Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock's Greatest Supergroup

Description

Fifty years ago this spring, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash released their first album as a group; Crosby, Stills & Nash became a landmark in harmony singing and counterculture values, and after Neil Young joined up with them for 1970's Deja vu, their supergroup status was cemented. With its distinctive, iconic front men, its current-events songs, and its very structure, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young embodied nearly every aspect of their era. The five decades since have seen the band break up, reunite, and splinter again on a regular basis--making for not only some of rock's most indelible music but also one of the its most riveting and ongoing soap operas, a decades-long story of four men whose intertwining lives, music, and careers have transcended music to become the story of the successes and challenges of the boomer generation itself. Featuring new interviews with band members, colleagues, fellow musicians, and former lovers, plus access to unreleased music and documents, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is the first and most up-to-date narrative biography of this legendary band. From the same author who gave us the acclaimed Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970, this book takes readers inside the creative process of albums both finished and abandoned, the inspirations behind the songs and the dust-ups, and the difficulties each man faced along the way. This is the sweeping story of rock's longest-running, most dysfunctional, yet most influential and artistically rewarding musical family.

David Browne is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and the author of So Many Roads: The Life and Times of the Grateful Dead and Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970, as well as biographies of Sonic Youth and Jeff and Tim Buckley. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Spin, The New Republic, and other outlets. He lives in Manhattan.

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, BEST MUSIC BOOKS OF THE SUMMER THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, TOP PICK FORBES, COOLEST CALIFORNIA GIFTS FOR DAD! Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is for music lovers, but it should also be required reading for students of group dynamics.--Washington Post [An] ultimate deep dive into rock and roll's most musical and turbulent supergroup.--Werd.com [Browne] appears to have talked to nearly every living soul with a part to play in the band's long career. . . . An excellent portrait of a troubled partnership ... celebrates those fine moments when the band merged to make such epochal songs as 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes' and 'Ohio.'--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) [Written with a] sharp eye and even hand... [this] isn't the first book on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and it won't be the last, but it's certainly the best.--No Recess A vivacious journey into a collision of four oversized egos-three of them producing a harmony as strange and inspired as any in rock and roll, a fourth achieving work of such strange and stunning genius that the world has yet to catch up. Beneath those harmonies was much clangor and static, even more than we knew, and Browne captures it all in this magnificent and definitive book.--David Yaffe, author of Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell An exhaustive biography of the frictional quartet ... As a document of how art, commerce, decadence and monstrous egos intertwine, Browne's book could be a set text.--Mojo Browne has written the book that CSNY fans have been waiting for a long time (with a long time gone) ... A worthy, substantive, and comprehensive look at the saga of the rock group with a name like a law firm.--Houston Press Browne's book gives a definitive look at the 20th century American rock supergroup.--Ears to the Ground Music David Browne's biography chronicles the story of arguably the most talented, yet most dysfunctional, band in rock history. That such beautiful, groundbreaking music could emerge from such chaos is a testament to the alchemy of talent and creativity.--ChristianScience Monitor, "Top Pick" Few rock and roll sagas are as genuinely epic as this one, in which, over nearly five decades, four enormous talents/egos come together, find musical perfection, and fall apart in seemingly unlimited ways. With unparalleled skill and wry insight, David Browne chases down the details of CSNY's unique collaboration, uncovering larger truths about creativity and collaboration, debauchery and recovery, and a generation's harmonizing heart.--Ann Powers, author of Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music Incisive and astute.--Times Literary Supplement Painstakingly detailed ... truly absorbing.--Forbes Riveting.--People Magazine The interwoven tale of four of the rock and roll era's most beloved, influential, and controversial stars, David Browne's Crosby, Stills, Nash and Younghas it all: the great songs, the terrible feuds, the drugs, the love, the money, the damage done, and the spark that never quite dies. A clear-eyed portrait not just of four singer-songwriters but of the rise, triumph, and collapse of their generation's idealistic youth. Smart, poetic, and probing, the book is a revelation.--Peter Ames Carlin, author of Bruce and Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon The long, tangled, thorny story of CSNY requires a writer of David Browne's immense skill to unravel, and he delivers beautifully. Sympathetic without being fawning, as astute a critic as he is a conscientious reporter, Browne chronicles the lives and music of these four iconic artists with unfailing intelligence, humor, and grace. This is a riveting read from beginning to what may or may not be the end of this fascinating band.--Anthony DeCurtis, author of Lou Reed: A Life The meticulous detail in Browne's book provides the most wide-ranging and in-depth treatment we have of CSNY, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock's Greatest Supergroup ably lives up to the promise of its subtitle.--No Depression The most comprehensive biography of the group to date ... Browne compiles a fun and fast-paced music history.... an authoritative chronicle.--PublishersWeekly This is one of the great rock and roll stories. It's like a Greek myth. .... Browne is very good on the tribulations of David Crosby - his addiction, imprisonment, re-entry and subsequent elevation as a battered talisman.--NewYork Times Book Review, "Summer Reading 2019"issue