CSNY 1974 | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | July 8, 2014 | |||
Recorded | August 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 27, 28, 29, 1974 September 14, 1974 December 14, 1974 | |||
Genre | Rock, folk rock | |||
Length | 196:15 (full version) 78:16 (single disc sampler) | |||
Label | Rhino Records | |||
Producer | Graham Nash, Joel Bernstein | |||
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young chronology | ||||
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Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 87/100[1] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Blurt Magazine | [2] |
AllMusic | [3] |
Rolling Stone | [4] |
Drowned in Sound | (8/10)[5] |
CSNY 1974 is a live album by Crosby, Stills, & Nash, and their seventh in the CSNY quartet configuration. Issued on Rhino Records in 2014, it consists of concert material recorded in 1974 on the band's tour during the summer of that year. It was issued in several formats: a standard compact disc box set consisting of three audio discs and a standard DVD; as one pure audio Blu-ray disc and a Blu-ray DVD; and a more expensively packaged limited deluxe edition consisting of the material on six vinyl records along with the Blu-ray discs and a coffee table book. Three single disc samplers were also issued: one of the acoustic material exclusively available at Starbucks in the United States and Canada; a second at normal retail outlets; and a third included as a covermount disc to the 250th anniversary issue of the UK music magazine Mojo issued as "an exclusive audio-visual sampler of the new CSNY 1974 box set."[6] Each of the non-sampler sets also contained a 188-page booklet, and all formats were released the same day, with the Mojo sampler arriving with the September 2014 publication of that edition. The three-disc and DVD package peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard 200, while the Starbucks sampler peaked at No. 37 and the selections sampler at No. 81.[7]
Background
After the split of CSNY in the summer of 1970, through 1971 David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Neil Young released solo albums, while Stephen Stills issued two. All were gold records, as were the three issued in early 1972 by the quartet: Harvest; Graham Nash David Crosby; and Manassas; proving the group to be appealing commercially apart as well as together.[8] Indicative of this commercial clout, only the separated Beatles as a group also achieved gold records with regularity during the same time period, reinforcing the notion of CSNY as the American Beatles.[9] The foursome showed little interest in regrouping given their individual success, but with the Beatles defunct and Bob Dylan not touring, public enthusiasm remained unabated for CSNY as the new counterculture leaders to record and/or do concerts together, acknowledged by manager Elliot Roberts with his 'pissing in the wind' quote.[10]
Young toured solo in late 1970 and early 1971, Stills undertook his first solo headlining tour with a new band in the summer of 1971, and in the fall of 1971–as documented on the acoustic live album Another Stoney Evening–Crosby & Nash toured for the first time as a duo.[11] In 1972, Stills assembled his band Manassas to tour in support of their album.[12] There had been sporadic reunions, with Young showing up to Crosby and Nash shows, Young recording a one-off single "War Song" with Nash, and CSN in three different pairs providing backing vocals on Young's Harvest album.[11][13]
In 1973, their individual fortunes began to falter. Stills toured again with Manassas, but their second album did not do as well in the marketplace. Young undertook two tours colored by the death of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten; the album from the first tour (with Crosby and Nash on a couple of tracks) Time Fades Away falling well short of the previous year's Harvest sales-wise; his dark album Tonight's the Night had been delayed. Crosby's reunion with the Byrds and Nash's second solo album also did not do particularly well commercially.[14] An attempt to make the second CSNY studio album in the summer of 1973 after a reunion in Hawaii fell apart.[15]
Crosby and Nash put together their first electric band tour in late 1973, and Stills continued to tour with Manassas late into 1973, but the seed had been planted.[16] In January and February 1974, impresario Bill Graham successfully directed the return of Bob Dylan to the concert stage with a winter tour of basketball and hockey arenas. Manager Roberts proposed to CSNY something more ambitious: a summer tour of baseball and football stadiums.[17][18] Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young agreed, Graham signed on as tour director, and the tour was set to begin in July. Rehearsals took place at Young's ranch in La Honda in May and June.[19]
Tour
Besides the four principals on guitars and keyboards, supporting musicians had previously worked with different members. Tim Drummond had been the bassist for Young's Stray Gators band and had recently played on Wild Tales by Nash and On the Beach by Young. Drummer Russ Kunkel appeared on the debut album by Crosby & Nash as well as Stephen Stills Live (recorded in March of 1974), and percussionist Joe Lala was a member of Stills's band Manassas.
The tour commenced on July 9 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Attendees were treated to a concert of exceptional length: the band was still playing past 2:00am. Following performances included 30 dates in 23 locations, ending the North American tour proper at the Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury, New York on September 8.[20] A 32nd and final show took place on September 14 at Wembley Stadium, with opening acts including The Band and Joni Mitchell.[21] The Beach Boys, Santana, Joe Walsh, and Jesse Colin Young also appeared as support acts during the tour.[22]
Cass Elliot died in London during the tour on July 29. Nash relayed the news to Kunkel, who was married to her sister Leah. Kunkel said, "She had a big role in their lives. She introduced Graham to Stephen. It was a very difficult day for us when she died. Thank God we were in the middle of doing something we couldn’t stop. The show that night is probably what got us all through it."[18]
Although large multiple-bill festivals such as Miami Pop, Woodstock, and Watkins Glen had taken place, and CSNY, the Rolling Stones, and others had played infrequent stadium shows, no band except for the Beatles had ever attempted a tour of this magnitude.[23] Whereas the Beatles had done a series of stadium dates over two weeks in 1966, the scope of this tour and its logistics were unprecedented; the tour visited indoor sports arenas, race tracks, and smaller college stadia, including Chicago Stadium, Nassau Coliseum, Boston Garden, the Capital Centre, Jeppesen Stadium at the University of Houston, and the St. Paul Civic Center.[23][24]
Production and box set content
Nash and Joel Bernstein, who had assembled the three individual box sets Voyage, Reflections, and Carry On for Crosby, Nash, and Stills respectively, collaborated again to produce this set. Nash stated that he became the group's archivist both because of his interest in preserving their history[25] and because "I just think I'm the only one with the patience for it."[26] Nash had also produced the 1991 box set for CSN, and Bernstein was the photographer for the 1974 tour. Nash and Bernstein selected the best take for each song from the dozen or so performances available. Nash claimed there were absolutely no overdubs: "If something was out of tune, I would either tune or I'd find it from another show – I'd find something at roughly the same tempo and I'd put it on."[26] The commitment to not overdubbing any tracks led to his decision to not include one of Stills' best known songs, "Carry On", as a good take could not be assembled even by splicing songs together.[27]
Recording locations during the tour as per the dates below were the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York; the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland; Chicago Stadium in Chicago; and Wembley Stadium in London, England.[28] Additional recording after the tour took place at a benefit for the United Farm Workers on December 14 at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium.[29] The concerts in Landover and London were filmed and provide the video footage for the DVD.
While the set list consisted of material taken from both group and solo projects, many songs performed on the tour and included in the box set had not been issued before the tour. Some of these tracks may have been intended for the aborted Human Highway CSNY project of the previous summer.[lower-alpha 1] "Carry Me" and "Time After Time" by Crosby would show up respectively on the Crosby & Nash albums Wind on the Water and Whistling Down the Wire. "Myth of Sisyphus" and "My Angel" by Stills would appear on his next solo album. "Fieldworker" by Nash would also be included on Wind on the Water. "Mellow My Mind" by Young would be released on Tonight's the Night, and "Long May You Run" would be the title track for the album Young would record with Stills. "On the Beach" and "Revolution Blues" would be released during the tour via Young's On the Beach. CSN's cover of "Blackbird" had been recorded in the studio in early 1969, but would not be issued until the 1991 box set. Five songs by Young – "Traces", "Goodbye Dick", "Love Art Blues", "Hawaiian Sunrise", and "Pushed It Over the End" – had appeared on bootlegs and imports but never on an officially sanctioned release.
The box set presents an idealized concert from the template of the shows themselves: discs one and three are full-band electric sets flanking a middle second set of acoustic songs in solo, duo, trio, and quartet configurations. The 188-page booklet contains photographs, an essay, quotes, and song information compiled by Bernstein, including which instruments were used on each song. Crosby had wanted to title the acoustic set "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?", but that was nixed by the others.[18]
Legacy
Crosby dubbed this "the Doom Tour," in reference to both the difficulties in playing such large venues and the collateral excesses.[32] To have something in the stores coinciding with the tour, Atlantic Records compiled So Far from two studio albums and both sides of the stand-alone "Ohio" single. Nash found this absurd; nevertheless the album topped the Billboard 200, and its cover drawing by Joni Mitchell would appear on everything from dinner plates to pillowcases as part of the group's travel accessories.[32][33] Cocaine was also another of the tour's accessories, and tales of the group's behavior have been well chronicled.[18] The tour gross was approximately $11 million (57.6 million in 2020 dollars); however, with a tour staff of 86 and the various extravagances, Crosby maintains that the four principals took home a surprisingly small percentage of the proceeds.[34]
The first stadium tour, CSNY in 1974 set the precedent for every similar outing to follow.[35][36] Bill Graham would work in the same capacity for the Rolling Stones on their American tours of 1975, 1978, and 1981, adding more stadium dates with each subsequent excursion. As lucrative stadium tours with their large attendances became more feasible during the 1970s, so documents of the tour such as Frampton Comes Alive! and Kiss Alive II became equally more lucrative. The promotion business of rock and popular music has not looked back since.
In the autumn after the tour, another attempt to record a new CSNY studio album in Sausalito came to naught.[34] In a December 1995 interview, Young blamed the failure to produce an album partly on the lack of quality new material by the other three members: "If they'd had new songs with the authority that their old songs had, we could've knocked off four and five of mine so that just the best two surfaced. That would have truly been CSN&Y. But it wasn't to be, so the record never came out."[37] There would be yet another aborted attempt during the sessions for Long May You Run, but it would also end in acrimony.[38] The next time they completed a group album, it would be the trio and not the quartet for CSN in 1977.
Track listing
Disc one
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Studio source | Length |
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1. | "Love the One You're With" | Stephen Stills | Stephen Stills | 6:05 |
2. | "Wooden Ships" | David Crosby, Paul Kantner, Stephen Stills | Crosby Stills & Nash | 6:36 |
3. | "Immigration Man" | Graham Nash | Graham Nash David Crosby | 3:47 |
4. | "Helpless" | Neil Young | Déjà Vu | 4:45 |
5. | "Carry Me" | David Crosby | Wind on the Water in 1975 | 4:41 |
6. | "Johnny's Garden" | Stephen Stills | Manassas | 5:20 |
7. | "Traces" | Neil Young | previously unreleased | 3:17 |
8. | "Grave Concern" | Graham Nash | Wild Tales | 3:11 |
9. | "On the Beach" | Neil Young | On the Beach | 7:40 |
10. | "Black Queen" | Stephen Stills | Stephen Stills | 8:25 |
11. | "Almost Cut My Hair" | David Crosby | Déjà Vu | 7:07 |
Disc two
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Studio source | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Change Partners" | Stephen Stills | Stephen Stills 2 | 3:51 |
2. | "The Lee Shore" | David Crosby | 4 Way Street live album; CSN (box set) in 1991 | 4:48 |
3. | "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" | Neil Young | After the Gold Rush | 3:28 |
4. | "Our House" | Graham Nash | Déjà Vu | 3:38 |
5. | "Fieldworker" | Graham Nash | Wind on the Water in 1975 | 3:07 |
6. | "Guinevere" | David Crosby | Crosby Stills & Nash | 6:14 |
7. | "Time After Time" | David Crosby | Whistling Down the Wire in 1976 | 3:48 |
8. | "Prison Song" | Graham Nash | Wild Tales | 4:02 |
9. | "Long May You Run" | Neil Young | Long May You Run in 1976 | 4:13 |
10. | "Goodbye Dick" | Neil Young | previously unreleased | 1:40 |
11. | "Mellow My Mind" | Neil Young | Tonight's the Night in 1975 | 2:33 |
12. | "Old Man" | Neil Young | Harvest | 4:23 |
13. | "Word Game" | Stephen Stills | Stephen Stills 2 | 6:16 |
14. | "Myth of Sisyphus" | Stephen Stills, Kenny Passarelli | Stills in 1975 | 4:44 |
15. | "Blackbird" | John Lennon, Paul McCartney | Allies live album in 1983; CSN (box set) in 1991 | 2:48 |
16. | "Love Art Blues" | Neil Young | previously unreleased | 2:57 |
17. | "Hawaiian Sunrise" | Neil Young | previously unreleased | 2:56 |
18. | "Teach Your Children" | Graham Nash | Déjà Vu | 3:16 |
19. | "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" | Stephen Stills | Crosby Stills & Nash | 9:25 |
Disc three
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Studio source | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Déjà Vu" | David Crosby | Déjà Vu | 8:29 |
2. | "My Angel" | Stephen Stills | Stills in 1975 | 4:35 |
3. | "Pre-Road Downs" | Graham Nash | Crosby Stills & Nash | 3:30 |
4. | "Don't Be Denied" | Neil Young | Time Fades Away live album | 6:40 |
5. | "Revolution Blues" | Neil Young | On the Beach | 4:21 |
6. | "Military Madness" | Graham Nash | Songs for Beginners | 5:04 |
7. | "Long Time Gone" | David Crosby | Crosby Stills & Nash | 6:05 |
8. | "Pushed It Over the End" | Neil Young | previously unreleased | 7:52 |
9. | "Chicago" | Graham Nash | Songs for Beginners | 4:43 |
10. | "Ohio" | Neil Young | 1970 single | 6:00 |
DVD
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" | Neil Young | |
2. | "Almost Cut My Hair" | David Crosby | |
3. | "Grave Concern" | Graham Nash | |
4. | "Old Man" | Neil Young | |
5. | "Johnny's Garden" | Stephen Stills | |
6. | "Our House" | Graham Nash | |
7. | "Déjà Vu" | David Crosby | |
8. | "Pushed It Over the End" | Neil Young |
Single disc sampler
Audience noise was trimmed from tracks to ensure that they all fit on a single compact disc.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Love the One You're With" | Stephen Stills | 6:02 |
2. | "Wooden Ships" | David Crosby, Paul Kantner, Stephen Stills | 6:20 |
3. | "Immigration Man" | Graham Nash | 3:45 |
4. | "Helpless" | Neil Young | 4:33 |
5. | "Johnny's Garden" | Stephen Stills | 5:09 |
6. | "The Lee Shore" | David Crosby | 4:47 |
7. | "Change Partners" | Stephen Stills | 3:24 |
8. | "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" | Neil Young | 3:28 |
9. | "Our House" | Graham Nash | 3:20 |
10. | "Guinevere" | David Crosby | 5:51 |
11. | "Old Man" | Neil Young | 3:57 |
12. | "Teach Your Children" | Graham Nash | 3:09 |
13. | "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" | Stephen Stills | 8:33 |
14. | "Long Time Gone" | David Crosby | 5:44 |
15. | "Chicago" | Graham Nash | 4:46 |
16. | "Ohio" | Neil Young | 5:37 |
Starbucks sampler
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" | Neil Young | 3:28 |
2. | "Change Partners" | Stephen Stills | 3:51 |
3. | "The Lee Shore" | David Crosby | 4:48 |
4. | "Johnny's Garden" | Stephen Stills | 5:20 |
5. | "Guinevere" | David Crosby | 6:14 |
6. | "Our House" | Graham Nash | 3:38 |
7. | "Prison Song" | Graham Nash | 4:02 |
8. | "Old Man" | Neil Young | 4:23 |
9. | "Blackbird" | John Lennon, Paul McCartney | 2:48 |
10. | "Hawaiian Sunrise" | Neil Young | 2:56 |
11. | "Teach Your Children" | Graham Nash | 3:16 |
12. | "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" | Stephen Stills | 9:25 |
Mojo disc sampler
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Almost Cut My Hair" | David Crosby | 7:07 |
2. | "Change Partners" | Stephen Stills | 3:51 |
3. | "Pre-Road Downs" | Graham Nash | 3:30 |
4. | "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" | Neil Young | 3:28 |
5. | "Carry Me" | David Crosby | 4:41 |
6. | "Our House" (video track) | Graham Nash |
Recording dates and locations
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Personnel
- David Crosby — vocals, guitars, tambourine
- Stephen Stills — vocals, guitars, keyboards, acoustic bass guitar
- Graham Nash — vocals, keyboards, guitars, harmonica
- Neil Young — vocals, guitars, keyboards, harmonica, banjo guitar
- Tim Drummond — electric bass guitar
- Russ Kunkel — drums
- Joe Lala — percussion
Production personnel
- Graham Nash and Joel Bernstein along with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — producers
- Elliot Mazer, Stephen Barncard — recording engineers
- Stanley Johnston – analog-to-digital transfer and digital audio processing
- Stanley Johnston, Graham Nash, Joel Bernstein – mixing
- Bernie Grundman, Stanley Johnston – mastering
- Brian Porizek – art direction and design
Tour personnel
- Bill Graham — tour director
- Elliot Roberts, Leslie Morris, Michael John Bowen – artist management
- Chris O'Dell — tour manager
- Tim Mulligan – house sound engineer
- Barry Imhoff – head of production
- Frank Barsalona — booking agent
- Joel Bernstein – tour photographer
- Patrick Stansfield – stage manager
- Steven Cohen – lighting director
- Steve Gagne – chief audio engineer
- Jay Jones, Fred Meyers, Mark Morris, Steve Neal, Craig Reynolds – audio technicians
- Guillermo Giachetti, Glenn Goodwin, John Talbot – equipment managers
- Ben Lesko – guitar technician
Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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Tour dates
Notes
References
- ↑ "Album review". Metacritic.com. Retrieved September 7, 2014.
- ↑ Zimmermann, Lee. "Album review". Blurtonline.com. Retrieved September 7, 2014.
- ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (July 2014). "Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: CSNY 1974". Allmusic. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
- ↑ Browne, David (July 8, 2014). "Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: CSNY 1974". Rolling Stone Magazine. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
- ↑ Lavery, Aaron (July 2, 2014). "Album review". Drownedinsound.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2014.
- ↑ MOJO 250 / September 2014, issue published 29 July 2014, article retrieved 21 November 2020
- ↑ CrosHal Entertainment Group website retrieved 19 July 2015
- ↑ "Gold & Platinum". RIAA.
- ↑ Zimmer (2000), pp. 127–128
- ↑ Carr (2004), p. 129
- 1 2 "HyperRust: Chronology – The Seventies". hyperrust.org.
- ↑ Zimmer (2000), pp. 154–157
- ↑ Zimmer (2000), pp. 157–158
- ↑ Zimmer (2000), pp. 161–163, 169
- ↑ Zimmer (2000), pp. 165–166
- ↑ Zimmer (2000), pp. 167–168
- 1 2 Long (2014), p. 14
- 1 2 3 4 Greene, Andy (June 19, 2014). "The Oral History of CSNY's Infamous 'Doom Tour'". Rolling Stone.
- ↑ Zimmer (2000), pp. 171–173
- 1 2 Long (2014), p. 90
- ↑ Long (2014), p. 73
- ↑ Long (2014), p. 43
- 1 2 Long (2014), p. 30
- ↑ "Sugar Mountain". www.sugarmtn.org.
- ↑ Daily Record website retrieved unknown
- 1 2 Guitars, Joe Bosso 2014-07-03T07:00:00 183Z (July 3, 2014). "Graham Nash discusses the CSNY 1974 live box set". MusicRadar.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ↑ Digital Trends website retrieved unknown
- ↑ Long (2014), p. 178
- ↑ "Crosby Stills & Nash 1974 Concerts". www.geocities.ws.
- ↑ "Albums That Never Were: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Human Highway". December 4, 2013.
- ↑ "Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young-"Human Highway" The Unreleased LP – A Rock Room Reconstruction".
- 1 2 Zimmer (2000), p. 176
- ↑ Long (2014), p. 32
- 1 2 Zimmer (2000), p. 177
- ↑ Myers, Marc (June 24, 2014). "The First Big Stadium Tour" – via www.wsj.com.
- ↑ "CSNY 74: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Epic Tour Revisited". library.creativecow.net.
- ↑ Kent, Nick (December 1995). "I Build Something Up, I Tear It Right Down: Neil Young at 50". Mojo. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
- ↑ Crowe (2004), p. 183
- ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – CSNY 1974" (in German). Hung Medien.
- ↑ "Ultratop.be – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – CSNY 1974" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
- ↑ "Ultratop.be – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – CSNY 1974" (in French). Hung Medien.
- ↑ "Danishcharts.dk – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – CSNY 1974". Hung Medien.
- ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – CSNY 1974" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
- ↑ "Lescharts.com – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – CSNY 1974". Hung Medien.
- ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – CSNY 1974" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts.
- ↑ "Artisti – Classifica settimanale WK 28 (dal 07-07-2014 al 13-07-2014)" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
- ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – CSNY 1974". Hung Medien.
- ↑ "Charts.nz – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – CSNY 1974". Hung Medien.
- ↑ "Spanishcharts.com – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – CSNY 1974". Hung Medien.
- ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – CSNY 1974". Hung Medien.
- ↑ "Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart.
- ↑ "Crosby, Stills & Nash Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard.
- ↑ "Crosby, Stills & Nash Chart History (Top Americana/Folk Albums)". Billboard.
- ↑ "Crosby, Stills & Nash Chart History (Top Rock Albums)". Billboard.
- ↑ "Jaaroverzichten 2014". Ultratop. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
Bibliography
- Long, Pete (2014). CSNY 1974: liner notes. Rhino. R2-541729.
- Carr, Roy (2004) [August 31, 1974]. "Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young and Bert". In Dave Zimmer (ed.). Four Way Street: The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Reader. Da Capo Press. pp. 125–138. ISBN 0-306-81277-0.
- Crowe, Cameron (2004) [June 2, 1977]. "The actual honest-to-God reunion of Crosby, Stills & Nash". In Dave Zimmer (ed.). Four Way Street: The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Reader. Da Capo Press. pp. 177–196. ISBN 0-306-81277-0.
- Zimmer, Dave (2000). Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Biography. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80974-5.