''CSN'' is the fifth album by
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member ...
, released on
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
on June 17, 1977. It is the group's second studio release in the trio configuration. It peaked at No. 2 on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' Top Pop Albums chart; two singles taken from the album, Nash's "
Just a Song Before I Go" (No. 7) and Stills' "Fair Game" (No. 43) charted on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100. It is currently the trio configuration's best selling record, outselling 1969's ''
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member ...
'' by 200,000 copies. It has been certified
quadruple platinum by
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
.
Content
Following their tour in the spring and summer of 1970 to support ''
Déjà Vu
''Déjà vu'' ( , ; "already seen") is a French loanword for the phenomenon of feeling as though one has lived through the present situation before.Schnider, Armin. (2008). ''The Confabulating Mind: How the Brain Creates Reality''. Oxford Univer ...
'', Crosby, Stills and Nash had only completed one project together, a
1974 reunion tour of CSNY.
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...
and
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash (born 2 February 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, photographer, and activist. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and the supergroups Crosby, Stills ...
had recorded three albums as a
duo, with Crosby releasing a single solo album (in addition to a
Byrds reunion album) and Nash a pair.
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. As both a solo act and member of two successful bands, Stills has com ...
pursued other projects including the release of four solo albums, a short career with
Manassas that yielded two albums, as well as a tour and
an album with
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
, which itself
nearly became a CSNY project.
''CSN'' featured strong writing from all three members, the last time for seventeen years that the band would compose songs and handle vocals without major assistance from outside sources.
Many of Stills' songs on the album echo his marital problems,
[https://www.crosbystillsnash.com/discography/1977/csn/] with "Dark Star" returning to the Latin rhythms he had favored all the way back to his
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth", rele ...
days. Crosby continued the existential probings consistent with much of his past work, and Nash offered both a radio-ready acoustic ballad with "Just a Song Before I Go", and an elaborate set piece re-creating a vision of a
hashish
Hashish ( ar, حشيش, ()), also known as hash, "dry herb, hay" is a drug made by compressing and processing parts of the cannabis plant, typically focusing on flowering buds (female flowers) containing the most trichomes. European Monitorin ...
experience that he had in
Winchester Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,Historic England. "Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1095509)". ''National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 8 September 2014. Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun, commonly known as Winches ...
with "Cathedral".
Many tracks included a string section, a first on a CSN project.
The album was released for compact disc an initial time in the 1980s, then again at Ocean View Digital from the original tapes and reissued on September 20, 1994. It was remastered once more by
Steve Hoffman in April 2013, for an
Audio Fidelity 24kt gold disk release in the summer of 2013.
''
Cash Box
''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
'' said that "Fair Game" "combines a snappy Latin rhythm, neatly interlocking harmonies, and layers of Stephen Stills' thoughtful acoustic guitar work."
It commented on the "surging guitars and piano" and "harmonic hooks" and "powerful rhythmic elements" of "I Give You Give Blind."
Track listing
Side oneSide two
Personnel
*
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...
– vocals; rhythm guitar
on "Fair Game" and "Dark Star"; acoustic guitar
on "Just A Song Before I Go" and "In My Dreams";
string arrangements on "Cathedral" and "Cold Rain"
*
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. As both a solo act and member of two successful bands, Stills has com ...
– vocals; guitars
on all tracks except "Carried Away," "Cathedral" and "Cold Rain" electric piano
An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...
on "Anything at All"; piano, string arrangements
on "I Give You Give Blind";
timbales
Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...
on "Fair Game"
*
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash (born 2 February 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, photographer, and activist. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and the supergroups Crosby, Stills ...
– vocals; piano
on "Carried Away," "Cathedral," "Just A Song Before I Go," and "Cold Rain"; harmonica
on "Carried Away"; string arrangements
on "Cathedral" and "Cold Rain"
Additional musicians
*
Joe Vitale – drums
on "Carried Away," "Fair Game," "Cathedral," "Dark Star," "Run From Tears" and "I Give You Give Blind"; organ
on "Shadow Captain," "Fair Game," "Anything at All," "Dark Star"; electric piano
on "Carried Away," "Just A Song Before I Go"; percussion
on "Cathedral," "I Give You Give Blind"; flute
on "Shadow Captain";
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
on "Cathedral";
vibraphone
The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...
on "In My Dreams"
*
Craig Doerge
Craig Doerge (; born December 4, 1944) is an American keyboard player, session musician, songwriter, record producer, best known for his keyboard work with Crosby Stills and Nash, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne.
Biography
He was born in Cle ...
– piano
on "Shadow Captain" and "Anything at All"; electric piano
on "Shadow Captain" and "Dark Star"
*
Mike Finnigan
Michael Kelly Finnigan (April 26, 1945 – August 11, 2021) was an American keyboard player and vocalist, his speciality being the B3 Hammond organ. Working primarily as a freelance studio musician and touring player, he played with a wide va ...
– organ
on "Run From Tears"
*
George "Chocolate" Perry
George Wesly Perry (born 1953), known professionally as "Chocolate Perry" is an American bassist, songwriter and producer.
Perry has worked with the Bee Gees, John Cougar, Jon Secada, Stephen Stills, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Al Kooper, D ...
– bass
on "Shadow Captain," "Fair Game," "Anything at All", "Cathedral," "Dark Star," and "I Give You Give Blind"
*
Jimmy Haslip
James Robert Haslip (born December 31, 1951) is an American bass guitarist who was a founding member of the jazz fusion group the Yellowjackets, which he left in 2012. He was also an early user of the five-string electric bass.
Early life and ...
– bass
on "Carried Away"
*
Tim Drummond
Timothy Lee Drummond (20 April 1940 – 10 January 2015) was an American musician from Canton, Illinois. Drummond's primary instrument was bass guitar and he toured and recorded with many notable artists, including Conway Twitty, Bob Dylan, James ...
– bass
on "Just A Song Before I Go"
*
Gerald Johnson – bass
on "Run From Tears"
*
Russ Kunkel
Russell Kunkel (born September 27, 1948) is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician with many popular artists, including Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Buffett, Harry Chapin, Rita Coolidge, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Da ...
– drums
on "Shadow Captain" "Anything at All," "Just A Song Before I Go," and "In My Dreams";
conga
The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...
s
on "Shadow Captain" "Dark Star"; percussion
on "Just A Song Before I Go"
*
Ray Barretto
Raymundo "Ray" Barretto Pagán (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Lati ...
– congas
on "Fair Game"
* Mike Lewis – string arrangements
on "Cathedral," "Cold Rain," and "I Give You Give Blind"
*
Joel Bernstein
Joel Bernstein is a photographer, guitarist, and record producer based in Oakland, California. His photographs have appeared as the album covers to, among others, '' After the Gold Rush'', '' 4 Way Street'', ''Rita Coolidge'', ''Wind on the Wa ...
– string arrangements
on "Cathedral"
Production
*
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member ...
–
producers
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
* Howard Albert, Ron Albert – co-producers,
engineers
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...
* Steve Gursky – assistant engineer
*
Joel Bernstein
Joel Bernstein is a photographer, guitarist, and record producer based in Oakland, California. His photographs have appeared as the album covers to, among others, '' After the Gold Rush'', '' 4 Way Street'', ''Rita Coolidge'', ''Wind on the Wa ...
– photography
*
Gary Burden
Gary Burden (May 23, 1933 – March 7, 2018) was an American artist specializing in the field of album covers. He is considered one of the pioneers of the concept of album cover art.
Early life
Gary Burden was born on May 23, 1933, in Cleveland, ...
– art direction, design
*
Joe Gastwirt
Joe Gastwirt is an American audio engineer, known for digitally remastering hundreds of CDs and LPs for famous artists, including the Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, Helen Reddy, Electric Light Orchestra, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, The B ...
– digital remastering
Charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Tour
References
Further reading
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Csn
1977 albums
Atlantic Records albums
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young albums
Albums produced by David Crosby
Albums produced by Graham Nash
Albums produced by Stephen Stills
Albums produced by the Albert Brothers