The constellation of musicians referred to as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young has an intriguing and complicated history. In 1988 they released the American Dream album, which was the fifth overall studio album involving David Crosby, Stephen Stills & Graham Nash, but only the second one featuring Neil Young. It does not stand among their best albums, but it was very important in re-igniting their collaboration and contains several nuggets of gold.
Crucially, the album motivated David Crosby get his life back in order. After years of drug abuse, Neil Young gave David Crosby a promise in 1983: he would reunite with Crosby, Stills & Nash for a CSNY record if Crosby would take care of his drug problems and clean up. It took a month in prison in 1986 for Crosby to actually accomplish that, but he stayed on the straight and narrow after being released. Young was good to his word and the quartet assembled to record the second CSNY studio album at Young’s ranch in Woodside, California – sixteen years after the foursome’s first collaboration.
One of the tracks on the album is called Soldiers of Peace, written by Graham Nash with Joe Vitale and Bob Glaub. They had demoed it at Graham’s studio, using a keyboard to add string sounds to bolster the arrangement. When it was brought to the rest of the band for consideration everybody loved it. As the song took shape it became a big production with a huge coda, and they agreed that it needed a proper orchestra.
Well, most of them agreed. Hiring a full orchestra was a costly prospect, even for a band of CSNY’s stature back in the days of multi-million selling albums. Crosby was not sure spending $50,000 on such a thing for only one song was worth it. He felt they could get a similar sound on synthesizers. Stills in particular felt differently, and was adamant there would be a noticeable difference. Young was also keen to use an orchestra on the track. Nash saw both sides of the argument and stayed neutral. Crosby conceded, but did not want to know about the recording. He told the others “guys, you go ahead and do your strings, and I’ll show up later.”
String day arrived, with a full orchestra arriving at Young’s ranch. Everybody were thrilled with the results. They did a great job, and the band were happy with the investment. In the afternoon they got a call from Crosby. “Are you done with those expensive strings yet?” They told him, “David, they did a beautiful job! Come on down, you’re gonna change your mind. You will love it!”
While they wait for Crosby to arrive, Nash gets an idea involving a harmoniser. This is a piece of recording equipment that rose to prominence back in the 1980s. You plug sounds through it and can change the pitch up or down by turning a knob. It was primarily used to heighten guitar or vocal sounds.
Nash suggested that they’d prank Crosby by running all the strings through the harmoniser, putting them slightly out of tune – just by the tiniest bit, enough that something might be bothering you, but you don’t know what it is. They proceed with this plan and get things ready.
One fact you should be aware of about David Crosby is that he has perfect pitch. He is always the first guy in the group to point out if something is even slightly off. They all know that he will spot that something is amiss with the strings straight away, and that it will drive him crazy.
When Crosby arrives, he gets a royal welcome by everybody. They are so glad to see him, tells him he will change his mind, and that they can’t wait for him to hear the song with strings in place. Crosby says, “Okay. I’m here. I am ready and I have an open mind. Let’s hear the song.”
They sit Crosby down in the engineer seat right in the dead centre of the studio. All speakers are pointing towards him for a perfectly optimal listening experience. They hit play, and stay in the room around him. The song starts, and eventually the strings come in. Crosby sits motionless – not a word, not an expression.
At the end of the song, the other guys all feigns teary-eyed, emotional responses to what they just heard. “Oh man, that was so beautiful.” “Can we listen to it again?” “What an incredible, touching performance.”
Crosby has still not said a word when he turns around, looks at Nash and says “Graham, can I have a word with you out in the hall?” Graham feigned surprise. “Oh, sure Croz!” The two of them go outside.
There was no way the others wouldn’t crack the door open. They just had to hear the exchange that was going on.
Crosby was, as they expected, besides himself with concern about what he’d heard. “We can’t use ‘em! We can’t use the strings!”
Nash goes, “What do you mean we can’t use the strings? We just did this huge and beautiful string arrangement!”
“No, we can’t use ‘em! They’re out of tune!”
“Out of tune? But David, we just spent $50,000 on them! And they’re out of tune? What?”
“We can’t use ‘em! They’re out of tune! I told you not to use the strings!”
“But, I don’t understand. What are we gonna do?”
“We can’t use ‘em! You guys are paying for it! I told you not to use strings!”
The guys behind the door were dying with laughter. Who knows how Nash kept it together, but he finished the conversation through a Herculean effort, summarising it all with an “Oh David, we’ll work it out.”
They returned to the studio shortly after, and found the other guys in hysterics as they finally dared to laugh out loud. They were roaring, falling to the floor. Crosby looks around at Nash, and that is the point when even he loses it. Crosby finally knows he’s been had.
They all got the finger that day. Every word, every f-bomb. Crosby was never an easy man to prank, but on that day, they finally got him.
As history shows, though, Crosby was much relieved when he heard the song with proper strings in place, and that’s the version of Soldiers of Peace that would be released on the American Dream album, which appeared on 1 November 1988.
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