(Credits: Far Out / Marsha Miller / LBJ Library)
Sun 18 January 2026 0:00, UK
The world of music is laced with life-changing moments. One of them happened to the members of Crosby, Stills and Nash when they first sang together.
Throughout the 1960s, music didn’t have much form, hence why it was such a revolutionary decade. Sure, you had your bands, which were doing well, like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, but there wasn’t a set blueprint for bands to follow if they wanted to make it. The playing field was open, and as such, bands were throwing things at the wall and seeing what stuck.
It must have been an exciting time to be a musician, as long as you had an open mind, you could work with a range of different artists and try to stumble upon a brand new sound. You could mix genres up, expand on existing ones, and work with different artists to conjure up some kind of sonic madness.
When Graham Nash was making music in The Hollies, he was doing so with one thing in mind, and that was getting people dancing, because music didn’t always have to be groundbreaking and complicated, so in this instance, the band decided it was a good idea to simply inject some joy into people’s lives, and even now, the songs they wrote resonate with listeners, putting a spring into the most hesitant of steps.
So, why did Graham Nash leave? Well, it all comes back to the open-minded nature of musicians in the ‘60s. He was always on the hunt for different kinds of music that he could make, and that hunt brought him to Stephen Stills and David Crosby, the two musicians with whom he would make history. All artists involved had already made a solid name for themselves, but when you experience harmonies as strong as those three did when they sang together, the pull of starting a new band was too strong.
“We had already had some success. You know, The Hollies had had more hits than we’ve ever had, already, for [Graham] Nash,” said Crosby when discussing the band. “Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds have had a good running. So it wasn’t the launch point for us, you know, really. It was the launch point for CSN.”
So, they had the sound, which they knew could work, but now they needed to actually write the music, which is a tad trickier, and just because you have someone who can play the guitar well doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to write a killer riff, and the same can be said for CSN and their voices, because they sounded great, but they needed to have the right words.
Graham Nash’s approach to songwriting took on a different shape when he joined CSN. His ideology with The Hollies was left behind, as he no longer wanted to make people dance, he wanted to make them feel. This meant writing music which was a reflection of the given moment, tapping into emotions, politics and society in order to deliver songs which were an accurate reflection of his life at that time. Stills and Crosby had a similar mindset, and as such, they worked in harmony not only vocally but creatively as well. The result was one of the strongest debut albums ever made.
Nash knew they had written something great the moment it was wrapped, and it was the opening song specifically, which he knew would suck people in. He believed it was impossible to hate, and he might have had a point.
“We knew it. Especially when Stephen played ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ to open the fucking album,” boasted Nash. “I said, ‘Who the fuck is going to take this album off after the first track?’ I said, ‘Not a fucking person in history.’”
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