"Young
Relents, Permits Reunion Tour"
By ROGER CATLIN
The Hartford Courant
April 09, 2000
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young had reunited and released their first studio album in
18 years. So someone asked Neil Young about a tour.
"They wanted to do a tour, and I said no way. I don't want anything to do with a
tour," he said. "There's no way getting around the fact that a CSNY tour would
be a nostalgia tour to a great degree. CSNY is Woodstock - it's that era, that whole
generation."
That was 1988, following the release of "American Dream."
But anyone who has followed Young through his remarkable career, from a member of
L.A.'s Buffalo Springfield to his solo triumphs, knows he is one of rock's most mercurial
talents. He's a feedback-screaming ally of Sonic Youth and Pearl Jam one minute, and a
gentle country soul who hit No. 1 with "Harvest" the next. And through the
years, he also spent time as electronic dabbler, barroom bluesman, sensitive Canadian
folkie, country artist and rockabilly revivalist.
So with the release of the current "Looking Forward," CSNY has embarked on
its first tour in a quarter-century.
Things are different from the band's last huge tour in 1974, says Elliot Roberts,
Young's manager of 32 years, who helped put together the "CSNY2K" tour, which
plays the Hartford Civic Center Wednesday. "When I managed them in the '70s, they
argued about everything - mostly business," he says. "This year we eliminated
100 percent of that."
That's partly because the musicians, ages 54 to 58, followed Young's lead in letting
Roberts handle the business - and set the ticket prices, topping out at $200. But the four
are also older, more focused and well beyond the crippling drug addictions that distracted
them decades ago.
So CSN, after doing poorly on the concert circuit and losing its record contract,
suddenly becomes part of a top-grossing tour. And there's no question that the Y is the
reason why.
Young always seemed a reluctant member of the group, since Stephen Stills first asked
him to join in 1969. By then, CSN's debut had already established it as America's first
supergroup - with David Crosby from the Byrds, Graham Nash from the Hollies and Stills
from Buffalo Springfield harmonizing on hits like "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes."
Young kept recording his solo albums while contributing to "Déjà Vu," the
second album, by a renamed Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. At their famous "second
gig" at Woodstock, Young had himself removed from all the tracks and footage by the
time the "Woodstock" film and album were released.
Young dropped out for good following a huge 1974 tour - rock's first all-stadium tour.
He traveled in his own bus, apart from the other three. And when he played dark songs from
his then-current "On the Beach," Young told writer Nick Kent, "They didn't
know if they wanted to stand on the same stage as me."
Young refused to join a subsequent studio reunion and eventually started disavowing the
group as part of a "hippie dream" in one song and "dead weight" in
another.
Young and Stills infuriated Crosby and Nash in 1976 by erasing their vocal tracks from
what became "Long May You Run" by the Stills/Young Band. Then Young disappointed
Stills by skipping the middle of their two-man tour.
Young agreed to record "American Dream" with CSN in 1988 because of a promise
he had made to rejoin the three if Crosby gave up drugs. The album was not a success.
"We weren't ready," Young tells Rolling Stone in its current issue. "I
don't think I was giving as much as I had."
There has been a softening by Young toward CSN and all of his former bands in recent
years. As he sang on "One of These Days," on 1992's "Harvest Moon,"
"I never tried to burn any bridges, though I know I let some good things go by."
It was while Young was working with Stills on a planned Buffalo Springfield boxed set
that the notion of his rejoining CSN arose.
"They were in the studio even though they didn't have a record company deal,"
Young says in press materials for "Looking Forward." "I thought that was
telling. They really were into the music. ... They were committed. Once I got there and
was back in the studio with those guys, they sounded so good, and it was great to see them
all again, that I just hung in there."
Young offered them any of the songs he had amassed for his upcoming acoustic
"Silver & Gold" album. They chose "Slowpoke" (which has the
shimmer of Young's biggest hit, "Heart of Gold"), "Out of Control,"
"Queen of Them All" and what became the title track for the album.
"Looking Forward" seemed to signal what CSNY wanted to be at the turn of the
century (not a nostalgia act) while good-naturedly accepting what they had all comfortably
become: "Writing a song, won't take very long, trying not to use the word
`old.'"
Nobody is saying what the future will hold for CSNY once the tour closes April 19 in
St. Louis. But a song on Young's spare "Silver & Gold" (out April 25),
foreshadows more reunions:
"I'd like to see those guys again and give it a shot/ Maybe now we can show the
world what we got/ But I'd just like to play for the fun we had/ Buffalo Springfield
again!"
"CSNY: A Good Concert With A Few
Glitches"
By ROGER CATLIN
The Hartford Courant
April 13, 2000
Crosby, Stills and Nash might have been left behind as a nostalgic '60s artifact had
Neil Young not stepped in to enliven them 30 years ago, and again in a current album and
tour.
Young's been challenging himself and his audience for these three decades, and coupled
with a newfound fondness for his old compadres, he certainly made the CSNY2K show at the
Hartford Civic Center Wednesday worthwhile - not only with his own electrifying
performance but by bringing out the best in the others.
Those expecting pristine harmonies of yore were likely shocked by the coarse, flat,
forced vocals of the opening ``Carry On'' - not a good omen for a not-quite sellout with
top tickets over $200.
With CSN, who have largely remained together in the intervening years, Young at first
looked as out of place as he did with Pearl Jam, sawing away at his own rhythms, out of
the frontline with the others. But taking the spotlight early with a searing ``Southern
Man,'' he quickly took the excitement up several notches. And when he sang his
``Slowpoke,'' he presented the best of the new album to an audience who cheered it because
it sounded so much like ``Heart of Gold.''
In a 31-song show that didn't end until nearly midnight, the opening 11-song set seemed
shaky until its last two numbers allowed Young and Steve Stills to begin the first of what
would be several lead guitar exchanges on ``Almost Cut My Hair'' and ``Cinnamon Girl.''
In the acoustic set, Young didn't necessarily need the trademark CSN harmony on songs
like ``Old Man,'' which work so well solo. But the vocal interplay of Graham Nash and
David Crosby was integral to the success of a slowed-down ``Guinnevere.'' And Stills
reached his stride leading a surprisingly fresh reading of ``Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,'' a
relatively new addition to this tour's repertoire.
It was the electric finale that turned a hit-and-miss concert into a good one, with
Young adding a little Woodstock '99 fire to the original's anthem, followed by bracing
versions of ``Eight Miles High'' and ``Down by the River.'' It was good to hear Young's
original guitar part on Stills' Buffalo Springfield hit ``For What It's Worth.'' And the
climactic ``Keep On Rockin' in the Free World'' all but burst the stage on fire. That
said, it was nice for the four to come back with a benedictory ``Long May You Run.''
Originally written for a car, it was adaptable to the volatile group and its audience of
fellow survivors.
The set list for CSNY Wednesday was: ``Carry On,'' ``Southern Man,'' ``Stand and Be
Counted,'' ``Pre-Road Downs,'' ``Heartland,'' ``49 Bye-Byes,'' ``Slowpoke,'' ``Marrakesh
Express,'' ``Almost Cut My Hair,'' ``Cinnamon Girl.''
``Helplessly Hoping,'' ``Our House,'' ``Old Man,'' ``Dream for Him,'' ``Looking
Forward,'' ``Someday Soon,'' ``After the Goldrush,'' `Guinevere,'' ``Suite: Judy Blue
Eyes,'' ``Out of Control,'' ``Seen Enough,'' ``Teach Your Children,'' ``Woodstock,''
``Eight Miles High,'' ``Ohio,'' ``Love the One You're With,'' ``Down By the River,'' ``For
What It's Worth,`` ``Rockin' in the Free World'' (encore) ``Long May You Run.''
