Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young’s 1974 reunion tour of North America was a rock tour like no other.
The four-piece hippie supergroup had split following the enormous success of 1970’s Déjà Vu, and each member had tasted solo success since – particularly Neil Young with 1972’s huge-selling Harvest.
With their stock rising with each passing year – and the fees being offered for a reunion soaring – the group eventually agreed to return for a tour that was so fraught with angst and stress that it would go down in legend as the ‘Doom Tour’.
There had been stirrings of a reunion in 1973, when CSN&Y met at a studio in Hawaii to test the waters for a Déjà Vu follow-up. The sessions might have fallen flat, but the news that the golden boys of harmony pop were on cordial enough terms to be in the same room as one another got managers Elliot Roberts and David Geffen thinking.
Promoter Bill Graham had recently proved how lucrative such reunion shows could be with Bob Dylan and The Band’s sell-out 40-date US tour in early 1974. Graham pitched a stadium tour to CSN&Y, originally envisioning only 10 performances before quickly upping the number to 31.
This would be rock touring on an unprecedented scale, as Graham Nash told Rolling Stone in 2014: "The Beatles had done Shea Stadium and the Stones had done a couple of Hyde Park gigs where there were 100,000-plus [people], but this was the first tour of this magnitude."
Getting the band back together
While money was no doubt a motivating factor in their decision to reform, there was a genuine feeling among some of the camp that together they were greater than the sum of their parts.
"I think that some of my records have suffered for lack of their influences and some of theirs have suffered for lack of mine," Stephen Stills told journalist Barbara Charone at the time. "And we all kind of agree with that… The hardest part is going to be for everyone to remember how to sit and take orders – and me too."
Stills’ last comment was telling. The trouble-magnet of a guitarist had not lost the controlling tendencies that caused friction in the group the first time around.
Stills also took charge when it came to rehearsals: at his suggestion, a crew assembled a full-size concert stage at Neil Young’s ranch in late May. As Stills later put it, "I said, 'Neil, we’re coming to your ranch and we’re going to build a stage across the road from your studio because we’ve got to learn how to play outdoors.' He didn’t want all those people in his house, but it actually worked."
When it came to the supporting cast, a compromise was reached between the members. Stills wanted to recruit from his solo band, making the case for Kenny Passarrelli (bass), Russ Kunkel (drums) and Joe Lala (conga) as a backing group.
Meanwhile, Crosby and Nash insisted that Tim Drummond – who had played bass on Young’s Harvest, Time Fades Away and the yet-to-be-released On The Beach albums, along with Nash’s Wild Tales – took care of the low-end.
"We didn't realise we were paying for all of it"
A no-expense-spared sense of largesse pervaded every aspect of the CSNY 1974 tour. Six trucks, a travel agency, carpenters, bus drivers, personal chefs, drug dealers and more were on the band’s payroll – common enough on stadium tours in years to come, but a whole new level of excess in 1974.
Though Young travelled in a relatively austere fashion – in a converted bus with his son Zeke – his bandmates lived it up with lavish hotels, fine dining and substance-fuelled decadence. "There were private jets and helicopters," Nash later told Rolling Stone. "We didn’t realise we were paying for all of it."
The attention to detail and lack of concern for budgets were astonishing, as roadie Glenn Goodwin recalled in David Browne’s 2019 book, Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga Of Rock’s Greatest Supergroup. "Our luggage tags were leather embossed with Joni [Mitchell]’s art. I don’t know if 'decadence' is the right word, but it was so over the top."
Mitchell, whose paintings adorn many of her own album covers, had provided the portrait for CSNY’s 1974 compilation album, So Far, and the illustration was also used on hotel pillowcases and the wooden plates used by catering.
The opening acts also pointed to the sheer scale of the tour, with Mitchell herself, along with Carlos Santana, The Band and The Beach Boys, providing support across the 31 performances.
"Turn it up to 11"
The tour kicked off on 9 July, at Seattle Coliseum. In keeping with the more-is-more spirit, and perhaps thanks to four rapidly expanding egos unwilling to cede ground to one another’s material, the show ran to over three hours and over 40 songs.
According to legend, the group were still playing at a curfew-busting 2am. As well as beloved CSN&Y tracks, such as ‘Ohio’, ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’, ‘Wooden Ships’, ‘Carry On’ and ‘Long Time Gone’, they found time for full-band versions of highlights from each member’s solo catalogue.
On the tour’s opening night alone, the group started with a full-pelt run through Stills’ ‘Love The One You’re With’, before blasting Young’s ‘Cowgirl In The Sand’ and Crosby And Nash’s ‘Immigration Man’.
An acoustic set included stripped-back takes on Nash’s ‘Another Sleep Song’, plus covers of The Beatles (‘Blackbird’) and Joni Mitchell (‘For Free’), and a solo piano rendition of Young’s Harvest track ‘A Man Needs A Maid’.
A closing set saw the group crank up the amps for rowdy versions of Young’s ‘Revolution Blues’ and Crosby’s ‘What Are Their Names’, among many more.
By the end of the first show, CSNY’s voices were shot, and the following night in Vancouver, Crosby’s completely gave out. It was a steep learning curve, as photographer Joel Bernstein later remembered.
"There was this weird troglodyte notion, and this wasn’t just a CSNY problem, that you’ve got to turn it up to 11," he later told Rolling Stone. "That’s not the case at all. You need to trust your PA mixer. When the volume did come down they were playing wonderfully. They didn’t need to make it that loud."
Crosby would reflect on how the sheer volume affected the band’s performance. "We had good monitors, but Stephen and Neil were punching well over 100 [decibels] from their half stacks. Graham and I simply couldn’t do the harmonies when we couldn’t hear ourselves.
"Also, when you play a stadium you almost have to do a Mick Jagger where you wave a sash around and prance about. I can’t quite do that. We did what we could, but I don’t know how many people in the audience really got it."
"I wish Neil wanted to be our buddy"
Old habits die hard, and as CSNY’s 1974 tour went on, the group split into factions, not least as Young – keen to avoid conflict – insisted on doing his own thing.
"Neil travelled separately and kept himself separate," Crosby told David Browne. "That was him being honest about how he felt. Neil is a very pragmatic guy when he’s dealing with us. He knows what he’s dealing with… And he uses us when it suits his purpose. I wish he wanted to be our buddy. But the music was good and that’s what counted."
Young was going through an astonishing songwriting purple patch, spurring the rest of the group on to greatness and ever-changing setlists. Nash later reflected, "He hit a writing spell that was unbelievable. He wrote ‘Pushed It Over the End’, ‘Hawaiian Sunrise’.”
Drummer Russ Kunkel told Rolling Stone, “Sometimes there was a setlist, but it changed a lot. There weren’t many soundchecks. What you have to remember about these guys is that they’re magicians and music is magic.
"We had arrangements for songs and we knew how they went, but when it came to solos there was no telling how long Neil would play. He would turn around to me while soloing and I’d see his eyes over the top of his mirrored sunglasses. It was like he was saying, 'I could die doing this solo. I’m going to give it everything I have, so you’d better go with me.' It was an incredible experience."
The tour rampaged across the US against a backdrop of upheaval: Watergate (Nash, in particular, became obsessed with following the proceedings); the death of the group’s longtime friend ‘Mama’ Cass Elliot of The Mamas & The Papas; and increasing bickering among the bandmates.
And as CSN&Y’s demands became more outrageous, their behaviour followed in kind.
"They were very explosive," crew member Guillermo Giachetti told David Browne. "There was a lot of competition. There are many ways to light a stage, and they would disagree about that. They would get angry and start fighting if a song ended in a black-out or white-out or spotlight. If one had sex with twins, the other guy had to have sex with twins."
"We were just too wrecked"
CSN&Y’s 1974 reunion tour ended in more chaos. At Young’s insistence, they booked only one European date – at London’s Wembley Stadium, on 14 September 1974.
Even by CSNY’s standards, it was huge: "Oh God, it was like being in a hurricane," Kunkel later said. "I’d never experienced anything like that before."
The Wembley show was recorded with the intention of using the footage for a US TV special, but the performance didn’t meet the band’s standards. "We were just too wrecked," Crosby later said. "We knew it and watched the video after and said, 'Aw fuck.'"
Despite the band’s initial misgivings, the 40th-anniversary live album that eventually surfaced was astonishing.
Released in July 2014, CSNY 1974 featured 40 tracks compiled from highlights of nine of the reunion tour’s shows, adding up to a remarkable showcase of the raw talent and incredible back catalogue at the band’s disposal.
Over half a century on, it’s the music that remains.
"A lot of what we remember is stuff that went on around the tour, not what happened onstage," Crosby told Rolling Stone.
"But when you’re confronted with the tapes you have to say, 'Jesus, these guys were really kicking it here and pushing the envelope.' I love that we had all these great songs. I love that we treasured them and treated them respectfully."
All pics Getty Images
Top image Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, reunited after four years, opened a national tour in Seattle, 7 November 1974
