The 2010s show Graham Nash was severely disappointed in: “Would’ve been incredibly symbolic”
Everything that Graham Nash ever made needed to mean something more than a simple pop tune.
He was the lighthearted member of Crosby, Stills, and Nash in many respects, but when looking through a lot of his songs, something drove him out of The Hollies whenever he had the idea of putting together tunes that were a bit more left field than what everyone else was trying. But whenever he was giving it to the people directly, he felt that there needed to be a bit more energy behind a lot of his greatest tunes.
It’s hard to think of anyone playing Woodstock seeing that show just like any other performance, and when Nash came off that stage, he felt that he wanted to make something that was a little bit more engaging than what he had been working on. ‘Ohio’ had broken new ground for every member of the band when Neil Young joined, and throughout the rest of his career, Nash felt the need to turn his voice up whenever he felt that there was injustice going on in the world.
The supergroup had already kicked up a stink when they were speaking out against Richard Nixon back in the day, but even when they reached the 2000s, Nash had to laugh when they were still batting off critiques from their fans to stay out of politics. As far as he was concerned, he was in the medium that was meant to question what authorities were saying, and when someone wasn’t doing their part, he wasn’t going to roll over without giving his two cents about everything.
Nash may have been more than a little bit pissed when Young marched to the beat of his own drum, but when the Super Bowl started causing controversy around Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the national anthem, he needed to speak up. As far as he could tell, Kaepernick wasn’t doing anything wrong, and he was even being respectful to a certain degree by taking a knee, but seeing Maroon 5 dance their way across the football field during the Super Bowl halftime show that year only lowered his opinion of the group.
Which is sad considering Adam Levine owed a lot to what Nash had done for him. Nash’s son was one of the frontman’s best friends growing up, and he even managed to get the band a record deal when they were first cutting their demos, but after spending time making manufactured pop music, the last thing that Levine was going to do was take a stand that would alienate their fanbase.
It was a smart marketing move, but Nash could only see it as cowardice on their part, saying, “Regardless of what Maroon 5 did, musically, on the half-time show, they could’ve put people on their side instead of all the incredible negative posts I’ve seen about their performance. Adam Levine could’ve – at the beginning of one song – on his knee. Even if it was for only ten seconds of a song, it would’ve been incredibly symbolic for him to have done that and they chose not to. I think it was to their detriment.”
At the same time, Maroon 5’s performance was always going to be a little bit shaky that night. The band already had a backlash over playing the show in the first place, and when they came out onstage, it’s not like the crowd was going to get absolutely pumped listening to ‘Girls Like You’. Hell, Big Boi from Outkast came out to perform for a little bit, and even he had more charisma during the first few minutes of ‘The Way You Move’ than anything that they were working on.
But if you think about it, maybe the NFL is turning over a new leaf for what it’s trying to get away with these days. Nash didn’t like a foundation like that which absolutely refused to rock the boat, but since this is the same show that manages to upset the entire Trump administration one year and have an entire stadium call Drake a pedophile the year before, there might be hope for them getting a bit more in touch with the crowd.
