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Crosby-Nash
"Whistling Down The Wire" (1976)
Spotlight/Broken
Bird/Time After Time/Dancer/Mutiny//J B's Blues/Marguerita/Taken At All/Foolish
Man/Out Of The Darkness
"The
Byrd (and Hollie) you saw dying we saw flying..."
Every successful album has an evil twin; a record
that takes the same ingredients that made the last one special and ends up
forgetting to turn the oven on/gets the timings wrong/finds the world has moved
on and is asking for a very different recipe as soon as it's ready. Sometimes the
creators realize this and try to add to it ('Smile' is a huge leap over 'Pet
Sounds'), other times they release it half-cooked to get it out the way
('Magical Mystery Tour'), other times they pause partway through and go in as
opposite a direction as they can manage (Neil Young's 'Time Fades Away' is a
whole other species to 'Harvest'). And sometimes the albums come out anyway
because, well, the creators aren't quite sure what the heck it was they came up
with last time anyway and it takes a long time and a lot of effort to make an
album so why throw out some good ideas after bad? 'Whistling Down The Wire',
Crosby and Nash's third album, is one of those records. Released a mere nine
months after the unexpected hit record 'Wind On The Water' (the quickest turn
around for studio albums either man will manage post their sixties careers in
the Byrds and Hollies), 'Wire' is proof that great albums take time and
inspiration and cannot be released to order just because your new record company
wants another hit. So far Wire's reputation amongst long-term fans has fallen
to the point where it shares with missing partner Stephen Stills' 'Thoroughfare
Gap' the distinction of being the only CSN-related product of the 70s not
automatically rated 'gorgeous' or higher.
Having not known of this album's reputation - and
actually finding it out of sequence, as the first of the duo's work but behind
most of the actual CSN albums - I must confess to also feeling a bit
underwhelmed, without ever quite knowing why. It's not that any of the songs on
it are bad (although goodness knows I don't play the likes of 'Foolish Man' on
repeat) or that their twin voices are anything less than pristine (though it
would have been nice to hear Crosby and Nash together a bit more) or that the
group of session musicians have suddenly lost the ability to be the perfect
backing band in nine months. There's just a slight feeling about it of 'will
this do?', with the added problem that released in the 'year that changed everything'
that was punk's 1976 this most youthful of bands is beginning to sound a little
middle aged (CSN are traditionally more 'punk' than you might expect - have a
listen to 'Almost Cut My Hair' or Stills re-inventing himself on a 1976 tour of
Cuba - but this is their least punk LP released just at the wrong time, in
every way that 'Wind On The Water' was the perfect album for prog rock's last
great year, with just enough bared teeth to sound contemporary too). Middle
aged is understandable from a band who were by now in their middle-thirties
though and complacency is inevitable when you make as music as these guys do.
So why this album so reviled and ignored, unavailable on CD until as late as
2000? (and currently pout of print except via MCA's pricey but popular 'print
on demand' service - that's most likely how you'll find this album on Amazon
and the like if you're after a copy).
Well, the bad timing doesn't help. The sudden speed
with which Crosby-Nash go from making one of their most inspired collections of
music to one of their least is a shock we hadn't really had from this band
before. And given that the CSN ethos has always been that nothing less than
your best will ever do in life and love and your record collection, the slight
air of complacency does come as a shock. But a weak album by a great band is
usually deserving of a second chance at the AAA and so it proves with this one.
Truth is, we've been reading this album the wrong way. There's nothing here as
inherently musical as 'Wind On The Water's title sequence, as
rabble/rebel-rousing as 'Fieldworker' or as poignantly gorgeous as 'Carry Me',
despite the very similar chord sequences and session muso stylings, because
this isn't that sort of an album. 'Water' is an album that wore it's heart on
its sleeve - it is after all an album that found Crosby 'naked in the rain' and
found Nash similarly honest and open.
'Wire' is an album that works by a whole other set of rules, foisted on
the duo by circumstances. On the one hand Nash has fallen in love big time with
his future wife Susan, but he's not sure if he wants the world to know about it
yet until he's ready, so instead we get the craziest set of love songs he ever
wrote, full of in-jokes and references even long-term fans might not get. Crosby
is having a miserable year, sliding into drug hell at speed and it's the first
year his friends actually notice how out of control things are getting. Many of
his songs are full of feelings that sound forced by his own high standards, in
denial or couched in false optimism or reckless humility ('Out Of The Darkness'
must be the saddest sounding happy song ever written). 'Wind On The Water' is
an album written in code, to be deduced only with a firsthand knowledge of the
events of the time, without the usual political commentary or heartfelt love
songs. Even the title sounds like a spy story, a message 'whistling down the
wires from pole to pole' without the pair's usual directness of speech.
One of the major themes of the album that you really
need to know to understand it is what was happening to CSNY as a family unit in
1976. The quartet had last tried a
foursome back in 1974 and had gone on a lengthy and productive tour before
finally falling apart just two or three (the number varies depending whose telling
the story) newly recorded songs for their studio album. By 1976 the band have
tried again after the only Stills-Young album in the band's history 'Long May
You Run' started going wrong. Realising that the record sounded a bit too rough
and needed harmonies, Stills called a halt midway through and called the duo
who agreed to add a few new songs and turn it into a four-way project. 'Run',
though, fell apart at the seams with old problems between the quartet creating
tension and leading up to the point where Nash queried a vocal line on a Stills
song he thought was rather hard and unwittingly created an argument that blazed
on for hours, ending with Stills supposedly taking a razor to the master-tapes
to cut the pair's harmony work out (one track, 'Black Coral', was released in
full CSNY harmony on the Stills box set 'Carry On', mind, so he certainly
didn't wreck them all). Neil also goes on one of his infamous un-announced
walkabouts away from the project round about this time. By the end of 1976 the quartet
have split back into pairs, most of the music world blissfully unaware how
close they came to the long-delayed sequel to 1970's 'Deja Vu', but still the
bitterness lingers on as heard in several tracks on this album, particularly
Nash's. 'Spotlight' is about how fame does funny things even to great people,
'Taken At All' is a CSNY abandoned album projects name-dropping prelude to
'Wasted On The Way', 'J B's Blues' apologises for letting everyone down - again
- and 'Mutiny' a couched story of the bitterness he feels at the betrayal, set
in 'Sailboat Bay' - the unlikely name for the holiday resort he was staying in
to cut the 'Long May You Run' songs. Less bitterly, 'J B's Blues' is a
reference-filled song of love to CSNY friend, fan, photographer and cataloguer
Joel Bernstein, which is almost an apology for having come so close to the
album so many fans want made - although it speaks volumes that Nash's close pal
is mentioned only by his initials on this of all albums, where nothing is
direct anymore.
By far the most interesting 'code' to sort out,
though, is Nash's new love story. Before now Nash has been one of the most
openly unworriedly romantic writers of them all - you only need 'Our House' to
know what being in a relationship with Graham is like (when it's going well, at
least) while Nash will in time write even more oozingly romantic love songs
than that for his new girlfriend ('Song For Susan', on 1982's 'Daylight Again',
is perhaps the ultimate Nash ballad). Here, though, he's simply enjoying having
Susan to himself, after having met her in the cafe both he and Crosby loved
popping into while making 'Wind On The Water' (actually forget the record
company pressure thing, which C-N usually didn't pay heed to anyway - making
another album so close to the pair's favourite breakfast place was probably the
main reason for making this record!) Take 'Broken Bird', the elliptical,
obscure and so un-Nash like song that's left fans and reviewers scratching
their heads: it's actually Graham's first love song for his wife, a potter, who
was busy making a pretty bird statue for her new boyfriend at home to remember
her by. Graham walked in un-announced, saw his girlfriend hard at work and was
so overcome with joy he went up to give her a big hug and yell 'I love you!' in
her ear. Susan jumped, the broken bird smashed - and went up on the mantlepiece
anyway an even greater memory of their love than the 'vase' in 'Our House',
'real' in it's very broken state, a symbol not of a love 'dying' but 'flying'
(sadly the revelation of this story put an end to my wonderings if this was
another song about Crosby a la the first draft of 'Wind On The Water', a
'Broken Byrd' if you will or that this was a sequel to Nash's solo 'Wounded
Bird' - ah well, that's reviewing for you!) 'Marguerita' may also be about
Susan too, the album's one and only 'Wind On The Water' outtake where a man
goes out for a drink and falls in love instead, but as with most of this album
it's hidden in such codes and name-changes we'll never know.
Crosby, meanwhile, is struggling to come up with
half an album's worth of material so soon after his last record (he's never
been the speediest of writers, at least compared to his CSNY colleagues who are
all more prolific than average). On the plus side that means the world finally
gets to hear the gorgeous 'Time After Time', a ballad premiered on the CSNY
1974 tour and which is one of his prettiest, most overlooked songs. 'Dancer'
too is a fine instrumental that's the last in his scat-singing jazz-chord
series that's run since 'If Only I Could Remember My Name' in 1971 and 'Out Of
The Darkness' would have been a fine song if it were true, only of course it
isn't and that sense of 'lying' comes over into the final recording, unusual
for Crosby (it might be significant that Nash's song about Crosby's addiction
in 1982 will be named 'Into The Darkness', the nasty ugly yin to this song's
breezily hopeful drug-riddled yang). 'Foolish Man', though, is one of the few
unlikeable songs in the Crosby canon, an angular confessional piece that's
trying hard to be another 'Homeward Through The Haze' but ends up a blues
holler with an unusually weak rhyming structure instead (it will lead to the
gorgeous 'Anything At All' on the 1977 CSN reunion mind, so all is not lost).
At four songs to Nash's six, though (a few extra lyrics on 'Taken At All'
aside), Crosby has never felt less like an equal partner. Sadly he won't be one
again until as late as the 1994 CSN reunion 'After The Storm' (named after a
song that sounds like the 'real' 'Out Of The Darkness'), but this is the first
time he's had to hide the fact and with only Nash to 'cover' for him it makes
the album sound rather more unbalanced than it would a CSN album.
You can generally tell how involved C/S/N/Y are with
a record by how much they tend to play on it. It might speak volumes, then,
that around 95% of the performance on this album are performed by The Mighty
Jitters - the sadly un-credited-by-that-name backing band who play almost all
the instrumental parts across this album, with Nash reduced to a little guitar
and a bit of harmonica and Crosby all but instrumentally mute. To be fair, the
Jitters are a great little band who rightly won a lot of plaudits for the
Stills/Young/Dallas Taylor sound they brought to 'Wind On The Water'. Once
again David Lindley and Danny Kortchmar between them are a fine guitar duel,
their double solo on 'Mutiny' a gorgeous exercise in chaos and noise, while the
chance to play flamenco on 'Marguerita' proves that they can do soft and
delicate as well. Craig Doerge's piano is central to this album in a way it
never really has been to CSN before now, picking up on the lead of
'Bittersweet' from the last LP by adding a whole new texture to the till-now
guitar-dominated CSN sound. Russell Kunkel finds new ways to combine rock and
roll strutting with mellow vibes on the spooky drums. And Tim Drummond, on
'loan' from Neil Young's backing band (and who first partnered Crosby-Nash when
they helped out on the 'doom' tour for 'Time Fades Away') proves why he was so
in demand in the mid-70s. Usually turning CSN ideas over to backing bands is a
terrible idea - look what happened to 'Live It Up' in 1990 - but this is a band
who are sympathetic to the duo's ideas and who, thanks to a number of period
band performances on other people's records (see our AAA review on Art
Garfunkel for more, sometimes with Crosby-Nash guest appearances to boost) are
nicely tight. A Jitters-backed tour of this album and a live album will follow,
but the Jitters are clearly more of a 'studio' band, the biggest difference
between them and the CSNY bands being their preference for set arrangements
rather than improvisation. Sadly that live album will be the last will hear of
Crosby-Nash as a duo until as late as 2004 (an aborted album in 1989
notwithstanding).
I wonder how well this album might have gone down
without a million-seller to compare it to. Many reviewers picked up on the fact
that 'Wire' seems deliberately made to seem as much like its predecessor as
possible - the only time any of CSN really do this - with a similar full
head-and-shoulders picture shot (albeit with the duo looking grumpier) and a
very familiar looking running order. 'Time After Time' is 'Bittersweet', the
chance to recover with a breathy ballad after the intensity of the opening
tracks; 'Dancer' is the oh so Crosby moment right where 'Naked In The Rain' was
before; Nash's 'Mutiny' ends side one on a screaming slow-burning rocker
similar to Nash's 'Love Work Out'; 'Foolish Man' almost is the same song as
'Homeward Through The Haze' chord-wise anyway, even if the directions both
songs take their 'hurt' in are very different; finally 'Out Of The Darkness'
almost sounds crafted by Crosby to sound like the dreamy 'To The Last Whale'.
In a way that's a shame: 'Wire' has been so hard done by down the years partly
because it's so long been treated by the same 'rules' as 'Wind On The Water';
obtuse, dark and symbolic rather than open, honest and emotional, these albums
are twins only in sound and 'feel', linked like twins to a specific point in
time and much of the same DNA. It's what they choose to do differently with
that DNA that's so interesting - and if you can understand that then you can
appreciate this troubled album much more.
'Whistling Down The Wire', then, is a hard album to
get a hold of. It lacks the directness of 'Graham Nash, David Crosby' and the
heartfelt-sentiment-turned-into-killer-sentiment of 'Wind On The Water'. It's
easily the weakest of the three 1970s Crosby-Nash records and probably
represents the least extinguished album either Crosby or Nash worked on across
their most successful decade. And yet, while I've always been a little
underwhelmed by this record, there's no point in telling its creators off for
delivering their only A- record in a run of A+s (in this era at least; believe
me, there are some 'must try harder' comments coming up for later decades).
Over years of listenings I've come to love this record in a whole different way
to most of the other CSN items, falling in love with different sections and
separate ingredients more than I have the final product: Nash's gloriously
poetic verses to 'Broken Bird' so different to his usual style; his
warm-hearted lyrics to both his band ('Taken At All') and his fan (and by
extensions fans) on 'J B's Blues'; the sense of menace when 'Mutiny' finally
puts an end to three whole minutes of sulking and gets on with it - and how,
thanks to a glorious solo; the pure fragility of 'Time After Time', a track
that could surely only have been written by Crosby; the moment when 'Dancer'
stops trying to grunt her way off the ground and goes soaring into the middle
distance on some lazy, crazy ethereal harmonies that are truly sublime. No
there's no one song here that ranks alongside the duo's best (though 'Broken
Bird' 'Time After Time' and 'Taken At All' come close, it has to be said) and
few CSN albums get it as wrong - or at least as bland - as the pair do on
'Spotlight' or 'Foolish Man'. But the chance to hear the pair do 'cryptic' in a
way they never will again for more than a song at a time is a welcome one -
with just enough of that message to whistle down the wire back to us to keep
things interesting (well, I'd guessed 'J B's Blues' before Nash spoke about it
anyway; I wasn't even close to 'Broken Bird'!) and proves that the band weren't
simply making a sequel to a hit album. It filled a big hole in our young souls,
right between two of the finest releases in the CSN canon - sometimes that's
enough.
'Spotlight' is such a Graham Nash song. Half humble
apology, half egotistical rant, it's at one with his other stormy songs about
the ongoing CSNY saga, only marginally less angry than the better known 'Frozen
Smiles'. Nash has been asked why he's bothered to come along, guitar in hand,
and is challenged that he's after the spotlight - but isn't that what writers
do? Singing 'about places that you've been too so you can see them once again
through me'; all Nash is after is a chance to pass on his way of seeing in the
world of hoping it will touching another soul, throwing in a 'but it's only me'
for good measure. Nash sounds as if he's addressing Stills or Young or both
here (the same way he once did on 'Chicago', telling them that they should know
the thrill of having a platform to share their music because they do the same.
Nash is half apologetic, half proud as he informs us that singing in the
spotlight is all he's ever known: 'I've got to do it almost all the time - it
fills a big hole in my young soul!' If my reading of this song is right (and,
hey, I've been wrong before) then 'Spotlight' suggests that the aborted CSNY
reunion of 1976 might have had more to do with Crosby/Nash refusing to join as
anything less than equal partners after being hired purely as backing singers.
'Taken It All', at least, was written for the 1976 CSNY sessions (it seems to
have been the only song close to being finished after being started from
scratch - you can hear it on the 1991 box set) which suggests that the idea was
considered whatever Stills was thinking about their 'status' on the album. This
song sounds like Nash angrily heading home or to pick up the pieces of this
half-finished album trying to make sense of what's just happened. He's earned
the right to co-billing by now hasn't he, surely? Why should alone - least of all a friend -
question his need to be in the spotlight, as isn't that what they're all doing?
Alas what sounds like an intriguing lyric is slightly cut short by a song that
has only three verses and no real chorus and a melody that simply patters along
without the anger or urgency of the lyrics. Nash's Dylanesque harmonica puffing
hasn't got any better with the years either, though on the plus side his vocal is
excellent, caught between adult outrage and little boy lost puzzlement. This is
also one of the few tracks on the album that features Crosby and Nash singing
together throughout.
'Broken Bird' is a real breakthrough in Nash's
writing. Till now he's been dismissed as the 'obvious' writer out of the four,
the 'poppy' one as if that's something bad (it's s necessary part of their
dynamic: Crosby's, Stills' and especially Young's darker songs sound much
better for coming after Nash's, while Nash's work is only simple by comparison
to his colleagues). But 'Broken Bird' is as surreal as anything by Crosby, as epic
as most of Stills' work and as mysterious as Young at his peak, an elliptical
song about a romance he isn't quite sure about letting onto just yet. Nash's
tale of pottery-driven angst is more about the pair's blossoming romance
hanging in the balance between the awful moment when he realises he's broken
something beautiful with his carelessness and the split second later when his
new girlfriend realises it's him and laughs. The seconds are stretched out to
an infinity as Nash pauses, waiting anxiously for his shocked girlfriend's
re-action 'who hardly said a word'. An unusual chorus, repeated twice in
succession separated only by a guitar solo, enhances the idea of this song
being about communication, Nash waiting for Susan's response to flicker on her
face and trying to read the outcome of the 'broken bird'. By the end of the
song the pair have made it up, with hazy recollections of the pair 'reading in
the dark' (each other's emotions perhaps?) and learning to communicate. Until
the end 'Broken Bird' has been musically sleepwalking, it's wings clipped as if
it's waiting for something to happen good or bad, surreal and dreamlike.
Finally in the last half of the last verse the song breaks off unexpectedly,
making its decision to soar towards the sun: 'It's ok! She laughed! She doesn't
hate me for spoiling her pottery project with my love for her!' The song
suddenly soars off into the middle distance as 'the bird that you saw dying'
only a few precious seconds and two verses earlier has been turned into a
symbol of their love, a 'funny story' to tell their children and grandchildren
about (the song even starts with the line 'I'd like to tell you a story...' as
if that's what Nash is doing to 'us', his Graham grandkids). Ironically the
broken bird is the moment when the pair's romance is truly 'flying' having
taken on the next stage. An impressively dense track enhances this lovely and
unusual song, with some excellent sparring between Lindley's purring electric
question marks and Kortchmar's sorrowful slide guitar, while the use of both
Crosby and Nash at the bottom of their register in tandem on the chorus also
enhances the song's ghostly, mysterious feel. One of the real hidden classics
of the CSN canon.
Crosby's 'Time After Time' is another album
highlight, his most blissfully sleepy and delicate song since 'If Only I Could
Remember My Name' and without the darkness of many his immediate post-Christine
Hinton 'tragedy' songs. It's a track that dates from 1974 and that all too
brief moment when the darkness of her fatal accident hadn't yet run into the
darkness of the full-on drug period head on. Like 'Broken Bird', it's a track
that plays with our ideas of time (something much more typical of Crosby's
songs), as he finds himself 'running in rhyme' and synchronisation with a loved
one who makes him forget all about the usual human pressures of time. Many of
Crosby's later songs use the metaphor of life not as a long and winding road
(as so many writers do) but as a mountain to climb, full of peaks and troughs.
That imagery seems to start here, as at last he finds a quiet path of his own
personal cliff-face to navigate and enjoys a 'slow, easy climb' now that
someone's path has coincided with his (Crosby was having his own 'happy' period
back in 1974 after meeting future wife Jan Dance), unwinding in the pure joy of
love. In two tracks, then, we've had Nash sounding like Crosby and now Crosby
doing a Nash by sounding more in love than he has in years. Nash adds a lovely
harmonica part to this lovely track, so fragile it feels like it's about to
break at any moment, Crosby still in awe that 'part of the puzzle has fallen in
place'. Crosby's written far deeper, more emotional and way more groundbreaking
songs than this, but sometimes simple and slow is enough and 'Time After Time'
is another of this album's songs that doesn't get the respect it deserves.
'Dancer' is the fourth
instrumental-with-wordless-voices piece of Crosby's career and his last until
'How Does It Shine?' in 2004. Interestingly, it's by far his rockiest of the
five pieces, with a harder edge than the 'Remember My Name' songs, less
reflective than 'Where Will I Be?' and less poppy than 'Shine'. Usually when Crosby's
giving us pure music without the words it means he has something so colossally
huge on his mind that mere words aren't
enough and so it feels here, with a track that's forever twisting and turning,
'dancing' it's way through a rather challenging set of chords that by the
middle feels like a battle going on, heightened by Crosby's almost-screams. The
question is, does the huge theatrical scale of this piece mean love or war?
Crosby's never spoken much about this track, but it seems fair to say that it's
about either love or drugs, perhaps even both twinned together, his main muses
of the period. His partner's maiden name
of 'Dance' might be a clue, with romance a series of increasing challenges
separated by some truly lovely reflective bits of music. Or is the dark and evil
edge on this track more in spirit with Crosby's increasing drug habit, the
'lost child' of future song 'Delta' realising for the first time that he's hit
muddy waters he can't navigate a way out of? 'Dancer' is an unusual track which
of all of Crosby's similar works feels most like one that's speaking in
tongues, with scat words that sound like another language rather than this
being a song that could only have been an instrumental. There is perhaps one
shift too many from laidback stargazing to caveman grunting, but Crosby's
harmonies and Lindley's snarling animalistic guitar (matching him note for
note) are strong. The strings overdubs that drift in and out as if breaking
through from another dimension are well handled too, less lush than on 'To The
Last Whale' while still in keeping with the mood. It's a shame though that this
sounds very much like a solo Crosby song with very little Nash heard - the pair
of singers were always best when they were together and they'd already proven
on 'Tree With No Leaves' that they had the right telepathy to carry this off.
The noisiest song on the album by far is 'Mutiny',
another of Nash's songs of anger and betrayal over the 'Long May You Run'
sessions (it's interesting that he's so much more hurt by it all than Crosby
is, perhaps because the finishing argument was directly between him and
Stills). Picking up from 'Crosby's own 'Cowboy Movie' (about the first CSNY
split in 1970), Nash paints a dark sea story about betrayal, pirates and
mutinies. For years we didn't know for certain what this song was about - it
sounded like Nash had got carried away on holiday again (see The Hollies' 1967
songs 'Postcard' and 'Wishyouwish' for what a beach holiday, a little
imagination and a lot of drugs can do between them). But then he revealed in
his 'Reflections' box set that he'd stayed in and had to then cancel his
reservation in Sailboat Bay, North California and suddenly the whole song made
sense: 'Long May You Run', which Nash would have heard a good half of, is after
all a 'nautical themed' album ('Ocean Girl' 'Black Coral' 'Midnight On The
Bay'). So trust Nash to write his own song to fit the album's 'theme' in
absence, while subverting the idea to reflect his feelings over that album (was
this song even started on a watery theme to better match where the album seemed
to be going?) Nash the narrator is being
forced to walk the gang-plank by 'two monkeys who can do the two-step (two
faced step?) very well' who must surely be Stills and Young and being rescued
from the water by a captain ('shadow captain' Crosby? He officially became a
sea 'captain' legally in 1971) who takes him on a course for 'shangri-la'.
Along the way we also see cannibals on the shore (record company executives
pushing for a CSNY reunion before Stills was ready and risking the Stills-Young
album being 'eaten up' too perhaps?), 'blue birds over my head waiting for the
sea to dry' (Stills' usual reference to Judy Collins on many a Buffalo
Springfield and solo song - interesting it's not a 'raven' given that's Stills'
image for Rita Coolidge, who'd been the girlfriend of both of them at different
times) and most puzzling of all a 'farmer standing on the bridge' nonchalantly
looking on (is this ranch owner Neil Young?) Alas, apart from playing 'Where's
Wally?' CSN style, this track feels a bit less dignified than some of the
others: there's no real resolution to the song and it just stays in the same
cod-disco-funk rhythm throughout the track, with one of Nash's simplest and
least inviting choruses ('It's mutiny on sailboat bay, mutiny so far away!')
Once again there's comparatively little Crosby here - not a good sign - though
on the plus side the closing instrumental meshing of Lindley and Kortchmar
guitars is well handled, suddenly burning after four minutes of waiting to
catch fire. It's a pretty neat memory of the Stills-Young guitar duels - in
fact it sounds very much like what fans were expecting the Stills-Young album
to be like (it is instead mainly an album of pretty ballads and whatever the
heck 'Fontainebleu' is meant to be).
A much happier song written in code, 'J B's Blues'
is a tribute/apology to longstanding friend Joel Bernstein, who started his
career as a photographer before getting lumbered with the job of becoming CSNY's
unofficial archivist (though I'd like to think Nash was writing about toddler
racing driver Jenson Button as well). The apology, for whatever reason (another
band split perhaps?) must have worked because the pair still work closely
together now and have done all three of the C, S and N box sets plus the 'CSNY
74' one. Nash, certainly, is adamant that he's a 'friend' talking to a friend
openly and honestly, asking for forgiveness 'if I've ever disappointed you' and
admitting 'I've said some things you might not like to hear - but it's only me
and how I feel about you!' There are lots of 'in-jokes' here for those who can
work the identity of J B out (the fact he shot the album sleeve and thus gets a
credit not that far from the track title helps, by the way): 'looking through
the glass at shooting stars' (a pretty good description of a photographer),
wanting the world to 'see' who 'we are' (the rejoinder 'It's not 'So Far'
referring of course to the hated 1974 compilation thrown together by Atlantic)
and JB finding his own girl to 'watch the sunset with' (he'd much admired the
unused 'Human Highway' cover shot of CSNY on holiday in Hawaii, shot by Nash
himself). Alas at two verses this song doesn't get much space to say anything
beyond 'you are my friend' - we could have easily had a verse each per CSNY
reunion/disbandment and turned this into a concept album and the vocal lines
are a little tricky for Crosby and Nash to sing in tandem, with Nash the 'lead'
and Croz pushes unnaturally high. Instrumentally, too, this country-ish song
(clearly modelled on 'Cowboy Of Dreams') rambles slightly and can't quite match
the words. No matter though, it's a sweet song of friendship sung with just
enough of a knowing wink.
'Marguerita' is the closest to a straightforward
love song on the album, a tale of love at first sight over a 'Margarita'
cocktail (although I'd like to think the couple had a 'Margarita' pizza for
afters). A 'goodbye but I'll be back' song, this slow romantic ballad pulls all
the heart strings with fiddles, flamenco guitars, keyboards and bar-room piano
but never quite gives us enough context for any of these being here. Officially
all that happens is he offers her a drink, she asks for a Margarita and they
hold each other while later they get out of a nearby pool and she order the
same - not enough for a full verse or even a full night together, never mind a
full song. There is though the symbolism - again unusual for Nash - of her
asking for 'no salt', something reflected 'in her eyes' which are 'unadorned'
'unseasoned', pure and full of longing and the curious factor that 'she held me
- and never asked me why', a question we never actually hear Nash ask (though
it sounds like 'I'll be gone for a little while). Given that this song is the
only 'Wind On The Water' outtake and is, like much of the 'Wire' album, couched
in deep symbolic gestures and a romance, could it be that the entire record was
written round that Terminator-style promise 'I'll be by/back' so that Nash
could once again record close to where his new girlfriend lived and worked?
Nash certainly sounds in love, with a slow and hypnotic quality to his voice -
not unusual to be fair - but he probably wished his girlfriend had ordered a
different drink given how many times he has to sing the un-rhymeable
'Marguerita', a word he seems to have uncharacteristic trouble pronouncing
('Margaweeta!') That's quite cute, though, and adds to the pure and innocent
nature of the song. Like many of the 'Wire' songs, though, this short song is
at least a verse away from excellence and was probably the right track to drop
from 'Wind On The Water' to be honest.
The easiest song on the album to de-code and the
only Crosby-Nash collaboration here is the charming 'Taken At All'. Originally
Crosby-Nash were meant to sing the intro of this song about unity and parting
together, with Stills and Young joining in on the second 'Lost it on the
'Highway' verse (as heard on a glorious outtake included on the CSN box set).
This re-recording lacks the extra strength of the vocals and the intimacy of
the all-acoustic performance, but gains from another charming Mighty Jitters backing
heavy on the guitars. Though recorded at the 1976 sessions before the split, it
was actually written for the one in 1974 on 'Human Highway', the place where
CSNY's brotherhood was 'lost'. Nash always seemed to feel the CSNY splits more
than the others - at least in song, with 'Wasted On The Way' a song partly
about the 1976 split - and is a mixture of petulant and determined not to let
it happen again here (this is mainly his song, with added Crosby 'jokes'!)
Asking his brothers to 'take another look' and see him for who he really is,
Nash sighs at splitting up over something small ('Is that all you thought it
took?') and sums up the 1974 split with references to legal 'dotted lines' and
the fact that 'you were going your way - I was going mine'. Wondering what's
best for himself and for the others - working as a band, as a duo or as a solo
act - he asks which road is the right one to be 'taken' and asks Stills/Young
to re-think the rows 'in the lonely light of day'. A clever, sweet song that's
just ambiguous enough to be a 'love' song (especially if you had a row on a
'highway'), it's one of Nash's cleverest songs and inspires a great vocal, warm
and generous. Crosby's cheeky grin too sounds great alongside and it makes
sense that, 'Spotlight' aside, this song about belated unity should be the
album track to feature the pair singing together the most. Another nice string
arrangement enhances the song nicely, though for this song at least less is
more and there is perhaps a bit too much going on here compared to the CSNY
original recording from earlier in the year.
Poor Crosby, who always struggled with deadlines, is
having a really tough time when asked to write for another album so soon after
the last. So we get the start of what will become a Crosby tradition with
'Foolish Man', the bluesy song written to order when an album needs to be
recorded in a hurry ('After The Storm' alone will feature two of these). The
most regretful and guilty song on quite a guilty album, Crosby complains about
having 'grown up wild' and 'not doing well in school' - two of the things he
used to be most proud of when in The Byrds. He's become paranoid, expecting
'things that don't happen'. Time is passing him by as he's unable to 'seize
fortune's moment' and count his blessings - he's too busy looking over his
shoulder at the future and he berates himself at every turn for his 'foolish'
actions. As things will turn out, Crosby was probably right to feel that
something bad was about to happen and you sense that this is the first of a run
of coded 'help me!' songs, the drugs in his system having overtaken his ability
to enjoy life. Blaming no one but himself, Crosby tries to laugh at his pitiful
state but finds he can't 'because it cuts so damn close to the bone'
(thankfully this song's smarter, closer cousin 'Anything At All' from the 1977
CSN album will prove that he can laugh at himself - and how). Unfortunately
this song doesn't really do anything except wallow in the self-pity: though
Nash sweeps in for the slower, sweeter middle eight ('Time just flies...') the
song starts sleepwalking its way down the same ugly chords again, on a ride to
nowhere that we know can only end in trouble. The result is an oddly unlikeable
song - one of the very few unlikeable Crosby songs - but then it seems that
that was the whole idea, with Crosby berating himself. Unnecessarily of course:
there's no one as smart as someone who knows they still have so much to learn
about life and Crosby is one of the smartest people there is, however badly he
did at school.
I've had a mixed relationship with 'Out Of The
Darkness' down the years. It's one of the few Crosby pieces (or CSN for that
matter) you could ever imagine being covered by someone else and quite a useful
piece for bringing back onside the relatives/friends you've lost from playing
the gloriously unhinged nine minute version of 'Almost Cut My Hair' over and
over for hours. But should Crosby be sounding like everyone else? Craig
Doerge's piano-based melody isn't anywhere close to being the equal of his
sterling work on 'Shadow Captain' the next year and for once Crosby the
lyricist seems to have followed rather than led. Perhaps enjoying the slightly
jazzy but (by Crosby standards) rather normal chord changes, Crosby was led to
think in terms of light and happiness, banishing the darkness and living in the
moment the way he once promised on 'Foolish Man' and 'Time After Time'. But
this doesn't feel like that sort of a track. Crosby's most uplifting lyric
prior to his post-prison renaissance sounds as if it's been gifted to the wrong
song, coinciding with all the wrong bits - the moment when he sings 'here in
the light...' is accompanied by the creepiest eeriest note heard on a CSN song
for a long time. It's almost as if Crosby wants us to know that what he's
singing is a lie, as if his inner critic just can't let him write a purely
'happy' song when he already knows (as hinted in 'Foolish Man') that life is
getting out of control and things are going to get worse. The sudden push on
the vocals soaring to the sky (clearly a direct copy of the famous rush of
energy on 'Everybody I Love You') sounds inhibited and false by CSN standards,
falling back onto a curious instrumental piece that, perhaps symbolically, wavers
slightly out of tune once the sugary strings have been layered on the top. And
what strings: though pretty, they also have a very dulling effect, the effect
being not so much one of someone bursting through from dark into light but of a
patient being put to sleep with heavy tranquilisers that numb the pain (surely
the closest musical interpretation yet of the heavy drugs coursing through his
system). The effect is quite unlike any other track in the CSN canon and I'm
still not sure, several hundred playings across several decades later, whether
it works or not. Is this a song riddled with errors that could have been so
much better? Or is it a highly clever song that, perhaps even subconsciously,
is trying to sabotage itself so that we don't read it at face value? That would
certainly be in keeping with this most coded and 'locked' of CSN albums and yet
I still think the truth might be simpler - that this is the moment when, asked
to write a happy song to go with a largely happy tune, Crosby realises that the
drugs have taken hold so much he can't quite remember what being 'happy' is
anymore and that drugs are the closest thing he has. There'll be oh so much of
this sort of thing coming, with Crosby part of only two more albums in the next
eight years before his prison sentence, so soon after these heady days when he
was making two inside a year...
Overall, then, 'Whistling Down The Wire' is an odd
album, less immediate and easy going than it's hit predecessor and clearly in
places nowhere near as good. However sometimes an evil twin is only a twin
because it's misunderstood and so, I feel, is the case with 'Whistling Down The
Wire' which is working to a whole different set of rules than any other CSNY album.
Coded songs about the band's core split in 1976, coded songs about drug
addiction and coded songs about the romance Nash isn't sure he wants the world
to know about yet (following the high profile loss of first Joni Mitchell then
Amy Gossage). The open and free 1969 debut this certainly isn't and the change
isn't always for the best - it feels like there's a slight barrier sometimes
between artist and fan here which Crosby/Nash never do otherwise (though
Stills' grows thicker and thicker with each album from around this point on).
As a one-off though, an oddity in a shelf of albums that work to a different
value systems, this is enjoyable enough and even occasionally great when Crosby
resurrects a missing classic or Nash gets inspired to write about band or
girlfriend. A telegram sent out to fans without fuss or any real promotion, the
biggest failure of 'Whistling Down The Wire' might be the lack of communication
we've had about this album, which remains one of the least discussed
CSN-related records and could have done with just a few pointers at the time to
make fans interested in it more and to realise that there was something here
worth digging for. I'm not sure, even with some of the clues now marked out for
me, as if this is a long lost treasure and 'Wire' remains, even after
rehabilitation, the weakest of Nash's and especially Crosby's work in the
1970s. But given the strength of the competition that's not as much of a fall
as many reviewers and fans will let on, with an evil twin who turns out to be
not that evil after all and a broken bird that's not all that cracked really,
just a bit misunderstood and in the need of a hug.
A Now Complete List Of CSN/Y and Solo Articles Available To Read At Alan’s Album Archives:
'Crosby, Stills and Nash' (1969) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-29-crosby-stills-and-nash-1969.html
'Deja Vu' (CSNY) (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-34-crosby-stills-nash-and-young.html
‘Stephen Stills’ (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/stephen-stills-1970.html
'If Only I Could Remember My Name' (Crosby) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-45-david-crosby-if-only-i-could.html
'Songs For Beginners' (Nash) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-46-graham-nash-songs-for.html
'Stephen Stills II' (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-48-stephen-stills-ii-1971.html
‘Graham Nash, David
Crosby’ (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/graham-nash-david-crosby-1972.html
'Stephen Stills-Manassas' (1972)http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-51-stephen-stillsmanassas-1972.html
'Wild Tales' (Nash) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-graham.html
'Stephen Stills-Manassas' (1972)http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-51-stephen-stillsmanassas-1972.html
'Wild Tales' (Nash) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-graham.html
'Down The Road' (Stephen
Stills/Manassas) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/stephen-stillsmanassas-down-by-road-1973.html
'Stills' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-65-stephen-stills-stills-1975.html
'Wind On The Water' (Crosby-Nash) (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-67-crosby-nash-wind-on-water.html
'Stills' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-65-stephen-stills-stills-1975.html
'Wind On The Water' (Crosby-Nash) (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-67-crosby-nash-wind-on-water.html
'Illegal Stills' (Stills)
(1976)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/stephen-stills-illegal-stills-1976.html
'Whistling Down The Wire'
(Crosby-Nash) (1976)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/david-crosby-graham-nash-whistling-down.html
'Long May You Run' (Stills-Young) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-stills.html
'CSN' (1977) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-70-crosby-stills-and-nash-csn.html
'Long May You Run' (Stills-Young) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-stills.html
'CSN' (1977) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-70-crosby-stills-and-nash-csn.html
'Thoroughfare Gap'
(Stills) (1978) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/stephen-stills-thoroughfare-gap-1978.html
'Earth and Sky' (Nash)
(1980)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/graham-nash-earth-and-sky-1980.html
'Daylight Again' (CSN) (1982) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-131-crosby.html
'Daylight Again' (CSN) (1982) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-131-crosby.html
'Right By You' (Stills)
(1984) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/stephen-stills-right-by-you-1984.html
'Innocent Eyes' (Nash)
(1986)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/01/graham-nash-innocent-eyes-1986.html
'American Dream' (CSNY)
(1988) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-american.html
'Oh Yes I Can!' (Crosby)
(1989)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/07/david-crosby-oh-yes-i-can-1989.html
'Live It Up!' (CSN) (1989) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-viedws-and-music-issue-104-crosby.html
'Live It Up!' (CSN) (1989) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-viedws-and-music-issue-104-crosby.html
'Stephen Stills Alone'
(1991)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.nl/2016/09/stephen-stills-alone-1991.html
'A Thousand Roads'
(Crosby) (1993) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/02/david-crosby-thousand-roads-1993.html
‘After The Storm’ (CSN)
(1994) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/the-final-review-crosby-stills-and-nash.html
'CPR' (Crosby Band) (1998)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/cpr-david-crosby-band-1998.html
'Looking Forward' (1999) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-looking.html
‘So Like Gravity (CPR,
2001)
https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/cpr-just-like-gravity-2001.html
‘Songs For Survivors’ (2002) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/graham-nash-songs-for-survivors-2002.html
‘Songs For Survivors’ (2002) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/graham-nash-songs-for-survivors-2002.html
'Crosby*Nash' (2004) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-21-crosby.html
‘Man Alive’ (S) (2005) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/stephen-stills-man-alive-2005.html
'Deja Vu Live' (CD) (2008) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/news-views-and-music-issue-1-crosby.html
'Deja Vu Live' (DVD) (2008) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008_09_21_archive.html
'Reflections' (Graham Nash Box Set) (2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-22-graham.html
'Demos' (CSN) (2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-41-crosby.html
'Manassas: Pieces' (2010) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-52-manassas.html
‘Carry On’ (Stephen Stills Box Set) (2013) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/stephen-stills-carry-on-box-set-2013.html
'Croz' (Crosby) (2014) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/david-crosby-croz-2014album-review.html
'CSNY 74' (Recorded 1974 Released 2014)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-csny-74.html
'This Path Tonight' (Nash) (2016) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/graham-nash-this-path-tonight-2016.html
'Lighthouse' (Crosby)
(2016) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/david-crosby-lighthouse-2016.html
‘Sky Trails’ (Crosby)
(2017) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/david-crosby-sky-trails-2017.html
‘Here
If You Listen’ (Crosby) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/10/david-crosby-and-friends-here-if-you.html
The Best Unreleased CSNY
Recordings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/csny-best-unreleased-tracks-news-views.html
Surviving TV Appearances (1969-2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/csny-surviving-tv-appearances-1969-09.html
Non-Album Recordings (1962-2009)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young_6.html
Live/Compilation/Rarities Albums Part One
(1964-1980)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young.html
Live/Compilations/Rarities
Albums Part Two (1982-2012)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young_20.html
Essay: The Superest Of
Super Groups?
https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/csny-essay-superest-of-super-groups.html
Five Landmark Concerts and
Three Key Cover Versions
https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/csny-five-landmark-concerts-and-three.html
