The “perfect” guitar line Graham Nash would never change
When working with a band like Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Graham Nash needed to learn about restraint pretty quickly.
He already wanted to follow his instincts and start working with his new friends after being kept down by The Hollies, but there was always going to have to be compromises so they could make the best record they could. They may have meant that some people were demoted to rhythm guitar or having a few songs discarded entirely, but Nash knew when a song was absolutely spotless.
After all, he had practically learned that already when he was working with The Hollies. They knew the ins and outs of what made a hit, and while they made for the band being airtight every time they came on the radio, there was hardly any wiggle room for anyone to work in when Nash brought in something that was a bit different like ‘Marrakesh Express’. And if they couldn’t see the potential there, Nash was going to find someone who could.
But throughout the supergroup’s debut record, the real hook was hearing all of them harmonise with each other. They truly sounded like one voice whenever they came in on songs like ‘Suite Judy Blue Eyes’, but when looking at the album Deja Vu, Nash always felt like it was a touch more underdeveloped than what they had been working on on their previous record.
That’s not actually a bad thing, though. If anything, the sparseness of the production is what makes the record cohesive, and with their new pal Neil Young in the group, the whole record sounded a lot more rustic than before. ‘Almost Cut My Hair’ and ‘Helpless’ had a lot more weight to them, but if you listen to ‘Teach Your Children’, Nash seemed to be on a different level of pop smarts at the time.
Some of the Hollies’ influence was certainly there, but he had been taking the bones of what he had worked on and turned it into a country-rock diamond. Anyone from George Jones to Johnny Cash could have easily sung a tune like this, but even if the band sounded in fine form, bringing in Jerry Garcia to lay down the final pedal steel guitar on the track was the icing on the cake when Nash heard the playback.
The Grateful Dead frontman may have been horrified hearing it for the first time, but Nash knew that he had stumbled onto genius in those few seconds, saying, “Jerry said, ‘You know, I’ve made a couple of mistakes there with that note there. That’s just off. Can I do another take?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely, you can do another take, but I’m gonna tell you that I’m not gonna use it. I’m gonna use this first one because your emotion having just learned the song is perfect for the song we did.’”
Garcia was definitely right that something sounded a little bit off about the part, but that actually works in the song’s favour a lot better. I mean, think about what this song is about for a second. Nash is singing about what happens when he grows older to have kids and knowing that they will still love him even if they act out the same way he acted out to his parents, and having that slightly off guitar line is what makes your heart flutter a little bit whenever it comes on.
But, really, the fact that this version of the tune managed to work is a testament to how much Garcia was at one with his instrument. The Grateful Dead always seemed to function as one singular instrument half the time, but Garcia was truly on another plane of existence when even his musical screwups sound this beautiful.
