Deja Vu Photo Composites
via Susan Miller
(Click photo to enlarge)
Rhino/Warner Music Group is preparing a 50th
anniversary edition of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's
debut LP Déjà Vu for retail outlets for last quarter of 2020.
"50 Years On: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Déjà Vu" by Harvey Kubernik contains exclusive, never heard stories by Richard Bosworth on opening for Neil Young with Crazy Horse in 1969 which is truly revealing.
In 1966 and ’67 Harvey Kubernik saw Buffalo Springfield in two of their
Southern California concerts and attended debut Neil Young solo concerts in the
region.
Thanks Harvey! enjoy.
Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 1970 "50 Years On: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's
Déjà Vu"
By Harvey Kubernik © 2020
50 years ago this past
spring Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released their debut LP Déjà Vu.
Although
perceived as a group effort, nine out of Déjà
Vu’s 10 songs (the exception being “Woodstock”) were actually recorded as
individual sessions, with the other members chiming in as agreed upon, but
however it came together, it proved to be a Top Ten smash.
Rhino/Warner
Music Group is preparing a 50th anniversary edition for retail
outlets for last quarter of 2020.
The story of CSN&Y - their
"creation myth" - is as fabled as John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s
Quarrymen debut, as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards serendipitous encounter at
the Dartford train station.
The Crosby, Stills & Nash, Déjà Vu and
the live recording, 4 Way Street, have
cemented their sound and sensibility into icon status, rock legends for all
time.
Equally
legendary were their endless squabbles - more breakups and reunions than Liz
and Dick - their squalid pharmaceutical excesses, their incredulous capacity
for regeneration to the surprise and delight of at least three generations of
fans.
And
now, fifty unimaginable years later they still carry on, at least with a new
configuration of Déjà Vu.
Those cherished harmonies however creaky,
continuing to hold sway over anyone who ever sought solace in the melding of
voices. They have traversed the longest and windiest of roads - more like
a gauntlet - having shared delirious highs and searing lows. You can
hear it all on Déjà Vu.
“It was a different band when Neil joined,”
Graham Nash explained to me in a 2014 interview we conducted for Southern
California’s Record Collector News.
“Crosby,
Stills, Nash and Young are a completely different band than CS&N. And not a
lot of people understand that. They think it’s just an added voice. But it’s
not. It’s an added attitude. Neil brings a sharper edge. I was gonna say a
darker feeling but I don‘t mean that in a negative way. He brings this edge to
us that we don’t have. And, of course, you have to take into account his
ability to play lead guitar against and with Stephen.”
“When Neil joins the CSN faculty, a whole
other wild card element enters the building,” suggests poet and rockademic Dr.
James Cushing, a former deejay on KEBF-FM in Northern California.
“‘Cause
he has such a distinctive sound and such a strong personality that he makes his
mark on all the other people who are there. But yet Neil’s own work somehow
fits in while being instantly recognizable.”
Just before Neil Young joined the CS&N, right after their disc was engineered
by Bill Halverson at Wally Heider studios in Hollywood, seventeen year old
musician Richard Bosworth in Bridgeport, Connecticut first learned the news
directly from Stephen Stills about Young enlisting as an equal band member to
the trio.
In a 2015 interview, Bosworth, now a respected studio engineer and producer,
in 2020 he was at the helm of Johnny Rivers sessions at Capitol Records studio
in Hollywood, described a very memorable 1969 experience.
“As 1968 turned to 1969 I was seventeen years old
and in my senior year of high school. I'd played guitar, bass guitar and
keyboards in several bands. 1968/1969 were the peak years for the band
Jennifer’s Friends. We released four singles on Buddah Records and one ‘Land of
Make Believe,’ written by Harry Vanda and George Young of the Easybeats, got
some radio airplay in the mid-west.
“On Friday May 2, 1969,
on our way home from a gig in Bridgeport Connecticut we stopped by The
Stone Balloon, a new music club underneath Pegnataro's Super Market in
downtown New Haven to firm up a gig for the following week.
“The Stone Balloon was
open little more than a year in 1968/1969 but an amazing number of rock, blues,
jazz, folk and soul acts that were about to break performed a Thursday
thru Sunday two show a night engagement. Jethro Tull, Joni Mitchell, J. Giles
Band, B.B. King, Albert King, Taj Mahal.
“Arriving there the
booker walked us through the club to the dressing room while John Hammond Jr.
was onstage performing. We were told we would be opening for Neil Young
and that he had been lead guitarist for Buffalo Springfield. We were aware of
the group as ‘For What's it's Worth’ had been a hit on the east coast and
there had been article in Eye
magazine with a photo of Stephen Stills stating that he was lead guitarist for
Buffalo Springfield. None of us had heard of Neil Young. His name was actually
mis-spelled on a poster for the engagement as ‘Neal Young!’
“The following
Thursday May eighth the club manager said Neil and band were flying into
Hartford from California and the plane was late and we might have to do two
sets. There were only a dozen people in the audience while we did our first
set. We took a break and backstage in the dressing room the club manager
asked us to do another set as Neil still hadn't arrived. We were getting ready
to perform again when the club manager came back to tell us they were here.
“A moment later Neil
walked in. He had this glowing aura. Talent and greatness just seemed to be pouring
off of him. I hadn't heard a note of his music, but I just felt an overwhelming
certainty that this guy was going to be as significant as The Beatles and The
Rolling Stones. He said hello to everyone, was very warm and friendly. The band
filtered in behind him, one blond and two dark swarthy guys, all real quiet.
Neil was talkative, taking out his guitars and letting us check them out. He
handed me his orange Gretsch 6120 which I strummed on for a moment, not knowing
that it was his primary guitar in Buffalo Springfield.
“At one point he asked a
couple of us if we thought it would be cool to do a few songs acoustically
before bringing up the band. I remember thinking it was an odd idea as it was
all about bands in those days. Neil was so nice though, we were encouraging
about it. He went outside the club by himself for about ten minutes before
he went on. That seemed different, like he took it seriously and would want
some solitary time to psyche himself up to perform.
“He went on with his
Martin D-28 guitar and opened up with ‘On The Way Home’ from the last
Springfield album. Playing songs acoustically suddenly seemed like a
brilliant idea. Neil had a very stoned stage persona, unlike how he had been
backstage. He did several songs from what I later learned were on his first
solo album. He was engaging with the small audience, asking for requests.
“Someone called for
‘Last Trip To Tulsa’ and Neil laughed and said ‘Aw that's too long, I think I
only ever played that once when it was recorded.’ There was a request for ‘For
What It's Worth’ and he laughed again. ‘No man, I can't do that one, I only
know how to play my guitar part on that.’ He took a break after playing
six songs and then he and his band and a crew person set up for the electric
stuff. It took a long time, they were not just going to plug in and start
playing.
“They worked on
individual sounds of instruments, checked vocal mic's carefully. Really
meticulous. Neil had a old black Les Paul with a bigsby vibrato bar. The other
guitarist was playing Neil's Gretsch 6120. The guitar amps were all old Fender
tweeds and blonde Fender Bassmans, unlike the Marshall amps of the day. Finally
they seemed to be ready and everyone left the stage for the dressing room.
“A moment later Neil
walked out to applause from the audience and said to the room at large, ‘No,
not yet’ and went outside the club by himself again for another ten minutes or
so. The first song was ‘Cinnamon Girl.’ Neil's guitar sound had this
ultra-distortion. Super loud and stunning.
“He introduced the band
as Crazy Horse and told us they would be playing songs from a new album they
had just recorded Everybody Knows This Is
Nowhere and launched into that title track. Before the next song Neil
introduced guitarist Danny Whitten, stating that he'd heard Danny writing a
song and it was good so he felt he better get in on a good thing and co-write
it. They tore into ‘Downtown,’ then ‘Down By the River’ with the three part
harmony vocals on the chorus and Neil's single note machine gun guitar riff,
the extended solo sections. ‘The Losing End’ was the penultimate song of
the set.
“After our second show
set it was decided that since there were only about seven paying customers in
the place on that late Thursday night, Neil would just do an acoustic set to
end the evening, He did his usual walk outside by himself before performing.
Crazy Horse and our group were sitting out in the audience and after playing
five songs or so Neil says to Crazy Horse ‘Hey, I can tell you guys want to
play, don't you?’ Neil said ‘Well what do you want to play?’ In unison they
replied ‘Down By The River’ which they performed to end the evening.
“The next morning at school I
told my musically inclined friends about Neil Young, strongly suggesting that
they check him out. Some would be there that evening although a few had tickets
to the Jeff Beck Group concert at nearby Yale's Woolsey Hall. All through the
day songs from the soon to be released Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere album
were running through my mind. Attendance was better at Friday night’s
shows.
“After our first show set Neil began
acoustically and again exhibited a humorous and stoned persona. He told a few
funny stories, thanked the audience for coming to his show instead of the Jeff
Beck concert mentioning that he was a big fan of Beck.
“Neil at one point was strumming a guitar
by himself while a friend and I were having a discussion about our imminent
senior graduation dinner the following month. Neil said ‘What are you guys
talking about?’ I explained it was my responsibility to book a band for the
event. He asked ‘What does it pay?’ I replied ‘$250.00.’ He went ‘Um.
That's what I'm getting a night for this gig. Maybe I'll play your senior grad
dinner.’
“By the time of Saturdays shows word had
gotten out around town that Neil Young and Crazy Horse were happening and The
Stone Balloon was packed that night. We did our usual alternating sets with
Neil solo followed by him and the band.
“Suddenly Sunday night Stephen Stills
shows up. He was with a dark haired guy who turned out to be Dallas Taylor.
Backstage between shows Stills was cocky and confident. He and Neil
seemed happy to see each other.
“I asked Stephen what he was doing now
after Buffalo Springfield. ‘I've just recorded a new album with
David Crosby of the Byrds and Graham Nash of the Hollies but we don't know what
we're going to call it’ was his reply.
“Stills told Neil he had just been at
dinner with Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records and Ahmet told him about Neil's
New Haven gigs, suggesting Stephan drop by to talk. We all know now what
Ahmet wanted those two to talk about.
“At the end of Neil Young and Crazy Horse's
final set of the four day engagement Neil brought up Stills and Dallas Taylor
took over the drums. To end the evening Stills and Young proceeded to trade
fiery guitar licks like they had in Buffalo Springfield and soon would again in
some new unnamed group in the future.
“Monday
morning, back at school, I was still thrilled by the entire previous four days
of shows. I was absolutely certain that in Neil Young, I had met and
experienced someone who was going to be a major star. Stephen Stills also gave
off that vibe. I'd never run across anyone who had the charisma, talent and
greatness that emanated from Neil.
“In May of 1969 virtually no one knew of
Neil Young or Stephen Stills.
“By the end of August of 1969 at the
Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, which I attended, one of the headliners
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were considered to be the American Beatles.”
“After
the June 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival I later got the (soundtrack)
rights to Woodstock,” record producer and former Atlantic Records executive
Jerry Wexler told me in a 2007 interview displayed on cavehollywood.com
“The soundtrack albums
came out on Atlantic on our Cotillion label. There was a lawyer named Paul
Marshall, he used to be our in-house council. But we parted ways. And he was
not our lawyer anymore, but, nevertheless, he called me up, ‘Listen. Are you
interested in Woodstock?’ It was going to take place in two weeks. Who the hell
knew what Woodstock was going to be? He said I could have the rights for seven
thousand dollars. I thought about, and bought it for seven grand. I figured
seven grand? Let me take a shot. And that was it. I should have grabbed the
film rights to but Warners got them and thank God that I bought
Woodstock.”
On August 18, 1969, CSNY played the
Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, only their third live show together.
“Woodstock…The rain, and the mud, and the getting together of a half a million
people that thought the same way that we did,” remembered Nash in a 2007
conversation we had for MOJO.
. “Hanging out backstage in John Sebastian’s
tent after landing in the helicopter that had a couple of problems. Getting
into the tent and of course John [Sebastian] breaking out his best stash. And
then realizing that nobody there has ever seen our band. And this is the
Grateful Dead, The Band, Ritchie Havens, John Sebastian, Santana. None of them
had ever seen us. They loved the record and they were all going, ‘well, you
know, fuckin’ show us.’ ‘Shit or get off.’”
Neil Young performed songs like “Mr. Soul” and
“On the Way Home” for the massed gathering, but he was not to be glimpsed in
the Michael Wadleigh-directed Woodstock
film documentary which was screened theatrically in 1970. Having felt
distracted by the omnipresent cameras and only wanting to play for the throng,
Young didn’t sign the artist release form for movie exhibition.
Although Neil declined to be in Woodstock, his song “Sea of Madness” was
included on the very lucrative soundtrack album—the product that changed the
retail record and youth culture business forever.
Strangely, though, the
version that was chosen for the package was actually taped at a CSNY Fillmore
East show a month after the festival.
“I
could never figure out why Neil didn’t want to be a part of the Woodstock film,” mused Nash.
I wanted to know about
“Sea of Madness” and the inclusion of it in CSN&Y’s 1969-1970
repertoire.
“(Neil’s) ‘Sea of
Madness’ organ kicked into the band. And all of that was pretty spontaneous.
And none of this was calculated. And that’s one of the things that have been so
fascinating about this band is that there is very little planned.
“The song is planned,” he reinforced, “the
way we’re gonna do it is up for grabs, and the way it’s gonna get played is up
for grabs. But we’ve always been smart enough to realize that in that search in
that scent of discovery of what it is about what we’re about to do we don’t
bring too much to the equation. We have a song, we know we can play it, we know
how it’s going to basically go and the rest is up for grabs. And that’s been
one of the great musical things about CS&N and CSN&Y.”
Nash
talked about CS&N’s epic debut LP and his first encounter with Neil
Young.
“There were no formal rehearsals before we went into the studio. Our
rehearsals consisted of private going through the tune, and then saying, ‘let’s
go to (Peter) Fonda’s house! Let’s go to Paul Rothchild’s house! Let’s go to
Alan Pariser’s house! Let’s go and sing them this shit!’ Eventually we could
sing that entire album on a couple of acoustic guitars and blow people’s
minds.
“When
I first went in to Wally Heider’s studio on Cahuenga in Hollywood to record
with engineer Bill Halverson, I thought it was small and it was funky. I never
met Bill Halverson. We got in Crosby’s Volkswagen van and drove up to the
studio and brought our guitars and amps out and started to make the records.
“We knew that we had fabulous songs. I
would never play anybody a song if I didn’t feel two things: One that it got
past me. And two and I would hope that it would be interesting for you to hear.
So I have those two criteria whenever I’m writing. First of all it has to get
past me. I have to figure out whether the song has to resonate, has a reason
for existing, and after that, do I want to put this on to somebody else? And
the answer to those two questions is yes then you’ll get to hear the song. Cass
sings on ‘Pre-Road Dawns.’ We found a spot for her to join on us a vocal.
“This album kind of made itself. We had
the songs. We had the energy. We were happy as fuck. All of us, Stephen was
going out with Judy (Collins). I was with Joni (Mitchell), and David was with
Christine. (Hinton). How better could life be?
And Crosby had a lot to do with the best herb,” laughed Nash.
“When we finished the album we realized that
we would have to go out and play live,” ventured Nash. “We knew it was going to
be a hit when we walked out of the studio and gave the two-track to Ahmet
Ertegun. And I have a photograph of David and Stephen outside the studio with
Ahmet at that very moment. We knew it was going to be a smash. We just knew.
Ahmet got it immediately.
“He listened to that music and said, ‘Ah
fuck…I want it.’ So they worked it out between [David] Geffen and Ahmet. I was
on Epic, Columbia wanted Poco, and there was a trade and we all ended up with
Ahmet, for which we were incredibly glad.
“But we realized we would have to go out
and play live. OK. So, we’re talking about this. And, Stephen says, ‘Man, I
really need to spark off somebody. You and David are pretty good rhythm guitar
players but man, I wish we had another…Somebody, maybe an organ player that I
can jam with and solo.
“We talked with Stevie Winwood. We talked
with Van Dyke Parks. We needed somebody just to keep Stephen on his game and
competitive and on fire. And I think basically that Stephen and Ahmet came up
with the idea of or maybe it was Ahmet to Stephen, was getting Neil on board.
“I was the only one reluctant to bring Neil
into the band. And the reason was that we had spent the last few months making
this incredible record and developing this beautiful harmonic sound, right. But
Neil wanted to be more than a musician for the road show. I can’t commit this.
I know who Neil is.
“One of my favorite songs is ‘Expecting To
Fly’ from Buffalo Springfield Again that
he did with Jack Nitzsche. Listen to it. So I knew who Neil was and I loved
this fucking song. I was a big fan of the Buffalo Springfield. How could you
not? I listened to Buffalo Springfield. ‘On The Way Home.’ That’s a great one.
‘For What It’s Worth.’
“But I said ‘I can’t commit to this until I
meet Neil. I gotta sit down with this cat. I wanna know who he is. I wanna know
if I can go on the road with him. I wanna know if I want him to be a part of my
life.’ And, that made sense to them.
“So, at a coffee shop on Bleeker Street in
New York I went and had breakfast with Neil. After that breakfast I would have
made him the President of Canada. He was incredibly funny. He had an incredibly
dry sense of humor. He always had a bunch of songs that I loved, ‘Expecting To
Fly’ being the primary example. And at the end of that breakfast and walked
down to the Village Gate where we were rehearsing and I said, ‘OK.’
“It was obvious that this man was as
serious as a heart attack about his music. It was obvious by hanging out with
him that he was destined for great things. And it was obvious by hanging out
with him that he could put a fire under Stephen that we needed. ‘Well, have you
ever seen me and Stephen play together?’”
I mentioned to Nash that I heard when
CSN&Y were rehearsing for their 1974 tour at Neil Young’s Broken Arrow
ranch in Northern California he wanted “When You Dance I Can Really Love” from
Young’s After The Gold Rush album in
the set list.
“I wanted to open with that song! There’s
lots of Neil Young songs I want to do. I want to do ‘Expecting to Fly.’ Are you
kidding!
“I brought it up in the CSN&Y 2006
tour. ‘Can we do ‘Expecting To Fly?’ And he looked at me and said, ‘Ahhh. I
don’t think you can sing the high part.’ And I thought, “You fuck! You know
damn well that if I’m asking you to do it I have my fuckin’ part down.”
“I lived at Peter Tork’s house and Stephen would hang out a lot,”
reminisced photographer Nurit Wilde who witnessed the 1969 lineup in rehearsals
along with photographer Henry Diltz, who took the cover photo of the debut Crosby, Stills and Nash LP.
“Stephen
had bought Peter’s house,” emphasized Nurit. “I met Graham Nash at Cass
Elliott’s house. Lovely man. Then in 1969 Crosby, Stills and Nash make this
great album. And I thought ‘what in God’s name are they doing now bringing Neil
in?’
“I had seen a lot of tension in Buffalo Springfield. But maybe it helped
the creative juices. To me the only way it made sense for Neil to join that band
and because of his previous tension with Stephen, I think they were good foils
for each other.”
“When Neil formally joined the group it gave them ass,” remarked Diltz.
“Because, look, David and Graham are not really solo musicians. They can play,
you know, but aren’t guitar Gods at all. Whereas Stephen is. Because with Neil
he had something to play against. He had somebody to trade ideas back and
forth. Solos where they had a situation where one of them would try and top it.
And that drove Stephen and made it all the more better.
“The magic grail was that three part harmony. When they first
harmonized…Even Graham initially said, ‘Why are we having Neil join the group?
Why are we messing with this amazing sound we have?’ It didn’t really change
the sound. It was still that three part harmony but it added those elements of
richness. Neil brought a new arsenal to the group. But the three part harmony
was God-like.
“Those three guys were three voices were preeminent voices in music.
Stephen has a great voice and a great feel for writing, singing and playing the
guitar. David had that great lower harmony thing which anchored it. And Graham
had that amazing angelic high voice. And so the three of them together it was
amazing. Even before they ever recorded a note they would sing and play at
people’s houses if you were lucky enough to know them well enough and see them
somewhere and they’d sing a song. ‘Oh my God. That is so beautiful.’
“Me being a harmony guy all my life…When Neil joined, it didn’t become
four part harmony. When he joined it was like another chemical was added that
had more to do with the guitar playing and the songwriting. Even going back to
Buffalo Springfield days, he and Stephen had, not a rivalry but they would goad
each other on. They had to top each other. ‘OK. I’ll answer.’
“I like both drummers they had, Dallas Taylor and Johnny Barbata. Maybe
Johnny was a little more thunder drum. I remember photographing Dallas on stage
at Balboa Stadium in San Diego and he was like a rock God playing those drums.
Every musician adds a little bit of different color.
“Plus, CSN and CSN&Y had engineer Bill Halverson, managers Elliot Roberts
and David Geffen, and never forget Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records,” quipped
Henry.
“We rehearsed for our first tour on the Warner Bros set of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They in
Burbank,” Graham confided to me. “So, it was pretty obvious from the sounds I
was listening and the way that Neil was affecting Stephen that this would be a
really great thing. The music got better on stage. Because we were actually
doing it, and I didn’t know where it was gonna go after they started playing.
“When we started touring we used to begin acoustic. We would start with ‘Suite:
Judy Blue Eyes’ and blow their minds. What would happen is that the curtains
would open and there would be a line of Martins, and the drums and the bass.
And then we’d say, ‘We’d like to introduce you to our friend, Neil Young.’ And
the place would go fuckin’ bananas, right.”
In the last week of August 1969, my brother
Kenneth and I sat up front at L.A.'s Greek Theater. We’re teenagers but even we recognize that
this particular concert has a gravity that distinguishes it from previous rock
'n' roll shows we’ve attended, where little was at stake beyond experiencing a
dizzying euphoria. This night's music insisted on our undivided
attention, that we sit up and listen, really listen.
A
beguiling young singer/songwriter from Canada strolled onstage. Accompanying
herself on guitar, Joni Mitchell's unerring command of mood, of tempo, of
temperament, her reverence for the deeply personal as a means to explore the
universal, showcases a talent of a higher order. The audience was now
suitably primed. She was followed by the headliners, fresh off a
tumultuous success at Max Yasgur's upstate New York farm - Crosby, Stills, Nash
and Young.
What
Ken and I recall most clearly were, of course, those exquisite vocal harmonies;
the finely-wrought arrangements, all those gleaming guitars - acoustic and
electric - lined up like a phalanx of artillery ready to rumble; Neil, sitting
at a Hammond B-3, smearing chords while "Sea of Madness" crackled
like thunder.
In 2020 I
asked Ken what he recalled about this gig. In 1967 we saw Buffalo Springfield
at the nearby Hollywood Bowl venue.
“An ocean of
ink has washed ashore over the years detailing CSN&Y’[s sumptuous sound
(early on), the prima donna antics (Persian carpets and private jets), the
sordid behaviours (aka the ‘Frozen noses’) and the endless fits masquerading as
artistic license.
“It’s an
exhausting litany and yet there were moments of such incandescent beauty that the whole tawdry enterprise was not beyond
redemption. Bootlegs from the earliest gigs in summer 1969-the Greek Theater
and the Fillmore East in New York–document that ineffable, pitch-perfect
rapport between voices and guitars in shimmering balance that toiled like church
bells.”
Photographer
Heather Harris was also in attendance at the Greek Theatre engagement.
“I sat far back in the bleachers with a
borrowed telephoto lens to take a photo of CSN and their pal Y (for a few
tunes) at the Greek Theatre in 1969. Joni Mitchell was the opening act. I
so liked Buffalo Springfield and the Byrds that this was a much anticipated
show.
“The harmonies were luscious but I wished
even then that the material around it was a little more edgy. A whole set of ‘4
+ 20,’ ‘Ohio’ or ‘Guinnevere’ (whom I had met at the Beverly Glen place of
Crosby and deejay B. Mitchell Reed through one of her friends. She was
amazingly worldly with hair past her derriere. Crosby's life would have been
entirely different and positive had she not died in a car accident shortly
thereafter) tempered material would have been more to my liking than ‘Marrakesh
Express,’ ‘Our House’ ‘Lady Of The Island’ and so on....”
CSN&Y were booked for the Big Sur Folk
Festival during September 13th-14th. In December
1969, CSN&Y did an early set of music near San Francisco at the well-chronicled
Altamont free concert headlined by the Rolling Stones. The Grateful Dead didn’t
play after being advertised with Santana, Jefferson Airplane and the Flying
Burrito Brothers.
“It was very obvious from the very beginning that this was gonna be
fucked,” stressed Nash. “First of all, getting in there. There was no way we could get into Altamunt.
It was insane. So, my friend Leo Makota, who was our tour manager, hot-wired a
car and him and us, and the lawyer, Melvin Belli, made it into Altamont. But it
was fucked from the start. First of all, the music that they played between
acts was electronic music.
“And
we were only there for Jerry (Garcia). ‘Cause it was Jerry that called Crosby
and said, ‘Hey man, we’re gonna do this Woodstock West, man, you gotta be a
part of it. We’ll all be there, man.’ We played and not even sure how well we
played. Maybe 45 minutes or something and we got the fuck out.
“That evening we did a gig [in Westwood] at UCLA at which Stephen collapsed.
But I think the Pauley Pavilion show was pretty good, really.”
During the fall of 1969,
CSNY navigated between the stage and the studio. They combined a US tour with the recording of their initial
album as a quartet. Déjà Vu was
eventually issued in 1970 on March 11th 1970. It soared to the top
of the charts.
Déjà vu engineer Bill Halverson already had an
established history with Atlantic Records. He was behind the dials for the Crosby, Stills & Nash album.
“I was a big band guy and a vocal group guy
who was in love with the Four Freshman and Hi Los, which really served me
helping the Beach Boys and set me up for Crosby, Stills and Nash,” enthused
Halverson in a 2007 interview we conducted.
“By 1969 I had done to this point a lot of
sessions but not a full album. So, I asked the person at the booking office if
I could put my name on the Crosby, Stills
and Nash album and they said
they’d get back to me. And they said OK. I had done one demo with Stephen, ’49
Reasons.’ I was managing Heider’s.
“I used Neumann 67 microphones for the
vocals on their first album. A 16 track machine. I was obsessed with vocal
groups. I also utilized a couple of tune Sony C-37 mikes, which I then didn’t
see for years until I was at Neil’s ranch. ‘Yeah I got a couple of those…’ Neil
also had some RCA 44 ribbons and 77.
“I was leaving Wally Heider’s and cleaning
up and [manager] Eliott Roberts walked in and said, ‘The guys have started
their next album without you and really want you to come on up and be the
engineer.’ The last day I was at Heider’s was on a Friday, and the following
Monday I walked into a studio C Heider’s in San Francisco for the first time.
The roadies were there. On ‘Almost Cut My Hair.’ I learned a trick when
recording Cream with double stacks of Marshall amps where if I aim the mike
right the amp actually acts as a baffle.
“Déjà
Vu was a lot harder than the first one. The CS&N they rehearsed for three months and went ahead and
recorded it. Three nights into the first album sessions, Ahmet brought Phil
Spector by and we played him ‘Suite Judy Blue Eyes’ and ‘You Don’t Have to Cry’
we had done and Ahmet and Phil came by. Got out of the limo, ‘Here’s my new
band,’ and they left.
“One of my favorite phone calls, just
before Déjà Vu was released was when
I was at Heider’s and Henry Mancini called. ‘Hi. Bill Halverson?’ ‘Yes.’ You
did the CS&N album. ‘Yes.’ ‘How did you do the vocals?’ ‘I just had them
sing around one microphone. It’s them.’ ‘I figured it was that. I just wanted
to know.’
“I went to
the Greek Theater in L.A. for their debut. Joni Mitchell opening. Neil is now
in the band. He added a new dynamic and the stories I’ve heard it was Ahmet
Ertegun’s doing.
“A lot of
‘Woodstock’ was already recorded, some of Neil‘s stuff was already recorded
when I got there. I did three weeks up in San Francisco and we moved to
Hollywood at Heider’s. And then Neil would take the tapes, he didn’t like what
we were doing, and he’d go to his house, or to Glendale to Whitney Studios to
put that pipe organ on.
“I did some
of the overdubs on ‘Helpless.’ We mixed Déjà
Vu at Heiders. Neil didn’t like our mixes, ‘cause it was CSN vocals with
Neil, and so he’d go mix them on his own, and you’d listen to ‘Helpless’ and
‘Country Girl’ and it sounds like Neil Young with background singers,” revealed
Halverson.
“They had a
rule with CSN and carried it into CSN&Y, and when I worked with them in
1999 again it was still the rule, whoever writes the song gets final say. And
that served them well and I used it with other artists over the years. The art
is the writing of the song and then we’re trying to be entertaining with it.
“In the
studio I was the only one talking to all four of ‘em. And the job security was
great. They were playing me welI and I got a little percentage of it that I
gave away in a divorce. I would mix it with one and the other wouldn’t like it.
Then fix it.”
The team of
Henry Diltz and graphics artist Gary Burden created a number of album covers
including the Crosby, Stills & Nash
LP, but not Déjà Vu.
“Gary was
really good at planning a happening for a cover shoot,” explained Henry. “He
wouldn’t draw a picture and you didn’t know what it would look like. But he
would bring a situation which would allow you to take great pictures. Like ‘Go
out to the desert with the Eagles and spend the night eating peyote buttons.’
That right there is gonna create some good opportunities, right.
“So, Gary talked to Stephen about a concept
of revolutionary war days and the feeling of it. Stephen wanted it to be
embossed on that kind of Himmel paper, a brown sort of color like on a bible.
He and Stephen kind of cooked up the look they wanted. And to go along with
that they said ‘let’s do an old fashioned print. Like an old ‘Mathew Brady
print.’ I’m not sure how it evolved. They were going to coat the paper and
print it in the sun.
“Well, I
never really developed a roll of film. I don’t do dark room stuff. I just push
a button and take the image. Point and shoot has always been my philosophy. I
catch the framing and the moment. So mine was all visual, sitting around
waiting for these moments to happen, framing them and catching them without
ruining the moment or getting in the way of it happening. To be able to sit
back, let it happen, and pick out those moments. That was my specialty. Not some
old fashion way of printing or coating the paper. I immediately said ‘No
fuckin’ way. I’m not your guy for that.’”
Diltz’s
photos were utilized in the Déjà Vu package
as well as CSN&Y’s 4 Way Street.
A few years
ago I talked to photographer Tom O’Neill who took would take the front cover
image of Déjà Vu.
“I spent
1967-1974 doing shooting music subjects. Joni Mitchell, Poco, Crazy Horse,
Doors, the Mamas and the Papas, Steppenwolf and B.B. King and the iconic Déjà Vu cover with Crosby, Stills, Nash
and Young.
“A great
photo has to be created from the heart. It has to have that connection. Whether
you are photographing a tree or a person you’ve gotta connect with it somehow.
It has to have emotion. And if that emotion transfers from what you feel when
taking these pictures to the person looking at it, that’s what makes a great
photo.
“I try and
capture the burst of excitement. I call it the peak of the action and the peak
of the moment. It’s that brief millisecond of life where it’s right there. Like
a ballet dancer jumping. Or you can also think of it as a big ocean wave. As
the wave is building there’s a point where it finishes going to the crest and
then it starts its fall of descent. That peak moment of action,” detailed Tom.
“One of the
major things that happened to me, through the Monterey International Pop
Festival, was connecting with David Crosby. I had gotten special photo passes
for Monterey through Derek Taylor, and a mutual friend made sure to get some
pictures of David Crosby, who was in the Byrds at the time. ‘I’ll make sure he
sees those photos.’ She knew his business manager, Larry Spector. Larry was involved with the Byrds around
Monterey Pop.
“Around this
time I did the CSN&Y Déjà Vu album
cover and a front cover picture that is on the cover of 4 Way Street. The reason
why the photograph is so realistic on the cover of Deja Vu is that they are posing for an authentic Civil War era box
camera. It didn’t even have a shutter on it. I literally had to take the lens
cap off to make the two minute exposure. I had a tin type inside the camera I
had to coat myself before I started. I always say ‘it’s a Matthew Brady type
camera.’
“I rented
the camera from Shaffer’s camera in downtown L.A. on Figueroa Ave. I told them I needed an old box camera that
was used in the Civil War. ‘We have one. Give me $150 bucks and you can have it
for a few months.’
“I
experimented with it. I propped CSN&Y up so they wouldn’t move. They were
totally into the shoot. They had gone to Western Costume themselves and each
one was in character. It was taken at David Crosby’s house in Novato up in Marin
County. I got paid $600.00 and had to
pay for the camera. The art director got a check for $1,800.00 and he gave me
six hundred dollars.
“I always
felt it was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Neil was always outside. He was
deliberately not front and center with them by design. I got along well with
Neil. Some solo shots and a few pictures on his Journey Through The Past soundtrack album. Neil was always relaxed
around me. I went to his house. I went to the ranch. Neil and I sat down in his
studio on the ranch that was a giant redwood hand-carved studio, like being
inside a cabinet. From the walls to the way it was mounted.
“This is
1969-1973. I loved the fact that he had this stable filled with old cars.
That’s what he cared about and I knew about them. He really celebrated the fact
where he was. I loved the Scottish Highlander sheep that you would see when you
drove in. I think he knew I got him and we shared this get back to the earth
mentality. You would go there and Neil would be wearing blue jeans and a funky
blue jean jacket. You would return six weeks later and he’d be wearing the same
shirt and jacket. That’s him.
“Nash was the
person I connected with more than anybody. And yet I feel more connected with
David. Graham is a sweetheart. A delightful English man. I knew him the most
when he was with Joni. I liked Stephen. He knew what he wanted.”
“A lot of people were disappointed with Déjà vu from their previous studio
outing,” offered Dr. Cushing. “Neil really wasn’t really collaborating or
recording with the band. Down the hallway from them in different studios or at
his home in the Bay area. There was a dark cloud around that album as Graham
Nash has discussed.
“And I also
thought that Déjà Vu had a little bit
of the Beatles White album syndrome
in terms of it being much more individual peoples work than a group effort. But
the electric set on 4 Way Street are
definitely more of a group effort, maybe the most convincing and powerful group
effort that they ever did in their lives.
“I loved ‘Helpless.’ I loved how much of a
true Neil Young song it was in the middle of the chaos of that group disc. It
kind gave the lie to the group, you know, like it was supposed to be a unified
group. It wasn’t. This was a Neil Young song on that album the way ‘Julia’ was
a John Lennon song.
“He was
never a team player and this is another example. From what I understand Neil
did his own tracks away from the CS&N, down the hallway or in Northern
California. You got the sense Neil was saving the best stuff for a solo album
but this one leaked out.”
“He’s always had an agenda,” admitted
Graham. “When we were rehearsing the Deja
Vu record at Stephen’s house in Laurel Canyon, at the bottom of Laurel
Canyon there, he would leave rehearsals and go to the studio and he’d be
recording After The Gold Rush. I
always allowed people to do what the fuck they want.
“The only time that I ever got really upset
with Neil was during the Deja Vu record
and Neil would bring tapes in from his studio, we would put voices on, he would
take them back to his studio, and he would mix them and it was all a separate
thing.
“Neil’s songs on the Déjà Vu record were done by Neil and Neil’s studio when he got our
voices and our instruments on at Wally Heider’s in San Francisco.
“At some point that, and a bunch of other
things, including too much cocaine, I ended up in the studio, and I said, ‘you
know what, we’re fuckin’ blowing this. We are blowing this. We are so good and
we have so many great songs and we are fucking blowing this.’
“Stills is in the studio until 6:00 every
fuckin’ morning, you know, getting to the studio later and later, I was getting
angry about it, don’t forget, I was not with Joan, Stephen was not with Judy,
David had lost Christine. I just remember bursting out into tears. Because I
felt we were completely blowing something. And the thing that we were blowing
had been given to us by the Gods.”
In one
of my few conversations with Graham, I had to know how the fuck did he
constantly deal with such a non-team player like Neil Young who always had,
sometimes in collusion with his manager, an agenda?
“That’s right, and so what? You
know, it’s whatever it is. I let people be who the fuck they want to be. And
Neil sometimes is a difficult man to deal with. And sometimes he’s a very easy
man to deal with. But I respect him completely.
“It doesn’t matter what we’re going
through. We all realize that the most important part of our relationship is the
music. And it is the music that drowns out all the other things.
“We knew we had the magic. We’ve always
known. We’ve always know our music speaks to people’s hearts. We’ve always know
it’s been as real as possible. We’ve always know that we’ve taken incredible
chances. We’ve always known that we do things that are not normal for a
band.
“We’ve always known that we’ve been
completely in control. Once you sell millions of pieces of fuckin’ plastic you
have control. I say in my autobiography that in the early days of recording
with the Hollies we weren’t allowed to even touch the board. If I wanted more
bass I’d have to ask Ron Richards (producer) who then would have to ask Peter
Bown (engineer) to bring up the bass. After we’d had hit records that all
changed. Because they began to realize that these guys who were not wearing
white lab coats really knew what they were doing.
“And we never lost the ability to do what
we do. We always wanted to be winners and not victims. If you don’t have the
ability to call up a studio and say, ‘I’m coming in next Thursday through next
Thursday and this is the band,’ and getting all the tape and engineers
together, and if you lose that ability, that is a dreadful thing. And we have
never lost that ability.
“I mean, a great example is my song ‘Teach
Your Children’ going up in the top twenty and Ahmet Ertegun telling me I was
‘going to have a number one hit.’ Then there’s the killing of four students
(shot by National Guardsman) at Kent State (in Ohio). And we do Neil’s song ‘Ohio.’ And we think
America killing its children is more important than us having another hit
record. And so I told Ahmet to pull ‘Teach Your Children,’ and put ‘Ohio’ out.
We decided on ‘Find the Cost of Freedom’ as the B-Side.”
Young’s song “Ohio,” in mid-May 1970, was a response to the four
students shot and killed by the National Guard on the campus of Kent State
University in Ohio.
In a September 1973 interview with B. Mitchell Reed broadcast on KMET-FM
(94.7) in the Los Angeles market, Young discussed “Ohio.”
“At
the first part in my career, or whatever, I wasn’t into politics, you know. And
then all of a sudden I sort of got into it. Because of what was going on around
me I couldn’t ignore it, you know. It was too obvious…I didn’t feel I would be
typecasting myself as a political person. Writing that song was just a pure
reaction to the cover of TIME
Magazine. I never really thought about it any other way.”
Bill Halverson engineered that epochal
session.
“I was working with Stephen Stills at the Record Plant in L.A. and got a
call from a roadie. ‘We’re gonna bring all the gear over tonight.’ Studio A had
an Ampex tape recorder. I hated their tape machine and made them rent a 3M 24
track from Heider.
“I got some more mikes from Heider ‘cause the whole band was coming.
John Barbata showed up and I got a drum sound. Plugged Greg Reeves’ bass and
set up the amps. Miked them 57 vocal mikes and know that they are gonna create
the sounds they want and I just need to get it on tape. Heider’s studio had
leakage with the guitar amps so I set up some additional Dynamic mikes.
“They show up. We rehearsed the song, maybe 16 bars and they stopped. A
couple of takes and we had it. There again, no overdubs, all live vocals, even
the ad libs of Crosby on the end. I had blinders on working and had no idea
that the whole Kent State thing had happened. I get credit for being the
engineer but it was all five of us hovering.
“We were listening to the mix, it was gonna be a single, and they needed
a B-side. We’d been rehearsing ‘Find the Cost of Freedom” to do an encore at
CSN&Y concerts. I set up four chairs, and put them knee-to-knee like they
were at a card table. With one microphone for Stephen to play guitar and sing
and they went out and we sort of got a blend thing going. I put them on five
tracks. As soon as it ended, I backed it up and got it onto five more tracks.
When Stephen heard a part he knew what he’d do next. They sang their parts a
second time and we mixed it. Done.”
“Neil’s protest number ‘Ohio,’ with CSNY, was just phenomenal,” marveled
Clem Burke of Blondie. “A great lead guitar riff by Stephen Stills, which,
besides the political statement it was making, just sucks you right in.”
“The
impact of “Ohio” reached over to England where Mott the Hoople recorded a live
version of it one night in 1971 when they were supporting Free at the Fairfield
Hall in Croydon, south London.
“In his twenties Mick Ralphs had a voice uncannily similar to Neil
Young’s,” Ian Hunter emailed me in 2015. “We were doing an album called Wildlife and Mick had a lot to do with
that album—a tad of country common sense in among our usual sea of chaos. Mick
came in with it—sang it—and that’s the one you’re hearing.”
In summer 1970, the late esteemed Canadian
music journalist, author, and broadcaster Ritchie Yorke conducted an exclusive
interview with CSN&Y for his Rap with
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young college radio special program that was
distributed as a promotional tool by Atlantic Records. Yorke taped the outfit
at Peter Tork’s house, which they were renting for rehearsals.
An excerpt was utilized with his permission
in my 2015 book Neil Young Heart of Gold.
“Neil Young: Right from the beginning, he
[Graham Nash] and I hit it off. Now I’m finding a bunch of new friends and it’s
groovy. Willie [Graham Nash] knows how to make you feel at home. He’s groovy
and very honest.”
“Stephen Stills: Neil is just about my best
friend in the entire world, really. We’re both people that grew up where our
whole clan was kind of different from everybody else around us. There always
was a certain sense of alienation from people around us. They’re all old things
and no amount of analyzing and psychotherapy can ever wash away some of those
scars. You have to do it yourself. And we both kind of uniquely know that about
one another and it’s nice. We can look each other in the eye. We blew it before
when we didn’t. And we’re trying harder now.”
In Young’s 1973 radio interview with B.
Mitchel Reed, Neil commented about joining CSN&Y.
“I think it started with Stephen and Ahmet. Crosby,
Stills and Nash had finished their album and thinkin’ about going out on the
road to promote the album. When they started thinking about it, they realized,
to have me there would be another addition, just another step. And they wanted
to do that to carry that Springfield thing that Stephen and I had going all the
way into their thing, you know, with those vocal sounds. I guess that’s why
they asked me to join.
“At that time I was really excited, you
know. Because I hadn’t been doin’ really well. I had a couple of records out,
neither one was really too successful. And then I joined Crosby, Stills and
Nash and did that tour with them and my records started takin’ off. And so I guess it helped me on all levels,
joining them. Besides making what I thought was really great music that was
really getting me off. I mean more people were getting to know me as an artist
and to get interested in what I was doing. So it was a really good thing for
me. It was a good thing for everybody I think ‘cause I think I added a lot to
them, too in helping them.”
“I got to know Neil a little bit during 4 Way Street. I recorded all of it,”
volunteered engineer Halverson. “We did a week at the Fillmore East. The first
night at the Fillmore it wasn’t gonna happen ‘cause they’re fighting in the
dressing room. We had done the sound check and had it all going right.
“The story I got was that Bill Graham said,
‘Dylan and the Band are in the audience.’ He said something to them to come
down and get them to play. Heider’s truck was with ABC-TV in Nashville doing The Johnny Cash Show.
“When the show was over Heider sold the
truck to the Record Plant in New York. I had done so much remote recording at
Fillmore West and Winterland in San Francisco. We did Fillmore and then two
nights in Chicago. Then we did the Forum in Inglewood.
“When you are doing live harmonies and
lookin’ at each other on stage, you’re not on microphone and all of a sudden
the vocals go away. It took ‘em a while to stay on mike when they were lookin’
around. Playing live Neil is wonderful. He makes Stephen better and Stephen
makes Neil better. Crosby is probably one of the best rhythm guitar players
I’ve ever recorded. Crosby is real underrated in all that. He’s just anchoring it with the bass and
drums,” underscored Halverson.
“CSN&Y’s 4 Way Street LP double LP was released in 1971, culled from tour
dates in 1970,” reiterates Dr. Cushing. “It remains one of my favorite albums.
It’s looser and more intimate and more spontaneous and more risk-taking and
more of that combination of heavenly folk music on the acoustic side and of
sublime Buffalo Springfield meets Crazy Horse rock on the second half.
“I think they do everything on that album
that they do well at its very best. I think the two long jams, ‘Southern Man’
and ‘Carry On,’ great guitars and excellent drumming and bass playing, ‘Ohio’
is fabulous. ‘Triad,’ and ‘The Lee Shore,’ the song selections and the way the
four personalities are balanced. Everything was done correctly including the
decision to have the album begin with the fading up of the last few seconds of
‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.’ So they kind of
get it out of the way by making a joke out of its popularity.”
Graham Nash was appointed an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth in recognition for his
contributions as a musician and philanthropist.
On
April 27, 1966, after a Hollies’ press party event was held at Imperial Records
in Hollywood, GO! Magazine weekly
music columnist Rodney Bingenheimer invited Nash to attend a nearby Mamas and
Papas recording session of “Dancing Bear” at Western Recorders on Sunset
Boulevard.
Graham
then met and talked at length with group member Cass Elliot.
“I only went with Rodney to
see Michelle (Phillips). But Michelle,
Denny (Doherty) and John (Phillips) were doing an overdub in the studio, and
Cass was outside the studio. I started talking to Cass
“You
know the truth is there’s a part of me that really believes none of this would
have happened without Rodney. Incredible music has been made from that
moment.”
During
the afternoon of April 28, 1966, matchmaker Cass picked up Graham at the
Knickerbocker Hotel and introduced him to David Crosby at her house in Laurel
Canyon. Crosby subsequently connected Nash to Stephen Stills, and Crosby,
Stills and Nash was formed.
“We were staying in Hollywood at the
Knickerbocker and she picked me up around noon in her convertible Porsche. I
said, ‘where we going?’ ‘We’ll be there in five minutes. Don’t worry.’ And
drove me up to Laurel Canyon and I met Crosby. And once again, my life has
never been the same…
“It not lost on me that you can be in the Laurel Canyon from
Hollywood in 5 minutes. Not like in England where it’s 90 minutes that’s to get
to the nearest bus stop. So I was in heaven. I was free. My first wife and I
were getting divorced. I had already separated from Rose. I was a free man. And
I must tell you that I took to the Laurel Canyon scene like a duck to water. It
was just amazing to me that these people would be living in this kind of very
rural area.
“I just felt so free.
And more importantly, I felt appreciated. And that goes a long way with me. If
you know what it is I can do and you appreciate that, I feel a lot better about
things. And it seemed to be the Hollies’ reputation in the Laurel Canyon scene
was a big one.
“I felt fantastic. I
know that because of the British invasion and what British music was doing to
the American scene, and how admired British groups were by American groups, I
felt pretty confident in myself. You know, I happen to believe, and this is not
ego talking, I’m pretty good at what I do.”
I wanted to know what it’s like for Graham to
revisit and still sing his songs and CSN&Y selections from 1969-1971 and
why are they are still relevant today?
“It’s the same
thing, kid. If I can sing you a song with my guitar and piano and knock you on
your ass it’s a great song,” summarized Graham. “And it doesn’t matter how many
people you are playing it for. The essence of the song and what the song says
still lives to this day.”
On the CSN&Y 1974 tour,
their subsequent reunions, and recent Nash solo outings, always included in set
lists are political-themed songs: “Chicago-We Can Change the World,” “Ohio,” “Military Madness,” and “Long Time
Gone,” along with many new tunes. Do the
older songs somehow resonate even deeper because more history is attached to
them?
“That’s
because the history has never changed. You could take the word Vietnam War and
replace it with Afghanistan and IRAQ. You can take a song like ‘Great Concern,’
that I wrote about Washington during the Watergate hearings. It’s the same
thing going on now. History has not changed. We have refused to learn. Humanity
still doesn’t learn…”
Graham Nash, born in the
sea coast town of Blackpool in 1942, grew up on the bombed-out streets of
Salford, and raised near Manchester where the Hollies were formed, experienced
as a tyke the atrocities of war when the Germans reduced his neighborhood to
rubble.
I told Nash’s that some
of his tunes like “Military Madness” were supposed to help end wars or at the
very least educate people about the machinations of the military. I reminded
him that war is still happening globally.
“I know. It’s
very depressing. What’s going on is what was always going on. This world is
controlled by the media and the businessmen that make profit from war. It’s the
same fuckin’ story. It’s awful and it’s criminal.”
“It was in September, 1969, when Ronnie Rossman, a high
school friend, first played me an album by a group called Crosby, Stills and Nash,”
recollected award-winning filmmaker David Leaf, an author also known for his definitive
biographies of the Bee Gees and Brian Wilson.
“I had
never even heard of them, didn’t know anything about where they had come from,
but I quickly (like less than halfway through the first listen to ‘Suite: Judy
Blues’) came to worship them for their harmonies and by album’s end, the
songwriting, their overall lyrical messages and their immense and diverse
talent. Unbeknownst to us, the Beatles journey (with the release of Abbey Road) was coming
to an end, but it was instantly clear to me that CSN had the artistic potential
and original voice/voices to be the American Beatles. Or at least be that
for me.
“Ted Krever, a new friend in my college dorm (I was so
naïve that I found it cool that he’d gone to Woodstock specifically to see
them), and it’s actually his voice on the Woodstock soundtrack/film going ‘Yeah,’
after the announcer introduces CSN&Y) explained the origin story of the
group to me (Ted was already a storyteller, long before he became a successful
author).
“Other than the Beatles and Cream, I didn’t know much about
where members of a group had come from.
But as I already liked the Byrds and the Hollies a lot, he explained the
Buffalo Springfield part (I was supposed to see them in November ’67 as an
opening act for the Beach Boys, but just before the show, we heard that Bruce
Palmer was deported.)
“Thanks to FM radio in New York, I already was a Buffalo
Springfield fan, in large part thanks to Stills’ classics ‘Bluebird,’ and ‘Rock
and Roll Woman.’ When I started buying albums, ‘Everydays’ and ‘Hung Upside
Down’ became favorites too.
“In fact, in my
UCLA ‘Songwriters on Songwriter’ class (which has included master classes with
such Songwriters Hall of Famers and rock era legends as Mike Stoller, Jimmy
Webb, Mann & Weil, Lamont Dozier, Randy Newman, Burt Bacharach, Mac Davis,
Jeff Barry, David Crosby, and others), I talk about Stills perhaps being the
most underrated great songwriters of the rock era.’ Neil needs no case made by me, but Graham
Nash, who has that wonderful voice even to this day, has long demonstrated an
undeniable and repeated ability to consistently write terrific, melodic songs
that connect with a big punch. (It was
so ‘wrong’ when they were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame as a trio,
a real slight, in my opinion, to Stills’ and Nash’s individual brilliance.)
“Anyway,
in the dorm, their very different lead voices and brilliant breadth of
songwriting gave three of us (Dave Poleno, my roommate, Ted Krever and me)
hours, days, weeks, months, years in the dorm so much joy, singing along to
those records. We learned every word, every note. For that first album,
for 1970’s Deja-Vu, for 4
Way Street, et al.
“In
the 50+ years since I first became a fan(atic), I’ve seen them in just about
every combination (except the Stills/Young Band): CSNY (headlining a stadium show with Joni
Mitchell and the Beach Boys). Stills solo (3 ½ amazing hours at Madison Square
Garden two nights before the Bangla Desh concerts), with Manassas.
Crosby-Nash. Neil solo, acoustic and electric. Nash solo. Crosby solo. CPR.
Every CSN reunion tour.
“One
of my biggest musical regrets is a CSN show I had tickets for (6th row
orchestra!) to see them at D.A.R. Constitution Hall in October 1969. It was
‘postponed’ because we heard Crosby’s girlfriend (Christine Hinton?) had been
killed in a car crash. I even saw Crazy Horse when they played my college
auditorium without Neil. Saw Nils
Lofgren with Grin (on his bouncing trampoline).
“I’ve
had the privilege of working a little with all of them. And, obviously,
their musical legacy is secure. They mattered then. They changed the landscape.
Their music endures and still can delight us with its melodic/harmonic magic
and lyrical meaning.
Leaf,
who since 2010 has been a professor at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
where he teaches courses in popular songwriting, rock documentary and the
Beatles, pointed out that in rock history “that perhaps the acid test of
greatness is whether you can follow a debut album with one that will also stand
the test of time. Déjà Vu certainly did that, starting right off with the big bang of
‘Carry On.’ 4 Way Street would capture the early live magic. And as I bought everything in those days, I
bought both Woodstock soundtracks to get more of their songs from that set, got
my first ‘underground’ albums at a local head shop, with unreleased and live
Springfield and CSN music (Wooden Nickel
anyone?) and, of course, the sadly soon to follow single, ‘Ohio’ b/w ‘Find The
Cost Of Freedom.’ That cemented their ability to make the big statement when it
was most needed.
“I’m confident that if they could have
stayed together for ten years and made a dozen albums that cherry-picked the
best of their solo songs from the 1970s, I think they would musically have been
to that decade what the Beatles were to the ‘60s. It really doesn’t get
any better,” underlined Leaf.
Harvey Kubernik is the author of 19
books, including Canyon Of Dreams: The
Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon and
Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972. Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018
published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The
Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. For 2021 they are
writing a multi-narrative book on Jimi Hendrix for the same publisher.
Otherworld Cottage Industries in July 2020
has just published Harvey’s 508-page book, Docs
That Rock, Music That Matters, featuring Kubernik interviews with D.A. Pennebaker, Albert
Maysles, Murray Lerner, Morgan Neville, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Andrew Loog
Oldham, John Ridley, Curtis Hanson, Dick Clark, Travis Pike, Allan Arkush, and
David Leaf, among others.
In 1966 and ’67 Harvey Kubernik saw Buffalo Springfield in two of their
Southern California concerts and attended debut Neil Young solo concerts in the
region.
UK-based Palazzo Editions arranged Harvey’s music and recording study,
an illustrated history book, Neil Young,
Heart of Gold published in 2015, by Hal Leonard (US), Omnibus Press (UK),
Monte Publishing (Canada), and Hardie Grant (Australia), coinciding with
Young’s 70th birthday. A German edition was published in 2016.
In 2020 Harvey served as Consultant on Laurel Canyon: A Place In Time documentary directed by Alison
Ellwood which debuted om May 2020 on the EPIX/MGM television channel. It was
just nominated for Three Emmy nominations.
Harvey served as Consulting Producer on the 2010 singer-songwriter
documentary, Troubadours directed by
Morgan Neville. The film screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in the
documentary category. PBS-TV broadcast the movie in their American Masters series.
Harvey Kubernik, Henry Diltz and Gary Strobl
collaborated with ABC-TV in 2013 for their Emmy-winning one hour Eye on L.A. Legends of Laurel Canyon
hosted by Tina Malave.
Kubernik’s writings are in several book
anthologies, most notably The Rolling
Stone Book Of The Beats and Drinking With Bukowski. He was the project coordinator of the recording set The Jack Kerouac Collection.
Kubernik has
just penned a back cover book jacket endorsement for author Michael
Posner’s book on Leonard Cohen that
Simon & Schuster, Canada, will be publishing this fall 2020, Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: The Early
Years).
Deja Vu Photo Composites
via Susan Miller
Interview w/ Author Harvey Kubernik on Neil Young Turns 70
Labels: album, Crosby Stills Nash Young, csny
"After the Gold Rush" by Neil Young 
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