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Los Angeles - Thanks to a band featuring such polished musicians
as Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar (guitar), David Lindley (fiddle and
Hawaiian steel guitar), Craig Doerge (keyboards), Lee Sklar (bass)
and Russ Kunkel (drums), Wind on the Water is easily the most
sophisticated album David Crosby and Graham Nash have ever done.
"For once," explains Crosby, "Graham and I wanted to make a record
- a pushy record - that came right out and collared you. In the
two months spent recording in LA, Crosby and continually put the
tracks cut for their album to that test. Nearly every visitor
to their shared bungalow here at the Chateau Marmont was treated
to a spirited listening session.
Crosby, always the showman, would bounce about the room, pointing
to the speakers during a flashy guitar solo, clutching and shimmying
in the ecstasy of a rippling piano figure. |
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Nash, on the other hand, played along quietly on an unplugged
electric piano.
This schoolboy giddiness is typical of Graham Nash and David Crosby's
disposition, "these days we're truly and honestly excited about
the step we've taken," says Nash. "This album is a good deal more
kick-ass than anyone is expecting." Over the Sunset Blvd cacophony
outside, he adds, as an afterthought, "But then, maybe we're not
exactly who everybody thinks we are....."
Crosby breaks in. "I don't think that anybody will mind at all.
There's no denying that these are some of the best songs we've
ever written. Listen, we don't feel chained to the past in the
least. The only way you can go back is to paint something that
looks like something you did before. And that's bullshit."
Wind on the Water is their first release on ABC records. While
the magic of their harmonies runs through every track, the stark
tendencies of their previous collaborations have been modified
in favor of their lusher arrangements. With such urgent new songs
as "Homeward Through the Haze" and "To the Last Whale," it seems
that Crosby and Nash have never been closer to establishing a
unique and collective musical personality.
It's been four years since their debut as a duo on Graham Nash/David
Crosby. The delay, they say, was due mostly to the on-again, off-again
re-formations of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. "Almost that
entire time, man, we were waiting to make an album that various
people said they were going to make," Nash recalls. "A couple
of times we actually rehearsed all the songs and worked out the
whole album. We even had an incredible cover shot of all of us
standing on the beach in Hawaii. You see, when we (CSNY) first
got together, the idea was that each of us would leave our best
stuff for the group and that would be our highest means of expression.
So we didn't want to blow our best songs on solo records.
Crosby bemoans the CSNY album, to have been titled after Neil
Young's "Human Highway," as "that great fourth record that will
never be made." Even so, it's not hard to resemble most of what
would have been on it. Of the 14 songs once scheduled, all but
four (Crosby's "Time After Time," and Young's "Hawaiian Sunrise,"
"Sailboat Song," and "Human Highway") have all since been released
on various solo projects anyway. "New Mama," and "Mellow My Mind"
can be found on Tonight's the Night; "My Angel" and "As I Come
of Age" turned up on Stills; "Another Sleep Song," "Prison Song,"
"And So It Goes" and "You'll Never Be The Same" became part of
Nash's Wild Tales. Now "Carry Me" and "Wind on the Water" are
included on Wind on the Water. "We still might make another album
one day," Nash guesses. "But now is not the time "
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