Crosby, Nash & Young - United Farm Workers Benefit, Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA, 8-12-1977

Note that this is an unreleased acoustic concert of David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Neil Young of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY), but Stephen Stills was not there.

In 1977, Neil Young was not on particularly good terms with Crosby, Stills, and Nash. There had been an attempt to record a CSNY studio album in 1976, but it had ended acrimoniously when Stills and Young wiped the harmony vocals of Crosby and Nash and released their songs as the Stills and Young album "Long May You Run." Stills then reunited with Crosby and Nash and put out the very commercially successful Crosby, Stills and Nash album "CSN" in 1977. Young went to the studio with CSN and listened to an early copy of the album, and complimented the album and generally had a good time with them, according to an article I once read. But around the same time, he wrote the song "Thrasher" in which he harshly criticized CSN saying, "So I got bored and left them there, they were just dead weight to me." (Although he didn't mention CSN by name in the song, in a later interview, he said, "'Thrasher' was pretty much me writing about my experiences with Crosby, Stills and Nash in the mid-1970s.")

So yeah, it was complicated. Clearly, there was a love/hate thing going on. A big factor that hurt Young's relationship with the others was their excessive drug use, especially Crosby's cocaine addition, which would later turn into a crack addition before he cleaned up later in the 1980s. That too was referenced in "Thrasher" where he complained they were "lost in crystal canyons." Young would barely perform with the others until after Crosby got clean around 1986.

But this show is a rare exception. It was originally billed as a benefit show headlined by David Crosby only, co-headlined with the David Grisman Quartet. The first six songs do feature only Crosby. But Graham Nash publicly promised to be there, and he did show up. The show turned into a de facto Crosby-Nash concert for the next five songs.  But for all of the summer of 1977, Young lived in Santa Cruz and played many unannounced concerts at small clubs with his short-lived band the Ducks. So he was on good enough terms to join the concert for the last eight songs, including doing four written by him.

By the way, I found a mention that Stills also wanted to join the show, but he was playing a concert overseas. He tried to get back in time, but didn't make it.

Regarding this recording, it's only an audience bootleg. However, it's an unusually good one, which is why I'm posting it. It almost rises to soundboard quality level, but you do get some more crowd noise. It helps that it was an acoustic concert - a good recording becomes increasingly important with more instruments involved.

This is an excellent show in my opinion. It helps that it was a bit longer than typical concerts at the time, at an hour and 45 minutes long. It's heavier on Crosby material since he played the whole show, and lighter on Young's material in particular since he only was there for the final third. But it's great they patched things up enough to play together. I could be wrong, but I think the next time Young appeared on stage with them was at Live Aid in 1985.

01 The Lee Shore (David Crosby)
02 Page 43 (David Crosby)
03 talk (David Crosby)
04 Triad (David Crosby)
05 talk (David Crosby)
06 Homeward through the Haze (David Crosby)
07 talk (David Crosby)
08 Naked in the Rain (David Crosby)
09 talk (David Crosby)
10 Laughing (David Crosby)
11 talk (Crosby & Nash)
12 Southbound Train (Crosby & Nash)
13 talk (Crosby & Nash)
14 Guinnevere (Crosby & Nash)
15 talk (Crosby & Nash)
16 Cathedral (Crosby & Nash)
17 talk (Crosby & Nash)
18 Carry Me (Crosby & Nash)
19 talk (Crosby & Nash)
20 Low Down Payment (Crosby & Nash)
21 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
22 Human Highway (Crosby, Nash & Young)
23 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
24 New Mama (Crosby, Nash & Young)
25 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
26 Deja Vu (Crosby, Nash & Young)
27 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
28 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Crosby, Nash & Young)
29 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
30 Our House (Crosby, Nash & Young)
31 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
32 Wooden Ships (Crosby, Nash & Young)
33 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
34 Teach Your Children (Crosby, Nash & Young)
35 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
36 Sugar Mountain (Crosby, Nash & Young)
37 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)

https://www.imagenetz.de/mEFyh

I'm very happy to say the cover photo was taken at this exact concert.