Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Csny 1974 - Music & Performance - CD

Long-rumored and highly anticipated CSNY 1974 captures the band's one-of-a-kind harmonic alchemy during it's remarkable outdoor stadium tour, a trek that spanned more than two months and included 31 concerts, in 24 cities, with combined audiences of over a million people. Produced by Graham Nash and Joel Bernstein, this 40th anniversary CD features 16 live tracks, electric and acoustic, selected from the band's boxed set.

It was, at the time, one of the highest-grossing rock tours ever, grossing over 11 million dollars in an era when such figures were uncommon. Such success camouflaged the chaos behind the scenes -- the bitter fights and feuds, the excess and indulgence that led to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young pocketing about a half million dollars each, when all was said and done. Big bucks were the reason the CSNY 1974 tour even existed. Efforts to record a new album in 1973, their first since 1970's breakthrough Dejaￂﾠ Vu, collapsed but manager Elliot Roberts and promoter Bill Graham convinced the group to stage the first outdoor stadium tour in the summer of 1974, with the idea that CSNY would test-drive new material in concert, then record a new studio album in the fall, or maybe release a live record from the historic tour. Neither happened. The group cleaved in two upon the tour's conclusion and the live tapes sat in the vaults until Graham Nash decided to assemble a box set of the tour just in time for its 40th anniversary in 2014. Nash and producer Joel Bernstein -- the driving forces behind the excellent new millennial archival CSN reissues -- culled the best moments from the nine recorded shows, sometimes cobbling together composites, then assembled the whole thing as a three-CD set designed to replicate the mammoth three-hour sets the quartet played in 1974. That very length indicates how there was room on the 1974 tour for every aspect of CSNY, giving space to sensitive folk, woolly electric guitar jams, hits, and unheard songs. Several of those new songs showed up on albums by CSNY in various permutations, while a few -- mostly written by Young -- never got an airing outside of this tour, so the first official release of "Love Art Blues," "Pushed It Over the End," and even the throwaway Nixon jape "Goodbye Dick" is indeed noteworthy. But what makes CSNY 1974 a substantial chapter in their legacy is how it captures the band in full flight just as its moment is starting to slip away. Stills and Young play with the burly force they channeled into Manassas and Crazy Horse, providing a startling contrast to both the sweetness of disc two's acoustic set and Crosby's excursions into the haze of If I Could Only Remember My Name. Hearing the band pull apart as its members come together is simultaneously thrilling and enervating because Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young remain locked in a battle to outdo one another; it's fascinating to hear them spar, but also draining. Nevertheless, that messy competition is why CSNY 1974 is a vital addition to their canon. Tales of CSNY acrimony are legend, but this rancor rarely surfaced on record. Here, those brawling egos are pushed to the forefront, with all the pretty harmonies operating as an accent to the main event. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Performer	Crosby Stills Nash & Young
Music genre	Rock
Music subgenre	Pop
Media format	CD
Original release date	2014
Edition	Standard Edition
Language	English
Is collectible	Y
Number of tracks	16
Has parental advisory label	N
Number of discs	1
Series title	Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Csny 1974 COMPACT DISCS
Track listing	Love the One You're with, Wooden Ships, Immigration Man, Helpless, Johnny's Garden, The Lee Shore, Change Partners, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Our House, Guinevere, Old Man, Teach Your Children, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Long Time Gone, Chicago, Ohio
Record label	Atlantic
Target audience	Adult
Composer	CROSBY STILLS NASH & YOUNG
Songwriter	songwriter
Music producer	Graham Nash and Joel Bernstein
Number in series	1
Occasion	Anniversary
Track name	Love The One You're With, Wooden Ships, Immigration Man, Helpless, Carry Me, Johnny's Garden, Traces, Grave Concern, On The Beach, Black Queen, Almost Cut My Hair, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Our House, Deja Vu, Pushed It Over The End, The Lee Shore, Change Partners, Fieldworker, Guinevere, Time After Time, Prison Song, Long May You Run, Goodbye Dick, Mellow My Mind, Old Man, Word Game, Myth Of Sisyphus, Blackbird, Love Art Blues, Hawaiian Sunrise, Teach Your Children, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Long Time Gone, Chicago, Ohio, Don't Be Denied
Digital audio file format	CD
Music media format	CD
Is edited	N
Is enhanced	N