"David stopped everybody playing
to pick up a crack pipe that was way beyond repair, and I knew that the drug was much more
important to him than the music." Graham Nash on the last Crosby/Nash session
In 1982, Stephen Stills found himself
unable to secure solo record deal, so he and Graham Nash decided to work together as a
duo, using the likes of Art Garfunkel and Timothy B. Schmidt to fill in for Crosby’s
missing vocal parts. Their album was rejected and they were forced to invite back outcast
drug addict David Crosby to get the record released. Inevitably, it feels a bit cobbled
together. The balance of songs reflects the project’s genesis - six Stills songs
(it
was originally to be a Stills album), three by Nash, one by Crosby and a cover tune.
Yet, in spite of this, it is a
surprisingly good effort, one which proves the strength of the concept of CSN. It yields
an instant classic from each of the trio. Most amazing is Crosby’s lone
composition,
Delta. It is one of his best, written under duress from Jackson Browne at the depths of
Crosby’s crack addiction. It was the last song he would write before cleaning
up. The
story of it’s writing is at odds with the music, which flows like the river in the
song. It was recovered from a solo album Crosby could not get released. There were other
good songs on that album (many saw the light of day on Oh Yes I Can), but strangely they
we not used, and a non original (Might As Well Have a Good Time) stood as the only other
Crosby offering on Daylight Again.
Nash provides yet another single, and the
true CSN theme song, in Wasted on the Way. Catchy, nostalgic, yet also with a strong and
true emotional tug, it brought the group a great radio song at a time when they needed it.
Stills’ Southern Cross was something
he had been working on for a while, reworking a song written by the brothers Richard and
Michael Curtis. The result is a very successful, Crosby-like boat song that would fit any
CSN project. This recording of the song is a bit sluggish and over done, especially
compared to a later acoustic outing with CSNY (11/12/88), but it gets the job
done. The
song has become a popular concert staple, and is Stills’ last song to pass into the
mainstream. Stills was working on plenty of old material here, with the title track
harking back to 1970. Daylight Again is actually a completed Find the Cost of
Freedom,
adding verses replete with civil war soldiers that date back (in different
form) to
Stills’ seventies solo shows. In retrospect, the age of some of this material was a
signal of Stills’ creative decline.
There was other good stuff here, but the
three songs above were what really mattered. CSN got on the radio, got three instant
classics, and put much needed fresh crowd pleasers into the live act. It looked like
progress from the outside, but the group was rotting from the inside. Crosby could barely
work because of his addiction. Based on what I saw in the LA area, the live shows were
soulless, with a studio band backing three solo artists. Crosby was virtually catatonic.
It seemed that the next step would be to wheel him on stage. They were relying on the
magic of days gone by and audience singalongs to cover for the fact that they were not a
group at all. It was the last set of classic songs they have released.
Raincheck.
