STORY
There was a before, there was an after. Fifty years ago, the Woodstock wave swept the world. Europe 1 makes you relive, at the time of the festivals of the summer, the history of this revolution, not only by what it brought, but also by those which incarnated it. Today, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Supergroup of superstars
It was probably the most anticipated group of the entire festival. Or rather, the "supergroup", as it was called at the time Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, a quartet as great as it is heterogeneous. Monday, August 18, 1969, it is 4 o'clock in the morning when this square ascends on the stage of Woodstock. There is David Crosby, a former member of the Byrds, as irritating as it is indispensable, Stephen Stills, guitar prodigy with the voice of bluesman and Graham Nash, English melodist who was successful with The Hollies. All three became legends three months earlier, thanks to an album touched by grace, bursting with delicious vocal harmonies, which bear their names.
For what is only his second concert, the trio becomes quartet. A grumpy but brilliant Canadian joined him. His name is Neil Young, from the same group as Stephen Stills, the underrated Buffalo Springfield, so he's going to add his name to his three guys. For the 400,000 festival goers, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sings Wooden Ships, the story of two survivors after the nuclear apocalypse.
This superb piece appears on the triple album released after the festival. On the other hand, there are no pictures at the time, Neil Young stubbornly refusing to appear in the documentary filmed. The singer is hypocritical and reluctant to play more for the cameras than for the present audience. Already a sign of the tensions that would punctuate the life of this funny group, consisting of four leaders with personalities as strong as conflictual, all determined to continue their career in solo.
Piece of musical bravery
After Woodstock, Laurel Canyon, on the heights of Los Angeles, and despite the bickers, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young will work on a new album. The pressure is immense after the triumph of the first, and it will take hundreds of hours of studio, according to Stephen Stills, to achieve it. Déjà Vu was released in March 1970. He was both extraordinary thanks to the charisma of his composers, and frustrating, everyone seeming to play his personal card to the detriment of the whole.
Two months later, a tragic event will change everything. In Ohio, police kill four University of Kent students peacefully protesting the US intervention in Cambodia. A total of 67 balls are fired in 13 seconds. Neil Young immediately enters the studio and composes a fire with his three friends. According to him, David Crosby was crying at the end of the recording. The song comes out a few days later, with a cover that reproduces Article 1 of the US Constitution guaranteeing freedom of expression and assembly. Even today, this title, Ohio , remains one of the most powerful moments of the Woodstock generation.
All rage out, Ohio instantly becomes a classic of the American counterculture. His guitar riff is unstoppable, his chorus hammered a political slogan. "Four dead in Ohio," "four dead in Ohio," sing the hired men before naming the president, Richard Nixon, and associating him with the killing police. Rarissime at the time. For many, this piece of bravery is the greatest protest song ever written. It will be censored by many radios, which will not prevent it from entering the Top 20.
Pressure, egotrips and cocaine
Its authors are bombarded, a bit in spite of themselves, mouthpieces of this rebellious youth. The hippies are completely in these texts that speak of love to three, education by children rather than parents. The popularity of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young explodes. They are sold out everywhere, in bigger and bigger rooms, and that's soon too much. Too much pressure, too much ego, too many drugs too, as was to be feared. The quartet throws in the towel shortly after the release of the album.
Everyone goes then to his solo career. It's a triumph for Neil Young and, to a lesser extent, for the unstable Stephen Stills. As for David Crosby and Graham Nash, they prefer to unite their strength most of the time, including the common love they have for Joni Mitchell, their blonde Canadian muse. Nash also penned some memorable melodies as committed as those of Neil Young, such as Chicago , direct charge against the authorities who repress the pacifist gatherings. The little cousin of Ohio is a big success for the Englishman, both solo and with his three friends on the public double disc Four Way Street .
The rest of the story is written over the incessant arguments between the members of the group. The most scathing is Neil Young, who does not hide his contempt for musicians he considers as losers and distances himself as soon as he can. While David Crosby plunges into cocaine, Stephen Stills blends alcohol and various powders, becomes paranoid and violent despite his marriage to French singer Véronique Sanson. As for Graham Nash, disillusioned, he settles in Hawaii and counts the points.
Reunion time
In 1974, the four musicians agree to reform for a tour of the US stadiums. Never before have we gathered so many people to listen to music: over a million people are joining the reunion. Masses of more than three hours are played forty pieces each night. The group will even fill Wembley, London. But relationship problems are decidedly insoluble.
There will still be two albums to four, in the 1980s and 1990s. Pale copies of previous masterpieces. Other recordings of two or three, more and more dispensable, will also be made. But nothing will erase the magic of the guitars and voices of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the best enemies in rock history. Four monsters of contemporary music, still active half a century after their nocturnal debut on the Woodstock stage.
Find all the other episodes of our series "Woodstock, 50 years later":
> Episode 1: The origins of the most iconic festivals
> Episode 2: Richie Havens, the story of a fate that topples
> Episode 3: Tim Hardin, dubbed by Bob Dylan, destroyed by drugs
> Episode 4: Joan Baez, the consciousness of a generation
> Episode 5: Santana, and the legend was created
> Episode 6: Canned Heat, as long as the blues live
> Episode 7: Creedence Clearwater Revival, the essential casting error
> Episode 8: Janis Joplin, the pearl of the sixties
> Episode 9: Sly and the Family Stone, downtown funk
> Episode 10: The Who, the rebirth in Woodstock
> Episode 11: Jefferson Airplane, the group of origins
> Episode 12: Joe Cocker, English soul and blues
> Episode 13: The Band, the veterans