The coked-out megalomanical circus that saw David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and Neil Young storm across America in the first and most decadent superstar open air stadium tour of the rock era was nicknamed the “Doom Tour” by Crosby because of the feuding, the drugs and the fact that a small army of promoters and hangeroners were sucking at their hyper-megastar corporate rock teets like there was no tomorrow. There had been big rock tours in the past, but CSNY’s extra ginormous 1974 outing—dreamed up by manager Elliot Roberts and put into action by rock promoter Bill Graham—was like plotting a military invasion of each new town that the show moved to. The beachheads were 50-70,000 seat football arenas, which saw stages erected and massive PA systems hooked up by a legion of roadies. Other acts on the tour included The Band, Joni Mitchell, Santana and the Beach Boys. The tour was so decadent that they supposedly had pillowcases with “CSNY” embroidered on them! Don’t even ask what the “coke budget” was.

The “Doom Tour” grossed $11 million back when $11 million was still a hell of a lot of money, but the principals only pocketed half a mill each after expenses (and the promoters, natch) were paid first. There’s an amusing “oral history” of the trek at Rolling Stone.com. Only Young kept both feet (literally) on the ground, traveling in a bus with his son Zeke and avoiding the insanity.
 

 
When they put together the CSNY 1974 live album a few years back, they included a fantastic extra on the Blu-ray box set, a 42-minute-long excerpt from a video recording made of their show at the Capitol Centre in Landover, Maryland on August 20, 1974. It says at the beginning that this was recorded using the 18,000 seat arena’s “in house” video system and that it was never intended for professional release. Judging from the number of cameras present, and the effort involved, this obviously was something seen on the hockey and basketball arena’s large video screens. Highlights include a superb “Déjà Vu” jam, Nash doing “Grave Concern” from his dark, nearly unknown Wild Tales solo LP and performing Linda Ronstadt’s harmonies as Young does a stunning “Old Man” (one of the best performances of the song that I’ve ever seen.)

The set list here is “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” “Almost Cut My Hair,” “Grave Concern,” “Old Man,” “Johnny’s Garden,” “Our House,” “Déjà Vu” jam and “Pushed It Over The End.”