Crosby, Stills & Nash (Daylight Again Tour)  2/26/1983
Universal Amphitheatre, Section 5, Row RR, Seat 3, 4

I attended the concert which the DVD was made to commemorate.  Yes, I was in the audience at Universal Amphitheatre.  The last of the original "super-groups", Crosby, Stills, Nash and
Young have split more times than Microsoft stock. David Crosby, Stephen Stills,
Graham Nash and Neil Young had all been members of highly successful groups before
coming together in the fall of 1968.

Crosby had joined The Byrds in 1964, after an unsuccessful solo career, and was on hand for their biggest hits, "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "Mr. Tambourine Man". A falling out with Roger McGuinn over the inclusion of Crosby's song, "Triad", on the album, "Notorious Byrd Bros.", led to his departure in 1967. He went on to produce Joni Mitchell's debut album in early 1968.

Stephen Stills played guitar for Buffalo Springfield, who had one memorable hit, "For What It's Worth", before disbanding in May of 1968.  Graham Nash had been the driving force behind The Hollies until they balked at recording a tune he wrote called "Marrakesh Express".

Neil Young had also been a member of "Buffalo Springfield", but abruptly quit on the eve of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. David Crosby sat in for him for the night.  When Buffalo Springfield split, Stills and Crosby began jamming and were soon joined by Nash. The three of them first sang together at a party in the L.A. home of Mama Cass Elliot.

Quickly landing a recording contract, the trio would find success with their first effort, "Marrakesh Express", the song the Hollies had turned down. The sweet harmonies featured on the track helped it to climb into the top 30 in the U.S. and was followed by "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", a song written by Stills about folk singer Judy Collins, which made it to number 21 in the U.S.

Wanting to expand to a quartet to help with their sometimes limited vocals, Stills approached John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful. When Sebastian said no, Neil Young was brought on board in time for the Woodstock Festival in August, 1969.

The quartet's first album, "Deja Vu", took two months to record and was certified gold before it was released. The L.P. contained their first three hit singles, "Woodstock" (#11), "Teach Your Children" (#16) and "Our House" (#30). Just after the album's release, The National Guard shot and killed four students at Kent State University in Ohio and Neil Young was quick to respond with the song "Ohio", which, despite limited radio airplay, made it to #14 in 1970.

The four toured during the summer of 1970, but by the time they released their second album, "Four Way Street", egos and frayed nerves had caused the band to split. Crosby and Nash both released solo albums as well as touring and recording together during the early seventies. Young continued as a solo act, as did Stills, who scored a number 4 hit with "Love The One Your With", in 1971.

By 1974, they toured together again, but Young insisted on travelling separately. Stills and Young released a duet album, "Long May You Run" in 1976, and once again Young made a sudden exit during their tour of 1976.  Now just "Crosby, Stills and Nash", the remaining trio released the quadruple-platinum album, "CSN", which yielded the #7 hit, "Just A Song Before I Go" in 1977, and continued to tour together. Their next L.P. would wait until 1982, when "Daylight Again" produced two top twenty singles, "Wasted On The Way" (#9) and "Southern Cross" (#18).

David Crosby had a number of minor run-ins with the law and in 1985 was charged with possession of cocaine and carrying a gun. He served nine months in prison after completing a drug re-hab program which kept him from the full five years that he was sentenced to. During an appeal, he appeared with Stills, Nash and Young at "Live Aid" and soon after his release, wrote a song about his ordeal called "Long Time Gone".

The foursome united again in 1989 to record Young's "American Dream" (#16) after which Neil again refused to tour with his ex-bandmates. The three then released an album of unreleased tracks, which was so poor, it couldn't crack Billboard's Hot 100.

By the early 1990's, Young had built a following with the younger crowd who regarded him as "The Godfather of Grunge". Graham Nash had been busy with his publishing company, "Nash Editions", as well as hosting his own television show. Crosby's long time drug abuse led to a liver transplant in 1994. On a brighter note, David had re-united with a son that was given up for adoption in 1962 and the pair recorded three albums together. He also made the news for being the sperm donor for lesbian mothers, Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypher.

At the instigation of Stephen Stills, CSN&Y re-formed in 1999 to record the critically acclaimed L.P. "Looking Forward". Earlier that year, Nash suffered two broken legs in a boating accident, but recovered enough to contribute to the album and the band's first tour since 1974.