Crosby, Stills and Nash

Crosby, Stills and Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash at a concert in July 2010 (from left Stephen Stills , Graham Nash , David Crosby )
General information
Genre (s)	Country rock , folk rock
founding	1968
resolution	2016
Website	www.crosbystillsnash.com www.csny.com
Founding members
Vocals , guitar	David Crosby
Vocals, guitar	Stephen Stills
Vocals, guitar	Graham Nash
Last occupation
Vocals, guitar	David Crosby
Vocals, guitar	Stephen Stills
Vocals, guitar	Graham Nash
Vocals, guitar	Neil Young

Crosby, Stills and Nash (also abbreviated CSN and CSNY - for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young ) was a folk- oriented rock band with members David Crosby , Stephen Stills , Graham Nash and at times also Neil Young . The band is considered one of the most influential formations in rock history. Main characteristics are polyphonic vocal harmonies and political lyrics.

Band history

Establishment and immediate success

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are a so-called supergroup whose members have already been successful in other bands. David Crosby ( The Byrds ), Graham Nash ( The Hollies ) and Stephen Stills ( Buffalo Springfield ) founded CSN in 1968 after spontaneously singing together at "Mama" Cass Elliot's house . The three decided to choose their last name as the band name because they valued artistic autonomy from the start. The group's first album, Crosby, Stills & Nash , was released in 1969 and was a resounding success. It reached number 6 on the US LP charts and, with songs like Wooden Ships, met the attitude towards life of many Americans at the time of the Vietnam War . Crosby, Stills & Nash were in 1970 with one for this album Grammy as "Best New Artist" award . Since Stills had played almost all of the instruments himself, CSN needed additional staff for live performances.

They found it in drummer Dallas Taylor (previously with the psychedelic folk band Clear Light ), who had already starred on the debut album, and bassist Greg Reeves, who was a session musician for Motown . As a permanent fourth member came Neil Young (previously together with Stills at Buffalo Springfield) to work on the second album. The formation's second live performance with the new line-up took place at the Woodstock Festival . The band members were accordingly nervous and played two sets. It started with Suite: Judy Blue Eyes , an eight-minute suite about the end of the love affair between Stephen Stills and Judy Collins . They also played 4 + 20 , Marrakesh Express , Blackbird , Long Time Gone , Find The Cost of Freedom , Sea of ​​Madness and Wooden Ships . 4 + 20 did not appear until 1970 on their album Déjà Vu , which was a great success. It was the first of three consecutive CSNY albums to top the charts and establish the group as one of the world's leading rock bands. Above all, the three and four-part vocals , the outstanding songwriting qualities of all four members as well as the two outstanding lead guitarists Stephen Stills and Neil Young contributed significantly to the success of the band.

Characteristic for the band was the filigree guitar playing, full of surprising breaks and skillful changes of tempo, with powerful rhythms. In addition, CSN & Y increasingly refined their vocal technique, based on the Everly Brothers , with chorus variations and quite complicated interstrophes, which had already germinated in the previous bands of Nash (Hollies) and Stills / Young (Buffalo Springfield). In an eclectic manner, they built sophisticated song cascades, incorporating folkloric elements from the Byrds (Crosby's predecessor). The lyrics were often taken from personal life and dealt with topics such as a dedication to Joni Mitchell (in Lady Of The Island ) or the death of a friend in a car accident ( Guinnevere ); or the lyrics politicized titles , such as Chicago, Ohio, Long Time Gone , but mostly ended up in melancholy protest. CSN & Y were often seen as a version of the Beatles Americanized by country sounds, but enjoyed a comparable status due to the popularity of the fans and the number of their imitators.

Solo projects

After a summer tour in 1971, CSNY separated after personal quarrels, although they had not yet reached the peak of their success. Nonetheless, the singer-songwriter quartet never formally dissolved. The live double album 4 Way Street , which was released shortly afterwards , again reached number 1. In the aftermath of Déjà Vu and 4 Way Street , all four members concentrated on solo projects: Stephen Stills was the most successful, with his debut album of the same name in 1970 3 reached the charts. Neil Young took 8th place with After the Gold Rush , his third solo work. The debut albums by Graham Nash ( Songs For Beginners , 15th) and David Crosby ( If I Could Only Remember My Name ... , 12th) In contrast, they performed worse, but both had great success from 1972 as the duo Crosby & Nash (CN).

Crosby, Stills and Nash at a concert in August 1974 (from left Stephen Stills , David Crosby , Graham Nash )

CSN at a performance in the Georg Melches Stadium on June 17, 1983

In 1974 the band got together again for an international stadium tour and planned to release a new album. When this failed again due to personal differences, the record company Atlantic Records released the album So Far in order to continue to benefit from the popularity of the band. The fact that So Far was just a compilation of already published CSN (Y) titles without new material did not detract from their success: this album also reached number 1 in the charts. The tour was also a phenomenal success from a commercial point of view, during which solo albums by Stills and Young as well as two new CN works were released. In 1976 the third attempt at a new CSNY album failed: Stills had been able to win Young over to work on a solo LP, whereby Young suggested that Crosby and Nash should also be brought on board. Some songs were already recorded when Crosby and Nash had to meet contractual obligations as a duo. Stills and Young unceremoniously deleted all vocal parts from Crosby and Nash and released the album Long May You Run as The Stills-Young Band.

New beginning

Despite this affront, Crosby and Nash teamed up again with Stills in 1977 and - without Young, who had fallen out with Stills on the "Long May You Run" tour (once again) - the album CSN . CSN reached number 2 on the US charts and gave the band their first top 10 hit in the US: Just A Song Before I Go , written by Graham Nash, reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and became the biggest to date Single hit of the group. The album was also ridiculed. Because CSN clearly exaggerated the harmony singing at this time, reviewers saw themselves called upon to warn that the album could cause diabetes with so much involuntary self-parody. In 1982 the album Daylight Again followed , which at least reached number 8 in the charts and with Wasted On The Way (number 9) and Southern Cross (number 18) included two other successful singles. The albums were followed by CSN tours, the main burden of which, however, was increasingly borne by Stills and Nash due to Crosby's increasing drug problems. In 1985, both CSN and Neil Young played at the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia ; initially independently, then spontaneously and for the first time since 1974 for two songs in a quartet.

It wasn't until 1988 that the group played another album with Neil Young: American Dream ; Young had promised to work on an album if Crosby got his drug problems under control. Frank Laufenberg , one of the most famous German music journalists, described American Dream as "extremely strong". The record reached number 16 on the LP charts and was a success again in the 1980s after the long "dry spells" of all four members. This was followed by Live It Up (CSN) in 1990 and After the Storm (CSN) in 1994 , which by no means could build on earlier successes. With Young, the album Looking Forward was created in 1999 , which did not go beyond 26th place in the USA, but was a great success in Germany (10th place). When CSNY started the "CSNY2K" tour, it was their first tour together in 26 years. In 2004 a new double album by Crosby & Nash and a concert from 1982 were released on DVD. Looking Forward became the band's last studio album.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at a concert on the "Freedom of Speech" tour, 2006 (from left Graham Nash , Stephen Stills , Neil Young and David Crosby )

In 1997 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . Since 2010 all four members have been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice (Stills with Buffalo Springfield 1997, Crosby with the Byrds in 1991, Nash with the Hollies in 2010, Young Solo in 1995 and with Buffalo Springfield in 1997, but not with CSN). With the establishment of the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998, CSN - also without Young - were also accepted into it. All four are also members of the Songwriters Hall of Fame .

Criticism of the Iraq War

CSN (Y) have always been known for their political songs ( e.g. Wooden Ships , Ohio , Find The Cost of Freedom and War Games ) and their protest against the Vietnam War, which largely contributed to their popularity in the late 60s and early 70s. Years contributed. In 1989, when the Wall came down , Crosby, Stills and Nash spontaneously flew to Berlin , where they gave a concert on November 20th at the Brandenburg Gate . In 2006 they went on the Freedom of Speech tour to protest the Iraq war.

The tour taking place on the occasion of the upcoming congressional elections was accompanied by violent protests. In this “Freedom of Speech” concert series, the band sang songs from Neil Young's war-critical album “Living with War” as a protest against the Bush administration and the US war in Iraq. For much of the show there was a crooked peace sign on the stage screen, and at the end of the performance the band showed photos of several thousand fallen US soldiers. It is no coincidence that Neil Young named his documentary CSNY Déjà Vu about the tour and the accompanying live album (2008) after one of their early hits: Déjà Vu . It remained the last CSNY album with current material. As a trio, Crosby, Stills & Nash then released a record with demo recordings (2009) and a concert from 2012. The band's final release was the critically acclaimed box set CSNY 1974 with recordings from the famous stadium tour from 1974.

Falling out with Crosby

CSNY only appeared occasionally in groups of four after 2006, most recently in October 2013 at the Bridge School Benefit Concert, which is organized annually by Neil Young and his (then) wife Pegi. The end of the band came as a surprise - and in installments. After David Crosby made derogatory remarks about Neil Young's new girlfriend, Daryl Hannah , Young announced at a solo concert in October 2014 that he would never work with Crosby again. Crosby later apologized for his remarks.

As a trio, Crosby, Stills & Nash went on tour together, most recently they played in December 2015 at a major national event: the switching on of the Christmas lights of the National Christmas Tree by US President Barack Obama . In March 2016, however, Graham Nash announced the definitive end of the band - he also cited his now significantly deteriorated relationship with Crosby as the reason. Stephen Stills did not speak up on the matter, but in May 2016, as in the previous year, he performed with Neil Young at the Light Up The Blues Concert - a benefit event that Stills and his wife Kristen organize annually for the benefit of autistic children - and thanked Graham Nash and Neil Young in the liner notes of his album Pierced Arrow, also released in May 2016 (together with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Barry Goldberg ), but not David Crosby. In February 2018 he stated that he was interested in a reunion of CSNY; however, the other musicians didn't speak to him anymore because they were all mad at him.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		US	UK	DE	AT	CH
1969	Crosby, Stills & Nash	US6th × 4 Quadruple platinum (107 weeks)US	UK25th gold (5 weeks)UK	-	-	-
1970	Déjà-vu	US1 × 7 Seven times platinum (97 weeks)US	UK17th gold (7 weeks)UK	DE39 gold (1 week)DE	-	CH- gold CH	CSNY; a week at number 1 on the Billboard 200
1977	Csn	US2 (33 weeks) US	UK23 (9 weeks) UK	-	AT23 (4 weeks) AT	-
1982	Daylight Again	US8th platinum (41 weeks)US	-	DE31 (12 weeks) DE	-	-
1988	American Dream	US16 platinum (22 weeks)US	-	DE48 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	CSNY
1990	Live It Up	US57 (11 weeks) US	-	-	-	-
1992	CSN	US109 × 4 Quadruple platinum (2 weeks)US	-	-	-	-
1994	After the storm	US98 (2 weeks) US	-	-	-	-
1999	Looking forward	US26 (9 weeks) US	UK54 (1 week) UK	DE10 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	CSNY
2009	demos	US104 (1 week) US	-	-	-	-
Live albums
1971	4 Way Street	US1 × 4 Quadruple platinum (42 weeks)US	UK5 A (12 weeks) UK	DE- gold DE	-	-	CSNY; Recorded the 1970 tour one week at number 1 on the Billboard 200
1983	Allies	US43 (12 weeks) US	-	DE44 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	mainly recordings of the tours in 1977 and 1982, two studio recordings
2008	CSNY / Deja Vu: Live (Soundtrack)	US153 (1 week) US	-	-	-	-	CSNY; Recordings of the "Freedom of Speech" tour 2006
2014	CSNY 1974 (Deluxe)	US17 (5 weeks) US	-	-	-	-	CSNY
	CSNY 1974	US36 (4 weeks) US	UK37 A (1 week) UK	DE11 (8 weeks) DE	AT73 (1 week) AT	CH41 (2 weeks) CH	CSNY
	CSNY 1974 (Selections)	US81 (2 weeks) US	-	-	-	-	CSNY
Compilations
1974	So far	US1 × 6 Six-fold platinum (27 weeks)US	UK25 A (6 weeks) UK	-	-	-	CSNY; a week at # 1 on the Billboard 200; Greatest hits
1980	Replay	US122 (5 weeks) US	-	-	-	-
2005	Greatest hits	US24 (8 weeks) US	UK38 gold (4 weeks)UK	-	-	-

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

^A. Placement according to Chartsurfer.de

more live albums

• 2007: Live in LA (recordings of a 1982 concert)
• 2012: CSN 2012 (CD + DVD, recordings of a concert in April 2012)

more compilations

• 1991: CSN (4-CD box set with numerous unreleased recordings)
• 1998: Carry On (2-CD compilation of the CSN box set, UK:gold)

Singles

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		US	UK
1969	Suite: Judy Blue Eyes	US21 (12 weeks) US	-
	Marrakesh Express	US28 (8 weeks) US	UK17 (9 weeks) UK
1970	Woodstock	US11 (11 weeks) US	-	CSNY
	Ohio	US14 (9 weeks) US	-	CSNY
	Teach your children	US16 (11 weeks) US	-	CSNY
	Our house	US30 (9 weeks) US	-	CSNY
1977	Just A Song Before I Go	US7 (21 weeks) US	-
	Fair game	US43 (9 weeks) US	-
1982	Southern Cross	US18 (17 weeks) US	-
	Too Much Love To Hide	US69 (6 weeks) US	-
	Wasted On The Way	US9 (15 weeks) US	-
1983	War Games	US45 (9 weeks) US	-
1989	Got it made	US69 (8 weeks) US	-	CSNY

more singles

• Night Time for the Generals (1988, CSNY)
• This Old House (1989, CSNY)
• That Girl (1989, CSNY)
• Chippin 'Away (1990, CSN, presented in B1 / SFB - for the opening of the Berlin Wall)
• Live It Up (1990, CSN)
• No Tears Left (1999, CSNY)

Awards for music sales

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Germany (BVMI)	2 × gold2	-	500,000	musikindustrie.de
Switzerland (IFPI)	gold1	-	25,000	hitparade.ch
United States (RIAA)	-	28 × platinum28	28,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	4 × gold4th	-	400,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	7 × gold7th	28 × platinum28

swell

1. ↑ Cf. Frank and Ingrid Laufenberg: Frank Laufenbergs Hit-Lexikon des Rock und Pop; Berlin: Ullstein, 2007; P. 488.
2. ↑ Both were voted one of the "100 best guitarists of all time", Stills at number 28, Young at 83. [1]
3. ↑ ^{a b} Rock Lexicon / Barry Graves; Siegfried Schmidt-Joos; Bernward Halbscheffel, one-time special edition, Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2003 / Bd. 1, p. 235 f.
4. ^ Frank and Ingrid Laufenberg: Frank Laufenbergs Hit-Lexikon des Rock und Pop (in three volumes); Berlin: Ullstein, 2007; P. 489.
5. ↑ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Crosby, Stills and Nash in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
6. ↑ Portrait of the group on the homepage www.vghf.org Archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ What does modern mean here? , Spiegel interview with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Neil Young 1999 on www.spiegelonline.de [2]
8. ^ Rollingstone.com: David Crosby Apologizes to Neil Young, Daryl Hannah
9. ↑ rollingstone.com: Graham Nash: 'I Don't Want Anything to Do With' David Crosby
10. ↑ The Hollywood Reporter: David Crosby on Trump, New Songs and a possible CSNY reunion
11. ↑ ^{a b c} chart sources:
    • Crosby, Stills and Nash on the US Billboard 200 album chart
    • Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on the US Billboard 200 album chart
    • Crosby, Stills and Nash in the Official UK Charts (English)
    • Crosby, Stills & Nash at Chartsurfer.de
12. ↑ Crosby, Stills and Nash in the RIAA Sales Awards Database

Web links

• Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
• Crosby, Stills and Nash
• Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young at laut.de