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From Gene Vincent to Peter Gabriel: The eight songs Graham Nash couldn’t live without

Thu 21 March 2024 20:30, UK

Although he’s an Englishman, Graham Nash is a transatlantic folk-rock phenomenon. From his heady days with The Hollies to his tumultuous years in the US with David Crosby and Stephen Stills, he maintained admirable consistency with a gentle yet powerful voice and ever-enchanting songwriting ideas. Adhering to the folk tradition, Nash’s lyrics are usually reflective and poignant.

During a recent visit to the BBC Radio 4 studio to pick out his Desert Island Discs with host Lauren Laverne, Nash discussed the simplicity of his songwriting process. Noting that the “art of songwriting” is “mysterious” to music lovers who don’t write themselves, Nash detailed: “When I wake up in the morning, I’m alive. I get on with my day, and I write about my life. That’s all I’ve been doing all my life.”

After following his essential creative process for over six decades, Nash considers songwriting as natural as taking a bath or taking the air with a brisk walk. That’s not to say, however, that his vocation is an easy one. Throughout his career, Nash has found inspiration in the various twists and turns of his personal life, from a relationship with Joni Mitchell to his infamous disputes with his fellow members of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Nash’s collaborators mentioned above are notably absent from his desert island selections. One might have expected at least to see Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’, an enduring ballad poignantly personal to Nash as the songwriter’s subject. Describing the song as one of his all-time favourites in a 2021 interview with The Guardian, Nash revealed that it chronicled their two-year romance and its unfortunate end. “It was such a beautiful song,” Nash said. “[Joni] had the courage to bare her soul. We were very much in love. I treasured that relationship.”

Veering clear of such deeply personal songs, Nash played Laverne a selection of classics, mostly of 1950s and ’60s pop. In a near-chronological order, Nash began with the ’50s pop hits that inspired him to pick up the guitar and start singing as a young boy in Salford. The first record he ever bought was Gene Vincent’s 1956 single ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula’.

Nash credited the song and its singer with changing his life “in many ways”. Most people purchase their first record in a record store or a charity shop, but Nash’s life changed in a playground trade. One of his school friends, Fred Marston, had the 78RPM single for one reason or another, and Nash traded “four pieces of toast” for it. Nash may have gone hungry, but it’s safe to say he did better out of the deal.

Although most of Nash’s selections harked back to the ’50s and ’60s, he spared room for one selection from 1986. “Peter Gabriel is a fantastic musician, a really brilliant record maker,” Nash praised, picking out ‘Don’t Give Up’, Gabriel’s emotive duet with Kate Bush. “I’ve loved it since the moment I heard it. If anyone out there has something that they’d love to do, don’t let anybody put you off. Don’t let anybody dissuade you from doing what you love.”

These wise words arrive from a reputable source. Nash has encountered heady highs and crushing lows but remains true to his art, still writing and touring at the age of 82.

See the full list of Graham Nash’s selections below. If you like what you see, you can also follow our playlist.