Secrets of survival: Crosby, Stills & Nash make up for lost time
By ALAN SCULLEY
Asbury Park Press and the Home News Tribune
5 September 2003These days, Crosby, Stills, Nash -- and in a different sense, Young -- appear to be making up for lost time.
The foursome, who had last recorded together in 1988, reunited in 1999 to record a studio CD, "Looking Forward," which was followed in 2000 and 2002 by full tours.
A live Crosby Stills Nash & Young DVD, which Nash said will mostly be culled from a 2002 Tacoma, Wash., show, will be released this fall.
Young, who has always maintained a prolific solo career, has kept up his pace, releasing a CD, "Are You Passionate," in 2002 and an ambitious new studio CD, " "Greendale," this summer.
The other three members, meanwhile, have been stepping up the pace as well.
Nash released his first solo CD in more than 15 years last fall called "Songs For Survivors."
Crosby, whose drug problems of the 1970s and early '80s had been a considerable source of frustration and turmoil in the group, in 2001 released a CD, "Just Like Gravity," with his side band, CPR, and plans to team up with Nash on a duo CD following the current Crosby Stills & Nash summer tour.
Stills, meanwhile, has a solo CD ready for release later this year. "It's a Stephen Stills album with everything that that would entail, good rock 'n' roll, some good singing," Nash said. "It's good. Stephen's good, man. What can you say?"
There is also a unique group project that should be released within the next couple of months. The CD, which will be sold at concerts and through the trio's Web site, will collect the solo demo versions of some of Crosby, Stills & Nash's biggest hits as they were first performed by the group member who wrote the song.
"I think that it's interesting from a songwriter's point of view," Nash said of the CD. "So these were the very first time these songs were ever put to tape and they do show something. They show a raw energy, and when you listen to my demo of 'Teach Your Children' and then compare it to the record of 'Teach Your Children,' it's quite amazing."
The various projects illustrate one of the key points that has been made by the four musicians since they came together -- first as a trio on their landmark 1969 "Crosby, Stills & Nash" album, followed a year later by "Deja vu," the first CD to feature Young as a full member of the group -- at times, they would work in different combinations so long as the group existed.
But Nash working solo has been a rare occurrence. His last solo effort, "Innocent Eyes," was released in 1986, preceded by "Earth and Sky" in 1980, "Down the Road" in 1973 and "Songs for Beginners" in 1972.
Nash had a simple explanation for avoiding the solo format for so long.
"I enjoyed being a member of a band," he said. "I've always preferred being a member of a band than being a solo artist.
But eventually, Nash found that he had built a backlog of songs -- a few of which had existed for 20 years or more -- that weren't going to end up on CS&N or CSN&Y CDs.
"Songs For Survivors" finds Nash, who first came to fame as a member of the hit-making British pop group the Hollies, in a familiar musical setting, as tunes like " "Blizzard of Lies" and "Nothing In the World" are appealing acoustic-based songs that draw from folk and country. The sound goes slightly poppier on "Lost Another One" (dedicated to late Beatle George Harrison) and " "Where Love Lies Tonight," but remains very much in character with such past Nash songs as "Teach Your Children" or "Our House."
Like the albums made by either Crosby, Stills & Nash or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, "Songs For Survivors" finds Nash shifting between personal and topical material. Songs like "I'll Be There For You" and "Where Love Lies Tonight" reflect on Nash's happy marriage.
By contrast, "Liar's Nightmare" and "Dirty Little Secret" show Nash's strong social conscience. The former song, which Nash said was written in a stream of consciousness style, addresses a host of ills, from political misconduct to the tattered American dream."Dirty Little Secret," co-written with Russ Kunkel (who co-produced "Songs For Survivors" is a forceful commentary on racism that references the race riots in Greenwood, Oak., (a Tulsa suburb) in 1921.
"It was a song that Russell wanted to write about a story that he had heard about this young girl, a black girl, who was walking home from school and got raped and would never tell her family," Nash said. "And that wasthe dirty little secret, right. It didn't quite pay off for me, and I was struggling and I was thinking where should this song go lyrically and where do these changes want to go when I was watching '60 Minutes II' about three years ago.
"And they had a piece on about the race riots in Tulsa, in Greenwood,"he said. "In one of the interviews with one of the survivors of that tragedy, right, this guy says, 'Yeah, I was just a young boy of about 6 and I had to get under the bed and these white men come in and one of them stood on my fingers and my sister had to put her hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming. But all of these years it's just been a dirty little secret.' Now we had the title already, but when I heard that I went, 'Holy s---, this is what this song's got to be about.' So I did some research andread books and read articles and newspaper things about the riots and wrote 'Dirty Little Secret.' "
As for future group recording projects, Nash said nothing is in the works, but that could change at any time.
"We just take life day by day," he said. "And if Neil calls up tomorrow and says, 'Hey man, I've got four songs. Do you guys have any songs?' And we all do, of course, because we're constantly writing, (and) then we're up andrunning again."
As those comments indicate, the sometimes tumultuous relationships between Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are in a good place at the moment.
"We're smarter, Nash observed. "You know, we've been together for along time. I mean, 35 years is a long time. We're just smarter about each other now. I know the mine field here. I know my way through this mine field. And everybody else is learning their own way through the mine field."
Nash, who has long been considered the mediator between his bandmates, also said it's easier now to settle disputes when they arise.
"I try to keep us focused on the music," he said. "When we start flying off the handle and disliking each other for some really silly reason, I need to put out the fires. I guess I'm just a fireman."
"I've seen so much music lost, and it pisses me off," he said, alluding to the many temporary splits that the group members have endured. "Life is short and life is fragile and we should get on with it."