CSN [Original recording remastered]

Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Crosby Stills & Nash | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 1, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Atlantic
• ASIN: B000002J0N
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,149 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CSN's best work, January 7, 2002

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CSN (Audio CD)

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that 1977's _CSN_ represents the best work Crosby, Stills, and Nash have ever done together.

I don't mean to take anything away from their earlier albums. Their debut LP was deservedly a landmark in modern music history, and _Deja Vu_ -- with Neil Young in on the act -- was _another_ landmark. You have to go some way to beat _two_ landmarks.

But I think CSN do so on this deceptively laid-back album. They've always described their work as being about the changes that they (and other people) go through, and every song here is a little gem about exactly that. (Including Nash's brooding "Cathedral," which, one assumes, is about his own rejection of historical Christianity.)

In only one or two other album reviews have I been able to say, about the work under review, that there are _no_ weak tracks. This is another. _CSN_ is the only album by any of these guys, alone or in combination, that I can listen through without ever skipping _any_ songs. (Actually I can't say that about too many albums by anyone at all.) But just the other day I listened through this one _twice_.

This is one of the very few times that CSN have actually managed to be more than the separate sum of their parts. Stills is at his best here; he contributes five tunes, all winners, with "See The Changes" at the top of my own list for his best lyrics ever. Nash writes four, all of them gentle without being either sappy or mournful. Crosby writes two and a half (the brilliant "Shadow Captain" is a joint effort with keyboardist Craig Doerge), and "In My Dreams" is one of my longtime favorites of his. (It's also the song that probably best states the nature of CSN+/-Y itself: "Two or three people fading in and out / Like a radio station I'm thinking about / But I can't hear / Who gets breakfast? Who gets the lunch? / Who gets to be the boss of this bunch? / Who will steer?")

The musicianship is breathtaking as well. For one thing, Stills _doesn't_ play every instrument on the album; Craig Doerge and Joe Vitale handle most of the keyboard work, with Stills sitting down at the piano only for "I Give You Give Blind". And when he _does_ play, he does it well: I've long thought that his acoustic guitar solo on "Fair Game" is one of his best, and he restrains himself admirably on Crosby's "In My Dreams." The percussion work is particularly noteworthy (credit Russ Kunkel and Joe Vitale). And George Perry handles most of the bass-guitar duties.

For another, all of the three are at their vocal peak. The harmonies here are delicately arranged and extremely well performed (and produced). Crosby hasn't gone very far down his long decline into drugs, and Stills's voice, though gravelly as always, can still carry a tune even into the upper register. And Nash is just _always_ reliable; no special comment required here.

There are some albums that these three have done, separately and together, that come mighty close to this. I've already mentioned their debut album and _Deja Vu_; I'll add Crosby's _If I Could Only Remember My Name_, his work with CPR, Stills's first solo LP and _Manassas_, Nash's _Songs for Beginners_, and a couple of Crosby/Nash efforts. But to my own mind (though of course there's room for both disagreement and differences in taste), this one is the cream of a very large crop.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adult music, March 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: CSN (Audio CD)

Some people prefer the youthful flash of this trio's first album, some the rocknroll flash of the first one where "Y" was part of the mix, but I've always found CSN to be the most satisfying of Crosby, Stills and Nash' efforts in that particular formation. The main reason is that it sounds like three ADULTS really giving their all together; in the songwriting, in the harmonies, in every respect. Particular high points are Still's "See The Changes," a sort-of cousin musically to his earlier "Helplessly Hoping," but whose world-weary lyrics are some of the most penetrating the man ever wrote; Nash's "Cold Rain," about returning to where you originally came from and remembering why you left in the first place, with some wonderful close harmonies; Nash again with "Cathedral," a dramatic high point in the group's arrangements; and Crosby's "Shadow Captain," as potently evocative of sailing on the open seas as a song can get. This album doesn't have the "gosh-wow" factor of CSN's 1969 debut, but it's just as rewarding an album---maybe more.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A different World?, May 31, 2000

By 

Donald Heijkoop (Schiedam Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: CSN (Audio CD)

CSN's 1977 album is a classic. Harmony vocals may be out of fashion these days, but if you don't know this record, man you had better catch up. Both intimate and powerful, sad and hopeful, this record has no flaws. If you want to escape from a world that is moving faster by the minute, this record is sure to help. Some of the very best of Crosby Stills and Nash is here on one CD. Get it.