Long time gone (Crosby Stills & Nash) (LP 2229 - 2236)

Crosby Stills & Nash   Crosby Stills & Nash (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1969) *****  

Crosby Stills & Nash     CSN (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1977) ***  

Crosby Stills & Nash     Daylight Again (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1982) **** 

Crosby Stills & Nash  Allies (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1983) **

Crosby Stills & Nash  Santa Cruz Earthquake Benefit 1989 (CD, Shady Grove Records, 2016) ***

Crosby Stills & Nash  Live It Up (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1990) **

Crosby Stills & Nash  After The Storm (CD, Atlantic Records, 1994) ****

Crosby Stills & Nash  Demos (CD, Rhino Records, 2009) *

Genre: pop rock

Places I remember: Either Marbecks Records; Real Groovy Records; JB Hi-Fi.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Long Time Gone

Gear costume: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

Active compensatory factors: From humble beginnings grew a multi-headed behemoth. 

In 1969 it was just the titular three plus Dallas Taylor (drums) making a warm, mainly acoustic sounding classic. I'm as guilty as the next blogger misusing that word, but in this case it is the 5 star classic record that leads towards all the grander and more bloated drug fueled excess of the seventies and eighties.

All three came from successful groups offering superior material and, I guess with all those egos in play, they had to present their best songs to be able to make the cut. So, Stills has Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (what a song to lead off the album!!), Crosby has Guinnevere (gasp) and Long Time Gone, Nash has Marrakesh Express.

Oh, and like John/Paul/George and the Wilson/Love voices, the harmonies are a once-in-a-lifetime mesh of three distinctive singers that could never be replicated elsewhere.

What a glorious noise. They would never sound this simple and pure, this sharp, this crystal clear, this together, again.

Record covers reveal lots. Although presented in reverse order on the old couch, this one is a perfect summation of the trio - together but different. Crosby and Nash meet the viewer's gaze, Stills looks left slightly in Henry Ditz' superb portrait. They are confident young men, comfortable in their clothes, individuals but knowing they have strength by being in a trio.

By 1977 a lot had changed - other records, other tours, other influences, other songs. When they reconvened, they had strong material from each member and CSN became their strongest selling album. I like it, but not as much as the 1969 version.

CSN's cover also reveals a lot! This time, although set out in correct CSN order, on board The Mayan, only Stills meets the viewer, while Crosby looks distracted to his right and Nash smiles away to his left. Changes.

Key highlight: Nash's Just A Song Before I Go.

Five years later came their third Daylight Again, and if I continue to analyse covers, this one is just plain weird. Are the three flying saucers supposed to be CSN? Who knows - maybe it's their version of that Byrds album where a horse replaced Crosby on the cover, because he was pretty much AWOL from Daylight Again - only one song, albeit one of his absolute best - Delta, and only drafted onto the album because the record execs demanded Stills and Nash include him rather than use a substitute.

Why? Because this is 1982 and Croz was a mess!! It would take him reaching rock bottom and a jail term in the mid-eighties before he'd turn things around. A careful look at the cover reveals that Crosby actually only appears on two tracks, the rest have Timothy B Schmit or Michael Finnigan doing Crosby's harmony parts.

Perversely, I really like Daylight Again. It has some strong material from Nash and Stills. Highlights are the aforementioned Delta, plus Wasted On The Way, Southern Cross and Daylight Again/Find The Cost Of Freedom.

It is hard hearing Song To Susan though, given Nash's actions in 2016. I bet even he winces if he hears it these days.

Allies came out a year later but it is in some ways an exercise in papering over the cracks (no pun intended). Some stray studio tracks (War Games is good though) and some live tracks from various tours make up the album. Tellingly the two Crosby songs come from a 1977 tour.

Highlights are few and far between - did we really need live versions from a year before? The one exception would be Crosby's version of For Free from 1977 (revisited on his final studio album).

The cover? A real mess which is appropriate for 1983. Crosby was still giving in to his addictions and hardly with it in a live situation.

After a pause of a few years came their next studio album, Live It Up (featuring another shockingly bad cover - sausages on sticks??). Around the same time Crosby was back to good form on the late eighties tours. 

The live double CD at Santa Cruz is testament to his recovery. It's just the three guys on guitars and vocals. They do well - harmonies quickly lock in on Wasted On The Way and we're off! It's going really well and then they do a sublime version of Guinnevere. 

It's a radio broadcast from The Catalyst (KUSP-FM) on Nov 9, 1989, and worth seeking out! The between song banter/humour is heartwarming and you can skip some of the lengthy speeches if you wish.

Live It Up came just after the Santa Cruz show and for some reason Crosby is fairly anonymous again - only a couple of co-writes on offer. The album is a bit meh - the drum and synth sounds are of the time and the material is okay but apart from Still's Haven't We Had Enough (him solo with no drums) there isn't much that's truly memorable.

After The Storm continues the CSN story in a stronger vein, albeit with diminishing returns - it was their lowest selling album. Although only Crosby/Stills' Camera is worthy of being called a real highlight, the rest is pleasant, standard CSN fare (which is to say - high quality musicianship and harmonies). It's helpful that the drum sound has improved markedly, plus Croz is more of a presence. One of my favourite CSN albums.

I've included the Demos album for completion sake, even though it includes solo and CSN material. It's interesting, like all demos are as blueprints, but given they were never supposed to be heard, it's one for collectors (so one star).

Having said that, Crosby's tentative lyrics and music for Long Time Gone is a nice way to finish the CSN run down.

Where do they all belong? Next up in this series that began with Crosby and then Crosby/Nash is the third and final installment when Shakey joins the party. Deep breath! There are a lot of CSN&Y albums to come.