Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Live at Fillmore East, 1969 (2024)

Review: On the morning of Monday, August 18, 1969, at 3:30 a.m., David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash took the stage at Max Yasgur’s farm. The threesome’s self-titled debut album had been released in May, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and yielding a pair of hit singles, Nash’s “Marrakesh Express” and Stills’ “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” But CSN wasn’t done yet. On August 16, they’d launched a tour in Chicago with a new bandmate, Neil Young. The Woodstock performance was CSNY’s second ever, and the audience wasn’t expecting Young’s incendiary presence. (The mercurial performer, for his part, wouldn’t allow himself to be filmed by the ever-present cameras there.) After the Woodstock show, CSNY returned to the road, and busied themselves composing material for 1970’s Déjà Vu. Their September shows at New York’s late, lamented Fillmore East have become the stuff of legend, and one of those concerts will finally see release on 1 CD, 2 LPs, and digitally. Live at Fillmore East, 1969 has been sourced from newly-discovered multitrack tapes and boasts both acoustic and electric sets as originally heard by the New York audience on September 20, 1969. Their fourth show in two days at the East Village venue – today the site of an outpost of Apple Bank and an apartment complex – the concert featured drummer Dallas Taylor and bassist Greg Reeves. In the press release, Stills states that “the acoustic part of the show took care of itself, but now that we had equipment and Dallas and Greg 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 drew upon a number of songs from Crosby Stills & Nash including “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” as well as Crosby’s “Guinnevere” and “Long Time Gone,” Stills’ “You Don’t Have to Cry” and “Helplessly Hoping,” Nash’s “Lady of the Island,” and Crosby, Stills, and Paul Kantner’s “Wooden Ships.” Additionally, it previewed Déjà Vu with “Our House” (sung by Nash to Joni Mitchell, in the audience) and Stills’ “4 + 20.” Young looked back to his debut album with “I’ve Loved Her So Long” and to Buffalo Springfield with “On the Way Home;” Stills’ Springfield tune “Bluebird” was also performed (in its “Bluebird Revisited” arrangement.) “Down by the River” was reprised from Young’s 1969 album Everybody Knows This is Nowhere. Stills’ “Find the Cost of Freedom” would later appear as the B-side of Young’s “Ohio” on a CSNY single. Young comments in the press release, “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.” Stills and Young compiled and mixed the original eight-track recordings with John Hanlon at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles to create this release. The vinyl is all-analog (AAA)-cut. Graham Nash reflected, “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. 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.” — SecondDisc

Track List:

Acoustic Set 01 - Suite; Judy Blue Eyes (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 02 - Blackbird (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 03 - Helplessly Hoping (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 04 - Guinnevere (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 05 - Lady of the Island (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 06 - Go Back Home (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 07 - On the Way Home (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 08 - 4 + 20 (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 09 - Our House (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 10 - I've Loved Her So Long (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 11 - You Don't Have to Cry (Live at Fillmore East, 1969)

Electric Set 12 - Long Time Gone (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 13 - Wooden Ships (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 14 - Bluebird Revisited (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 15 - Sea of Madness (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 16 - Down By the River (Live at Fillmore East, 1969) 17 - Find the Cost of Freedom (Live at Fillmore East, 1969)

Media Report: Genre: folk-rock Origin: USA
Format: FLAC Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec Bit rate mode: Variable Channel(s): 2 channels Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz Bit depth: 16 bits Compression mode: Lossless Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)

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