“Not happy with him at all”: The artist David Crosby called his musical enemy
When talking about anything that David Crosby has ever done, the first thing that stands out before anything else is the harmonies. His knack for creating the perfect blend with Crosby, Stills, and Nash made every song sound like it was floating on air, and even if his lead singing voice could get a little bit harsh at times, his records were always done in service of making every song the most sophisticated piece that it could be. For all the peace and love he was brought up in, Crosby admitted that there were a few people he never wanted to see again.
Before he ventured out on his own, though, he had already started butting heads with Roger McGuinn’s work in The Byrds. The move towards country music may have been an inspired idea, but listening back to the folk music that he heard out of people like Joni Mitchell, Crosby was convinced that’s what he wanted to do, and he knew the exact right people to get the job done when making the first Crosby, Stills, and Nash record.
Aside from their harmonies soaring over everything, Stephen Stills was one of the greatest instrumentalists they could have asked for. Even when working in different tunings, Stills knew how to drive every one of their songs, playing nearly every single note on the first record and being able to balance out the harmonies when working on tracks like ‘Marrakesh Express’.
Over time, though, the idea of any of them getting along that well would be impossible. There was zero chance that Neil Young was going to do anything other than what he wanted to do when he joined, and despite him periodically leaving through the years, their wilderness period of splitting off into separate duos left Crosby with Graham Nash as one of his main life rafts. But over time, he definitely had his eye on him.
There were times when Nash would lose his temper when Crosby would get out of control on drugs, but when listening to some of his old records, Crosby started to grow resentful of what Nash was doing. So when they finally cut ties shortly before his death, Crosby felt that he had been used by someone he considered his friend for years.
“Graham just changed from the guy I thought was my best friend to being a guy that is definitely my enemy, so I don’t see any future there at all.”
David Crosby
When talking about his friendship eroding with Nash, Crosby felt that it went from a nice friendship into the opposite direction real quick, saying, “Graham just changed from the guy I thought was my best friend to being a guy that is definitely my enemy, so I don’t see any future there at all. He gave the impression of looking after me, but that was all just trying to keep the money coming. We haven’t talked for a couple of years. And I’m not going to talk to him. I don’t want to talk to him. I’m not happy with him at all. To me, that’s all ancient history.”
Which is a shame considering how well both of them harmonised together during the latter half of their careers. Most artists can only hope to keep that much shine on their vocals past a certain point, but listening to what they could do on some of David Gilmour’s solo work, they were more than willing to go the extra mile to make sure that people heard those same voices from the early 1970s.
There are certainly things that every band wishes they could have done differently, but the real tragedy here was not seeing Crosby and Nash reconcile properly before his passing. But somewhere along the cosmos decades from now, maybe the other side of reality has plans for Crosby and Nash to sing together again.
