1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 154. Crosby, Still & Nash – Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)

 

When you combine Dave Crosby of The Byrds (Dimery’s favourite group?), Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield, and Graham Nash from The Hollies (who haven’t appeared here so presumably were more of a singles group than an album group), you get some radio-friendly country/folk/rock that’s super laid-back and mellow; the next iteration of the California sound that will make its apogee in The Eagles.

The biggest hit on this album is probably Marrakesh Express, a jaunty, dare I say twee, bimble along the hippie trail that still gets a lot of airplay. Listening to it again, I wondered if Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy was inspired by it to write National Express, taking a song about an exotic journey and turning it into a trip on a budget coach company. Maybe.

One of my favourites is the track Wooden Ships, another one from the soundtrack to the film 1969. Laid-back to the point of horizontal, with a spoken word (ish) bit where two former enemy soldiers meet and share purple berries, and some jazzy guitar soloing over an organ backing that is essentially one note played like morse code, before bursting back into the chorus. As with much of this album, it’s “nice” and unchallenging. Compare and contrast to poor old “Skip” Spence with the last album; the music styles are very similar, but here we get lush vocals (usually overlaid voices singing the same melody rather than harmonies, except for the gorgeous Helplessly Hoping) and full production, rather than a tortured rough draft. While CSN are evidently easier to listen to, in many ways Spence is more memorable.

A couple of tracks step out of the country/folk rut – Long Time Gone is more R&B, while 49 Bye-Byes is a bit poppier; I wondered if it was a track by Nash as it has a very Hollies feel to it, but it’s a Stephen Stills creation, as is much of the album. I’d always thought that this line-up was the default, and that the version with Still’s bandmate Neil Young was a blip, but from what I can tell it’s the other way around. Since Dimery seems to like Neil Young as much as he does Dave Crosby, I’m dead certain there will be at least one example of this line-up forthcoming.

[Spoiler Warning: Oh my word, no. This is certainly not the last we get of Crosby and Stills (or Young) by a long shot...]