Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) was an American folk rock supergroup made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. They are known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) when joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young, who is from Canada.
Their songs include "Marrakesh Express", "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", "Teach Your Children", "Ohio" (a protest song, against the Kent State shootings in early 1970), and "Just A Song Before I Go".
Coming together
In the 1960s, Stephen Stills and Neil Young were members of another band, called Buffalo Springfield. Crosby was a founding member of The Byrds, and British-born Graham Nash was a member of The Hollies. Crosby was fired from the Byrds late in 1967, and the Buffalo Springfield disbanded the next year. Nash went to California, where the others lived and worked, when the Hollies visited there in 1968. Nash and Crosby had met earlier in England, and got back in touch in California. Crosby and Stills had worked together on two songs, called "Wooden Ships" and "You Don't Have To Cry". Performing "You Don't Have To Cry" for Nash, he joined in on harmonies, and the three noticed they had a special sound together. Nash moved to California, and the three formed a band. They signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records.
Stills and Crosby were free to work together, and record for Atlantic, but Nash still belonged to the Hollies, who had a contract with Epic Records. A trade was worked out, between Atlantic and Epic. In exchange for losing Nash, Epic Records got to sign up another Atlantic band, Poco, formed by Richie Furay from the Buffalo Springfield.
CSN's first album was released in the spring of 1969, and quickly became a hit. The cover showed Crosby, Stills and Nash sitting on a couch outside an abandoned house. (They did not sit in their name order; they had not yet named the group. When they decided on their name, they wanted to take another picture sitting in order, but the house had already been torn down.) Stephen Stills had played most of the instruments on the album, with Dallas Taylor playing drums. This worked fine for recordings, but not for live appearances. More musicians were needed. A keyboardist and bass guitarist were hired.
Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegün suggested Neil Young, who now had his own band called Crazy Horse, as another guitarist for the group. Stills wasn't sure if Young would work out, but gave him a chance. He fit in so well that CSN made him a full-time member, and added his name to theirs. Young was able to both play with CSN, and keep his own place with Crazy Horse. Their second show as a quartet was at the Woodstock Festival, in August 1969. They toured for the next several months, and released a second album, Déjà Vu, early the next year. They made another performing tour, to support the album, which was also a huge hit.
Coming apart
The group was very successful, but its members had many different ideas, and could not always work well together. Tension grew between them, and they nearly disbanded. Young left to return to Crazy Horse, and tour with them on his own. Each of the four recorded a solo album during 1971, though, and each album became a hit. Nash and Crosby toured together, and Stills formed another band, called Manassas, with Chris Hillman of the Byrds. Another round of solo and duo albums was released during 1972, with Young's Harvest and its single "Heart Of Gold" becoming the biggest hits. Albums by the other members were not as successful, though they still sold well. Crosby and Nash got along very well, and worked together as a duo, while Stills joined Young and Crazy Horse to record Young's "War Song". Crosby also rejoined the Byrds, but the album they recorded together, Byrds, was not a hit.
The four tried to reunite in Hawaii during 1973 to make a new album, Human Highway, but things did not work out. Finally the next year, they reformed and started another tour, with a compilation album, So Far, issued to give them something new to promote. Their shows ran longer than three hours, and there was sometimes trouble. Stills was abusing cocaine, and it made him hard to get along with. The same old tensions also came back. A new CSN&Y project was dashed when Stills and Young erased Crosby and Nash's vocals from the master tapes. Crosby and Nash went off on their own. Stills and Young formed The Stills/Young Band, and released an album, but even that did not work out.