FLASHBACK: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Interview - Crawdaddy Magazine - October 1974

Crawdaddy Magazine - October 1974

As we continue to wonder about a possible 2014 tour for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, here's a look back nearly 40 years ago.

From The Uncool - The Official Site for Everything Cameron Crowe, a Crawdaddy Magazine cover interview of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young by Cameron Crowe:

David Crosby: “There’s a reason for CSNY being as good as it is.

The main one that comes to mind is the fact of having each other’s material to juxtapose our tunes with. It makes everything much stronger. A Neil Young song sounds better after a David Crosby song than it does after another Neil Young song. Technically it works, emotionally it works, and in terms of balancing each other it’s a hugely more workable thing. Neil, on his own, has a great deal of trouble externalizing and coming out to an audience. He’ll tend to just get rigid and go inside himself. Stephen too. That’s not my way, obviously.

The stage is my backyard. I’m completely unintimidated by it. I love it. I can talk to eight million people without even getting a frog in my throat. But then again, I can’t play guitar like Stephen or Neil.”

...
If everything follows according to the schedule, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young will begin work this month on their first studio album since Déjà Vu. Tentatively titled Human Highway, the album will be preceded by a greatest hits package to be called So Far. Crosby is particularly fascinated by the fact that Neil young withdrew “Human Highway,” at one time the title track of the LP he wound up calling On The Beach, from his own record so that it could grace the CSNY reunion album.

“That was a very strange thing for him to do,” he says, shaking his head. “Neil is a very self-orientated man. He seldom acts against his own self-interest. And yet he did take that song, and a few others ["Tonight's The Night" and "New Mama"], and gave them to the group. It was a very, very heavy thing for him to do. It blew my mind. He’s got a lot of songs, but those are gems. I thought that was an enormous sign of everything we were looking for in each other.

Affection, respect . . . partnership. That’s what it’s all about.

That’s what we’re all about. I honestly believe we’re not gonna lose our way this time around.”

Fascinating how much and how little has changed in 40 years.

So what do you think? Do you think Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young will tour together in 2014?

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
2013 Bridge School Benefit Concert
Photo by John Green/Bay Area News Group
(Click photo to enlarge)

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