The 1968 Simon & Garfunkel song Graham Nash called a masterpiece: “Stunning!”
Some of the anecdotes that come from the music industry in the 1960s make it easy to understand why the time is viewed through rose-tinted glasses, as stories of musicians spontaneously crossing paths in local venues, studios and even gardens feel less like hyperbolised myth and more everyday lore that made up the industry in a time when it was at its very best.
Music was a source of magic at that time, and all over the world were magicians, ready to conjure up something new every time they sat near an instrument. Nobody’s career seems to typify this notion better than Graham Nash. Once the unlikely Blackpool lad found himself in the glittering hills of California, the sort of occurrences you think only happen in films were beginning to happen to him on the regular.
Who can forget the way in which he formed the band with Stephen Stills and David Crosby? It was when he stumbled back to his then-girlfriend Joni Mitchell’s house that he found his two bandmates trading harmonies in the garden, like a pair of barefoot hippies fitting of the area. When he joined in, harmonic magic was formed in the shape of Crosby, Stills & Nash, and suddenly, the ‘60s had yet another band conjured up out of pure magic.
But it wasn’t just the West Coast that made Nash’s dreams come true. No, the magic of the ‘60s was pretty much global at that point, and even when he travelled to ‘The Big Apple’, he got a taste of the level of artistry that could inspire anyone to become the next great songwriter.
Nash said, “One of my favourite songwriters is Paul Simon”.
He continued to explain that it wasn’t just musical inspiration but personal stewardship he took from Simon, adding, “He and Arthur Garfunkel took great care of me when The Hollies played in NYC. We had recorded Paul’s song ‘I Am A Rock’. He must have liked it because Paul came to our hotel and took me to the CBS studio where they were finishing Bookends. The song ‘Old Friends’ is an absolute fave of mine. The lyrics, the melody, the emotion…stunning! ‘America’…give me a break!”
While most of the great innovations Nash was a part of in the late ‘60s happened in his tight-knit Californian community, most of the music that suited his style was happening right there in New York City.
The intimate sort of storytelling that the reviving folk scene was championing is the sort of gritty, first-person style that he became in tune with during the finest moments of his career.
More importantly, it gave Nash an insight into the narrative realness that would easily have been forgotten over in Laurel Canyon. Outside of that safe bubble creatives had made for themselves, very real struggles were developing in a society living under the overhanging fear of political corruption and violence. Something Nash has always been keen to tackle head-on, and under the stewardship of Simon & Garfunkel, he could continue to learn how.
