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The story behind the record cover - Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)

 
  "Searching for clues. What's wrong with this picture? Messrs Nash and Crosby are positioned wrongly. Vocalist Graham Nash, on the left, should have been seated on the right, and singer-guitarist David Crosby, on the right, should have been seated on the left. Then it would have been logical, because the eye moves from left to right. Now you see Nash, Stills & Crosby. Doesn't sound good at all. Photographer Henry Diltz spent all day searching Los Angeles for a good location to capture the band members of this new folk rock group. Their vocal harmonies gave everyone goosebumps. This had never been heard before. Everyone in the Los Angeles music scene knew that these three men would become world famous. So a nice location had to be found to immortalize them for their first album. In a suburb, Diltz found a typical wooden American house. Ready for demolition. An old sofa had already been put outside for the bulky waste. "This is it", Diltz said. Nash, Stills, and Crosby sat down on the couch. Diltz did a few photo shoots and Bob's your uncle. That's what he thought. When he developed his roll of film that evening, he realized that there was something wrong with the photos: Nash and Crosby were in the wrong place. What now? Redo. The next day they went to the same location. Alas. A bulldozer had done its job. The house had been razed to the ground. And there was no comparable home to be found on the entire site. Everything had been flattened. They decided to leave it that way, because the image itself was simply beautiful. There are those defining moments. When everything comes together and you realize: this is it. Moments that cannot be copied, because all details have to be right and that only happens once. After that, the magic is gone. I'm glad the photographer and the three musicians decided to leave the cover as is, with the picture actually not quite right. Does it really matter they're not positioned correctly? Only some will notice and they won't be bothered, will they? I won't, in any case. In fact, it might be the imperfection that makes the cover even stronger than it already is. 'Flaunt the imperfection', in the words of China Crisis, the British band that we - just a side track - had as guests at De Boerderij just before the pandemic. Back to Crosby, Stills & Nash. The decision on the cover had been made. The recordings for the album, with studio musicians, were successful. But to be able to perfectly bring the combination of guitar playing and vocal harmonies alive, they needed another guitarist. Stills could really play and Crosby could play a little rhythm guitar, but that was it. They decided to hire Canadian guitarist Neil Young. Like the three men, he also lived in LA, in the Laurel Canyon district, the place for musicians in the sixties. Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Cass Elliot from the Mamas and the Papas, Jim Morrison and the other Doors, they all lived in Laurel Canyon. Lots of flower power, lots of mind-altering substances, lots of music. Until psychopath Charles Manson and his clan started a killing streak. Suddenly there was a killer on the road, as Jim Morrison sings in the song 'Riders on the Storm'. But I'm getting sidetracked again. Okay, one more sidetrack. Drummer Dallas Taylor looks through the door window on the back cover of the LP. But he was not present at the sessions at all. He was added later. Why? If he was that important, why wasn't the group called Crosby, Stills, Nash & Taylor? So it eventually became Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. With Young's guitar and vocals added, the harmonies became even more beautiful, and not just live. With the album "Déjà Vu", the foursome made one of the most beautiful albums ever. As a result, the album "Crosby, Stills & Nash" has found itself in the shadows somewhat. A place it shouldn't be in. The three of them also made phenomenal music; I still get goosebumps when I hear the song 'Helplessly Hoping'. It is nice to notice that the music of the four old hippies still appeals to young people, even today. In flower power terms, you could say that good has triumphed over evil. The four are still alive, mass murderer Charles Manson has been dead for some years."
 
By Gerrit-Jan Vrielink
 
 
Translation Alex Driessen

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