''Crosby, Stills & Nash'' is the debut studio album by the folk rock

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Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN), released in 1969 by

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 ...

. It is the only release by the band prior to adding Neil Young to their line-up. The album spawned two Top 40 singles, " Marrakesh Express" and " Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", which peaked respectively at No. 28 the week of August 23, 1969, and at No. 21 the week of December 6, 1969, on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The album itself peaked at No. 6 on the US ''

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. It has been certified four times platinum by the

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for sales of 4,000,000.

History

The album was a very strong debut for the band, instantly lifting them to stardom. Along with the Byrds' '' Sweetheart of the Rodeo'' and the Band's '' Music from Big Pink'' of the previous year, it helped initiate a sea change in popular music away from the ruling late-1960s aesthetic of bands playing blues-based rock music on loud guitars. ''Crosby, Stills & Nash'' presented a new wrinkle in building upon rock's roots, using folk, blues, and even jazz without specifically sounding like mere duplication. Not only blending voices, the three meshed their differing strengths, David Crosby for social commentary and atmospheric mood pieces,

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 ...

for his diverse musical skills and for folding folk and country elements subtly into complex rock structures, and Graham Nash for his radio-friendly pop melodies, to create an amalgam of broad appeal. The album features some of their best known songs, including " Helplessly Hoping", "Long Time Gone", " Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", and " Wooden Ships", a collaboration between Crosby and Stills as well as Paul Kantner of

Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to ac ...

. Stills dominated the recording of the album. Crosby and Nash played guitar on their own songs, while drummer Dallas Taylor played on most tracks except for drummer Jim Gordon on one. Stills played all the bass, organ, and lead guitar parts, as well as acoustic guitar on his own songs. "The other guys won't be offended when I say that one was my baby, and I kind of had the tracks in my head", Stills said. Even with this dominance, Stills does not appear on the tracks " Guinnevere" and "Lady of the Island", both featuring Crosby and Nash only and an inadvertent precursor to their partnership on record and stage during the 1970s. David Crosby bristled over the plan for "Long Time Gone" as he thought he should at least play rhythm guitar on his own song. Stills convinced him to go home for a while and when he returned Crosby was won over by the music track that Stills and Taylor had recorded. In a more recent interview, Crosby contradicted his earlier statement, stating that he had played guitar on the track. He is so credited in the liner notes to the 1991 box set. The group performed songs from the album at the Woodstock festival in August 1969. In late 1969 the group appeared with Neil Young on the Tom Jones' TV show and performed "Long Time Gone" with

Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer * Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in ...

sharing vocals. The album proved very influential on many levels to the dominant popular music scene in America for much of the 1970s. The success of the album generated respect for the group within the industry and galvanized interest in signing similar acts, many of whom came under management and representation by the CSN team of

Elliot Roberts Elliot Roberts (born Elliot Rabinowitz,Tom King, ''The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood'', p. 54, Broadway Books (New York 2001). February 25, 1943 – June 21, 2019)''The Guardian'' article:Lady of the Canyon" ...

and

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. Strong sales, combined with the group's emphasis on personal confession in its writing, paved the way for the success of the singer-songwriter movement of the early 1970s. Their use of personal events in their material without resorting to subterfuge, their talents in vocal harmony, their cultivation of painstaking studio craft, as well as the Laurel Canyon ethos that surrounded the group and their associates, established an aesthetic for a number of acts that came to define the " California sound" of the ensuing decade, including the

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Jackson Browne Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States. Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...

, post-1974

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the line-up for their epony ...

, and others. The album has been issued on compact disc three times: mastered by Barry Diament at Atlantic Studios in the mid-1980s; remastered by

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 ...

at Ocean View Digital and reissued on August 16, 1994; reissued again by Rhino Records as an expanded edition using the HDCD process on January 24, 2006. On December 6, 2011, a

Gold Compact Disc A gold compact disc is one in which gold is used in place of the super pure aluminium commonly used as the reflective coating on ordinary CDs or silver on ordinary CD-Rs. Gold CDs can be played in any CD player. Blank gold CD-Rs are also availab ...

edition of the album was released on the Audio Fidelity label.

Cover

On the cover the members are, left to right, Nash, Stills, and Crosby, the reverse of the order of the album title. The photo was taken by their friend and photographer Henry Diltz before they came up with a name for the group. They found an abandoned house with an old, battered sofa outside, located at 815 Palm Avenue, West Hollywood, across from the Santa Palm car wash, that they thought would be a perfect fit for their image. A few days later they decided on the name "Crosby, Stills, and Nash". To prevent confusion, they went back to the house a day or so later to re-shoot the cover in the correct order, but when they got there they found the house had been demolished. Dallas Taylor can be seen looking through the window of the door on the rear of the sleeve. In the expanded edition, however, he is absent. The original vinyl LP was released in a gatefold sleeve that depicted the band members in large fur parkas with a sunset in the background on the gatefold (shot in Big Bear, California), as well as the iconic cover art. A long folded page inside displayed the album credits, lyrics, track listing, and a quasi-psychedelic pencil drawing.

Release and reception

In a contemporary review, '' Rolling Stone'' critic Barry Franklin called ''Crosby, Stills & Nash'' "an eminently playable record" and "especially satisfying work", finding the songwriting and vocal harmonies particularly exceptional.

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

was less enthusiastic in '' The New York Times'', writing that " 'Crosby, Stills & Nash''is as perfect as has been expected. But it also demonstrates the dangers of perfection: the wildness that should liberate great rock is so well-controlled that when it appears (as on Nash's excellent 'Pre-Road Downs') it seems to have been inserted just to prove the music is rock: the only exception is Crosby's wailing vocal on 'Long Time Gone.'" In his capsule-review column for '' The Village Voice'', he jokingly said the vocal saves the album from "a special

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award". In a retrospective review, Jason Ankeny of AllMusic believed some of the songs' themes "haven't dated well" but "the harmonies are absolutely timeless, and the best material remains rock-solid". In 2003,'' Rolling Stone'' ranked ''Crosby, Stills & Nash'' number 259 on their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, then was re-ranked 262nd in 2012. It was voted number 83 in

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...

's '' All Time Top 1000 Albums'' 3rd Edition (2000).

guitarist Paul Kantner was finally credited as co-composer of "Wooden Ships" on the expanded edition

reissue In the music industry, a reissue (also re-release, repackage or re-edition) is the release of an album or Single (music), single which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions. Reasons for reissue New aud ...

, something long acknowledged on his group's version of the song from their ''

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'' album, released the same year. David Crosby singing an excerpt of "

Come On in My Kitchen "Come On in My Kitchen" is a blues song by Robert Johnson. Music writer Elijah Wald has described it as "a hypnotic lament" and "his first unquestionable masterpiece". A sometime traveling companion and fellow musician, Johnny Shines, recalled th ...

" between "Long Time Gone" and "49 Bye-Byes" was left off the 2006 expanded reissue at the request of the late Robert Johnson's estate.

Grammy awards

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Track listing

Personnel

Crosby, Stills and Nash (CSN)

* David Crosby – vocals, guitar on " Guinnevere"; rhythm guitar on "Wooden Ships" and "Long Time Gone" *

– vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion all tracks except "Guinnevere" and "Lady of the Island" * Graham Nash – vocals, rhythm guitar on " Marrakesh Express" and "Pre-Road Downs"; acoustic guitar on "Lady of the Island"

Additional personnel

* Dallas Taylor – drums on " Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", "Pre-Road Downs," "Wooden Ships," "Long Time Gone," and "49 Bye-Byes" * Jim Gordon – drums on "Marrakesh Express" *

Cass Elliot Ellen Naomi Cohen (September 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974), known professionally as Mama Cass and later on as Cass Elliot, was an American singer and voice actress. She was a member of the singing group the Mamas & the Papas. After the group brok ...

– backing vocals on "Pre-Road Downs"

Production

* Crosby, Stills & Nash – producer * Bill Halverson – engineer *

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 * Henry Diltz – photography *

– direction * Ahmet Ertegün – spiritual guidance * Barry Diament – mastering, initial compact disc issue *

– mastering, 1994 compact disc reissue * Raymond Foye – liner notes, 2006 reissue

Charts

Year-end charts Singles

Certification

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crosby, Stills and Nash (album) Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young albums 1969 debut albums Atlantic Records albums Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Albums produced by Graham Nash Albums produced by David Crosby Albums produced by Stephen Stills Albums recorded at Wally Heider Studios