CSNY wage war of words

StarTribune.com
Jon Bream
July 7, 2006

Hall-of-Famers Crosby, Stills, Nash&Young hit the road to sing "every protest song that we ever wrote." 
 

Stephen Stills wasn't being evasive. He just didn't think he was 
qualified to explain why Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is calling its 
summer tour Freedom of Speech '06. 


"I wasn't at the meeting," said Stills, who instead was on a solo trek 
that brought him to the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis. 


He's since been to CSNY rehearsals and knows that the legendary quartet 
will perform nearly all the material on Neil Young's new "Living With 
War" and "every protest song that we ever wrote" when it comes to St. 
Paul on Saturday. 


"We're approaching it as the 'Everything You Hate About Liberals Tour,' 
" Stills said with a chuckle before a recent rehearsal. That probably 
means "Ohio,"For What It's Worth" and "Rockin' in the Free World," among 
others. 


Stills, 61, is not concerned about the kind of fan backlash the Dixie 
Chicks experienced because of their outspoken anti-Bush views. "You know 
what you're getting when you show up at our show," Stills said. 


The point of Young's album -- and the focal point of the CSNY tour -- is 
not subtle. 


"Basically, it's, 'We've had enough of Republicans and this 
administration and this war and the lack of leadership in this country,' 
" said Stills. "I certainly concur. But I'm the guy saying, 'We're 
becoming everything we hate about liberals. Be careful.' Still, we're in 
our 60s -- if anybody can speak up, it's us." 


Stills considers himself the political centrist of CSNY, which of course 
includes David Crosby and Graham Nash. 


"Graham's always been outspoken to the point of anarchy. Dave is Dave. 
Neil is pretty ferocious when he gets his teeth on a whole thing," said 
Stills, a member of the Democratic National Committee since the 1980s. 
After the concerts, he will campaign for Democratic candidates, although 
he knows some of them "may run from me because of this tour." 


"It ain't that we're lefties. It's, 'Enough [already].' Putting on a 
uniform and serving your country is noble, but it is ignoble to throw 
[soldiers] away the same way as the last four years of Vietnam." 


A new Neil 

CSNY, which is making its third tour of the '00s, always has been 
something of a contentious group, but now, Stills says, "the sands of 
time have worn off the edges." 


Stills says Young has changed since his brain aneurysm in 2005 -- though 
not too much. 


"He's much easier to deal with," he said, but "he still gets fixated on 
his trips. He's hyper-creative." 


Stills thinks that Young, 60, who was born in Canada but has lived in 
the States most of his life, has just as much right to voice his 
protest, even though he is not a U.S. citizen. 


"Does it matter?" Stills asked. "The three of us are. I think the things 
that affect what's going on are global." 


When you add Y to CSN, it's clear that Young is the driving force. It's 
his sidemen -- including drummer Chad Cromwell, keyboardist Spooner 
Oldham and steel guitarist Ben Keith -- who make up the backup band. 


Stills looks forward to the nightly guitar exchanges he has with Young, 
his partner back in the late 1960s with Buffalo Springfield. 


"We make each other better," said Stills, who grew up on blues, folk and 
Latin music. "They were never [guitar] battles, they're conversations -- 
very respectful, wait for the other guy to be finished. It's always been 
pretty amicable. The battles have been whether he wanted to be in the 
group or not and that was years and years and years ago." 


Stills will reprise his Springfield antiwar hit from 1967, "For What 
It's Worth," which still resonates today. 


"It was the same kind of time," he said, meaning that what the 
administration said was not consistent with what was really happening. 
"It's the same kind of disconnect today. In the face of all reason, 
they're just spouting this blather. And our blather is a lot more 
accurate, I think. But it's still blather." 


He also might trot out one of CSN's most famous numbers, "Suite: Judy 
Blue Eyes," his song for ex-lover Judy Collins. 


"At this point, after so many miles on the treads, it's kind of like 
singing about a different person and from the point of view of a 
different person," said Stills, who has a toddler granddaughter. "I'm 
still a romantic. But I'm so happily married now. I have a 20-month-old 
baby. I'm fixed. I'm done." 

Maybe "Teach Your Children" is the song for him now.