Crosby, Stills & Nash
TWO ERA-DEFINING ALBUMS OF THE '60S AND '70S
Crosby, Stills & Nash's Legendary Debut and Gary Wright's Dream Weaver
Get Deluxe Treatment on New Limited-Edition Discs
If you are an audiophile, or even a casual fan wanting to flesh out your 60s & 70s rock collection with two iconic albums of those eras, these and many other Audio Fidelity remasters are where you want to spend your allowance.
The CS&N debut is a legendary album coming out in May, 1969, just before Woodstock. CS&N were perhaps the first folk rock super group. David Crosby had been the rhythm guitarist and a vocalist with The Byrds, Stephen Stills had been a guitarist and song-writer in the band Buffalo Springfield, and Graham Nash had been a guitarist, vocalist and song-writer with The Hollies, one of the "British Invasion" acts. Known most for their intricate vocal harmonies, and political activism they were also noted for having three fine guitarists as well as three notable song writers.
The album became the record of the summer of '69, garnering saturation airplay on the then-new FM radio format and spawning two Top-30 singles in Graham Nash's "Marrakesh Express" and Stephen Stills' paean to Judy Collins, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." By the time the trio performed at the Woodstock Festival three months later,
CROSBY, STILLS & NASH was a Top-10 album on its way to a 107-week stay
on the charts.
How the band came together is a legend in itself. By ‘68, Buffalo Springfield had ceased to exist after one hit, and what a hit it was, “For What It’s Worth”. In late ‘67, David Crosby had been kicked out of the Byrds over creative differences. Crosby and Stills got together and jammed that spring on Crosby’s boat, which would become the subject of the hit “Wooden Ships”.
Graham Nash had been introduced to Crosby when The Byrds had toured the UK in 1966, and when The Hollies ventured to California in 1968, Nash resumed his acquaintance with Crosby. At a party in July 1968 at Mama Cass Elliot's house, Nash asked Stills and Crosby to repeat their performance of a new song by Stills, “You Don't Have To Cry,” with Nash improvising a second harmony part The vocals jelled, and the three realized that they had a unique vocal chemistry. Nash promptly quit the Hollies, disillusioned with that groups failure to grow.
Oddly enough, the new band failed their first audition with The Beatles, Apple Records, but that legendary Atlantic Records founder, Ahmet Ertegün signed them and the rest is history.
Like Crosby, Stills & Nash, keyboardist-singer Gary Wright is often associated with a specific time and cultural place: the mid-1970s, when popular music was frequently experimenting and pushing boundaries and an unconventional track like "Dream Weaver" could ascend to Number 2 on the singles charts.
A childhood actor, Wright went to Europe to study psychology. In 1967, he joined the band Spooky Tooth as singer and keyboardist. During this period, he also befriended George Harrison and was invited to contribute piano to Harrison's All Things Must Pass. After Spooky Tooth split in 1974, Wright continued his solo career, culminating in this album.
Wright not only composed and sings all the songs on THE DREAM WEAVER, he provides the bulk of the instrumentation, playing organ and electric piano, Moog synthesizer and other keyboards on the largely guitar-less album. The title track was issued in January of 1976 and quickly became a hit, to be followed in April by the funk-infused "My Love Is Alive" (which also rose to No.2 on Billboard's song survey).
A third charting single, the more uptempo "Made to Love You," came out that September. THE DREAM WEAVER stayed on the charts for 75 consecutive weeks, and while Wright went on to record more long-players, it remains his biggest seller and among a handful of releases that will forever conjure memories of the mid-'70s for rock aficionados.
These Limited Edition and Numbered 24K Gold remasters are outstanding for audio quality. I had long since replaced my original vinyl of both discs with CDs but the Gold Discs out preformed then my a long shot. The sound makes you feel you are sitting in the studio, hearing these songs performed live. They absolutely sparkle.
Founded in 2002, Audio Fidelity specializes in deluxe reissues of classic popular-music recordings for the audiophile and collector
markets. The Camarillo, California-based label is best known for its 24-Karat Gold CDs and its 180-gram virgin-vinyl album editions, as well as a line of popular DVD titles. Check out their site for more ear candy. Come on, it’s Christmas and you deserve it. And that, my friends, is the……
Copyright © 2011 Robert Carraher All Rights Reserved
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