Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

History

CSN formation and debut album: July 1968 – May 1969

CSN emerged when David Crosby, a guitarist and singer-songwriter for the Byrds and Stephen Stills, a guitarist, keyboardist, and singer-songwriter with Buffalo Springfield (which also featured Neil Young), joined with Graham Nash, a guitarist, singer, and songwriter with the Hollies.

Crosby had been sacked from the Byrds in October 1967 due to disagreements over his songwriting. His first meeting with Stills was at the Monterey Pop Festival, where Crosby subbed for Neil Young (who quit the band before the gig) with Buffalo Springfield. By early 1968, Buffalo Springfield had disintegrated and Stills was unemployed following recording of their final album. Following the Monterey gig, Stills and Crosby began meeting informally and jamming. The result of one encounter in Florida on Crosby's schooner was the song "Wooden Ships", composed in collaboration with another guest, Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane.

Graham Nash first met Crosby on the Byrds' UK tour of 1966. Two years later, Nash relocated to California in 1968 and resumed his acquaintance with him. Nash met Stills at a party at Peter Tork's house in Laurel Canyon. He was captivated by Stills "banging the shit out of" a piano in a "Brazilian, and Latin, and boogie woogie, and rock and roll" style. In July 1968, over dinner at a party at another Laurel Canyon house (the home of either Joni Mitchell or Cass Elliot—accounts by the three members differ), Nash invited Stills and Crosby to perform a Stills composition, "You Don't Have to Cry". They did so twice, after which Nash had learned the lyrics and improvised a new harmony part on a third rendition. The vocals gelled, and the three realized that they had a very good vocal chemistry. While singing the third time, they broke out in laughter. The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and the Hollies had all been successful harmony bands: as Nash said in a 2014 interview, "We knew what we were doing". He continued, "Whatever sound Crosby, Stills, and Nash has was born in 30 seconds. That's how long it took us to harmonize."

Nash decided to quit the Hollies in December 1968 and flew to Los Angeles two days later, feeling that the new-forming CSN would be a better fit for him. The trio traveled to London in early 1969 to rehearse for what turned out to be an unsuccessful audition with the Beatles' Apple Records. However, back in California, Ahmet Ertegun, who had been a fan of Buffalo Springfield and was disappointed by that band's demise, signed them to Atlantic Records. From the outset, given their previous experiences, the trio decided not to be locked into a group structure. They used their surnames as identification to ensure independence and a guarantee that the band could not continue without one of them, unlike both the Byrds and the Hollies. They picked up a management team in Elliot Roberts and David Geffen, who got them signed to Atlantic and helped to gain clout for the group in the industry. Roberts kept the band focused and dealt with egos, while Geffen handled the business deals, since, in Crosby's words, they needed a "shark" and Geffen was it.

CSNY: Déjà Vu to 4 Way Street, August 1969 – April 1971

With the exception of drum parts (primarily performed by Dallas Taylor) and a handful of rhythm and acoustic guitar parts from Crosby and Nash, Stills (accorded the moniker "Captain Many Hands" by his bandmates) handled most of the instrumentation (including every lead guitar, bass and keyboard part) on the album, which left the band in need of additional personnel to be able to tour, a necessity given the debut album's commercial impact.

Retaining Taylor, the band tried initially to hire a keyboard player. Stills initially approached virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood, who was already occupied with the newly formed group Blind Faith. Ertegun suggested Neil Young, also managed by Elliot Roberts, as a fairly obvious choice; Young proved valuable because he could assist with guitar and keyboards by alternating with Stills and Nash in a live setting. Initially, Stills and Nash objected – Stills because of his history with Young in Buffalo Springfield and Nash because of his personal unfamiliarity with Young. Despite that, the trio expanded to a quartet after Young had lunch with Nash. The terms of the contract allowed Young full freedom to maintain a parallel career with his new band, Crazy Horse.

They initially completed the rhythm section with former Buffalo Springfield bassist Bruce Palmer. However, Palmer was let go due to his persistent personal problems following rehearsals at the Cafe au Go Go in New York City's Greenwich Village; according to Crosby, "Bruce Palmer was into another instrument and his head was not where it should have been." Teenaged Motown session bassist Greg Reeves joined in Palmer's place at the recommendation of Rick James, a friend and former bandmate of Neil Young.

The now expanded group embarked on a four-leg, 39-date tour that ended with three European concerts in January 1970. Their first major public gig was on August 16, 1969, at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, with Joni Mitchell as their opening act. They mentioned they were going to someplace called Woodstock the next day, but that they had no idea where it was. Their one-hour show at the Woodstock Festival in the early morning of August 18, 1969, was a baptism by fire. The crowd of industry friends looking on from offstage was intimidating and prompted Stills to say, "This is the second time we've ever played in front of people, man. We're scared shitless." Their appearance at the festival and in the subsequent movie Woodstock, along with recording the Joni Mitchell song memorializing Woodstock, boosted the visibility of the quartet. CSNY appeared at other prominent festivals that year. Footage from two performances from the Big Sur Folk Festival (held on the grounds of the Esalen Institute on September 13–14, 1969) appears in the movie Celebration at Big Sur. They also appeared at the violence-plagued Altamont Free Concert on December 6, 1969, alongside Santana, Jefferson Airplane, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and the headlining Rolling Stones. During Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's set, Stills was reported to be repeatedly stabbed in the leg by a "stoned-out" Hells Angel, with a sharpened bicycle spoke. At the band's request, their performance was not included in the subsequent film Gimme Shelter (1970).

Individual activity

Between September 1970 and May 1971, each of the quartet released high-profile solo albums: Young's After the Gold Rush in September (which peaked at No. 8 and included his first Top 40 solo hit, "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" [#33]); Stills's eponymous debut in November; Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name in February, and Nash's Songs for Beginners in May. Although all four solo LPs placed in the Top 15 on the Billboard 200, Stills's entry (including two Top 40 hits, "Love the One You're With" [#14] and "Sit Yourself Down" [#37]) peaked the highest at No. 3. Stills was the first to release a second post-CSNY solo album, 1971's Stephen Stills 2, which included two minor hits ("Change Partners" [#43]; "Marianne" [#42]) and peaked at No. 8. He supported this with a solo tour of major arenas (such as Madison Square Garden and the L.A. Forum) in the summer of 1971 with Dallas Taylor, Fuzzy Samuels, and the Memphis Horns. In the fall of 1971, Crosby and Nash embarked on a successful theater tour accompanied only by their acoustic guitars and a piano, as captured on the 1998 archival release Another Stoney Evening.

1972 proved to be another fruitful year for all the band members in their solo or duo efforts. Young achieved solo superstardom with the chart-topping Harvest and two Top 40 singles, the #1 hit "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man" (#31). Stills joined with former Byrd Chris Hillman to form the band Manassas, releasing a self-titled double album; although it did not generate any significant hits, counting the three CSN/CSNY records, Manassas became Stills's sixth Top Ten album in a row, peaking at No. 4 and being certified gold in the US a month after release. Nash and Young released Young's "War Song" as a joint single to support George McGovern's presidential campaign; despite their intentions, the single failed to make a serious impression. Meanwhile, Nash's and Crosby's touring was so successful and pleasant for them that they recorded and released their first album as a duo, Graham Nash David Crosby, which eclipsed their recent solo efforts with a Top 40 hit (Nash's "Immigration Man", #36); it peaked at No. 4 and was certified gold in the US.

The group members fared less well in 1973. Young recorded two dark albums. The first, Time Fades Away, chronicled his winter tour that followed the death of his Crazy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten from an alcohol/Valium overdose, a tour Crosby and Nash joined mid-way. A critical success despite his personal misgivings, it attained a RIAA gold certification before stalling at No. 22. The second album, Tonight's the Night, inspired by the death of CSNY roadie Bruce Berry, was so dark that Reprise Records refused to release it until 1975, though it was critically acclaimed, it only reached No. 25. Crosby spearheaded and produced a reunion album of the original Byrds quintet which was a notable critical failure upon its release in March 1973. The most commercially successful Byrds album since 1966, it sold only marginally well by CSNY's standards, peaking at No. 20. Stills released a second Manassas record in April 1973 and Nash recorded his second solo album Wild Tales (released in January 1974); again, neither disc sold to expectations, peaking respectively at No. 26 and No. 34. Apart from Time Fades Away, none of the CSNY-related albums in 1973 were certified gold in the US, a first for the band.

CSNY, reconciliation and further estrangement: 1973–1976

In June and July 1973, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young met at Young's ranch in California and a recording studio in Hawaii for a working vacation, ostensibly to record a new album, tentatively titled Human Highway. However, the bickering that had sunk the band in 1970 quickly resumed, scattering the group again. After spontaneously reconvening for an acoustic set at a Manassas concert at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom in October, the quartet failed once again to commit to a reunion; however, three days later, the CSN configuration performed an acoustic set at another Manassas Winterland show. Over the next few months, Roberts finally prevailed upon the group to realize their commercial potential, culminating in Stills announcing a CSNY summer tour and the projected studio album at a solo concert in March 1974. The quartet reassembled in earnest that summer, with sidemen Tim Drummond on bass, Russ Kunkel on drums, and Joe Lala on percussion, to rehearse at Young's ranch near Woodside, California before embarking on the two-month, 31-date tour.

The tour was directed by San Francisco-based impresario Bill Graham. Opening acts consisted of well known performers, including Joni Mitchell (who occasionally sat in during the acoustic and semi-acoustic interlude that bridged two electric sets), Santana, the Band, the Beach Boys, and Jesse Colin Young. The band typically played up to three and a half hours of old favorites and new songs. Crosby, in particular, was disillusioned by the bombastic nature of the performances, which he collectively dubbed the "Doom Tour": "We had good monitors, but Stephen and Neil were punching well over 100 db from their half stacks. Graham and I simply couldn't do the harmonies when we couldn't hear ourselves. Also, when you play a stadium you almost have to do a Mick Jagger where you wave a sash around and prance about. I can't quite do that. We did what we could, but I don't know how many people in the audience really got it. A lot of them were there for the tunes. When we'd start them, they'd hear the records." Graham Nash's unreleased film of the Wembley Stadium show highlights the scope and quality of these performances. They opted at the time not to release any recordings of the tour for an album, with Nash maintaining that "[the] main feeling at the end of the tour was that we weren't as good as we could have been." (Decades later, to mark the tour's 40th anniversary in 2014, Nash and archivist Joel Bernstein selected songs from the five shows that had been properly recorded and released CSNY 1974.)

While the foursome would have the press believe that their characteristic arguments were a thing of the past, excesses typical to the era took their toll. Under the stewardship of Graham's production company, the tour was plagued by profligate spending, exemplified by pillowcases embroidered with the band's new Mitchell-designed logo and the routine chartering of helicopters and private jets in lieu of ground transportation. Nash later recalled that "the tour made just over eleven million dollars, which of course was a lot of money in those days. We all got less than a half million each. It was obvious that between Bill Graham, the promoters and a bunch of others, they all had a good time. Let's just put it that way." According to road manager Chris O'Dell, "One time they spilled cocaine on the carpet. They just got down on the floor and sniffed it off the carpet. I just went, 'Oh my God, this is so weird.' I'd never seen anything like it. They probably don't remember that." The relatively abstemious Nash "started taking Percocet and Percodan. I call them 'I Don't Give A Shit' pills. Someone could have said to me, 'Hey, your leg's on fire.' I would have been like, 'I don't care, man.' We were just up all night. It was insane. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody because the cocaine/quaalude ride should be in the ride of horrors in the circus."

CSN reform: 1976–1985

Later in 1976, Stills approached Crosby and Nash during a performance at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, setting the stage for the return of the trio.

Less than a year after reforming, Crosby, Stills & Nash released CSN. Recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami under the aegis of Ron and Howard Albert throughout late 1976 and early 1977, the album exemplified the meticulously stylized soft rock production ethos of the epoch and contained the band's highest-charting single, Nash's "Just a Song Before I Go" (#7); Stills's "Fair Game" also peaked at #43. The album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard chart in the summer of 1977 during a 33-week stay, remaining at that position for the month of August (behind one of the best-selling LPs of all time, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours) and ultimately earning a RIAA quadruple platinum certification. As of 2017, it remains the trio configuration's best-selling album, outselling their debut by 200,000 records.

On June 21, 1978, Crosby, Stills & Nash received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contributions to the music industry, located at 6666 Hollywood Boulevard.

After successful arena tours in 1977 and 1978, further work as a group was complicated by Crosby's newfound dependence on freebase cocaine. Earth & Sky, a 1980 Nash album that failed to chart in the Top 100, was envisaged as a Crosby & Nash project (itself spawned by aborted 1978 CSN sessions) until Nash determined that Crosby was not in shape to participate after his colleague stopped a jam because his freebase pipe had fallen off of an amp and broken.

Juxtaposing recent disco-inflected material (including the Andy Gibb showcase "What's the Game" and "Can't Get No Booty", co-written with Danny Kortchmar during a lull in the 1978 CSN sessions) against more conventional acoustic and blues rock arrangements (such as the Manassas-era title track), Stills's Thoroughfare Gap stalled at No. 83 following its release in October 1978. Stills's 1979 support tour with the California Blues Band (including a performance at the historic Havana Jam) was dominated by theater bookings and largely overshadowed by such tabloid-friendly stories as a brawl with Elvis Costello (instigated by the younger singer-songwriter's use of the word nigger in deprecatory assessments of James Brown and Ray Charles) amid his brief engagement to television actress Susan St. James, reflecting his diminished critical and commercial stature. The tour's opening concerts at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles marked Stills's final full performances with onetime key collaborator Dallas Taylor, by then long addicted to heroin and cocaine. After entering recovery in 1985, Taylor worked as an interventionist and sober companion until his death in 2015.

CSNY again: 1988–2015

Based on a promise he made to Crosby should he clean himself up, Young agreed to rejoin the trio in the studio upon Crosby's release from prison for American Dream in 1988. Stills and Crosby (enfeebled by health problems from his fallow period that culminated in a 1994 liver transplant) were barely functioning for the making of the album, and the late eighties production completely swamped the band. It did make it to No. 16 on the Billboard chart during a 22-week stay, but the record received poor critical notices, and Young refused to support it with a CSNY tour. The band did produce a video for Young's title-song single, wherein each member played a character loosely based on certain aspects of their personalities and public image. Several years later, CSNY reunited to play the Bill Graham memorial concert ("Laughter, Love and Music") at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on November 3, 1991.

CSN recorded two more studio albums in the 1990s, Live It Up (1990) and After the Storm (1994); both albums sold poorly by previous standards and failed to attain RIAA certifications. A box set arrived in 1991, four discs of expected group highlights amidst unexpected better tracks from various solo projects. Owing to certain difficulties, manager Roberts, no longer with the trio but still representing Young, pulled most of Young's material earmarked for the box. Ultimately, nineteen tracks out of the seventy-seven in the set were credited to CSNY. Intended for inclusion, the 1976 CSNY version of "Human Highway" was leaked to the internet several years later before receiving an official release on the Neil Young Archives Volume II: 1972–1976 box set in 2020.

In 1994, CSN collaborated with Suzy Bogguss, Alison Krauss, and Kathy Mattea to contribute "Teach Your Children" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization.

By the late 1990s, CSN found themselves without a record contract. They began financing recordings themselves, and in 1999 Stills invited Young to guest on a few tracks. Impressed by their gumption, Young increased his level of input, turning the album into a CSNY project, Looking Forward. The album was released at Young's behest via Reprise Records in October 1999. With writing credits mostly limited to band members, the disc was better received than the previous three albums from a critical standpoint. It also fared relatively well commercially, peaking at No. 26 (the group's highest chart placement since American Dream) during a 9-week stay. However, in a reflection of the shifting financial landscape of the music industry, Looking Forward was most notable for laying the groundwork for the ensuing CSNY2K Tour (2000) and the CSNY Tour of America (2002), both of which were major money-makers.

CSN breakup and Crosby's death: 2016–present

Despite the unprecedented tumult between Crosby and Young, CSN embarked on a routine world tour encompassing American, European and Japanese venues in 2015, culminating in a performance of "Silent Night" at the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at The Ellipse in Washington, D.C., on December 3, 2015. However, contrary to a previous November 2015 interview in which he stated he still hoped the band had a future, Nash announced on March 6, 2016, following his divorce from his wife of 38 years, Susan Sennett, that Crosby, Stills & Nash would never perform again because of his recent estrangement from Crosby. In the summer of 2016, Young told Rolling Stone that he wouldn't "rule out" future collaborations with the trio; according to Nash in a follow-up interview, "Well, he's right, you never know. There have been times when I've been so pissed at us all for wasting time and not getting on with the job that I wouldn't talk to any of them. But if Crosby came and played me four songs that knocked me on my ass, what the fuck am I supposed to do as a musician, no matter how pissed we are at each other?"

Young echoed these sentiments in a January 2017 interview: "I think CSNY has every chance of getting together again. I'm not against it. There's been a lot of bad things happen[ing] among us, and a lot of things have to be settled. But that's what brothers and families are all about. We'll see what happens. I'm open. I don't think I'm a major obstacle." When queried about Young and the interview on Twitter shortly thereafter, Crosby said that Young is "a hugely talented guy" and a prospective reunion would be "fine with me." In April 2017, Nash framed the potential reunion in the context of the group's tradition of political activism amid the presidency of Donald Trump: "I believe that the issues that are keeping us apart pale in comparison to the good that we can do if we get out there and start talking about what's happening. So I'd be totally up for it even though I'm not talking to David and neither is Neil. But I think that we're smart people in the end and I think we realize the good that we can do." In a May 2021 interview for CBS News Sunday Morning, Nash said "when that silver thread that connects a band gets broken it's very difficult to glue the ends together." He nonetheless suggested that reuniting with Crosby and the others would be preferable "because of the loss of the music."

On January 18, 2023, David Crosby died at 81, ending any possibilities of a full reunion.

Political activism

CSNY's music reflected the tastes and viewpoints of the counterculture in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With protest against the Vietnam War gearing up in 1970, the group (and Crosby in particular) made no secret of their political leanings.

As a group, they recorded one hit song in response to political events although they recorded other political songs as solo artists and in various combinations. The song, "Ohio", was written in response to the deaths of four students at Kent State University. The students were shot by Ohio National Guardsmen during an anti-war protest on the campus in May 1970.

Between "Ohio", their appearance in both the festival and movie of Woodstock, and the runaway success of their two albums, the group found themselves in the position of enjoying a level of adulation far greater than experienced with their previous bands, as evidenced by the 27 Platinum certifications they received across seven albums.

The band has been continuously associated with political causes throughout its existence, the latest example being the song "Almost Gone (The Ballad of Bradley Manning)" which focuses on the length and conditions of Chelsea Manning's pre-trial confinement.

Crosby, Nash, and Young were all vocal in their support for 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Legacy and influence

Allison Rapp of Ultimate Classic Rock conferred the title of the "folk rockiest of all the folk rock bands" on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

The band's collective abilities allowed CSNY to straddle all the genres of popular music eminent at the time, from country rock to confessional ballads, from acoustic guitars and voice to electric guitar, and three-part harmony. With the Beatles' break-up made public by April 1970, and with Bob Dylan in reclusive low-key activity since mid-1966, CSNY found themselves the adopted standard bearers for the Woodstock Nation, serving an importance in society as counterculture figureheads, equaled at the time in rock and roll only by the Rolling Stones or the Who. Such was their standing in 1970 that Bill Graham referred to them as "The American Beatles". Producer Peter Fonda wanted CSN to create the soundtrack for Easy Rider, but director Dennis Hopper nixed the idea. Stills's composition, "Find the Cost of Freedom" (on the flip side of "Ohio"), was the only song known to be offered for the soundtrack.

Members

Official members

David Crosby – lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar (1968–1970, 1973–2015; died 2023)

Stephen Stills – lead and backing vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion (1968–1970, 1973–2015)

Graham Nash – lead and backing vocals, keyboards, rhythm guitar (1968–1970, 1973–2015)

Neil Young – lead and backing vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, keyboards, harmonica (1969–1970, 1973–1974, 1985–1988, 1991, 1999–2006, 2013)

Tour personnel

Discography

For individual discographies, see entries on David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young. See also Crosby & Nash duo discography.

(CSN) Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)

(CSNY) Déjà Vu (1970)

(CSN) CSN (1977)

(CSN) Daylight Again (1982)

(CSNY) American Dream (1988)

(CSN) Live It Up (1990)

(CSN) After the Storm (1994)

(CSNY) Looking Forward (1999)

Tours

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young 1969–1970 tours

CSNY 1974

CSN 1977 & 1978 Tour

CSN 1982 & 1983 Tours

CSN 1980–90's Tours

List of Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young) concert tours (2000s–10s)