CSN Debut Album (+ 4 Bonus Tracks)

Original released as LP Atlantic 
SD8229 (US); 588189 (UK)
1969, May 29

CREDITS:
David Crosby - rhythm guitar, vocals
Graham Nash - vocals
Stephen Stills - lead guitar, organ, bass, vocals
Dallas Taylor - drums
Bill Halverson - engineer
Gary Burden - art direction/design
Henry Diltz - cover photo
David Geffen - direction
Ahmet Ertegun - spiritual guidance
Produced by Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Graham Nash
Recorded at Wally Heider's Studio III, Los Angeles

THE BONUS TRACKS:

1. Do For the Others (by Stephen Stills)
2. Song With No Words (by David Crosby)
3. Everybody's Talkin' (by Fred Neil)
4. Teach Your Children (by Graham Nash)

Through the 1960s, power in the music industry gradually moved from managers, promoters, producers, and songwriters, to the performers themselves. Many followed The Beatles’ example and wrote their own material, and by 1968 a small number of musicians were venerated as rock equivalents of the virtuosos of classical music. If one rock superstar made a band great, the logic ran, surely four superstars would make a group four times greater. Stephen Stills had an early taste of the supergroup when he played on “Super Session”, a project arranged by keyboard player Al Kooper, where Stills shared guitar duties with Mike Bloomfield of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. In 1969, David Crosby (ex-Byrds) and Graham Nash (ex-Hollies) sang together with Stills at a party in Los Angeles. Genuinely surprised by how well their voices blended, they got together and recorded this album, which made the US Top 30 and UK Top Ten.

As well as the hit single “Marrakesh Express”, the album includes the multisectioned “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, written for Judy Collins, and Crosby’s “Long Time Gone”, inspired by the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and used by Michael Wadleigh as one of the tracks which introduced his Woodstock movie. “Lady of The Island” was about Joni Mitchell, and “Guinevere” was written for Crosby’s girlfriend Christine. The album’s textured production perfectly suits the simmering vocal harmonies, and is to this day one of the more convincing arguments for old-fashioned vinyl and the analog mixing desk. It would all go downhill from here, unfortunately. Despite their often-inspired work with Neil Young in the following decade, they would never quite shake off the “disillusioned hippies with too much money and drug problems” aura. But this first, excellent three-quarters of an hour of wistful exuberance remains a landmark. (Joel McIver in “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”)

Remembering a great, great song

WALLPAPER: "Crosby, Stills & Nash"