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TechnoratiCrosby, Stills and Nash Have Lot to Say to Next Generation
Crosby, Stills and Nash are more than music makers.
![[In harmony: David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, from left, are in tune personally and professionally these days says Nash. (Photo: The Boston Herald)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/nash-2.jpg "nash-2.jpg")
They're egg stealers.
At least that's the analogy Graham Nash uses to explain the famous trio.
According to Nash, many years ago David Crosby told him a story he'd been working on about tiny, furry creatures that kept getting stepped on by dinosaurs. Undersized and overmatched, one of the furry creatures in Crosby's story suggests a solution: attacking the dinosaur eggs so future generations of furballs would survive.
"In a way, that's what Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young have been doing all our lives," Nash said by phone on the way to a Toronto tour stop. "We've been stealing the eggs, talking to the children and letting them know how we think it is and showing them our lives in the hope of showing them how (their) lives might be. We're egg stealers."
In nearly 50 years as a musician and more than 40 years playing with Crosby, Stills, Nash and, sometimes, Neil Young, Nash has followed the advice of one of his classic songs, "Teach Your Children," and stolen his share of eggs.
The 67-year-old began his career in England with British Invasion hit-makers ("Bus Stop") the Hollies. He hooked up with the Byrds' Crosby and Buffalo Springfield's Stephen Stills in 1967 to form CSN, and the threesome added on-again off-again member Young in 1969.
Forty years after playing at the original Woodstock festival, CSN continues playing for their original fans - and their children, such as the girl Nash noticed singing along near the front of the stage at a show earlier this week in Toledo, Ohio.
"I stopped the show and said, ‘How old are you?' She said she was 11," Nash recalled. "I asked, ‘How come you know the words to all these songs that were written decades before you were even conceived?' She said, ‘It's my mom and dad.' "
The band's growing fan base has made Nash's role as unofficial band archivist all the more important. Since releasing a three-disc boxed set of his own work in February and compiling the new CSN "Demos" record, Nash has been searching through tapes of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 1974 stadium tour. That's just for starters. He also is compiling a boxed set for Stills, an album of his own recent solo tour, a live acoustic album featuring material from his 1993 tour with Crosby, and a benefit compilation for the Children's Defense Fund featuring his and Crosby's collaborations with Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and others.
"My life is fine right now because David's not barking at Stephen and Stephen's not barking at David," said Nash, alluding to the band's often volatile co-existence. "I think as we're getting a little older we're recognizing what's really valuable about each of us."
Nash’s devotion to CSN’s legacy helped him embrace their next recording project: an album of covers masterminded by super-producer Rick Rubin. Some of that material, including versions of the Grateful Dead’s “Uncle John’s Band” and the Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday,” has already made its way onto CSN’s set list.
“Good music gets passed down,” said Nash. “That’s what heirlooms are about. A good parent will teach you the best things in life and hope you get on with it and turn your life into something fabulous.”
16 Comments so far
Show AllI remember how they would give free concerts after the DC Peace rallies--they were in it for real--inspiring the good people who cared--really cared about ending that illegal war--I guess there were more dino eggs that would grow into this present state of affairs--too bad that we didn't investigate who was responsible for that moral disaster--maybe we could have prevented this crap from reocuring--and what about tomorrow--if we can't invetigate today about who did what?
On the right side and levi chuk, do you guys have Debbie Boone's 'You Light up My Life' on your approved music filter? Pat Boone's covers would probably be ok, but Debbie's you could all sing along together, and make to sure to hold hands. [passing out some tissues is optional]
No, Lee. You missed my point entirely.
1) The main audience who listen to these guys are an older generation who make references to Debbie Boone and perhaps some of their offspring. -CSN don't have a wide appeal, and aren't "fostering young furballs". They're just reinforcing old paths, nothing new --which ties to,
2) These guys aren't smashing dino eggs, they are recycling them over and over for endless reunion tours.
3) They also use/d their old eggs/tricks/ballads/jingles to hawk the wares of one Barack Obama. ...Just like Joan Baez, The Grateful Dead, and Dave Matthews, and Bob Dylan....
Ain't nothing more disturbing than watching old anti-war, anti-establishment types pandering national politics and enlisting their own glee-club to shell out dollars for Obama. That's why I suggest they should drop the curtain and go out on national tent-revival tour and a-sing-along with Matthews, it would be a hell of a lot more honest.
but, yeah, Debbie Boone. That's a good one. real knee slapper. I get it. People either like CSN or Debbie Booone, The Stones or The Beatles..
And FYI, if I had to pick from this era, I'd select The Fugs. They've got integrity.
Kill For Peace....
Music breeds dissidence and should be outlawed.
It's getting to the point my ruby throated sparrows
I know it's no fun anymore, I am sorry
It's our past that makes us what we are now
And what we are now, that gives us our tomorrows
Voices of the angels
Ring around the moonlight
Chestnut brown canary,
lacy, lilting
we are not dreaming
Bring back "Sugar Mountain" - with the barkers and the coloured baloons....
No group epitomized the turbulent late 60s and early 70s than CSN and CSN&Y. I was in college during the Kent State shootings and remember how 13 fellow students were bayoneted by the New Mexico National Guard on the UNM campus. There was more college violence in May 1970 than most remember or even know about. CSN&Y's "Ohio" captures the essence of young people's struggles back then. After all, we were just cannon fodder for a pointless war. I still get a gut emotion whenever I hear that song.
"Four dead in O-hio...Four Dead in O-hio...Four Dead in O-hio..."
A truly relevant step that CSN could do is the next time they play with Neil Young, they should play "Let's Impeach the President," and declare it a "lost opportunity."
Well, I want to say that I found value and inspiration in the songs and the message that you guys have been performing for all of these years.
I do encourage my own baby eggs to get active in learning about the values and the issues that you guys have shared with your audiences for all of these years.
Thank You David, Stephen and Graham for taking a few minutes out of your busy lives to share your personal thoughts with us. My family and I have been enriched by you as well as entertained.
Re OntheRIGHTside June 30th, 2009 2:36 pm,
who alludes to "the constant flow of anti-establishment garbage taught in our schools and streaming through our TV's and the internet."
The establishment IS garbage. It supports---no, thrives on---murder, robbery and fraud, and poisons the living Earth in its single-minded pursuit of profit.
Almost everything you claim you're trying to teach your children is contradicted and subverted by the actions of their leaders and the dominant themes of corporate culture. No wonder you're finding it difficult.
The ideals of the Woodstock Generation are closer to the Sermon on the Mount than an entire year's worth of Fox News transcripts.
"The ideals of the Woodstock Generation are closer to the Sermon on the Mount than an entire year's worth of Fox News transcripts."
Amen!
CSN made a lot of great music, but they have far less influence on our kids today as does the constant flow of anti-establishment garbage taught in our schools and streaming through our TV's and the internet. It is everything I can do to raise my kids in a Christian home and teach them that right IS right and wrong IS wrong, that truth is not arbitrary. Too many people trying to steal my eggs...most of them have questionable intentions.
Tell you what CSN, and all of the others...you leave my eggs alone and I'll leave yours alone.
Yeah, teach your eggs to be like upright Republicans like Gov. Mark Sanford or Sen. John Ensign or Gov. Jim Gibbons or Sen. David Vitter or Rep. Mark Foley or Rep. Larry Craig, the bathroom pervie. Or how about George Bush and Dick Cheney, traitors to the Constitution.
But let's not stop there, why not teach your children well and teach them to act like true Christians, like Rev. Ted Haggard or Jim & Tammy Faye Baker or Rev. Jimmy Swaggart?
My first point? All the above were/are part of the establishment. Not to say that everything about the establishment is bad, but that there is enough about it that is bad, evil even, that one should be very careful whom one teaches their children to pray to.
My other point? We're more similar than we are different, so climb down off your high-horse.
Finally, about your eggs: Nope, as your side goes after my eggs, my side will go after yours. That's fair.
"...talking to the children...."
...Apart from yuppie spawn raised on middle-class bluegrass and rock, these guys play to the same crowd over the last 40 year. These are the living dinosaurs tending the eggs....
Oh, now that's kind of harsh. Better yet, Crosby, Stills and Nash should get a line up with Grateful Dead and Joan Baez and Bob Dylan and do a national tour like an old-time tent revival. All evangelical and shimmering and shaking., lifting up the good book and drumming up some more money for Barack Obama. The man's got a continual campaign. don't stop., better yet, they could invite Dave Matthews Band for a sing-a-long!
In an interview on film, Jerry Garcia told how The Grateful Dead were inspired when they heard CSN at Woodstock, by their harmonies. He said they decided to try to emulate that. Garcia said with his customary grin, "We could do that. Well, we could hit the notes anyway."
I can't wait to hear what CSN do with 'Uncle John's Band'.
neil young is my rock and roll god. he is the only real truthsayer among them.
CCN & Y could also help future generations by noticing and pulling up a very worthy little band that incorpoates most of their best elements and goes even further. Hey, actions speak louder... (see Myspace)