By Curt Alliaume
Updated 1/21/2023, after the death of David Crosby.
This is actually going to be a long one – not because there’s a lot of CSNY hits sets out there (there aren’t), but because going over their solo stuff will take some time.
I suspect we’ve heard the last of the four of them performing together (of course, we’ve written them off before). In 2014, Crosby criticized Daryl Hannah (“a purely poisonous predator”) after Young had left his wife of 36 years to start a relationship with the actress (who’s now 55, so get the image of the mermaid from Splash and the geezer Young out of your head); he apologized a few months later, but the damage had been done. Meanwhile, Nash (who had been critical of both Young and Crosby in a 2013 autobiography), announced that CSN was over earlier this year, criticizing Crosby using language not generally read in newspapers or heard on television. I suspect they’ve said this to each other in person before (and I wonder, given all of them are in their 70s, how much of it is cranky old guys with a little bit of dementia sinking in), but still, I wouldn’t hold my breath on any new material coming.
My opinions of the band have changed over the years – I took a Rolling Stone critic seriously in 1980 when he described their harmonies as “pinpricks to the brain.” Between that and a fraternity brother being a Neil Young uberfan (although his love was tested after Trans came out), I avoided them during most of my teens and early 20s. But I came around after taping Young’s Decade compilation and Freedom came out, which introduced me back to the rest of the group. And my fondness for the group was cemented during their 2002 appearance at the United Center: they had a great backup band (keyboardist Booker T. Jones and bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn of Booker T. & The MG’s, plus Jim Keltner on drums) and played a great set (including several then-unreleased Neil Young songs, plus the Byrds’ “Eight Miles High” and Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth”). Young was at the top of his game, and it’s possible the three-hour plus concert would have gone longer had (reportedly) Crosby not gone over to Young during the encores and pointed at his watch. If only that concert were available…
There’s no easy way to say this: all the hits choices stink, for various
reasons. As you might have gathered,
these guys can be pretty bull headed sometimes, so getting them to agree on
what to put on a disc isn’t easy. Here’s
what I would get first, given the choices now available both in print and for
download (all links lead to the corresponding Wikipedia pages). Important update: the CSNY albums should be available to stream on Spotify, but the songs written and sung by Neil Young within those albums are (mostly) greyed out. Young yanked his songs off Spotify after they started promoting Joe Rogan's goofball theories on his podcast; the other three originally follow suit but eventually allowed the songs to return.
This was issued in 1974 (in time for a tour) after the group
had released just two LPs and a single (“Ohio”), so all of the group albums
after this are unrepresented (and there’s some good stuff there). Five songs are from Crosby, Stills & Nash (their debut) and four are from Déjà Vu (their first studio album with
Young). But I’ll go through the
remaining albums and explain why this is the best option (hint: because Neil Young allowed his songs to be used). It's out of print on CD and vinyl from what I can tell; $10.49 for the download on Amazon, $10.99 on iTunes.
Replay (1980) – This appears to have only
been manufactured as a vinyl album and cassette, and it’s really weird. Stills and Nash were getting along well and
working together at the time (Crosby was in the midst of his cocaine madness,
and Young wasn’t speaking to the others), so they proposed a future Stills-Nash
project to Atlantic Records. (Crosby and
Nash had recorded a number of duo albums in the 1970s, but that project had
pretty much reached its end.) Instead,
Atlantic let the two assemble a greatest hits set, which included no Young
material, three solo Stills songs, one from the Crosby-Nash duo, and skips five
of the first six singles by CSN and CSNY (“Marrakesh Express,” which was left off So Far, shows up here). Crosby called it “an obvious money trip,” and
he’s not wrong. It was available for a few years as a download but now appears to be gone; there are a couple of alternate mixes on the album,
which gives it some collectable value. YouTube appears to have the entire album available for listening, but I'm not sure if those alternate mixes are included.
CSN (1991) – Not to be confused with the 1977 studio album of the same name, this is a four-disc box set featuring every different combination of the foursome except Neil Young solo (which is why it’s just called CSN). Young’s at least present on some of the songs (don’t worry, “Ohio” and “Helpless” are here), and it’s basically a treasure trove for fans. It even went platinum (which means less than you think; since it’s a four-disc set every sale counts for four of the 1,000,000 copies needed for platinum status). It was outrageous that this wasn’t available for download but the half-assed Replay was; if anybody at Atlantic/Warner Brothers has an explanation for this decision I’d sure like to hear it. Let’s put it this way: if this were available for download, this would easily be the choice over So Far. The good news is it’s $20.59 for a new copy on Amazon – but it's from a third-party seller. I burned a copy from the library edition ages ago; my instinct is to stick with that.
Carry On (1991) – Two-disc distillation of the CSN box set; available almost everywhere except America, and used copies are crazy expensive. There are even less copies of this at Amazon than the CSN box, and it costs more, so why bother?
Greatest Hits (2006) – The most recent compilation would be an option if it weren’t completely Neil Young-free – he doesn’t appear on any of the songs, apparently (three of them are from Déjà Vu: “Our House,” “Teach Your Children,” and “Carry On/Questions”). Frankly, there’s no point calling anything without “Ohio” a greatest hits set. All of the songs are from their first four studio albums; their last four are completely unrepresented (they couldn’t even dredge up some live versions?). $14.49 for the download on Amazon (in fairness, this is nearly twice the length of So Far) and $14.99 on iTunes, but the disc is out of print.
Demos (2009) – Exactly what it sounds like; not the originally released versions. I’ve included this to make sure there’s no confusion.
Now, as for solo hits sets – they’re primarily box sets (and, obviously, there will be overlap with the CSN box).
Crosby: Voyage (2006) is what I have, and it’s pretty good. Three discs, including a few Byrds songs (“Everybody’s Been Burned” is a personal favorite) and an alternate take of “Have You Seen the Stars Tonight?” performed with Paul Kantner’s early version of Jefferson Starship. Unfortunately, it's now unavailable; apparently Sony no longer wanted to allow the Byrds songs on a Rhino anthology. It's been replaced by The David Crosby Box, which I don't have and has a shorter track listing without licensing complications; it's $24.99 for the download on iTunes. No other hits sets from him solo, but of course there’s plenty of Byrds compilation options, as I’ve noted here; I’ve listed some Crosby-Nash options below.
Nash: Reflections (2009) is also good, and has a weirder dichotomy: the Amazon version is 11 songs shorter by my count (including three Hollies songs, which again had to be licensed), whereas the iTunes version appears complete. (I mean, you can't download those songs individually, but how hard is to find “On a Carousel”?) Actually, Nash compiled the box sets for Crosby, Stills, and himself (at a time when he was better disposed toward the others). The truncated Amazon version is $28.49 for the download; the full iTunes version is $29.99. (If somebody at iTunes sees this, please just leave it be!)
Obviously, there are lots of Hollies compilations available (note that Nash was only with that band for the first few years, plus a short-lived 1983 reunion when it looked like CSN was kaput). Finally, there are two best-ofs from the Crosby/Nash duo: 1978’s The Best of Cr.osby & Nash, encompassing their years on Atlantic Records, probably has the stronger material (it includes three solo songs, in addition to much of 1971’s Graham Nash David Crosby album), but it’s never been available on compact disc or for download. 2002’s The Best of Crosby & Nash: The ABC Years reflects their material after jumping to ABC Records in the mid-1970s (the label collapsed around the same time Crosby’s cocaine issues made working together problematic – not that the two events influenced each other) and comes from two studio albums and a live set. It’s $9.49 for the download on Amazon ($9.99 on iTunes) and $19.69 for the CD, and probably will only be of interest to the diehards and completists.
Stills: Carry On (2013) is Stills’ box; it’s more expensive than the others primarily because it’s four discs instead of three – unlike Crosby and Nash, Stills’ group prior to CSNY, Buffalo Springfield, was also with Atlantic/Warner Brothers, so the label didn’t have to license their songs (The Byrds and Hollies were both with Columbia/Sony, which is why only three of their songs were on Crosby and Nash’s set – but hey, it’s better than nothing, or was, anyway). Consequently, there are 11 Springfield songs on the set, along with a couple of very early efforts, and the usual shuffle of material from his solo years and with various CSNY configurations. $37.99 for the download on Amazon, $39.99 on iTunes, and the physical box set is out of print. Still Stills is an out-of-print set (probably never on CD) from his solo Atlantic years, while Turnin’ Back the Pages does the same for his years on Columbia (and includes selections from a one-off album Stills made after Buffalo Springfield collapsed but before CSN started, Super Session with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield); it’s not available for download but physical copies can be found.
And then there’s Maude Neil Young, who’s released 38
solo albums of original material, but so far has only released four compilations,
three of which contain Buffalo Springfield and/or CSNY material. He’s released two monster box sets full of previously unavailable material as part of his Archives series; unfortunately they also contain entire live sets he had previously released separately (for example, the first volume has Live at Fillmore East and Live at Massey Hall), which many of his fans (myself included) had already bought. It’s kind of galling having to purchase a second copy of a few albums to get the stuff you actually want. In the interim, however, you can’t go wrong with Decade
(1978), a three-album/two-CD compilation of his first 10 years; Greatest
Hits (2004) seems like a decent sampler for those who don’t own anything by Young and want to learn more.
(Crossposted to Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.)
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