Bittersweet (Crosby/Nash) (LP 2213 - 2219)

Graham Nash David Crosby  Graham Nash David Crosby (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1972) ***  

David Crosby/ Graham Nash  Wind On The Water (Vinyl and CD, Polydor Records, 1975) *** 

Crosby/ Nash  Whistling Down The Wire (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1976) *** 

Crosby/ Nash  Crosby - Nash Live (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1977) *** 

Crosby/ Nash  Another Stoney Evening (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1976) **** 

Crosby/ Nash  Crosby Nash (CD, Sanctuary Records, 2004) *** 

Crosby & Nash with Neil Young  The San Francisco Broadcast (a.k.a. The 1972 Broadcast) (CD, Plastic Soho, 2012) *** 

Genre: Pop rock 

Places I remember: Roger Marbeck gave me his vinyl copy of their first album; Wind, Whistling, Live - Real Groovy Records; Another Stoney Evening - Marbecks Records; Crosby Nash - music shop in Cambridge; CS and Y - The Warehouse.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Page 43 (the debut); Carry Me (WOTW)

Gear costume: Southbound Train (the debut)

Active compensatory factors: The duo partnership gets off to a great start with the debut in 1972. 

After they got their debut solo albums out of the way, they joined up for a tour and thus began a kind of duo career parallel with their solo albums and their work with Stills and then Young.

It all got very complicated eventually but right up until their acrimonious split in 2016 they were always appearing on each other's records or as an on-off duo. 

The uneven debut has some key songs in their canon: Southbound Train; Page 43; Immigration Man. Musicians came from Grateful Dead or The Section (a loose collection of session players).

Three years later came the more consistently good Wind on the Water, again with The Section helping out. After the '74 tour by CSN&Y they tried and failed to make a studio album, so Croz and Willy went their separate ways again. To good effect too.

It's an interesting album with some strong material on it: Carry Me (referencing the death of Crosby's mother is particularly effective); Homeward through The Haze; Fieldworker (great David Lindley guitar).

Whistling Down The Wire, by comparison, is short of strong material, but is much maligned. It's not bad, just that it could have been better and suffers a bit in comparison to Wind On The Water.

The live album from 1977 is a good'un with a stellar backing band - Tim Drummond, David Lindley, Craig Doerge, Russ Kunkel and Danny Kortchmar, and a fine selection of songs.

Highlights are: The Lee Shore (I'm a tad biased because I love every version of this song); Fieldworker; Deja Vu.

Their other official live album, Another Stoney Evening, is the 1971 unplugged concert which was eventually released in 1998.

The pair are in laid back easy rapport form, Crosby has a cold! The set list is made up of their solo songs, material from their past, or a few titles destined for their debut studio record from 1972.

Their final studio album came out unceremoniously in 2004 with a cover that made me initially think it was a Greatest Hits type compilation.

Not so! It's a good collection from the duo, but it's far too long! It's a double CD collection! Twenty songs!! Yikes. Could they actually write that much good material was my first thought.

The answer was - kinda. James Raymond writes a lot of the material and it's okay! Crosby and Nash sing his songs as if they were their own. Other songs are co-writes with Jeff Pevar or others.

Unfortunately, the Nash songs are the weak element here. Usually, his pop inclinations lift the albums but in this instance he's very downbeat. Not cool.

Best moment - a redo of My Country 'tis of Thee. 

All up, it's a bit like Whistling Down The Wire - not enough memorable moments in a loong album.

I've included the Crosby Nash and Young San Francisco broadcast here to complete the duo albums.

I first heard this on a bootleg and it all flows with great between song banter (Young arrives towards the end of the gig). Unfortunately the CD copies have separation between the songs which removes the banter and affects the flow. Pity. But it was still a great gig and the friendship between all three stars is very evident.

Where do they all belong? On to CSN albums next. Before that I'll head off to the other genre titles for a bit just to draw breath.