Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY) broke up for the first time (though definitely not the last time!) in July 1970, at the conclusion of a US tour. This concert was recorded in London only two months later. The website www.setlist.fm lists this as the very first public performance by just David Crosby and Graham Nash as a duo, and in fact the only performance they would do as a duo until 1971. They would go on to record and perform as a duo off an on until 2015, when the two of them had a falling out that sadly still hasn't been healed as I write this in 2022.
This is a great recording. The sound quality is as good as it gets, and the performance was spot on. Clearly, the two of them were bursting with creativity at the time. Only three of the songs were released at the time - Marrakesh Express, Guinnevere, and Teach Your Children. The rest would come out on later albums. There's a lot of entertaining banter between songs as well.
The only snag with the album is that it's rather short, at 32 minutes. Probably that's because it was meant to fit in a half-hour TV show format. Various versions of this have been rebroadcast without "Song with No Words (Tree with No Leaves)" or "Right Between the Eyes" or both, but I made sure to include both. I would guess that more songs were recorded, given that the concert begins without any applause or introduction, and ends with "Traction in the Rain," a song that had just been written days earlier and not the kind of song to typically end a show. But often if songs weren't broadcast, their recordings are lost to history.
By the way, I'll have a lot more from the various permutations of CSNY to post by and by. But this is the only music from them that I know of that was specifically recorded for the BBC. Also by the way, you can watch the full concert on YouTube.
01 Simple Man (Crosby & Nash)
02 talk (Crosby & Nash)
03 Marrakesh Express (Crosby & Nash)
04 Guinnevere (Crosby & Nash)
05 talk (Crosby & Nash)
06 Song with No Words [Tree with No Leaves] (Crosby & Nash)
07 talk (Crosby & Nash)
08 Teach Your Children (Crosby & Nash)
09 talk (Crosby & Nash)
10 Right Between the Eyes (Crosby & Nash)
11 talk (Crosby & Nash)
12 The Lee Shore (Crosby & Nash)
13 talk (Crosby & Nash)
14 Traction in the Rain (Crosby & Nash)
https://www.upload.ee/files/15281484/CrosbNash_1970_BBInConcertLondnBritain__9-11-1970_atse.zip.html
The cover photo is a screenshot taken from the exact concert in question.
There’s a bit of a story behind this concert. It started out as Graham Nash plus special guest David Crosby, which was apparently allowed under Musician Union rules. At one point it could have been a Crosby, Stills and Nash show, as Stills was there at rehearsals (there is photographic evidence of this) but the show went ahead as originally planned due to a combination of MU rules and Stills flaking out in the dressing room. Proving themselves as a trio could well have changed the dynamic of the various combinations going forward…
ReplyDeleteAnd as you say in the text, it was recorded in London, not Manchester.
Thanks for that info. Interesting that Stills was there. I don't think things would have changed much if he'd played with them though, as he was still keen on a solo career, with his first solo album coming out at the time.
DeleteAlso, it's interesting you say it started out as a Graham Nash solo concert, cos if you watch the YouTube video, at first it's just his name, but then after a bit in a different font you see Nash and Crosby's name.
By the way, I just fixed the London thing. I came across something saying it was in Manchester, but you seem to know what you're talking about, so I changed it.
You're correct in that Stills definitely wanted the solo career. I think a CSN show would have helped re-cement the notion of the original trio, which maybe would have helped further down the line in 1974 when Young started to dominate.
DeletePerhaps it would have helped that a bit, since it wasn't just a regular gig, but one shown on TV. I know Neil Young made some public comment that he was disappointed CSN didn't put out more music as a trio before the 1974 reunion. They really should have. I suppose the Manassas band stopped that from happening, since Stills was fully committed to that for all of 1972 and 1973.
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