American Dream (album)
| American Dream | ||||
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| Studio album by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young | ||||
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Publication |
3rd November 1988 |
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| Label (s) | Atlantic Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
14th |
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running time |
57m 31s |
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American Dream is the second studio album by the rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young . The reunion of Crosby, Stills and Nash with Neil Young 18 years after their debut album Déjà Vu was eagerly awaited, but could not, artistically or commercially, build on the great success of Déjà Vu .
To the album
After their success with the albums Daylight Again (Crosby, Stills & Nash, 1982) and Rust Never Sleeps (Neil Young, 1979), all four musicians had gone through artistically and commercially difficult phases in their careers since 1983: David Crosby , who mainly worked with had to contend with massive drug problems and even spent nine months in prison, had hit rock bottom due to the vocal problems associated with drug use and was not even performing as a musician at the time. Stephen Stills had failed buyers and critics alike with his solo album Right by You in 1984 and then largely disappeared from the public. The same thing happened to Graham Nash , whose solo album Innocent Eyes (1986) was rated equally badly and sold even worse than Stills' Right by You . Neil Young submitted a whole series of musically directionless works to fans and critics between 1983 and 1988, none of which, however, can be described as a chart success.
With American Dream , Neil Young kept a promise he had made to David Crosby: He would work on a CSNY album if Crosby should finally get his serious drug problems under control. Crosby, on the other hand, had actually gone through a successful rehab in prison, so that nothing stood in the way of the album. American Dream was planned as a concept album about the American dream, but in the opinion of many critics it could hardly convey this. While the different songwriting talents of all four musicians had previously led to stylistically diverse, but musically dense releases, American Dream collected mostly average material that "simply missed the spark that made this group so much more than the sum of its parts" as the Allmusic guide stated. Still, the album contained some real highlights, including Neil Young's This Old House and David Crosby's Compass ; and the single Got It Made , a composition by Stephen Stills and Neil Young, was quite successful: although it only reached number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, it was 11th on the AC charts and even first on the Conquering mainstream rock charts. Regarding the half-baked album, the review of Rolling Stone magazine stated: "Despite pleasant melodies, now and then an interesting song and the characteristic harmony songs, American Dream is mostly a bore." ("Despite pleasant melodies, the occasional interesting song and the signature harmonies." "American Dream is, for the most part, a snoozefest.") On the other hand, the Allmusic-Guide rightly noted in retrospect that the expectations of the album were so high that the critics of the time thought it was much worse than it actually was . The German music journalist Frank Laufenberg even called the album "extremely strong".
American Dream reached number 16 on the US charts and even received platinum status. It was a success again for all four musicians after a long “dry spell” - if not in an artistic sense, then in a commercial one.
While it was the missing album after the successful CSNY tour in 1974 that disappointed the fans, the tour was now canceled after a successful album because Neil Young wanted to devote himself to his solo career again.
Track list
- American Dream (Young) - 3:15
- Got It Made (Stills / Young) - 4:36
- Name of Love (Young) - 4:28
- Don't Say Goodbye (Nash / Vitale) - 3:23
- This Old House (Young) - 4:44
- Nighttime For The Generals (Crosby / Doerge) - 4:20
- Shadowland (Ryan / Nash / Vitale) - 4:33
- Drivin 'Thunder (Stills / Young) - 3:12
- Clear Blue Skies (Nash) - 3:05
- That Girl (Stills / Vitale / Glaub) - 3:27
- Compass (Crosby) - 5:19
- Soldiers Of Peace (Nash / Doerge / Vitale) - 3:43
- Feel Your Love (Young) - 4:09
- Night Song (Stills / Young) - 4:17
Instrumentation and instruments
- David Crosby : lead vocals (6.11), acoustic guitar (9.11), vocals
- Stephen Stills : lead vocals (2,8,10,14), electric guitar (3,4,6,8,9,10,14), keyboards (1,2), bass synth (4), guitar Solo (6), percussion (8), acoustic guitar (12), synthesizer (14), handclaps (14), bass (14), vocals
- Graham Nash : lead vocals (4,7,9,12), piano (4), electric guitar (6), sound effects (7), keyboards (9), vocals
- Neil Young : lead vocals (1,3,5,8,13,14), electric guitar (1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,12,14), percussion (3rd , 13), piano (4), all instruments (5), harmonica (11), acoustic guitar (13), vocals
More musicians
- Joe Vitale: drums (1,2,3,4,6,8,9,14), synthesizers (4), almost all instruments (7), sound effects (7), percussion (8,13), keyboards ( 9,10,11,12), Vibes (13)
- Bob Glaub: Bass (1,2,3,6,8,9,10,12)
- Joe Lala: percussion (2,7,9,10), drums (12)
- Niko Bolas, Tim Mulligan, Tim Foster, Brentley Walton: Handclaps (1)
- Brian Bell: Synthesizer Programming (5)
- Michael Finnigan : Hammond B3 organ (6), keyboards (12), background vocals (12)
- Rhett Lawrence: additional synthesizer programming
- The Volume Dealers Choir: Closing Refrain (12)
- Bill Boydstun, Don Gooch, Bill Lazerus: Sound Effects (7)
- Chad Cromwell : drums (10)
- The Bluenotes, Larry Cragg , Steve Lawrence, Tommy Bray, Claude Cailliet, John Fumo: Bläser (10)
supporting documents
- ^ Rolling Stone: American Dream. Retrieved September 13, 2014 .
- ↑ The album reached number 75 on the US allmusic charts and was his only solo album in the 1980s
- ↑ The album only reached number 136 in the US charts allmusic (((Innocent Eyes> Charts & Awards> Billboard Albums)))
- ↑ Everybody's Rockin ' (1983) reached the highest chart position with position 46 allmusic (((Everybody's Rockin'> Charts & Awards> Billboard Albums)))
- ↑ See the review on www.allmusic.com allmusic (((American Dream> Overview)))
- ↑ Chart placement according to www.billboard.com allmusic
- ↑ Available online at www.rollingstone.com American Dream by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young | Rolling Stone Music | Music Reviews
- ↑ See the review at www.allmusic.com allmusic (((American Dream> Review)))
- ^ Frank and Ingrid Laufenberg: Frank Laufenbergs Hit-Lexikon des Rock und Pop (in three volumes); Berlin: Ullstein, 2007; P. 489.