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?
Great stuff! When compiling mine, I added all of those songs, plus another 10 tracks they performed in their 1969/1970 tours, and only released in solo albums later. They include "So Begins the Task" and "Southern Man", and I sequenced the whole thing to function as a sort of White Album by CSNY, four solo albums turned into an album.
ReplyDeleteBut I dig your sequence, it looks great!
Thanks. You obviously did more research than I did as I didn't know they'd included other songs when on tour. But that makes sense.
DeleteThis is a great concept, and the track selection is pretty solid. However, I believe Traction In The Rain came from much later in Crosby's recording career, and therefore I would swap it with Neil's Ohio and Stills' Find The Cost OF Freedom, both of which feature the whole CSNY lineup. Lastly, Young also sings with the plethora of musicians on What Are There Names, as part of the Planet Earth Rock 'n' Roll Orchestra (PERRO). Otherwise, a solid effort.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for your comments. Actually, "Traction in the Rain" is on Crosby's '71 album, "If I Could Only Remember My Name." But including "Ohio" would probably have been a good idea.
DeleteAEC, I stand corrected on Traction In The Rain. On a side note, I have my own Neil Young alternate albums timeline series starting on my blog. Feel free to have a gander: https://bigmrbee914.wordpress.com/
DeleteCool stuff!
DeleteI love the idea of this but in my opinion it's a little too Croz heavy for a CSNY album. I would keep Music is Love and Laughing and replace them with the 13 minute Southern Man from 4way Street. Music is Love is a perfect side opener so I would move that to side two. Follow that with I Used To Be A Kng which was recorded with many of the same musicians as the Crosby tunes.
ReplyDeleteThere is precedence from the earlier albums for solo acoustic songs, 4+20 comes to mind, so you could use solo performances from 4way Street as well. The Ohio single was released in 1970 and would have been old by the time this was released. I think it's best kept as a non-LP release.
I really like Reconstructor's idea as well but I'm sure you're aware of my feelings for double albums. Deja Vu was mostly recorded apart so it does follow the pattern.
Thank you for the inspiration. I'm playing with my own version at the moment.
"replace them" meaning the dropped Crosby songs.
DeleteSure, lots of ways you can slice it, dice it, put it in a pan. :)
DeleteTried to make a single but I ended up with a double album like Reconstructor's but used my own criteria. So much good stuff on those albums.
DeleteSide 1
01 Music is Love
02 Do for the Others
03 Military Madness
04 Southern Man
Side 2
01 Love the One You're With
02 Better Days
03 Laughing
04 After The Goldrush
05 We Are Not Helpless
Side 3
01 Chicago (We Can Change The World)
02 Sit Yourself Down
03 Don't Let It Bring You Down
04 Traction in the Rain
05 Simple Man
06 Orleans
Side 4
01 Only Love Can Break Your Heart
02 Church (Part of Someone)
03 I Used to Be a King
04 Cowboy Movie
Southern Man is the Live, Way Street version with audience removed.
Chicago (We Can Change The World) I edited the reprise onto the end by ducking the chatter from the reprise under the end of the fade out of the main song.
Don't Let It Bring You Down is the Live, Way Street version with audience removed.
Every thing else is the album tracks used as is.
Running time: 79:44
Thanks again
Nice. How did you remove the audience from the live track?
DeleteTight edits in front and fadeouts at the end. Bring You Down sounds quite natural. Southern Man has a longer fadeout. It gives the impression it could have gone on even longer.
DeleteI hope you realize Atlantic did a varation of this in 1971 called "Crosby, Stills , Nash & Young - Celebration." It was a promo album with one side CSN solo tracks the other CSN tracks.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.discogs.com/Crosby-Stills-Nash-Young-Crosby-Stills-Nash-Young-Month-Celebration-Copy/release/2465701
Actually, I wasn't aware of this album. Very interesting. Thanks for letting me know
Delete