Crosby, Stills & Nash: CSN - 1977

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Released at the height of punk, was there any desire for harmonious, laid-back, airy and peaceful acoustic music together with idealistic lyrics? Certainly not in the UK, where it was disco, prog-pop-rock and punk-new wave all the way. 

In the US, though, this album reached number two, beaten to the top spot by Fleetwood Mac's behemoth Rumours. It is an album that functions far better when listened to now than it would back in 1997. Personally, I would have had no time for it then. 1970's Deja Vu album and the zeitgeist it was released into certainly seemed a long way away. The music is unsurprisingly gentle and subtle, full of light rhythm and acoustic melody. 

The highlights are Stephen Stills' wryly musing and rhythmic Fair Game, the (comparatively) rocky Dark Star and Run From Tears along with See The Changes; David Crosby's beautiful, quietly attractive Shadow Captain, the sleepy Anything At All from the extravagantly-moustachioed one and Graham Nash's delicious soft rock in Just A Song Before You Go. 

Hippy nostalgia like Nash's Cathedral, a song that saw him recalling getting high in Winchester Cathedral, surely had no place in 1977? Maybe it did, as the song was popular at the time (at least in the US) and remained so. This, and indeed all the material is just so 1970. 

The music is beautiful - clear acoustic guitars, understated drums, alluring percussion and guitar and sumptuous bass lines - and it goes without saying that the vocals are sublime. These guys could sing, couldn't they? Finally, I have to make the point that it is Stills' songs that I always like the best.

 

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