May 29, 1969: The Album "Crosby, Stills & Nash" Is Released

Left to right: Nash, Stills, Crosby

May 29, 1969: The album Crosby, Stills & Nash is released. It is part of the rise of rock and roll "supergroups."

David Van Cortlandt Crosby was born on August 14, 1941 in Los Angeles. He was a descendant of the old-line New York State Van Cortlandt and Van Rensselaer families, and the son of Academy Award-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby. From 1965 to 1967, he was a guitarist with the rock band The Byrds.

Stephen Arthur Stills was born on January 3, 1945 in Dallas. His father was an Army officer, so he moved around a lot, never having a real hometown. After dropping out of Louisiana State University, he was in a band named The Continentals, which includes future Eagles guitarist Don Felder. He became a part of the Greenwich Village folk music community in New York, where he met Richie Furay.

A subsequent band named The Company toured Canada, where Stills met Neil Young. Stills said that Young "was doing what I always wanted to do: Play folk music in a rock band." He convinced Furay to move to Los Angeles with him, and try out the West Coast music scene. He tried out to be one of The Monkees, but was rejected, allegedly because of his teeth. He recommended to his friend Peter Tork that he audition, and he was accepted.

Young and 2 fellow Canadians, bass guitarist Bruce Palmer and drummer Dewey Martin joined Stills and Furay in Los Angeles, and formed The Buffalo Springfield. They only had one real hit, but it was unforgettable: "For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey, What's That Sound)." The group broke up in 1968.

Graham William Nash was born on February 2, 1942 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. In 1962, he and Allan Clarke founded The Hollies, named for Buddy Holly. Like The Byrds, the Hollies had some of the best harmonies of the 1960s, and had more hits than The Byrds and The Buffalo Springfield combined.

Nash met Crosby and Stills on The Hollies' 1966 U.S. tour. In 1968, that band moved to Los Angeles, and the 3 men came into contact again. Coming together at a party hosted either by Joni Mitchell, whom Nash was dating, or Cass Elliot of The Mamas & the Papas (they couldn't get their stories to agree as to which of them it was), they ended up singing together, and seeing how good their harmonies were.

Nash quit The Hollies, and the men formed a new group. The album Crosby, Stills & Nash was released, including Nash's "Marrakesh Express" and Stills' tribute to Judy Collins, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." Their 1st concert together was on August 16, at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. Their 2nd was the next day, at Woodstock, and it came to define them, to the point where Crosby began to refer to "The W-Word."

Neil Young was brought in as a 4th member, and their 2nd/1st album, Déjà Vu, was released on March 11, 1970. It included the song "Woodstock" -- written by Mitchell, who wasn't even there -- "Teach Your Children" and "Our House." Within 2 months of its release, the Kent State Massacre happened, and Young wrote "Ohio." The live album 4 Way Street was released on April 4, 1971.

Left to right: Young, Stills, Crosby, Nash

The various members appeared together in various combinations as long as they were all still alive, even though there was the occasional feud, to the point where the band became known as "Crosby, Stills, Nash and Sometimes Young" -- alternately, CSN, CSNY, or CSN and Sometimes Y, reflecting the fact that the vowels of the English language conclude with "and sometimes Y."

Elections to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Crosby, with The Byrds, in 1991; Young, as a soloist, in 1995; Crosby, Stills and Nash as a trio, but not with Young, in 1997; Stills and Young with Buffalo Springfield, also in 1997; Nash, with The Hollies, in 2010. In other words, all 4 men are "double inductees."

On December 22, 2016, I saw this question on Twitter: "Whose fault is it that streaming pays so little to the artist? The record companies, the artists, or the streamers?" Crosby said, "Not us.. we are the ones getting short changed"

Which led me to respond: "Apparently, the one constant in the music business since Bach's time, 300 years ago." David Crosby liked my tweet.

It was amazing that he was still alive at all, given how much he had harmed himself, to the point of needing a liver transplant. In a 1995 interview, he said of his fellow Hippies, "We were right about a lot of things. We were right that peace is better than war. We were right that love is better than hate. We were not right, as it turned out, about drugs." But, as of May 29, 2022, he, Stills, Nash and Young are all still alive.

Reuniting against Spotify, February 2, 2022:

Young, Crosby, Stills and Nash.

This turned out to be their last meeting.

And on a 1997 episode of Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, Crosby managed to perfectly sum up the difference between 1960s hippies and modern conservatives: Conservatives say they believe in freedom, the hippies actually did believe in it. Conservatives don't want you to tell them how to live, but they want to tell you. Crosby: "We didn't say you had to smoke pot and dress funny, we said that you could."

UPDATE: As it turned out, Crosby was the 1st to die, on January 18, 2023. He was 81.

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May 29, 1969 was a Thursday. These 4 Major League Baseball games were played:

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Montreal Expos, 5-3 at Jarry Park in Montreal.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Johnny Bench hit a home run, and Pete Rose, oddly, did not play. For the Pirates, Roberto Clemente hit a home run, and Willie Stargell went 1-for-4.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 8-6 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* And the Detroit Tigers beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-4 at the Oakland Coliseum. Al Kaline did not play. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-5.