Which was the first “supergroup”? There’s another few hours of harmless fun for the next rainy day. One of the first, Crosby, Stills and Nash, produced a debut album in 1969 that was of quite staggering originality and quality.
The participants came from differing backgrounds: Steven Stills had been one of the main men of the Buffalo Springfield, David Crosby had been in The Byrds, and Brit Graham Nash had been in The Hollies, a journeyman group that had produced hits, but wasn’t in the exceptional category.
But one listen to that debut album was to discover that exceptional was an understatement. As the Stills-penned opening track Suite: Judy Blue Eyes faded out, the thought entered that nothing could top that. Then came the lyrics “looking at the world through the sunset in your eyes”: that was Marrakesh Express.
In less than three minutes, Graham Nash had announced his arrival as a seriously good singer songwriter. Although that CS&N album is over forty years old, the music endures, and so it was good to see Nash arrive at Buckingham Palace yesterday to receive his OBE from the Queen.
As his contemporary and occasional colleague Neil Young might have put it, Long May He Run.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment