149: CROSBY, STILLS and NASH

Crosby, Stills & Nash is the first album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, released in 1969 on the Atlantic Records label. It spawned two Top 40 hit singles, "Marrakesh Express" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," which peaked respectively at #28 the week of August 23, 1969, and at #21 the week of December 6, 1969, on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The album itself peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. It has been certified four times platinum by the RIAA for sales of 4,000,000.

The album was a very strong debut for the band, instantly lifting them to stardom. Along with the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo and The Band's Music from Big Pink of the previous year, it helped initiate a sea change in popular music away from the ruling late-1960s aesthetic of bands playing blues-based rock music on loud guitars. Crosby, Stills & Nash presented a new wrinkle in building upon rock's roots, utilizing folk, blues, and even jazz without specifically sounding like mere duplication. Not only blending voices, the three meshed their differing strengths, David Crosby for social commentary and atmospheric mood pieces, Stephen Stills for his diverse musical skills and for folding folk and country elements subtly into complex rock structures, and Graham Nash for his radio-friendly pop melodies, to create an amalgam of broad appeal. The album features some of their best known songs: "Helplessly Hoping"; Crosby's response to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy "Long Time Gone"; Stills' lament for Judy Collins "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"; and "Wooden Ships," a collaboration between Crosby and Stills as well as Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane.

Stills dominated the recording of the album. Crosby and Nash played guitar on their own songs respectively, while drummer Dallas Taylor played on four tracks and drummer Jim Gordon on a fifth. Stills played all the bass, organ, and lead guitar parts, as well as acoustic guitar on his own songs. "The other guys won't be offended when I say that one was my baby, and I kind of had the tracks in my head," Stills said. Even with this dominance, Stills does not appear on the tracks "Guinnevere" and "Lady of the Island," both featuring Crosby and Nash only and an inadvertent precursor of their partnership on record and stage during the 1970s. Read more