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Crosby Stills and Nash biography
CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH BIOGRAPHY
With faded denims, interestingly sculpted facial hair and drug problems that would challenge a Colombian warlord, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash epitomised the LA rock aristocracy of the late 60s. Briefly, the world swooned to their laid back, tight harmonies and poppy folk psychedelia. Their relatively brief time together as a group was blighted by arguments and fallings out, but that didn't diminish their position as flagbearers for the hippy counterculture.
All three singer-songwriters had been members of prestigious rock groups. Crosby had been with The Byrds until 1967, Stills with Buffalo Springfield which split in 1968 and Nash who had left The Hollies the same year. Through Joni Mitchell, whose first album Crosby had produced, they started jamming together and in 1969 they recorded their eponymously titled debut album.
The album Crosby, Stills and Nash was a tour de force of close harmony singing. It produced two hit singles with Marrakesh Express - Nash's anthem of the hippie trail to North Africa - and Stills' Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, dedicated to singer Judy Collins. Appropriately enough, one of the trio's first live appearances was at the Woodstock Festival.
In 1970 Neil Young joined the line up. Young's harsher, electric influences on the acoustic trio could be heard in that year's album, Deja Vu. With advance orders of over 2m copies in America, the album came to be regarded as the classic statement of Woodstock era euphoria. Young's intensity on Country Girl and Helpless was mirrored by the Joni Mitchell penned Woodstock which provided the trio with a Top 20 hit and Crosby's anti-establishment rant Almost Cut My Hair while the exultant Carry On was the perfect example of the group's close harmony brilliance.
But blighted by ego battles between Stills and Young and various drug problems, the group split later that year, the same month as young's solo single Ohio was released - a protest against the killing of four students by the National Guard during an anti-war demo. A patchy double live album, Four Way Street, was released as an epitaph in 1971.
While Young would go on to forge a mercurial solo career, the other group members enjoyed mixed solo success. Stills was the most prolific, releasing six solo albums by 1978, the first two with country rock outfit Manassas featuring ex-Byrd member Chris Hillman. Crosby and Nash meanwhile worked as a duo, releasing their eponymous debut in 1972. Without Stills and Young the record was pleasant but hardly essential, lacking the tension that made CSN&Y so compelling.
The inevitable reunion took place in 1974 although the band couldn't keep it together long enough to record a studio album. (Neil Young would arrive at gigs in his own tour bus). Crosby Stills and Nash reformed as a trio in 1977 and recorded the album CSN. Despite featuring the hit single, Just A Song Before I Go, the set was regarded as fairly lacklustre, a collection of polite folk pop. Young meanwhile was creating the blueprint for the grunge movement with his Live Rust and Rust Never Sleeps albums, outstripping his former bandmates creatively and commercially.
The early 80s followed a similar haphazard pattern for Crosby, Stills and Nash. They performed at anti-nuclear benefits and recorded one successful group album, 1982's Daylight Again. However the following year Crosby was sentenced to five years jail for drugs and firearms offences. He was allowed to attend a rehab programme as an alternative but he reneged on the deal which meant he eventually did spend some time in prison. Out on bail, there was a grand reunion for Crosby when together with Stills, Nash and Young, the group performed at Live Aid in 1986. The reunion caused some hazy nostalgia to come flooding back and the quartet reunited in the studio for 1988's American Dream album. But apart from Crosby's standout track, Compass, written about his drug problems, the album wasn't the masterpiece people had been waiting for. Neil Young refused to tour the album effectively ending the brief reunion. But Crosby, Stills and Nash continued unbowed even after Crosby underwent a liver transplant following the release of group album, After The Storm in 1994.
Young agreed to one more outing with 1999 album, Looking Forward, followed by a reunion tour the following year. Crosby and Nash recently completed some live dates and a studio album, Crosby & Nash in 2004, while 2005 saw the original trio embarking on some live dates.
The band's numerous upheavals and constant cycle of falling out and reuniting were proof that while as group there was a weakness, there was no denying the brilliance of its individual members and that, for a brief period towards the end of the 60s, they came to symbolise both the hope and optimism of the era as well as the bitter aftermath of 60s hedonism.
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