ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 12, 1991
By Steve Newton
I’ve always thought Crosby, Stills & Nash sounded best with a “Young” tagged on the end, so it was good to find out there are actually 18 CSN&Y tunes among this four-CD set’s massive 67 tracks. But after one run-through of these tunes, it became obvious the other three guys were no slouches, either.
While the bulk of the material on CSN is performed by the Crosby, Stills & Nash team, there are also numerous solo selections from each of them, as well as just Stills & Nash, Crosby & Nash, and the Stills offshoot, Manassas. As is common on most recently issued box sets, the program is spiced up by several previously unreleased studio and live versions of tunes, all of which are carefully annotated in the accompanying booklet.
This tract features intriguing comments from the music-makers: like Crosby on the song “Page 43” (“It’s about the mythical instruction booklet to life that we all wish we had and don’t”), Nash on “Teach Your Children” (“The idea is to write something so personal that every single person on the planet can relate to it”), and Young on “Helpless” (“It was recorded at San Francisco about 4 a.m. when everyone got tired enough to play at my speed”).
Track listing:
Disc One
- Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
- Helplessly Hoping
- You Don’t Have To Cry
- Wooden Ships
- Guinnevere
- Marrakesh Express
- Long Time Gone
- Blackbird
- Lady Of The Island
- Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves)
- Almost Cut My Hair
- Teach Your Children
- Horses Through A Rainstorm
- Deja Vu
- Helpless
- 4 + 20
- Laughing
- Carry On/Question
Disc Two
- Woodstock
- Ohio
- Love The One You’re With
- Our House
- Old Times Good Times
- The Lee Shore
- Music Is Love
- I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here
- Man In The Mirror
- Black Queen
- Military Madness
- Urge For Going
- I Used To Be A King
- Simple Man
- Southbound Train
- Change Partners
- My Love Is A Gentle Thing
- Word Game
- Johnny’s Garden
- So Begins The Task
- Turn Back The Pages
Disc Three
- See The Changes
- It Doesn’t Matter
- Immigration Man
- Chicago/We Can Change The World
- Homeward Through The Haze
- Where Will I Be?
- Page 43
- Carry Me
- Cowboy Of Dreams
- Bittersweet
- To the Last Whale
- Prison Song
- Another Sleep Song
- Taken At All
- In My Dreams
- Just A Song Before I Go
- Shadow Captain
- Dark Star
- Cathedral
Disc Four
- Wasted On The Way
- Barrel Of Pain (Half-Life)
- Southern Cross
- Daylight Again: A. Daylight Again/B. Find The Cost Of Freedom
- Thoroughfare Gap
- Wild Tales
- Dear Mr. Fantasy
- Cold Rain
- Got It Made
- Tracks In The Dust
- As I Come Of Age
- 50/50
- Drive My Car
- Delta
- Soldiers Of Peace
- Yours And Mine
- Haven’t We Lost Enough?
- After The Dolphin
- Find The Cost Of Freedom
