time. While all four members were politically engaged, they differed in how directly they believed music should challenge its audience. ‘Chicago’ stands as Nash’s clearest statement of intent, not just about a specific injustice, but about his belief that persuasion, patience, and humanity could be just as powerful as anger when it came to changing minds.
They may have both wanted to change the world, but Nash always had a softer touch than Young, thinking that people need to be reminded of human nature whenever they’re making bigger decisions. Young might not mince his words as often, but maybe he could have benefited from, as John Lennon might have put it, using a bit of honey when making his political material.
