In a multitude of ways Crosby, Stills,
Nash and Young represent the summit at which the best rock music has arrived. Rock rubbish
is still with us, but there is also the music which they and many groups like them play;
fresh, literate, brilliantly performed, and a blend of highly diverse influences - rock
through folk to Bach.
Thus 'pop', a ridiculously inadequate
word, has reached an adulthood which the CSN and Y concert at the Albert Hall last week
exemplified. For one and a quarter hours they played what Dave Crosby called 'wooden
acoustic music' -compositions exquisite in their easy bluesy rhythms, redolent of folk
music's nostalgia, but intricately melodic and subtly constructed. Each player is a master
of the acoustic guitar, and the group's light-toned close-harmony singing is beautiful to
hear. It has all the control and skills of traditional close-harmony groups from way back,
while sounding totally modern.
Later in the evening, CSN and Y changed to
electric guitars, switching style from what it's convenient to call country rock to the
tough acid rock whose blow-torch player is the conventional idea of late-sixties pop. In
this last hour, with the aid of a drummer (Dallas Taylor) and bass guitarist (Greg
Reeves), the sacrificed the blessed individuality which their other style bestows. They
played, though, with marvellous skill and an infectious enjoyment which seemed to hint at
a send-up.
This group (two Americans, one English,
one Canadian) are totally absorbed with music. Decibels for decibels' sake,
pelvis-pushing, simulated sex and the rest of the rock ragbag have nothing to do with
their music or their easy informality on stage. Together, or as soloists, their art
demands attention as close as would be given to a classical string quartet - and gets it
from ever-growing audiences. Craftsmanship and care are their watch-words, as the Crosby,
Stills and Nash album issued last year on Atlantic, before Neil Young joined, continues to
proclaim. It could come to be known as the watershed LP marking musical sixties from
seventies.