Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Find the Cost of Freedom - Non-Album Tracks (1970)

Here's the next installment of my alternate history of Crosby, Stills, Nash and sometimes Young. 1970 was probably the most productive time for CSNY as a unit, since they released the great "Deja Vu" album that year and also performed a lot of concerts. It turns out they did so much great music that year that I was able to make not one but two albums of stray tracks that I think hold up well as albums themselves. Here's the first one.

All the songs are from 1969 or 1970. Since "Deja Vu" came out in March 1970, I'm imagining this album could have come out in late 1970.

As I mentioned in my last post on this group (the "Wooden Music" album), my general rule is to not use any songs on their solo albums unless the song is done in a significantly different style, such as full band vs. acoustic, or with one of them vs. all four of them. There are a number of such cases here.

For instance, "I've Loved Her So Long" was on the 1969 album "Neil Young," but that was done in the studio with just him plus a full band, whereas this was done by CSNY in a live acoustic version. By contrast, "The Lee Shore" was done solo live by Crosby on the "Four Way Street" CSNY album, but I've included a studio version that actually has CSNY playing. "So Begins the Task" would be a track on Stills' 1972 album "Manassas" but I've included a version of CSNY doing it in concert in a different style. And so on. And, as usual, when I've added a live version of a song to a largely studio album, I've edited out the crowd noise at the end as best I could.

Many of the songs come from various archival releases, such as the box sets by CSN, Stills, and Young. Others are from bootlegs. "Onio" and "Find the Cost of Freedom" are from a CSNY single released in 1970. "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite" actually comes from a "Jefferson Starship" album (though it's more of a Paul Kantner and Grace Slick album since Jefferson Airplane hadn't really morphed into Jefferson Starship form yet). However, Crosby co-wrote it and co-sings it, and Nash is on it too, and this is a mix from Crosby's box set "Voyage." Plus, it's a great song.

There are two bonus tracks here. There's nothing particularly wrong with them. However, there are a ton of Stills songs, and these are two more Stills songs. I thought having that many Stills songs on the album would upset the balance. They were the weakest of the Stills songs, in my opinion, though they're still pretty decent.

This album is 47 minutes long, not including the two bonus tracks.

01 Ohio (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
02 So Begins the Task (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
03 Horses through a Rainstorm (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
04 The Lee Shore [Edit] (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
05 Who Ran Away (Stephen Stills)
06 Sea of Madness (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
07 Little Miss Bright Eyes (Stephen Stills)
08 Drop Down Mama (David Crosby)
09 Everybody's Alone (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
10 Man in the Mirror (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
11 Have You Seen the Stars Tonite (Crosby, Nash & Paul Kantner)
12 Singin' Call (Stephen Stills)
13 I've Loved Her So Long (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
14 Music Is Love (Crosby, Nash & Young)
15 Find the Cost of Freedom (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

Hold On Tight (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
Same Old Song (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16383333/CROSBSTLLSNSHYNG1970FndthCstofFredm_atse.zip.html

Originally,  I used a cover photo of CSNY practicing together in somebody's house in late 1969. It was taken by Tom G. O'Neal. That was in black and white, and I hate black and white photos, so I tinted it to jazz things up. Over a year later, I found a good color photo from around the same time, so I replaced it with that one.

Here's the original, if anyone prefers it.