After famously playing their second show at Woodstock in August 1969, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young spent the rest of the year touring and writing songs for what would become CSNY’s 1970 debut, Déjà Vu.
A newly discovered multi-track recording of the band’s September 20, 1969, concert at the historic Fillmore East in New York City captures an early moment from that first tour and will be released as a double live album on October 25. Live At The Fillmore East, 1969 will be available from Rhino.com on vinyl (2LP) and CD.
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young were heavily involved in the creation of this never-before-heard live show. Stills and Young compiled and mixed the original eight-track concert recordings with John Hanlon at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles. The audio is AAA lacquer cut for the vinyl release to provide the highest audio fidelity.
A press release from Rhino further describes the upcoming endeavor,
“Young recently said: “[We] have the tapes, and they sound so real. We mixed at Sunset Sound – the analog echo chamber, no digital echo. We’re staying all analog throughout the production…Pure. Analog. No digital – an Analog Original.”
“Recorded only a month after Woodstock, the September 20 concert was the band’s fourth show in two days at the Fillmore East and featured both acoustic and electric sets.Stills shares they were still figuring things out, “the acoustic part of the show took care of itself, but now that we had equipment and Dallas [Taylor, drums] and Greg [Reeves, bass] and sizable shows to do, we just went for it. What we lacked in finesse, we made up for in enthusiasm...A band on the run. Expecting to fly.”
“The setlist spotlights soon-to-be classics from CSN’s self-titled debut and Young’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere with “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helplessly Hoping,” and “Down By The River.” The concert also features early versions of two future Déjà Vu tracks. Stills delivers a stunning solo acoustic performance of his introspective ballad “4 + 20,” followed by Nash, alone at the organ, singing “Our House” to its inspiration, Joni Mitchell, who was in the Fillmore audience.
“In the acoustic set, Young gave a nod to Buffalo Springfield (his first band with Stills) playing “I’ve Loved Her So Long,” a song he wrote for the group’s final album, 1968’s Last Time Around. Young says, “For me, CSNY was a chance to reunite with Steve Stills and carry on the Buffalo Springfield vibe. Crosby’s great energy was always our catalyst. Graham and Stephen’s vocals, along with David’s and mine, were uplifting every night. Great moments I will never forget.”
“The electric set is powerful and intense, highlighted by expansive versions of “Wooden Ships,” “Long Time Gone,” and “Sea of Madness.” The band closes the show with “Find the Cost Of Freedom,” a new song by Stills that later would be released as the B-side to the protest anthem “Ohio.”
“Hearing the music again after all these years, I can tell how much we loved each other and loved the music that we were creating,” Nash says. “We were four people reveling in the different sounds we were producing, quietly singing together on the one hand, then rocking like f**k for the rest of the concert.”
“When Neil joined the CSN faculty, a whole other wild card element entered the building,” suggested poet and deejay Dr. James Cushing. “Because, he has such a distinctive sound and such a strong personality that he makes his mark on all the other people who are there. But yet Neil’s own work somehow fits in while being instantly recognizable.
“The release of CSN&Y Live at Fillmore East 1969 is excellent news for anyone who, like me, feels that 4-Way Street was and remains the best of the group’s original albums. Like that 1971 double-LP, this new issue has an acoustic and an electric half (shades of Dylan’s 1966 tour with the Hawks!). The acoustic half, missed notes and all, recreates the sort of musical intimacy one imagines taking place late one spring night in Laurel Canyon years ago. The ease with which these four men’s voices interact with each other is uniquely its own. Nevertheless, one hears the deep folk current that links them to the Weavers through the Byrds. The electric half spotlights the king size guitars of Stills and Young. Their solo and duet playing is every bit as exciting as the Allman Brothers.”
In 2022 I interviewed David Crosby and he explainedthe impact of Neil Young joining CSN&Y.
“The greatest strength we had was as songwriters. That was our main number one strength. And the trick that we had was that we had several. Now most bands had one. Some had two. What that gets you is that if you are painting a picture and you have a number of colors on your palate, if you are working with somebody else, they have different colors on their palate. If they have six and they have nine, all of a sudden you have sixteen colors.
It’s a better painting.
“Now, when you are making albums, the problem of having one writer is that he or she tends to write very similarly song to song. With the four of us we had four drastically different writing styles, four ways of conceiving a song. They were very different.
“Now I will go out on a limb and say Stills was the best of us. I think he was, without question, the best songwriter, the best singer and the best guitar player. All three. But I think all four of us had real skill as songwriters and our stuff was very different than each other. I think that’s one of the main reasons that it made it.”
I asked Crosby how he knew Neil Young could work in the existing CS&N trio format?
“I’ll tell you exactly. I was sittin’ in Joni’s driveway on Lookout Mountain Drive in Laurel Canyon. And Neil drove by and he saw me out there, turned around at the next stop and came back down and pulled in. Gets out of his car and pulls out a guitar. Now this is when we are considering asking him to be in the group. And he knows that. He knows that Nash is against it. And he knows I’m kind of on the fence, and he knows Stills is for it. That kind of makes me the decider. I didn’t say anything. That’s how it was, right? Neil sat down on the trunk of the car with me, the two of us, him with the guitar, and he sang ‘Helpless,’ ‘Country Girl,’ and a few other things. And I said ‘I wanna work with this guy. This is too good.’ It was about the writing. It was all about those songs.
“He’s not as good as a guitar player as Stills. To this day he’s not as good as a guitar player as Stills. He’s very very good. Stills is very much better. We didn’t need him for that. We did need a guitar player when Stills was playing keyboard. And that was a big factor in what Stills said to us about bringing Neil in. But, for me, it was only about those songs. They were excellent. Excellent. And they were completely different from us and I knew what would happen when we add those Crosby, Stills, Nash vocal sound to a song like that. I knew what ‘Helpless’ would sound like. And I knew what we could do. It was irresistible. Of course, I wanted to work with him.”
Last decade I interviewed musician and photographer Henry Diltz. He reflected on the formation of CSN&Y.
“I saw the principals before they became this collective. I watched them grow from young kids to getting better and better at what they do. These were the people in my own life. When I meditate on my own life, I come out realizing that it’s about the people. And I felt in the middle of all these people and not an outsider observing them. ‘Cause I had been a musician and this is my family.
“CS&N were just three different looking people. And when you have a trio that can work really, really well. It’ a certain balance. An Englishman, sort of a blonde hippie kid, and a Leo young prince. The first year they sang together they were so thrilled with the sound they made together. They were very close and buddy, buddy. Then things and the friendships got more complex than the sheer joy of the sound they made together.
“Neil Young was perfect for them but he had his own way of wanting to do things. He’s a Scorpio and had a very definite idea about how things had to be done. Stills is a Capricorn, Crosby the Leo, tenacious into his music, and Graham is an Aquarius that embraces mankind. That’s why he is such a lovely chap. Crosby is a bit of an imp. He liked to get in some digs and tweak people. Sometimes he’d give me some shit about taking his picture but I knew he was kidding in a friendly way.
“Stephen Stills was certainly a musician. First and foremost. He always had a guitar and sang. He was a friendly guy who was more into music than rapping with his friends. He had his head in music and almost pre-occupied with it. He’s a Capricorn. Tenacious. Whatever they do they get into it and he was that.
“When Neil formally joined CSN&Y, it gave them ass. Because, look, David and Graham are not really solo musicians. They can play, you know, but aren’t guitar Gods at all. Whereas Stephen is. Because with Neil he had something to play against. He had somebody to trade ideas back and forth. Solos where they had a situation where one of them would try and top it. And that drove Stephen and made it all the much better.
“The magic grail was that three- part harmony. When they first harmonized…Even Graham initially said, ‘Why are we having Neil join the group? Why are we messing with this amazing sound we have?’ It didn’t really change the sound. It was still that three part harmony but it added those elements of richness. Neil brought a new arsenal to the group. But the three-part harmony was God-like.
“Those three guys were three preeminent voices in pop, rock music. Stephen has a great voice and a great feel for writing, singing and playing the guitar. David had that great lower harmony thing which anchored it. And Graham had that amazing angelic high voice. And so. the three of them together it was amazing. Even before they ever recorded a note they would sing and play at people’s houses if you were lucky enough to know them well enough and see them somewhere and they’d sing a song. ‘Oh my God. That is so beautiful.’
“Me being a harmony guy all my life…When Neil joined, it didn’t become four-part harmony. When he joined it was like another chemical was added that had more to do with the guitar playing and the songwriting. Even going back to Buffalo Springfield days, he and Stephen had, not a rivalry but they would goad each other on. They had to top each other. ‘OK. I’ll answer.’
“I like both drummers they had, Dallas Taylor and Johnny Barbata. And never forget Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records.”
Harvey Kubernik witnessed CSN&Y in 1969 at their Greek Theater debut in Los Angeles. Kubernik saw the Hollies, the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield in Hollywood during 1966 and ’67.
He is the is the author of 20 books, including 2009’s Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon, 2014’s Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972, 2015's Every Body Knows: Leonard Cohen, 2016's Heart of Gold Neil Young and 2017's 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love.
Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. In2021 the duo wrote Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for Sterling/Barnes and Noble.
Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s Docs That Rock, Music That Matters.
He is currently writing a new book Screen Gems: (Pop Music Documentaries and Rock ‘n’ Roll Television Moments).
Kubernik is in several book anthologies, most notably, The Rolling Stone Book Of The Beats and Drinking With Bukowski. Harvey wrote the liner notes to CD re-releases of Carole King’s Tapestry, The Essential Carole King, Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish, Elvis Presley The ’68 Comeback Special, The Ramones’ End of the Century and Big Brother & the Holding Company Captured Live at The Monterey International Pop Festival.
During 2006 Harvey spoke at the special hearings initiated by The Library of Congress held in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation. In 2017 Kubernik appeared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in their heralded Distinguished Speakers Series.
