“It sucks”: The song Graham Nash thought never worked for The Hollies
Sometimes, a song just doesn’t quite work for a specific project. Perhaps the vocalist can’t quite hit the notes or tone of the initial writing. Maybe it just didn’t quite work itself out in the studio and was shelved as a result. Or it could just be that the song doesn’t quite fit within the artistic direction of the band. Even the most acclaimed songwriters have penned a slightly mismatched track that they haven’t been able to make work, and Graham Nash is no exception.
Nash wrote and sang for both The Hollies and Crosby, Stills and Nash in the 1960s and beyond, proving himself to be talented both with a pen and behind a microphone. Although The Hollies found much of their success through covers, Nash did write some songs for the pop outfit, contributing to tracks like ‘On a Carousel’ and ‘Carrie Anne’. However, there was one writing he could never quite figure out with the band.
During his time with The Hollies, Nash penned a song called ‘Marrakesh Express’, but the song didn’t work with the band. “I’d written ‘Marrakesh Express’ when I was in The Hollies and in the EMI vaults there’s a version of it done by The Hollies,” Nash once explained during a conversation with Uncut, “And it sucks.”
Although the track may not have reached its final form with The Hollies, Nash wasn’t ready to give up on ‘Marrakesh Express’ just yet. So he took it to his other band, Crosby, Stills and Nash, who proved to be much better suited to the track. They recorded it to appear on their self-titled debut album, Crosby, Stills and Nash, in the summer of 1969.
Crosby, Stills and Nash breathed new life into the song, adorning it with gorgeous guitar twangs and those inimitable vocal harmonies. “Would you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express?” they sang in unison in the song’s chorus, “They’re taking me to Marrakesh, all aboard the train, all aboard the train.”
The track was joyous and light, showing off the best elements of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s sound. It even became the first single they decided to release from their first record, slotting perfectly into the album and providing the perfect introduction to it. “We knew that the album was unique and quite frankly we knew it was going to be a big hit,” Nash remembered, “We just knew”.
“For instance, after ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’, what the fuck are you going to do? Go up to the record player and turn it off?” he declared, “I don’t think so.” Nash’s confidence in the record was well-founded. Between ‘Marrakesh Express’ and ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’, the trio kicked off one of the most iconic supergroups of all time, only increasing their appeal when they added Neil Young to the lineup not too long after.
This serves as proof that the way a track develops can depend entirely on the band you take it to. Just because an idea for a song might not work out on the first try doesn’t mean it should be tossed aside forever. Maybe it just needs some new voices. Some tracks just aren’t suited to certain bands, and while The Hollies couldn’t quite crack ‘Marrakesh Express’, Crosby, Stills and Nash gave it a second life, turning it from an abandoned vault track into a lead single.
