The one songwriter Graham Nash knew wouldn’t be remembered “in a 100 years”
Graham Nash didn’t need to concern himself with having hit singles whenever he made a new record.
The biggest names of the 1960s may have been the bands that were at the top of the hit parade, but after having those kinds of hits with The Hollies, he knew that he needed something with a lot more substance if he was going to go the distance. Some of his best songs needed to be a little bit more musical than what everyone else was doing, which probably explains why a lot of his songs have been remembered 50 years on from that first official Crosby, Stills and Nash record.
That said, any chance of the supergroup ever having a hit was usually going to come from Nash. Even though he was willing to shoot his own songs down to talk about the greater injustices of the world, ‘Our House’ and ‘Teach Your Children’ are perfect examples of making songs that are insanely catchy without sounding too complex that it drowns out everything else. He could hold his own with his bandmates, but there were also many more creative realms to explore once he saw what else was happening in California.
The entire culture seemed to be dominated by peace, love and understanding, and while Nash did think that was the best philosophy to live by, he did feel like the legacy would always be the music over everything else. He knew that his friends were writing phenomenal songs, and when you look at the grand tradition of rock songwriters, Nash was convinced that no one could hold a candle to people like Joni Mitchell.
And, really, how the hell could they? Mitchell was working with a much greater depth of musical knowledge than virtually anyone else, and while she was looking to be the next American icon in the same way that people like Miles Davis were back in the day, Nash was convinced that she was also on par with the best rock songwriters of all time. Because when you get down to it, the best songwriters weren’t the ones with the catchy tunes; it was those who actually had something to say underneath it all.
Bob Dylan had virtually kicked down the door for that kind of music, but there were also people like John Lennon and Paul McCartney who blew the doors wide open for what rock and roll could be about. And while Leonard Cohen deserves to be in that company as well, Nash never felt that the great wordsmith could really hold a candle to his iconic friends in terms of cultural relevance.
He was still a tremendous fan, but he knew that Cohen needed a bit more melody to be remembered alongside the giants, saying, “I think that in a 100 years time, if anyone’s looking back at these ’60s that didn’t finish until ’74 when Nixon fucking got out of here, I think the only people they’re going to remember are Bob and John and Paul and Joni. I’m not even sure I would put Leonard in there.”
But a lot of Cohen’s music is the kind that needs a little bit more nuance for people to truly appreciate it. He wasn’t trying to go over everyone’s heads whenever he made one of his songs by any stretch, but when listening to a lot of his tunes, a lot of the emotion is a lot more subtle than what The Beatles may have been doing. It wasn’t bad by any means, but sometimes it required a bit more attention on the part of the listener.
If you look at the fans of Cohen’s over the years, though, there’s a good chance that he’s going to make it to that iconic status as well. Because even if people don’t know him by name, anyone who’s listened to Lou Reed wax poetic about his favourite artists or heard Jeff Buckley deliver his version of ‘Hallelujah’ is forever going to be singing the praises of what Cohen was all about.
