ON SONGWRITING
A fter putting out three number-one albums in a row as CSNY between 1970 and 1974 , Crosby , Stills , Nash & Young waited three more years to release another album , though this time without Young . Resting on their laurels and their royalties ( and their separate yachts ) they waited another four years before their label issued Replay in 1981 – a greatest hits album that went nowhere . Scared nearly straight by this turn of events , the three remaining gentlemen knuckled down to produce Daylight Again a year later , which brought them back to the Top 10 for the first time in five years . But it would be their last visit to the upper reaches of the album chart , though CSN would unite again with Y for American Dream in ’ 88 and Looking Forward in ’ 99 . Graham Nash , for one , as far back as ’ 82 , understood that the ultimate supergroup had squandered much of its goodwill .
“ With ‘ Wasted on Way ’ I realized how much time CSN had wasted ,” he said . “ You must understand that CSN had only put out four albums in fourteen years . That ’ s a tremendous popularity to be bestowed on anyone with so little credit . We ’ d wasted a lot of time and done a lot of fighting – a lot of staying away from each other
“ Encore ” by Graham Nash
MARCH / APRIL DIGITAL EDITION GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER 31