The scrutinising song Graham Nash wrote about Stephen Stills
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were responsible for a lot of good in music, and they are often referred to as one of the most influential groups in American music and culture. Their ability to manoeuvre intricate vocal harmonies and their political activism left a lasting impression. However, they also had tumultuous interpersonal relationships, which led to challenges within the group and snide comments made throughout various songs.
Different members of the group often provided commentary on what was happening. While some of them may have led to awkwardness on stage and in the studio, the aftermath tended to also be some good music.
For instance, David Crosby wrote ‘Cowboy Movie’, a track from his solo career that sees his bandmates, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills, portrayed as western outlaws. The narrative of the song puts them both against one another as they battle for the affection of a Native American woman. The woman is based on Rita Coolidge, and the song is a portrayal of the awkward love triangle the three found themselves in. Nash and Stills fell for Coolidge, which led to a large amount of awkwardness within the group, especially when she ended up leaving Stills for Nash.
One song that Nash wrote specifically about Stills came from an interesting place, as it seems to be one of both overanalytical critique and potential concern. In 1975, Nash released the track ‘Frozen Smiles’. It made up part of his and David Crosby’s collaborative album, where a lot of the songs are the result of working together, but ‘Frozen Smiles’ is a solo offering.
The track sees the singer writing about Stills in a way that focuses on his glazed-over expression. “We were laughing a lot of the time,” he said, “But there was something about Stephen’s smile that wasn’t quite right, and he’d been taking an enormous amount of drugs. And I wrote this song ‘Frozen Smiles’ to my friend Stephen.”
Tension in musical outfits is more or less the norm, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were no different. What makes personal tension in this sense so interesting is the fact that very little of it is resolved behind closed doors. When your means of coping and trying to understand things throughout life has always been through music, that will be the means you turn to when going through an awkward period, even if that awkwardness is with your fellow collaborators.
We have seen this on multiple occasions with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, not only from the point of view of the individual but also from other band members, providing insight into what the dynamic is like from an outside perspective. You only need to turn to tracks such as ‘Cowboy Movie’ and ‘Frozen Smiles’ to get a better glimpse of this and further understand how songwriting can be used as therapy, a weapon and a form of communication at the same time.
