Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young -- "SYNC"

Following the success of Deja Vu, released in 1970, each member of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young went to work on solo albums. However, all four ended up working with the other three on those albums.

I wanted to see what a CSN&Y album might have looked like if they'd worked on one instead of producing solo efforts. In all, there are 14 songs from the four solo albums that include at least two of the members, and five have three members. But none have all four together. As a result, all of the 14 songs I used for this album have at least two of the members performing.

SIDE A

1. Love the One You're With

2. Music is Love

3. Better Days

4. Only Love Can Break Your Heart

5. Tamalpais High (At About 3)

6. Laughing

7. Go Back Home

SIDE B

1. What Are Their Names

2. Sit Yourself Down

3. Man in the Mirror

4. Traction in the Rain

5. Song with No Words

6. I Used to Be a King

7. We Are Not Helpless

The album kicks off with Stephen Stills' "Love the One You're With," with backup vocals by Graham Nash and David Crosby, followed by Crosby's "Music is Love," with Neil Young and Nash on both guitar and vocals (Young also contributes bass, vibraphone and congas to the track). Nash's "Better Days" is next with Young on guitar.

The fourth track is Young's only composer contribution "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," which features Stills on backup vocals. This is followed by two Crosby songs, "Tamalpais High (At About 3)" and "Laughing," both with Nash on backup vocals. Stills' "Go Back Home," with Crosby on backup vocals, closes out the first side.

The second side opens with Crosby's "What Are Their Names," featuring Nash on backup vocals. Stills' "Sit Yourself Down" follows, with the voices of both Nash and Crosby.

Nash's "Man in the Mirror" includes Young on guitar. This is followed by two Crosby songs, "Traction in the Rain" and "Song with No Words," both with Nash on vocals. Nash's "I Used to be King," with Young and Crosby on vocals, is next. The album closes with Stills' "We are Not Helpless," which includes backup vocals by Nash and Crosby.

(Something to ponder: Since three of these songs feature Crosby, Stills and Nash, then aren't they in essence Crosby, Stills and Nash songs?)

The songs can be found on Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name, Nash's Songs for Beginners, Stills' Stephen Stills and Young's After the Gold Rush. I chose the title of this album, SYNC, from the first letter of each of their surnames.

As a play on the title, I created a cover with a photo of an old sink. This sort of goes along with the covers for the Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet, the Mamas and Papas' If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight, and Foreigner's Head Games. And now that I review this list, what's with rock bands and bathrooms?

"Another Age of Atlantic" compilation

Beginning in 1969, Atlantic Records released a trio of rock music compilation albums to promote its roster of artists. The first record, Atco Blockbusters, featured then-up-and-coming acts such as Iron Butterfly, Dr. John and Buffalo Springfield. The next compilation, The Age of Atlantic, continued the format in 1970 and featured Led Zeppelin, Yes and MC5. The final album, released in 1972, was New Age of Atlantic. It again featured Led Zeppelin and Yes, as well as Cactus and John Prine.

These compilations were sold at a bargain price -- less than it would have cost to buy all the singles.

I don't know why other compilations in the same vein didn't follow, but it's possible that they didn't sell well or many of Atlantic's acts by this time didn't need additional promotion. But I wondered what a fourth compilation might have included, and this is what I came up with.

SIDE A
1. D'yer Mak'er - Led Zeppelin
2. Give It to Me - J. Geils Band
3. In the Midnight Hour - Cross Country
4. Jerusalem - Emerson, Lake and Palmer
5. Easy Money - King Crimson
6. Right Place, Wrong Time - Dr. John

SIDE B
1. Angie - The Rolling Stones
2. Isn't It About Time - Stephen Stills and Manassas
3. Jack of All Trades - Heads, Hands and Feet
4. Everything that Touches You - Michael Kamen
5. Prison Song - Graham Nash
6. Jim Dandy - Black Oak Arkansas

To determine the track list, I decided to look at the albums and singles released and distributed by Atlantic and its subsidiaries in 1973. The record company's roster was really varied. But the three compilations released focused on rock acts. So, keeping with that concept, I didn't include pop, R&B, soul or country music.

The resulting tracklist is a really mixed bag of hard rock, country rock and prog rock, with a ballad thrown in here and there. Some groups (Stones and Zep) have stood the test of time, while others (Cross Country and Heads, Hands and Feet) seem more like curiosities now. If you don't already have all the albums these songs came from (and I can't imagine anyone would), you can download most of them individually. The exceptions appear to be "Jack of All Trades" by Head, Hands and Feet and "Everything That Touches You" by Michael Kamen. For those two, you'll have to do a deep dive.

For a cover, I wanted to get inspiration from the covers of the compilation series. But none of those covers showed any relation to the others, so I figured I had free rein. In the end, I decided on a rather simple design that, quite frankly, is nicer than the covers of the actual series.