Q
What
is the oldest CSN tour joke?
A The
bass player's home town. They ALWAYS announce that "Our bass player
is from right here in (fill in the name of the locale)". It first
started at Detroit, on December 16, 1969, during the first CSNY tour, and
they've used it for EVERY bass player since then -- "Jumping Gerald"
Johnson is just the latest guy to accept the joke!
Q
What is the CSN&Y set list of
Woodstock 1969?
A
Set One
-
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,
-
Blackbird,
-
Helplessly Hoping,
-
Guinnevere,
-
Marrakesh Express,
-
4+20,
-
Mr. Soul*,
-
Wonderin',
-
You Don't Have To Cry.
Set Two:
-
Pre-road Downs,
-
Long Time Gone,
-
Bluebird ,
-
Sea Of Madness**,
-
Wooden Ships,
-
Find
The Cost Of Freedom,
-
49 bye-byes.
* Many people say that "Mr. Soul" is a rehearsal and was not actually played on stage. It was
played as an acoustic duet with fellow ex-Springfield member Stephen Stills at the
Woodstock festival in 1969, but it is not certain whether it was played on the main stage
performance or whilst they were rehearsing backstage.
** It is not unlikely the "Sea Of Madness" version that appears on the Woodstock album, is
recorded at Fillmore East on 20 Sept 1969.
All CSN&Y set lists can be found at the
Thomas Hempel site.
Q
Did Stephen Stills make a mistake during
"Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"?
A Stills makes a mistake on the second verse of the
"trilogy". Instead of 'Voices of the angels', he sings 'Lacy lilting Lady.'
But then, without missing a beat, they sing the rest of the second verse. They then do the
third verse correctly.
Q
When
was the last time CSNY performed at Woodstock?
A
CSNY went back to Yasgur's farm during
their "Freedom Of Speech '06" tour on August 13, 2006. CSNY were
not the only Woodstock veterans returning to the site. Grateful Dead
bassist Phil Lesh was playing there July 9th with his Phil Lesh &
Friends band.
Q
Who
was Max Yasgur?
A
Joni Mitchell's song "Woodstock"
includes a reference to "Yasgur's Farm": "Well, I came upon a child of God / He was walking along the road / And I asked him, 'Tell where are you going?' / This he told me / Said, 'I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm, / Gonna join in a rock and roll band.'"
Max B. Yasgur (December 15, 1919—February 8, 1973) was the owner of a dairy farm in Bethel, New York on which the Woodstock Festival was held in August 1969.
In 1971, two years after the Festival, Max Yasgur sold the farm and eighteen months later died of a heart attack at the age of 53. He was given a full page obituary in Rolling Stone Magazine.
Between performances on the first day of the Festival, Yasgur briefly addressed the crowd. Michael Wadleigh's 1970 film record of the event includes the speech.
Four-and-a-half months after the Festival, on January 7, 1970 he was sued by his neighbors for property damage caused by "flower children" who attended the gathering. The damage to Yasgur's own property was much more extensive, and over a year later he received a $50,000 settlement to pay for the near-destruction of his dairy farm.
Q
What
did he tell the crowd?
A
Addressing the crowd at Woodstock on August 15, 1969: "I'm a
farmer...(interrupted by a cheer from the audience)...I don't know how to
speak to twenty people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But I
think you people have proven something to the world — not only to the
Town of Bethel, or Sullivan
County, or New
York State; you've proven something to the world. This is the largest
group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that
there would be this size group, and because of that you've had quite a few
inconveniences as far as water, food, and so forth. Your producers have
done a mammoth job to see that you're taken care of... they'd enjoy a vote
of thanks. But above that, the important thing that you've proven to the
world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have
children that are older than you are — a half million young people can
get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but
fun and music, and I God Bless You for it!".
Q
What
happened to the location of the concert?
A
In 1997, the site of the concert and 1,400 surrounding acres was purchased by Alan Gerry for the purpose of creating the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. It opened on July 1, 2006 with a performance of the New York Philharmonic. On August 13, 2006,
Crosby Stills Nash & Young performed to 16,000 fans at the new Center — exactly 37 years after their historic performance at Woodstock. A new interpretive center dedicated to the Woodstock Festival and its meaning is scheduled to open in the summer of 2007.
A plaque has been placed commemorating the festival. The field and the stage area remains preserved and well kept in its rural upstate New York setting. On the field are the remnants of a neon flower and bass from the original concert. In the middle of the field, there is a totem pole with wood carvings of Jimi Hendrix on the bottom, Janis Joplin in the middle, and Jerry Garcia on top. A concert hall has been erected up the hill, and the fields of the old Yasgur farm are still visited by people of all generations.
A man points to where the original stage stood in 1969.
Q Why didn't Graham Nash and CSNY's drummer
Dallas Taylor almost play at Woodstock?
A
The helicopter that Graham Nash and Dallas Taylor were on was less than 25
feet off the ground when the tail rotor failed and it began to spin. The
helicopter almost crashed and Nash and Taylor were almost killed.
Q Where and when were the tracks on 4 Way Street
played?
A Pete Long's "Ghosts On The
Road" book lists the identifiable tracks (all 1970) as:
- New York, June 5: Laughing
- New York, June 6:
Ohio, King Midas
In Reserve
- New York, June 7: Find The Cost Of
Freedom, Black Queen, Loner/Cinnamon Girl/Down By The River
- Chicago, July 5:
Chicago, Cowgirl
In The Sand, Don't Let It Bring Your Down
- Chicago, July 6: On The Way Home,
Teach Your Children, Right Between The Eyes, 49 Bye-Byes/America's
Children, Southern Man
Perhaps the remaining
tracks are
from the LA shows. Long says "Two shows at the LA Forum were recorded although
Atlantic do not appear to have filled master numbers for these recordings... A similar
puzzle surrounds the recording of the July 5 and 6 concerts in Chicago".
Q
On the subject of 4 Way
Street, is there any reason why we only
get 33 seconds of Suite: Judy Blue Eyes?
A
Graham Nash: "We already
had the CS&N record out and the single of SJB so we decided to only
give a short sample of the song. Maybe we should have put the whole performance on 4 Way
Street because you can get more time on a CD but we made a mistake. Sorry."
Q
What do Crosby and Nash say at the beginning of "Right
Between The Eyes" on 4 Way Street?
A Crosby screws up at
the beginning, and the conversation between he and Nash goes something like
this:
Crosby: "Sorry...I never would have believed that you could tune and start on the
same note, but you could do it."
Nash: "I didn't believe it either..."
Crosby: "He's quicker than most normal human beings, and sometimes I
forget. He
is very quick. You don't want to play Mumbly-peg with him, he'll steal your leg!"
Graham Nash then goes on to explain the origins of the song "Right Between the
Eyes".
Q
What is
Mumbly-peg?
A
Mumbly-peg is a game that is actually talked about more than it is played.
The purpose of the game is to toss a knife into the ground with the aim to
land it with its point in the ground. If the participant loses, the opponent
hammers a peg into the ground, which the loser must draw out with their
teeth. There are several intercollegiate Mumbly-peg teams, the most famous of
which is the Toothless Trouncers of St. Miniver's, Winnipeg. In one year
alone, they came out 15 and 3, with only minor dental surgery required during
off-season.
Q
What song has Neil performed most in concert?
A
"Heart of Gold" from 1972's Harvest is Neil Young's only number one hit single in his long musical career. The song, on the surface, seems to be a plea for the redemption of all-conquering love. With James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt singing backup, the song was a made for radio hit waiting to happen. And amazingly, the song continues to be among the most requested and performed in concert.
Q
How did the Stills-Young tour end in 1976?
A
From a fan: "Neil bailed
on Stills in the middle of the 1976 Stills/Young tour. After a gig in South Carolina,
there was a review where the writer said Neil sang badly. Stills went to Atlanta for the
next gig. While he was waiting for Neil to show up, received a telegram that said
something to the effect of "Funny how things that start spontaneously end
spontaneously. Eat a peach, Neil".
He (Neil) later blamed it on his throat. Stephen was given no notice.
Photograph: Nancy Richard
Q
What does "Eat a peach"
mean?
A When Duane Allman
was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident he had run into the side of a truck
carrying a harvest of Georgia Peaches...hence the name of the Allman Bros
album Eat A Peach. Since then people have used the saying for things coming to an end.
But other people say the expression comes from TS Eliot's poem "the
love song of J Alfred Prufrock" which contains the line 'Do I dare to eat a
peach?'
Perhaps peaches can be quite messy to eat and a lot of the juice might end up on your
shirt (therefore you'd need to be brave enough to risk being messy when you eat a
peach)?
Q
When was the first time that CSN&Y perform together for an
audience?
A
August 16, 1969 at the Chicago Auditorium
Theatre, supported by Joni Mitchell.
Q
When did CSN&Y perform a complete concert together for the
last time?
A
Johnny
Rogan: "The Bill Graham
Tribute Concert at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park features an onstage reunion before
300,000 people. Date: November 3, 1991."
David Crosby at the Bill
Graham Tribute
(Photograph from Johnny
Rogan's book "The Visual Documentary")
More information
about Bill Graham in the General section.
Q
Was that the last time they played live before an
audience?
A No, the last time the 4 played together
was on 16 September, 1997 at the Fillmore when Neil suddenly joined them for the last two
numbers.
Q
Really...?
A No, after the CSNY2K
tour they played their latest concert at the Bridge Benefit on October
the 29th, 2000. And the
CSNY Tour
Of America. And.. hopefully many more times after the 2006 Freedom of
Speech Tour.
Q
What is the Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert all about?
A Neil Young performs annually to benefit the
Bridge School. The
Bridge School is an educational program dedicated to ensuring that children with severe speech and physical impairments achieve full participation in their communities through the use of augmentative & alternative means of communication (AAC) and assistive technology (AT) applications. For more information, go to The Bridge School
website.
Q Is there an overview of all CSN&Y
concerts?
A Check the Thomas Hempel
website with the list of "all" CSN&Y shows and set
lists.
Q Back
to the CSNY2K tour: what is the story behind the song "Take Me Out To The
Ballgame"?
A CSNY have turned the short
break between 2nd and 3rd sets, where they didn't leave the stage, into their own version
of the 7th inning stretch.
The song itself has been around for ages. Over the years, the tradition developed
that the crowd at a baseball game would stand up and stretch at the seventh-inning mark of
a (usually) nine-inning game. The tradition was spurred on by a guy named Harry
Carey, who
was the voice of the Chicago Cubs baseball team and who is the guy in the video that is
played during the concerts. One of the big cable TV super-stations is WGN out of
Chicago.
This station covers the Chicago Cubs baseball games religiously. At every game, Harry would lead the crowd in singing "Take Me Out To The Ball
Game". It was his "signature". From coast to coast, people became familiar
with Harry Carey because of this cable-TV coverage of the Cubs game.
Q
I
wonder who they are
A
The
CSNY2K tour crew:
-
Management:
CSN / Management Network (Gerry Tolman)
Neil Young / Lookout Management (Elliot Roberts)
-
Tour Manager:
Mike Sexton
-
Production Manager:
Tim Foster and Mason Wilkinson
-
Stage Manager:
Jon Foster
-
Lighting Company:
OBIE
-
Lighting Director:
Keith Wissmar
-
Lighting Technicians:
Kevin Royan, Adam Burton
-
Audio Company:
SOUND IMAGE, AUDIOTEK
-
Front of House Engineer:
Tim Mulligan
-
Rigging Company:
STAGE RIGGING
-
Rigger:
Chris Schmidt
-
Video
Company:
BCC
-
Video Production:
Larry Johnson
-
Video Director:
Arthur Rasato
-
Trucking
Company:
STAGE CALL
-
Freight Company:
ROCK-IT CARGO
-
Crosby Guitar Technician:
John Gonzales
-
Stills Guitar Technician:
Doug Breidenbach
-
Nash Guitar Technician:
Alan Rogan
-
Young Guitar Technician:
Larry Cragg
-
Spiritual Guidance:
Jan Crosby for preparing the stage altar setting
Q
When Joe Vitale
and Mike Finnigan were fired, who told them?
A
Before
the CSNY2K Tour actually started, Jim Keltner replaced replaced
longtime CS&N cohort Joe Vitale. Another CS&N hand,
keyboardist Michael Finnigan, was dismissed at the same time because
Neil Young felt their playing made the sound too busy and thick. The
task of telling the old friends they were out fell to Graham Nash, who
said it was not an easy thing to do.
Graham Nash: "It was very tough to let Vitale and Michael
Finnigan go; they've been part of our band for 20-odd years. And
it was very tough; personally, it was very, very hard to make that
call. But musically, I understand completely. And within a week, Neil
had been proven right. We needed space. When you bring a Neil Young
guitar into a band, you better be able to hear it...So it was a very
tough call. I believe they took it with the spirit in which it was
meant. It was not personal; it was purely musical. And once again,
Neil's instincts were correct".
Q
Who
were in 2002 the backup musicians
during
the Tour
Of
America?
A
Nobody
less than:
- Keyboardist - Booker T Jones
- Bassist - Donald "Duck" Dunn
- Drummer - Steve "Smokey" Potts
Photograph of CSNY: Dolf van Stijgeren
Q On
the subject of the Tour Of America, what was written on the wall behind?
A It's just a bunch
of photocopied sheets of paper. Some are missing people fliers
from September 11th. Some are pictures of Steve Pott's (the CSNY
drummer) pretty doggie.
Q
Why
doesn't Graham Nash wear shoes on stage?
A Graham Nash:
"It gives me a sense of being more completely grounded"
Q
Why
is an European leg of the CSN(Y) tour difficult?
A
David
Crosby: "It's because the expenses almost triple coming over there with CSNY
would take a 747 load each way just for the sound and lights let alone the band gear and then there's the jets to move the people.
None of us is exactly happy about riding commercial these days. It may happen anyway but the USA has more $$$ in the market and we can travel in our busses which is how we like to do it"
Q
Why
are the ticket prices so 'high'?
A
CSNY
doesn't set the tour prices. The tour is purchased by a national promoter
who determines venues, pricing, etc. Putting on a show like that is a
very, very expensive event. Think of it as a bargain though. It's the same
price as Buffet or Matthews but for 4 times the music, 4 times the rarity,
and 4 times the talent.
