CSNY: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

In depth study on the early days of Crosby Stills Nash and Young. Very detailed and informativeAnything from the 80s onwards is covered in a few pages.

Tudo bem

As a huge fan since their beginnings I have read everything, have all their recordings including bootlegs, even have had personal encounters with all of them including their wives, kids, and many friends, mangers, etc, and can honestly say I liked this book a lot. Compared to the other CSNY books I’ve read, this one gives a big picture account on what was going on with other groups, the country, and the world to give a complete feeling of how the environment help to shaped them as they emerged on the scene. It brought back some memories I had forgotten and why these guys meant so much to me. It’s a positive book which I hope CSNY will read and realize they should do one more road trip. I’d call it the CSNY 20/20 Vision Tour! (I thought took the photo at my first show of theirs at the Oakland Colosseum on Saturday July 13, 1974)

I bought this after reading Richard Williams' favourable review in The Guardian. The story of how Crosby, Stills and Nash came together in 1968 (after the three protagonists had left, respectively, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies) and released an enormously popular debut album the following year is well-known, as is the way in which the subsequent addition of Neil Young affected the group. More details are revealed in this expansive account, including the number of times that Nash met the other two prior to the legendary occasion when they first sang together. This has become the stuff of folklore, and the author has to point out on p96 that the story "has been told and retold from multiple perspectives, and situated in several locations and times, each revision subtly different from the rest". Similarly, I'd always had the impression from other accounts that that Neil Young wrote "Ohio" for the band to record immediately after hearing about the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970, but those two events are separated by two weeks (and ten pages) in this account.This level of detail makes this an interesting read. Attention is paid to the important role played by Joni Mitchell and - to a lesser extent - Mama Cass in the early life of the group, and the changing fortunes of Neil Young who - it's pointed out here - was barely known when he joined the group (even after the 1969 release of his "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere", which has since attained classic status) but went on to dominate it. The story more or less comes to an end with the Wembley concert in 1974; the subsequent ups and downs of its members and the various reunions are dealt with briskly in a concluding chapter, which appears to be the apposite emphasis.On the whole, it's well-written (apart from revealing that Graham Nash was born in Blackpool "where his mother was in labour to avoid the intensive German bombardment of Salford" [p17]), but I'd've liked stronger links between the text and the sources at the end (saying "to avoid repetition, each source is only listed once" [p321] doesn't help clarity, and looks like laziness). Nevertheless, an enjoyable, entertaining book.

The lesser of the two recent CSNY biographies, but of interest nonetheless. Peter Doggett comes across as a kind of fan / friend of the band, but without ever reducing himself to the level of fan-boy. He zeroes in on the group's early years (1969-74), thus digging deeply into the artistic and commercial peaks of its salad days. He seems to drop most of the blame for the band's frequent down times on Crosby's drug habits, while giving Young's collateral damage (ego approach to everything) something of a pass. Stills appears like the damaged former leader, reduced to the sidelines by Young's intimidating personality; Crosby is portrayed basically a victim of the drug culture; Nash, the band's weak link and constant whiner. Nash's anti-commercial stance for quitting the Hollies especially rings hollow here, since it's pointed out that just about everything he contributed to the CSNY mother-ship's heyday reeks of a commercial radio-ready mindset. Rarely in the history of rock 'n' roll has a band with such possibilities for greatness delivered so little of the goods, largely due to clashing egos. While happy and content with the best of their output, one can't help but wonder what might have been ...