Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were a band that recorded one studio album & tour ( subsequently was released as “4 Way Street”) from Summer 1969 until Neil Young recorded his brilliant solo album “After the Goldrush” a year later.By then David Crosby,Stephen Stills,Graham Nash, & Young went their separate ways . What’s ironic is that , while CSN & Y had a major hand in shaping the awareness,mores, politics, & music of a generation comparable to that of The Beatles, with a fraction of the material or time together, rock fans would spend the next 20 years trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again .
We should have known better . After all , the first time most of us saw Stills & Young in Buffalo Springfield on the Ed Sullivan tv show, with Stephen front & center singing”For what It’s Worth” surrounded by the other bandmembers,there was this dark-haired guitarist dressed in a gray Confederate officer’s Civil War uniform standing on a riser behind & to one side of the others, totally separate . Young was eager to start a solo career,so it was no surprise a song like “The Loner” appeared on his first effort . Years later, Young explained to me that his recording philosophy was ” taking a snapshot rather than painting a picture” , & that approach would clash with that of the trio throughout their long off- &- on relationship.But four decades later they have at least one masterpiece,”Deja Vu” , for which to be very proud , ranked by Rolling Stone magazine at #147 on their Top 500 Albums of All Time list.
-Redbeard