We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
How many pop songs have been written about a broken heart? 5000? 10,000? a million?? Is there a deeper vein that a songwriter can tap than his or her own misery after a love affair gone wrong? You wouldn’t think so by the output of such songs in the 1970s. Graham Nash had joined Crosby, Stills and Young in releasing a solo record, Songs For Beginners, after the group splintered in 1970. They had released the iconic “Deja Vu” LP the previous year but could not hold it together.
Nash had been involved in a serious relationship with Joni Mitchell for quite sometime. He wanted to get married, she didn’t. And dumped him via telegram from the Greek Isles. He responded like most songwriters did…he wrote songs about it and quickly rebounded to another lovely songbird in Rita Coolidge. It was this romantic entanglement that helped lead to the demise of CSNY. You see, Coolidge had caught the eye of Stephen Stills after his long time love Judy Collins had left. That Coolidge chose to be with Nash caused Stills to fly into a rage that even led to a physical attack on Nash.
Needless to say, among all the friends who played on Graham’s first solo effort, Stills was not among them. Nash even wrote a couple of songs on the album for his old friend, “Wounded Bird” and ‘Better Days” in which Coolidge supplied background vocals.
How weird is it that an album containing a bunch of songs about a man’s breakup with a long-time love, would have his current love playing and singing on it. Coolidge wrote in her autobiography that she was Nash’s sounding board for most of the songs on this record. She is all over this record.
The album contains two political songs…Military Madness (which contains some excellent lead guitar from Dave Mason) and Chicago(Nash’s screed about the Trial of the Chicago 8 and the violence at the Democratic Convention in 1968.
But it’s the love songs that drive this album into the realm of excellence. Simple, spare arrangements only add to to feeling of despair but also of moving forward. Be Yourself, Man In The Mirror (with Neil Young on piano) Sleep Song and There’s Only One stand up to Nash’s standards but it’s the song “I Used To Be A King” that really shines. It features a beautiful pedal steel part from Jerry Garcia (echoing his tasty fills on Teach Your Children) and bass from Phil Lesh.
Simple Man was written on the afternoon he received the telegram from Mitchell showing that pain for these guys can be channeled into something positive.
The album is filled with contributions from Nash’s friends. Not only the one’s mentioned already but tasty solos and fills come from David Crosby, Bobby Keys, David Lindley, Chris Ethridge, Johnny Barbata, Dallas Taylor and some beautiful cello work from Dorian Rudnytsky.
It’s an album that shows the resilience of the human heart and how that can translate into poetry.
Enjoy!
