Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Those were the days...., October 29, 1999
By A Customer
This album is very representative of how these guys sounded live way back then. The acoustic part of the album, though it shys away from CSN's reknowned harmonies for the most part, highlights each guy rather well. Most noteworthy here is David Crosby. His readings of "Triad" and "The Leeshore" are absolutely gorgeous, and it reminds one that although David may not be the greatest musician on earth, there's no disputing his ability to sing. Maybe the finest voice around in those days. Neils "Cowgirl in the Sand", "Don't Let it Bring You Down", and the "Loner/Cinnamon Girl/Down By the River" medley really showcase Neil's acoustic guitar skills, and probably set him apart from the other guys for all around talent. Stills' performances, "49 Bye-Byes/For What it's Worth", Love the One You're with sound very dated now, and the sloppiness of those performances make them even harder to savor today. I was hoping that they would have dug out the complete version of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" for the remastered edition. Instead, we got Black Queen, an acoustic blues that Stephen nails just fine. Really showcases his acoustic guitar skills. Graham offers us "Teach Your Children", which is always a crowd pleaser (but probably would have been better without Neil's "harmony" voice), and "Right Between the Eyes"...a quiet one he duets with David. The old Hollies tune, "King Midas in Reverse" was added for the remastered edition The electric side is real loose, and basically highlights Stephen and Neil trading riffs. These guys really did feed off each other, and these songs just beg to be cranked ! "Long Time Gone" and "Ohio" stand out here. "Southern Man" and "Carry On" are long, long jams. A common practice back then. And those hollow body electric guitars they played really gave us some groovy feedback, didn't they? It is also noteworthy that in those days, Nash handled the Hammond organ duties...something he did well. Good ol'album. Peace.
|
|
|
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific Album Showcasing Stills & Young's Electric Magic!, August 29, 2000
From the very beginning of their fateful collaboration, it was clear that this was to be the first of the new super-groups, composed of discontented refugees who either quit or were bounced from monster groups like the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and the Hollies. And after an initial success with a first album the group added Still's former partner in crime from the Buffalo Springfield group Neil young to the line-up, the strange witches brew of creative energy and talent that resulted exploded onto the contemporary rock scene at Woodstock to an amazed audience with such power and originality. Of course, this number one album was the result of their original collaboration, and it shot to the top of the charts, where it remained for years!This live album is full of smash hits and breath-taking sounds, from the opening truncated version of "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" to the elegiac "Teach Your Children" to the provocative notion of multiple lover relationships in David Crosby's "Triad'. They are really live here, as you can tell by the occasional faux-pas or corny references, and the album is an honest snapshot of CSN& Y live, as they were for those of us old enough and lucky enough to have seen them before they started playing exclusively in ball parks and arenas. What the listener also gets here is an intriguing look at each of the members of the band as a solo artist, and I was glad to see that in the CD version they added a nice Graham Nash song or two, since he is often the least covered of the four superstars comprising the group. Of course, the real reason to buy this long, long CD is the electric jamming between Stills and Young on a number of later songs, like "Southern Man", "Ohio", and "Carry On". There are some extended riffs and exchanges between the two that really showcase their mutual magic as well as the brilliance of the band at its best moments. This is a terrific albeit mixed bag of an album, and one everyone who calls himself (or herself) a rock fan should have it on his or her shelf. Enjoy!
|
|
|
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DATED? YEAH. ESSENTIAL? ABSOLUTELY!, December 6, 2005
As I have stated in other reviews, 4 WAY STREET along with STICKY FINGERS made the soundtrack to the summer of 1971. I listened to it over and over and when I left home for college in late summer I discovered thousands of others were doing the very same thing. Its influence cannot be overstated. Both the earlier CROSBY STILL & NASH and DÉJÀ VU were critical and popular successes; but this live album filled out the legend and presented CSNY as the band has remained in memory and imagination.
Many of my contemporaries hate this album. John Mellencamp has gone on record stating it is the worst record in the world. While this is unduly harsh, there is a grain of truth to one complaint. 4 WAY STREET is very much an artifact of its time. It was made in the shadow of social upheaval that included racial riots, assassinations, disturbances at several hundred colleges and universities, the divisive Vietnam War, and the "massacre" four protesting students at Kent State by the Ohio National Guard. It was a threatening and politically charged time. And CSNY were at the forefront of what was then called the youth counter-culture.
They were part of 1960's generation who believed they glimpsed a better moral code and way of life different the older generations before them. Outside of this context, some of what CSNY has to say makes little sense. For some this is precisely the trouble. All those events of the late 1960's-early 1970's are now only dry words in history books. Of larger import to the youth of that time, the next few years revealed that the long expected "Age of Aquarius" and the promise of new enlightenment and idealism would not come. That special, bright, shinning hope died.
If everything CSNY did were topical, then there would be little here of interest. With the exception of Graham Nash's "Chicago", Stills' "America's Children" rant and perhaps Young's "Ohio", CSNY's music was not so political that it retains little musical interest. True to Crosby's short monologue before "Triad", they mostly focused on what was going on in their lives and the lives of those around them. And the fact that they were so musically inventive and entertaining still inspires enthusiasm today.
What had struck many was the album's unique (for its time) format of one disc acoustic and the other disc electric. What is really interesting is that, of the twenty full songs, only five came the groups' earlier two albums. The rest of the material came from their earlier bands or from their solo work. The moment's focus moves from member to member as they traded off between each other doing each other's songs. In this fashion, David Crosby comes across surprisingly sweet and romantic. Stills is the master musician and entertainer. Nash, on the other hand, seems to be struggling to keep up with the exception of "Teach Your Children".
4 WAY STREET is important (if for no other reason) for introducing Neil Young to an eager young audience. Young had been an integral if quixotic pillar of the Buffalo Springfield and he had released three excellent solo albums. But to most, Young was an unknown and his performances on this album opened up a completely new world in songwriting and gave us the newly minted archetype of the reclusive, eccentric rock artist. His acoustic "On The Way Home", "Cowgirl In The Sand" and "Don't Let It Get You Down" were unusually warm and moving moments on the original LP. The inclusion of his medley of "The Loner", "Cinnamon Girl" and "Down By The River" only extends the wonder of his craft-it only remains a mystery why they couldn't find a way to put it on the original.
The CD version keeps the original set of the second LP found in the original edition. Again, we have the same trading off between each other's material. But, again, it is Young's "Southern Man" that is etched into your mind. It is not that Crosby or Nash's songs are bad-they just don't push the emotional echoes as Young does. The exception is Stills' "Carry On" followed by "Find The Cost Of Freedom". The first is a musical joy. The second is inexplicably arresting and moving.
This is one of those "essential albums" you owe it to yourself to purchase. This was CSNY when they were absolutely white hot. The rest of the 1970's should have been a lot more like this. It wouldn't hurt if today's music were a little more like this as well.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
~ Crosby Stills Nash & Young
~ Neil Young & Crazy Horse
~ Crosby Stills & Nash
~ Neil Young & Crazy Horse
~ Crosby Stills Nash & Young
by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 
