Today, concerts in and of themselves are money generating
ventures. Tickets for concerts in the new millennium run hundreds of dollars, with special "meet and greet" events equaling the average paycheck, a pricing norm generated by Napster. Woodstock tickets, in comparison, were $18 for
three days, and it wouldn't be unusual for a band to plan a high school tour in
which tickets were three bucks. Concerts were a promotional concept with
designs on getting attendees to purchase the LP or cassette. Because of this,
every band toured for every LP.
When CSN emerged from out of Laurel Canyon in early 1969,
particularly as what many consider the first "supergroup" (The Byrds, Buffalo
Springfield, The Hollies), the trio knew it must tour. The issue on hand was
the complexity of the music, arrangements that, in the pre-Unplugged days, were
beyond the capacity of the live band, despite Stills’ virtuosity. It
was Stills who spent 100s of Brian Wilson-like hours in the studio to make the
debut what it is.
CSN was forced to vet out the gaps in their line-up. They
needed a drummer, that went without saying, and chose session drummer Dallas
Taylor, but Stills felt they needed another musician "proficient enough, but not
as a composer or singer." The concept was to focus on the harmonies in the tour's
initial songs and then venture into an electric set that rocked. Atlantic
Records guru Ahmet Ertegun suggested Neil Young, Stills' partner in Buffalo Springfield,
to fill the bill. It was Young who had, through his dominance brought about the
demise of the Buffalo Springfield, particularly in a scheme to embark on a solo
career, but Ertegun knew the dynamic that offset Stills and Young in the guitar
protegees' electric duets.
By the time they "got to Woodstock," Crosby, Stills and
Nash had been joined by Young, with Taylor and Greg Reeves, a teenaged
bassist with Motown cred.
The CSN debut, by the time of Woodstock, had already spent
time atop the Billboard 100 album chart and would continue in that vein for 107 weeks. Woodstock
led to Déjà Vu's complexity. Stills and Ertegun understood that Stephen's hope for a
rival who remained ghostlike behind the band wouldn't fly with Young, and luckily,
it didn’t. Stills had no powerhouse follow-up to Suite: Judy Blue Eyes and out
of that came a far more intensive eclecticism for the new LP.
Driving this, Stills' focus was "Carry On," which
contained a rebooted arrangement for "Questions," edited out of the Buffalo
Springfield's final album. Neil would counter with "Helpless," assimilating so
perfectly into the CSN sound, and also with "Country Girl" and "Everybody I
Love You." Not to be outdone, Crosby provided the title track and rock anthem, "Almost Cut My Hair," and Nash would contribute "Our House," "Teach Your Children," and, I'm sure, the emotional impetus for Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock."
Sometimes the magic isn't magical at all, think the agony
of emotion behind Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, but the magic is there nonetheless, despite
itself. Déjà Vu is one of those moments in music history when all the planets
aligned; a perfect 10 on the AM scale.
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