The early 1970s BBC series In Concert featured some of the greatest performers of the folk rock / singer-songwriter era, including Joni Mitchell, Carole King, James Taylor, Cat Stevens and Neil Young in front of intimate crowds at the old BBC Television Centre in London. In the case of each of the artists featured, the BBC sets are probably the very best records we have of these performers in their youthful prime. This is almost certainly the case with the gorgeous Crosby & Nash performance linked here. It’s a stunner.
After the success of their monstrously popular Déjà Vu album, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young,“the American Beatles” as they were often called (never mind that one was a Brit and another Canadian) broke up in the summer of 1970, with all four members of CSNY recording solo albums. Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name and Nash’s Songs for Beginners appeared the following year. In the fall of 1970, the two toured as an acoustic duo previewing tunes from their upcoming albums and singing fan favorites.
The BBC set begins with Nash at the piano, pouring out his pain over the break-up of his relationship with Joni Mitchell in “Simple Man,” one of the loveliest, saddest songs in his canon. As you’d expect of a performance of this vintage—before cocaine wrecked their voices, I mean—the harmonies are glorious. There is pure eargasmic pleasure to be had here, I promise you. The inclusion of one of my favorites “Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves)” from Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name (truly one of the greatest, most under-rated albums of the era, now seen as a touchstone of the “freak folk” movement) was the cherry on top for me.
Simple Man
Marrakesh Express
Guinnevere
Song With No Words
Teach Your Children
Right Between The Eyes
The Lee Shore
Traction In The Rain
Graham Nash and David Crosby contributed backing vocals—some of their finest work together in years—to Jonathan Wilson’s Fanfare album, which was easily my hand’s down favorite for best album of 2013. David Crosby, now 72, underwent major heart surgery last month for blocked arteries.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Joni Mitchell: Amazing live BBC ‘In Concert’ performance from 1970
A Natural Woman: Carole King ‘In Concert,’ 1971