BLOG #11 28 May 2021. CSNY & THE PANDEMIC OF FAME.
Déjà Vu by CSNY was a wonderful album. Fifty years on as the inevitable remastered deluxe reissue is released those ethereal close harmonies and beacon on the hill songs about peace, love and understanding remain talismans of and for the Woodstock generation.
Lest we forget in 1969 CSNY were also four young musicians in their 20s exposed to an unprecedented level of adulation and fame and with all the attendant blessings and curses. If you have even the most casual interest in the history of contemporary music you will know the pandemic of fame has infected CSNY and way too many other souls. “The road was our school, it gave us a sense of survival and taught us all we know. You can’t press your luck, the road has taken a lot of the great ones…it’s a goddamn impossible way of life" declared Robbie Robertson in The Last Waltz.
And so here we are in 2021 with no evident antidote in sight. For their part CSNY are indeed carrying on but it appears there is no love lost between them. Given the ongoing spite and public put downs of each other continuing to fall into the wallowing pot of petulant narcissism I would like to ask these four elders: whatever happened to the code you were so keen for us to live by? You know, that almost cut your hair, teach your children, find the cost of freedom, get back to the garden stuff.
C’mon wake up David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young. Let go, forgive and celebrate the magic you made. Show us that you care. Show us what brought you together, not what tore you apart. Show us you care about the music more than you care about personal rights and wrongs.
Remember those four dead in Ohio?
© CARRY ON. CSNY and The Pandemic of Fame. Terry McArthur. Blue Pearl Musiç.
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