LOS ANGELES - Thanks to a band featuring such polished musicians as
Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar (guitar), David Lindley (fiddle and Hawaiian steel
guitar), Craig Doerge (key-boards ), Lee Sklar ( bass ) and Russ Kunkel (drums), Wind on
the Water is easily the most sophisticated album David Crosby and Graham Nash have ever
done. "For once," explains Crosby, "Graham and I wanted to make a record -
a pushy record - that came right out and collared you.
In the two months spent recording in L.A.,
Crosby and Nash continually put the tracks cut for their album to that test. Nearly every
visitor to their shared bungalow here at the Chateau Marmont was treated to a spirited
listening session. Crosby, always the showman, would bounce about the room, pointing to
the speakers during a flashy guitar solo, clutching and shimmering in the ecstasy of a
rippling piano figure. Nash, on the other hand, played along quietly on an unplugged
electric piano.
This schoolboy giddiness is typical of
Graham Nash and David Crosby's disposition these days. "We're truly and honestly
excited about the step we've taken," says Nash. "This album is a good deal
stronger and a good deal more kick-ass than anyone is expecting." Over the Sunset
Boulevard cacophony outside, he adds, as an afterthought, "But then, maybe we're not
exactly who every body thinks we are ..."
Crosby breaks in. "I don't think that
anybody will mind at all. There's no denying that these are some of the best songs we've
ever written. Listen, we don't feel chained to the past in the least. The only way you can
go back is to paint something that looks like something you did before. And that's
bullshit."
Wind on the Water is their first release
on ABC Records. While the magic of their harmonies runs through every track, the stark
tendencies of their previous collaborations have been modified in favor of lusher
arrangements. With such urgent new songs as "Homeward through the Haze" and
"To the Last Whale," it seems that Crosby and Nash have never been closer to
establishing a unique and collective musical personality.
It's been four years since their debut as
a duo Graham Nash/ David Crosby. The delay, they say, was due mostly to the on-again,
off-again re-formations of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. "Almost that entire time,
man, we were waiting to make an album that various people said they were going to
make," Nash recalls. "A couple of times we actually rehearsed all the songs and
worked out the whole album. We even had an incredible cover shot of all of us standing on
the beach in Hawaii. You see, when we [CSNY] first got together, the idea was that each of
us would leave our best stuff for the group and that would be our highest means of
expression. So we didn't want to blow our best songs on solo records."
Crosby bemoans the CSNY album, to have
been titled after Neil Young's "Human Highway," as "that great, fourth
record that will never be made." Even so, it's not hard to reassemble most of what
would have been on it. Of the 14 songs once scheduled, all but four (Crosby's "Time
after Time" and Young's "Hawaiian Sunrise," "Sailboat Song" and
"Human Highway") have since been released on the various solo projects anyway.
"New Mama" and "Mellow My Mind" can be found on Tonight's the Night;
"My Angel" and "As I Come of Age" turned up on Stills; "Another
Sleep Song," "Prison Song," "And So It Goes" and "You'll
Never Be the Same'' became part of Nash's Wild Tales. Now "Carry Me" and
"Wind on the Water" are included on Wind on the Water. We still might make
another album one day," Nash guesses. "But now is not the time."
Graham was the first, with Wild Tales, to
release an album of potential CSNY contributions. "I was frustrated. Those songs were
just cramming up my head. And all I saw in store for the group was more procrastinating. I
had to get that album out of my system."
Released with little record company
fanfare, the album sold disappointingly. Today, Nash still wonders if the reason wasn't
other than lack of promotion. "It was a dark-feeling record, I admit it. I was
feeling a lot of bitterness and resentment at the time. That was where I was at. I mean, I
look at the black and white album cover now - me looking like a ghost - and I get the
chills. I learned a valuable lesson from that album. One has to balance out the emotion of
his art. Like Joan [Joni Mitchell]. She'll take you to the depths of her soul but always
bring you back up again ... Still, I don't think I'm sorry I made that album."
"You'd be a fool if you were,"
Crosby blurts out from across the room. "Your frustration turned out, in the long
run, to be the right assessment of the situation. It wasn't ever gonna happen and you were
the first one to see it. The last time we tried, there wasn't anything on tape. That's the
bottom line."
Graham: "But that's all behind us.
And there are no doors closed anywhere, to anyone. The frustration of hanging on is all
behind us."
So now it's back to, as Graham jokes,
"just us two retread folkies." Says David, "I'd rather play as Crosby/Nash
than any other combination." Including going solo? "I've done it for a great
deal of time and I find it very satisfying. And frankly, you can make more money by
yourself than you can any other way, as two people I know will tell you." Crosby
laughs good-naturedly. "The real joy for me is the two of us. It's been that way from
the front. It's always been the most special.
"We're not looking for another
combination. I'll tell you, man, it's not that we have an aversion to it, but it's close
to that. There's been no real alteration in how we feel about anyone behind us, clear back
to cats in bands from a long time ago. We actually still like everybody. What happened was
we took a look ahead and found a bunch of people totally receptive to our new songs. We
formed a band that expresses our music the best that I've ever been able to do with
anybody. They treat our music with respect and we treat them with equal respect. And even
though they're the most sought-after session musicians in the world, man, they'll be
touring with us every year. That blows us out."
While waiting for their band members to
free themselves from various commitments, David and Graham have been touring - playing
only acoustic instruments. "They've been really special shows," Nash said.
"It's great when you have that personal relationship with the audience. They sense
the spontaneity. It's fun and it sets us up perfectly for going electric." That
should happen on a national tour scheduled for mid-October.
Crosby and Nash feel that working with
James Taylor was a turning point. "We went to work with James," smiles Graham,
"walked into the studio and did the vocals for 'Mexico' and 'Lighthouse' [from
Gorilla] in one evening. And it was fun. We could barely stop laughing long enough to
sing."
Crosby: "That's not like spending
three bitter weeks in a studio and coming up with nothing on the tapes. The contrast is
stark, to say the least. You talk about your black and white, man, it was glaring there.
We went to work with Carole King - another perfect example - and made three of the nicest
vocal records that we've ever made - in three hours.
"We're not looking to grab anybody or
make any more supergroups. If you wanna know the truth, I don't like being big. I don't
think it's fun. If big is baseball stadiums, I'll take a pass. If that's the only way CSNY
can play, CSNY will never play again."
Still, both are hoping for a successful
single from Wind on the Water. "It's important," Graham admits. "We talk
about how we've made a break with our past, but no one will know about it unless something
attracts their attention. We're not going to sit down and pick apart the last Carpenters
single for the latest tricks, you know, but we're willing to tour and work at getting our
music out there."
Ever since their split with manager
Elliott Roberts last year, Crosby and Nash have guided their own careers with help from
former Roberts associate Leslie Morris. In negotiating their new record deal, the artists
even visited offices with an audition tape of their own album. "Our main problem was
getting away from Atlantic," Crosby says, "which we did very carefully. We
wanted to go to ABC. I think they have every intention of making themselves a bigger
company. It's almost too good to be true. We wanted to be someplace where they saw us as
what we think we are, one of the best duos there is. Atlantic still tended to look at
Graham and me as the left-over pieces of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
"As far as managing ourselves, what's
so complex? We've got a good relationship with our record company and we'll go on tour
every now and then. That's all that really matters. Why give somebody 15% to make phone
calls? What else do we have to do? Watch Lucy reruns?"