FROM THE VAULT: 1969
Crosby, Stills And Nash Crosby, Stills And Nash
(Atlantic)
As the supergroup to end all supergroups, Crosby, Stills and Nash were tipped to be the American Beatles when they formed in 1968, reportedly at the insistence of Mamas And The Papas singer Cass Elliott.
Although clashing egos, drug problems and health scares stopped them living up to such expectations, their debut album certainly showed they had the musical talent to give the Fab Four a run for their money.
Driven by the beautiful harmonies of former Byrds man David Crosby and Hollies alumnus Graham Nash, the album is a rich collection of folk psychedelia that blended themes of hippy idealism with the political paranoia prevalent in the late 1960s.
With the opening track, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, CSN stamped their lush sound on the world. A seven-and-a-half-minute epic, it flits between folk, pop and blues like an overture setting the scene for the rest of the album.
There are some painfully irritating moments, all the responsibility of Nash, whose songwriting skills were no match for those of Crosby or former Buffalo Springfield main man Stephen Stills. Marrakech Express, while an international hit, is missable, as is the Englishman's painful Lady Of The Island.
Nash's worth, however, is proven over and over in his voice, which sounds almost designed by nature to complement Crosby's. Guinnevere, supposedly a song about one of Crosby's failed relationships, pairs the two in one of pop's most memorable harmonic statements.
If Nash was the vocals man and Stills the melodic genius, Crosby was the words man. Wooden Ships, a desolate and harrowing tale of post-nuclear despair, tapped into the N-bomb paranoia that marked the era, a time when the heady liberalism of the swinging 60s began to segue into the renewed conservatism of Nixon's 1970s.
CSN never subsequently managed to match the level of creativity of their debut masterpiece. Even co-opting Neil Young to augment the line-up a year later couldn't reignite the spark; the new boy's dark brooding presence became more of a distraction than a benefit.
As with all great partnerships, egos came to the fore and effectively shattered the promise of those first fruits. CSN, and occasionally Y too, continued to record together and became a huge touring act, but sadly, they never fulfilled their earlier promise.