Original subtitles

And now part three of Crosby Still's

Nash and Young. By 1973, the term super

group had become rockstar poison and the

individual members of CSN and Y found it

difficult to deal with some of the bad

connotations that came with that label.

By 1973, there was also some parodies

being done. National Lampoon did a very

funny one on the Woodstock Nation and

doing a song called Woodshock. And this

was by the fake band called Freud Marks

Engles and Young. Now, this parody by

National Ampoon was done by Chvy Chase,

John Belalushi, and Christopher Guest,

among others, and it's on YouTube if you

want to see it. By this time, all the

players in the group were suffering

personal and professional setbacks and

personal failures. And eventually, the

lure of nostalgia brought them back

together. And the story goes as they met

in Hawaii and they wanted to get

together and relax and enjoy each

other's company. And Crosby went down

there with his boat and Neil Young

rented a place down there and they're

all hanging out in the boat in the

sunshine smoking dynamite weed. The

guitars come out and they say, "Yeah,

let's let's work on another album. We'll

do an album together in a tour." And a

very nice photo was taken of them on the

beach and they had a working title Neil

Young's song called Human Highway. And

all this sounds very idyllic and this is

typically how the history is told. But

there's an alternate history that is

probably more accurate to the truth. And

that is that this was all set up as a

ruse. This entire trip to get stills out

there to wean him off of cocaine. Now,

what a lot of people don't realize

because David Crosby's got most of the

headlines as far as the drug problems

and jail time and that kind of thing.

There was a couple overdoses that Steven

Stills had and he was, you know, he

could have died. And the band members

knew this and they knew that they

couldn't really work together as a unit

without Stills being in better form. And

certainly Neil Young knew this. Now,

it's not like these guys, these other

guys weren't doing Coke because they all

were, but it just so happened that

Stills had a bigger problem with it. So,

let me quote Graham Nash in his

retelling of this story here. He says,

"We were all sort of on vacation and

there was great music to be made. We had

these great songs like Neil's Human

Highway and Maui Mama and we were

rehearsing them on David's boat and it

was sounding great. We tried to put an

album together and it would have been a

great album.

Now, in another quote, he says that

after the photo, the group photo was

taken, quote, "Some cocaine business

went down and suddenly we weren't

talking to each other." And that's from

Nash's autobiography called Wild Tales.

This is the famed shot that they were

going to build this album on. And great

photograph, but unfortunately

the plan to wean Stills off of cocaine

went arry. This cocaine business that

Nash speaks of has to do with one of the

roadies who was a roadie for Neil Young

and Steven Stills. And this is Bruce

Barry. Bruce Barry is Jan's younger

brother, Janberry of Jan and Dean. And

he had been in this kind of group for

quite a long time as you know as a

roadie and and things. and he was a

friend of theirs and he had some drug

problems of his own. Well, he's the one

that brought cocaine to Hawaii. This

threw everything off because the idea

was to keep Stills away from the

cocaine. So, Nash and Crosby chased

Bruce Barry out threatening to tell his

brother and all this stuff. So, he was

thrown out and Bruce Barry ended up

going back to California where he

eventually oded shortly thereafter.

Despite the bodies piling up, the four

guys reconvened at Neil Young's ranch to

try to record some of these new songs uh

with a vague idea of touring that year

on on what would be a new album.

[snorts] And unfortunately, Stills was

still on the Coke. His working hours

were completely different from Nash and

Youngs. There was an argument and Neil

Young ended up walking out and it was

his house. He just would disappear. So

these didn't go well.

>> I got lost. [singing]

on the human [music] highway.

>> I [singing] don't know the answer.

>> Do you? [singing] Does it even [music]

matter?

Do you? I'm wondering down

[music and singing]

>> in a wide river.

What is the girl

who is together? [music]

[music]

Now,

>> those first two tracks were legitimate

tries at recording for this proposed

album that's Human Highway and See the

Changes. Little Blind Fish was kind of a

jam that they worked on that was never

completed in any form or ever ever

recorded properly. Kind of an

interesting song. So this album, it was

they tried to record this over the next

couple years sporadically. And um

usually problems, internal problems

would halt the recordings. So at this

point, you know, I'm I'm at Erdigan of

Atlantic. They can smell the money.

Let's at least get these guys on the

road. So, he has to step in again and

say, "Okay, guys, we should really put

your differences to the side. We should

we've got a tour we should really do.

Let's let's do that and you can record

in between that. We'll get an album out

to go with the tour." So, the group

realized that this is kind of important

because they were not only at odds with

themselves, but they were becoming at

odds with their fans. So managers Geffen

and Roberts were polluting their

britches with delight, knowing that they

would be promoting this a legitimate

reunion tour, summer of 1974,

and things proceeded to go forward and

knowing that this was going to be a big

tour, Dylan had just toured with the

band, and this was a record-breaking

tour, and he hadn't toured in a while.

So CSNY knew they could outdo Dylan. So

their competitive spirit started to come

in here and they started booking or

Roberts and Geffen started booking

stadiums for them. Now they had never

really done stadiums and Stills and

Young were into the stadiums. They

wanted the big the big show, the big

money. Crosby and Nash, not so much, but

they went along with it. [music] As

[singing] I come away,

I keep falling [music and singing]

down.

And I feel just like a snowball.

Leaving with [singing and music] the

wind blowing

through [singing]

my s [music]

[singing]

of life.

say about first.

[music and singing]

>> All right, those are three more songs at

a legitimate attempt at working on

tracks for the new album. And they're

good songs. And what I'm going to do is

play some of these songs for this

proposed album through this video. Some

of them will be actual recordings by the

four guys that were never released or

released much later. Some of these songs

ended up getting uh put onto solo albums

[snorts] as recorded by the four or just

re-recorded. So, I'll do my best to kind

of tell you where those come from. Now,

the first person to come out with a solo

album after this is Graham Nash with

Wild Tales. And he had a couple songs.

Couple of his best songs were he was

holding over for CSNY, but since the

album didn't happen, he just came out

with his own album. [music and singing]

for every man inside. [singing]

>> Music [music] gets you high.

Everybody goes and it goes.

[singing and music]

>> Wild Tales did pretty well. Got to

number 34 on the charts. Not as good as

his first solo album, but still uh good.

And this is a Joanie Mitchell painting

on the back. Kind of cool. And this

album has got some of the usual suspects

playing on it. Crosby sings on it. You

got Tim Drummond on bass, David

Lindley's on here, Johnny Barbadetta on

drums. So, a lot of the same musicians

that hang around these guys contributed

to that Nash album. Now, obviously, you

got this huge tour coming up. You got to

have an album out. And in Geffin and

Roberts realize, well, they're not going

to have some new studio album done. They

just can't get along. And Atlantic put

out this one. Tries Stills Nash and

Young So far. This is a greatest hits

based on a poultry, two albums and the

Ohio single. So this thing was released

and uh just in time for the tour and it

sold like gang busters six times

platinum and hit number one. The 1974

reunion tour was set to outdo any other

tour that came before it and not just in

money but in excess. So this tour had

like logoed everything down to the

pillowcases. And some of the big bands

supporting this show or this this tour

were the Beach Boys and the band. So, a

lot of big names associated with this.

And it's known for it being cocaine

fueled, you know, Lear Jets,

helicopters. There was 30 people cooking

backstage to serve the crew and the

band. You know, you had a sweet open

round the clock with an open bar, shrimp

on ice, prostitutes

or derves, and of course, Crosby and

Nash Frisbes for everybody attending. As

you might imagine, uh the excesses of

the show were not really good for the

boys voices, and the voices started

giving out rather early in the tour,

which made for some very bad harmonies.

And keep in mind that this is still

early times of live shows, so the the

equipment and the monitors were not

good. So there was a lot of out of tune

singing, you know, the lot of outtune

guitars. They're always retuning. Crowds

got tired of the talking in between

songs. Some of these shows were three to

four hours long. So I I suspect that CSN

and Y were trying to give people quote

their money's worth. I mean, these

tickets were rather expensive and people

complain about ticket prices. So all

these things were part of this tour and

with the expense people had high

expectations.

So, a lot of the fans reacted poorly to

this. I mean, they they did their best

to, you know, be there for 3 to four

hour shows, but unfortunately, some

people left early and worse yet, fell

asleep. With all the opulence of this

tour and CSNY being so connected to what

was known as this kind of hippie

Woodstock nation, I always felt this was

pretty much the end of the 60s right

here. And nothing was more evident in

showcasing that than Cass Elliot's death

which happened in July of that summer

during this tour. And she's the one that

really got all these guys together. So

it hit the group hard and drummer Russ

Kungl had been married to Cass Elliot's

younger sister Leah. So the tour briefly

stopped before uh reconvening. Nixon

resigned a week or so later and Vietnam

was winding down. So all this stuff, all

these events were basically this was the

changing of the guard. You know, rock

stars no longer lived in the canyons.

They lived in Malibu. And the canyons

were no longer a nice place to live. A

couple a year or so before there was a a

drug deal gone bad. There were four guys

were murdered and that was depicted in

the Neil Young song Tired Eyes. Speaking

of Neil Young song, Tired Eyes, which is

not on his forthcoming album, On the

Beach. Now Neil Young was not stupid.

They're touring. let's put an album out.

So, he put this album out. This album

was not reviewed very well, not

considered a one of his great albums,

but it sold very well. Hit number 16

because they were touring.

>> Though your confidence may be shattered,

it doesn't matter.

>> Sooner or later, it all. [music]

[singing]

because of the excesses of this tour,

uh, it was eventually dubbed the Doom

Tour. And I'm just going to give you a

few quotes here from, uh, David Crosby

regarding the tour that summer. So, in

July of 74, here's what Crosby said.

There's no chance of this thing turning

sour. By August of 74, here's his quote.

It seems like it's a little too good to

be true. And then by September of 74, we

seem to have a two-month halflife and

then it blows. But Neil Young sums it up

best by saying, "It is pretty obvious

that we were either too high or just no

good." Now, as the tour wore on,

everybody got tired of one another and

burned out. And uh they only did one

show in Europe before abruptly ending

the tour, and they never made it to

Southern California. So, that was kind

of interesting. And this was the last

time the four guys performed together

until the appearance in 1985 at Live

Aid. In addition to their musical

success, they branched out in some non-m

musical projects. David Crosby in the

past video I'd mentioned he was going to

work on a film. Now it was Neil Young's

turn to do a film. He but this time this

film was on Neil Young and he had been

collecting all the film and

paraphernalia from his very short career

to do a documentary on himself. You

know, this came out in 1974 called

Journey through the past. It was

critically panned. They said, "This is

completely unnecessary and completely

self-indulgent." And Neil Young

continued to endear himself to the

American South by having the Kulux Clan

on the cover of the album. Remember the

70s when that was still okay to do that?

Despite some setbacks, they were still

determined to finish this album. They

had a false start in Hawaii. Then then

the thing at Neil Young's place didn't

work out. Well, now they're reconvening

at Nash's place in San Francisco. The

problem with Nash's place, it was too

small. They couldn't really record there

with a full drum set and a band and

everything and tempers flared right

away. Stills and Nash got into it as

Stills actually threatened to take a

razor blade to one of Nash's demos and

Nash and his manager physically threw

Stills out of the studio. So Neil Young

couldn't handle it and he he walked out

at this point. But they somehow

reconvened to record the next day.

New m's [music and singing]

got a sun in her eyes.

No clouds are in my [music and singing]

changing sky.

All along [music] the

shore

and then I [music and singing] am

to know

have you [music and singing] seen?

Those are three more songs they were

working on for the proposed album. And

they kind of figured at this point,

well, maybe we should have figured

really forced ourselves to finish this

album before that tour cuz they were

really getting on each other's nerves.

Here's what Crosby said at this time. He

said, "Stills was burnt out. I was

burnt. Even Nash was less than his usual

self." And Neil Neil, well, Mr.

Dependable. He came into the studio and

said, "Great. Out of sight. I'll be back

tomorrow night." And he never showed up

again. Now, these songs I've been

playing, these are just a guess of what

this album might have been. It's kind of

become the smile of the 1970s. Many of

these songs that were done by the four.

Some just stood as that and got released

later on different albums. Some were

recorded. A couple were never finished.

So, it's a smattering of different

things. And uh I'll be providing a link

to my podcast with my version of the

album that'll be in the description

below. So Crosby had a good quote at

this time as he oftenimes does. He said,

"We have traditionally gotten too drunk

or too loaded or too high or too screwed

up to keep our [ __ ] together." I realize

the story of this group is kind of

stressful to hear. So let's let's change

gears here a little bit and talk about

the women. We're in 1975 and the last we

left you with David Crosby. He was with

Debbie Donovan and she got pregnant and

they had had a child together, but by

the time the child was born, he had left

her for Nancy Brown. Now, Steven Still's

child, his son was born with kalera and

thought may not live. He did pull

through. Nash, who was with the

16-year-old originally, as she became of

age, she ended up dumping Nash to put in

with some wealthy 50-year-old

businessman. And ultimately, she was

murdered by her brother, unfortunately.

And Neil Young, whose son had been born

with uh that he had with Carrie

Snodgrass. After about a year and a

half, they realized he had a disability.

at cereble pausy. So that is going to be

hard on a on a relationship. And though

they were not married, they ended up

breaking up. Neil Young ended up

throwing her out of his ranch. Despite

the shambles of their personal and

professional lives, these guys just

solded on. So Neil Young finally came

out with the album he had been working

on really for a couple years. Tonight's

the night.

>> Tonight's [singing]

the night. [music]

Moose Berry was a working man. He used

to love Come on, baby. Let's go

downtown. [music] Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go down.

>> Released in the summer of 1975, this

album hit number 25. So, it charted

fairly well. It was recorded mostly all

before this album, though there was some

recordings done after that album. So,

uh, but it's generally, uh, thought to

have been released out of chronology.

And one of the great songs on here is

the Danny Whitten song, Come on, Baby,

Let's Go Downtown. That was recorded a

couple years before from a live

recording. And the song Tonight's The

Night mentions the death of Bruce Barry,

or mentions Bruce Barry by name. The

Tonight's the Night album is considered

to be the third in what's known as Neil

Young's ditch trilogy. The first one

starting with the live album Time Fades

Away, then On the Beach, then Tonight's

the Night. That term came from Neil

Young himself when he after he had done

Harvest. This is retrospectively, of

course. He did Harvest, which was a huge

hit, which Neil Young considered I did a

middle of the road album, and then the

next thing he he wanted to do was Turn

into the Ditch. Well, I mean, this gets

picked up by a lot of Neil Young fans,

and they consider, you know, these to be

three dark albums. I don't find these

any darker than any of Neil Young's

other albums. I mean, Down by the River,

I shot Shot My Baby, Needle in the

Damage Done. I mean, every Neil Young

album has some great rock songs, some

mediocre songs, and some songs that

sound like demos. And and that's his

whole catalog is like that. So, I find

that this ditch trilogy is just an

effort to prop up and a propaganda tool

that a lot of Neil Young fans use. Pay

no attention to it. Now, just to show

you can't keep a good man down, Neil

Young was so prolific during this time,

he did another album in 1975 called

Homegrown. Now, this album depicted his

relationship with Carrie Snograss

breaking up, unlike uh Harvest, which

was when he had met her. So, that album

is much more positive about Carrie

Snograss. And maybe that accounts for

why it was more middle of the road.

>> The feelings [singing]

gone. [music]

Why is it so hard [music]

to hang on

to your love?

I look in your eyes and I don't know

what's there.

You poison [music] me with that long

stare.

>> Now, strangely enough, this album would

not see the light of day until 2020. So,

it was held unreleased for that long.

And unfortunately Neil Young when he was

doing this album or shortly thereafter

he was really burning out and he had to

have surgery on his nodes on of his

vocal cords cuz they were giving him

trouble. [music]

>> First things first

[music] Steven Stills delivers the

goods. This album is pretty funky and

soulful. And as you can see, the hippie

attire is changing over to the football

jersey. This is Steven Still's new look.

He tried to do the jersey look and even

MC Jagger couldn't make this trend work.

Meanwhile, David Crosby and Graham Nash

were busy with their next album, Wind on

the Water.

[music]

Car me, carry me [music]

above the world. You cannot pull the

wool over my eyes.

Take the money and run. [music] Don't

know what to do. Just when you think you

gone insane, you lie naked in the rain.

>> This came out in September of 75. Uh

went to number six on the charts and was

a gold record, so it did very well. It

doesn't quite have the hard edge of the

first album that they did as a duo, but

this album is very polished.

[music]

[singing]

Now, this album has several highlights.

The biggest one being the song A

Critical Mass, which is Crosby's, which

goes into To the Last Whale, which is

Nashes. This is a a very excellent piece

of music kind of their a day in the

life.

Also in 75, later 75, Neil Young gets

back together with Crazy Horse for Zuma.

>> You're just [music] a stupid girl.

[singing]

You really got a lot to learn.

[music]

Zuma is generally considered a return to

form for Neil Young, but as I said, most

of his albums prior to this, they're all

very consistent. And I want to talk a

little bit about Crazy Course because I

don't talk too much about them or I

haven't up to this point. But I think of

all these musicians we've talked about

and we will be talking about, you know,

Crazy Horse are not considered good

musicians.

But I think that it was this band that

gave Neil Young his Neil Youngness. It

was the rawness and the style of playing

and the rudimentary playing of Crazy

Horse that brought out that in Neil

Young. It was inside of him, but he he

couldn't have got that with CSN. So I

think Crazy Horse is important for that

reason. and Danny Whitten who had passed

away by this point, replaced by Frank

San Pedro. Whitten I thought was the

best instrumentalist of the three guys

in Crazy Horse. That would be Ralph

Molina on drums, Billy Talbet on bass.

And I mean, I listen to Crazy Horse

sometimes. I just can't believe that

these guys are just not that good. I

mean, Talbet, I've never liked his

playing. I thought he was about the

worst bass player I had ever heard until

Michael Anthony of Van Halen came along.

But it it can't be denied that they

offered something very special to Neil

Young and his music was the better for

it. And there's a reason he kept going

back to Crazy Horse instead of going

back to CSN. We're at the end of 1975

here. We've got Steven Stills Live,

followed early the next year by Illegal

Stills. Now, this is still a fine album

by Stills. He's still turning out some

very quality stuff. This is a little

more mellow, though.

>> [music]

>> Clockwork deception won't save us. Set

us free.

I just [music] want to be closer to you

about

time

[music] and

>> we are in early 1976 and by this time

Steven Stills and Neil Young were back

hanging out together and they were kind

of teasing reporters that they may do an

album together. So after doing that for

a number of times they realized we

really have to follow through on this

and started to work together and they

were a little bit low on songs and I

think that may have been the reason they

gave Crosby and Nash a call who are

working on their own album as a duo but

they were invited to to join in the

proceedings of the Stills Young album.

So Nash and Crosby put their album on

the back burner for the greater good to

go join Stills and Young. [music]

Through the haze,

falling down, [music]

falling [singing] down.

Is this [music] road

really [singing] the only way? Can this

road be taken? [music]

Taken it all.

>> Nash and Crosby added several vocals to

Young and Stills songs. and they were

going to record more together when Nash

and Crosby had to go back to Los Angeles

to finish their album. Now, Young and

Stills assumed, I'm not sure why, that

they were going to just join them on the

on their tour that fall, and they were

upset that Nash and Crosby were going

back to work on their own album, which

had already been started, by the way.

So, Stills and Young made do by wiping

all of Nash and Crosby's vocals from the

recordings. Now, Nash retaliated by not

allowing Neil Young to use the live

version of Pushed It Over the End for

his upcoming retrospective. Here's what

Nash had to say. I see Neil and Steven's

careers going downhill and I don't give

a [ __ ] I will not work with them again.

Now, Joe Futali, who worked on this

album, said that none of the vocals were

destroyed, that they were either just

maybe removed or turned down. I'm not

sure. Some of them actual vocals by Nash

and Crosby still may be there but just

buried a bit in the mix. Now this was

the last attempt at trying to complete

this album. So after three and a half

years of trying to cobble together a

complete studio album, they still were

unable to do it. As the duos each went

their separate way, Stills and Young

released this album called or build as

the Stills Young band called Long May

You Run.

>> Long May [music and singing] you run.

Long may you run

and remember you [music] don't [singing]

belong.

It always seems so unfair.

>> Ocean girl.

[music and singing]

>> The original concept was for Stills and

Young to do this album as a duo and it

did pretty well. It went gold, went to

number 26, but the corresponding tour

was a disaster. Now, this is the tour

where Stills and Young had a break. The

critics were very hard on Steven Stills

in this tour and they were pretty

positive to Neil Young, but for some

reason Neil Young took it upon himself

to leave the whole band, the whole tour

high and dry. And he left this note

behind for the band and Steven Stills.

Funny how some things that start

spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach.

So, this is just Neil Young. I trying to

be funny, trying to be clever. And if

anybody should have left the tour, it

was Stills. He was the one where the

critics were really hard on. So Stills

had to limp through the rest of this

tour on his own, only to come home at

the end of the tour to find out that his

wife wanted a divorce. Meanwhile,

whistling down the wire is the Crosby

Nash album, which charted similarly to

Long May You Run. Sail bug bay

mut

so far away [music]

[music]

telling you a [music] story

slowly together

[music]

reading in the

You are my friend.

>> Now, this album has [music] several fine

songs. It's very mellow. And one of the

reason it's so mellow is they're using a

bunch of musicians that were called the

section. Now this group called the

section consists of Danny Korchmar on

guitar keyboardist Craig Durgy basist

Lelandclar drummer Russ Kungl and

multi-instrumentalist David Lindley and

occasionally guitarist Watti Waktal also

associated with this group is Joe Lala

Tim Drummond on bass and brass and

woodwin players David Sanborn Chuck

Finlay and Jim Horn now the reason this

album sounds mellow is because this

band, the section, played very mellow.

They were called the Mellow Mafia. That

was their nickname. And essentially,

they were the Asylum Records House Band.

And they played on albums by Carol King,

James Taylor, Linda Ronstat, the prior

Crosby Nash album, Jackson Brown, Warren

Zeon, among many others. And they not

only just played on their albums, but

they also backed them up on many of

their tours as well. We close out the

bsentennial year with a best of Steven

Stills album. This is a contractual

obligation, his last offering for

Atlantic. So, as we end up the end of

the year, you know, these two albums had

done quite well. And so long as you got

two guys involved, you're going to sell

some records. And these guys were

starting to run a little bit on fumes,

though. But our four horsemen of the

Woodstock Nation, we're not quite done

yet. We're going to track how they

finished up the decade in part four here

on Pop Goes the 60s.

[music and singing]

>> Dream land.

[cheering]