{"id":304071,"date":"2025-12-07T23:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T23:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/304071\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T23:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T23:35:09","slug":"the-song-graham-nash-requested-stephen-stills-to-write","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/304071\/","title":{"rendered":"The song Graham Nash requested Stephen Stills to write"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Crosby<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Sun 7 December 2025 21:30, UK <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve often mythologised what life in 1969 Laurel Canyon would be like. Living in a neighbourhood of history\u2019s greatest musicians, in the nicest houses and under the warmest California<\/a> sun, it represents the epitome of free-thinking hippy culture. <\/p>\n

Living in the UK in 2025 feels pretty much as far away from that reality as possible, but there is one song that I regularly play as a means of mentally travelling back to that period of time. The opening track of Crosby, Stills, and Nash\u2019s self-titled debut album, \u2018Suite: Judy Blue Eyes\u2019<\/a>, feels as good a soundtrack to those days as any. <\/p>\n

The jangling acoustic guitar introduction, which bleeds straight into the first verse of three-part harmonies<\/a>, feels befitting of a song written in the green gardens of the Californian sunshine. It was, as Nash described, the perfect song to fit all of their voices and spanned across several arrangements to showcase just how in tune this new transatlantic supergroup were.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it fired the starting gun on an album that would follow suit. It was a triumphant debut album for the three-piece and had fans excited for what would come next. But before they could follow up with a sophomore record, Stephen Stills introduced Neil Young to the fold<\/a>, toying with the creative balance these three collaborators had struck up and deciding to dangerously put faith in what could be a very different future.<\/p>\n

Together, they got to work on Deja Vu, a record that, with Young\u2019s guitar playing, felt as though it could have quite a different palette. Nevertheless, Graham Nash knew that what they previously had in \u2018Suite: Judy Blue Eyes\u2019 was a sonic blueprint they should be trusting. And so, he went about putting pressure on his bandmate to try and write a follow-up. <\/p>\n

\u201cI said to Stephen one day, \u2018You know, we don\u2019t have \u2018Suite: Judy Blue Eyes\u2019,\u201d recalled Nash in 2021. \u201cHe goes, \u2018Yeah, I know. We did it on the first record.\u2019 I said, \u2018No, no, no. We don\u2019t have the song that guarantees that people won\u2019t get up and take the needle off the record. And when you hear \u2018Suite: Judy Blue Eyes\u2019, and we come to the end of it, I defy you to get up and turn the record off. You wouldn\u2019t do that. We need that kind of song.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Nash continued, \u201cThe next day, he comes to me, and he goes, \u2018What do you think about this, Willy?\u2019 and he played me \u2018Carry On\u2019. It shows you the genius of Stephen Stills.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band first released the song as a B-side to \u2018Teach Your Children\u2019, but after it quickly developed a relationship with music fans, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young realised it was a must-have on the record\u2019s final tracklisting. <\/p>\n

Stylistically, you can quite easily hear the notes of influence Stills took from his 1969 track \u2018Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. But on \u2018Carry On\u2019, you can quite clearly hear how Young\u2019s introduction and his rock-infused guitar playing changed the palette. It was on a song like this that any doubts over his inclusion were quickly answered.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Sun 7 December 2025 21:30, UK I\u2019ve often mythologised what life in 1969…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[42163,96,28730,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-304071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-crosby-stills-nash","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-graham-nash","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}