No sooner had Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young began the 1970s as musical standard bearers of the counter-culture with their huge-selling ‘Deja Vu‘ album, they fell apart at the seams due to clashing egos and a clutch of extracurricular projects independent of the CSNY mothership.
Some of these pursuits earned widespread critical acclaim – particularly for Neil Young and Stephen Stills (recognition David Crosby made an excellent 1971 solo record would arrive much later) – and for the most part every album each member of the quartet put their name to, both in regard of Crosby and Graham Nash for their 1972 duo album, did good business in the marketplace.
By the midpoint of the decade the only project to have since involved all four parties of this formidable but fractious aggregation was a sold-out stadium tour in the summer of 1974. But plans for a reunion album from the unit once referred to as the ‘American Beatles‘ (this despite Nash being English and Young Canadian) soon collapsed amid familiar bouts of feuding and friction.
On splintering once again into recognised modes of operating – Stills and Young fronting their own bands, Crosby and Nash pooling resources as a double act – 1975 proved a notable year for all concerned with well received releases by Stills, Crosby and Nash along with the masterpiece that was ‘Tonight’s The Night‘ from Young.
To the outside world circling around the square of these feted rock luminaries, it appeared impetus for a new CSNY offering was fading as the concerts of ’74 slipped further into the past.
Yet as 1975 drew to a close Young began turning up at a series of shows being played by Stills in Los Angeles, who so ecstatic at being joined onstage again by his old guitar-toting compadre told the audience on one such night, ‘the spirit of the Springfield is back‘ – a reference to seminal mid-60s folk-rock ensemble Buffalo Springfield of whom they had both been members before combining again in CSNY.
Indeed, so euphoric was the feeling around this realignment, the pair entered Criteria Studios in Miami during the spring of 1976 to begin cutting songs for a project that as yet had no definitive direction or deadline.
Recording with Stills’ road band of Joe Vitale (drums), George ‘Chocolate’ Perry (bass), Jerry Aiello (keyboards) and Joe Lala (percussion), the plot took a new twist when Crosby and Nash were invited to add harmonies to what had been cut, the prospect of a full-blown CSNY LP suddenly taking shape with all four protagonists gathered in the same building – but alas, so did the possibility of tiffs and tantrums.
On the departure of Crosby and Nash back to Los Angeles to complete work on their forthcoming ‘Whistling Down the Wire‘ set, Stills and Young, between whom relations were already becoming strained (despite having agreed to undertake a 30-date joint summer tour), wiped all trace of their former bandmates from the master tapes – a decision that so incensed Nash he vowed never to work with either again.
In the event September 1976 brought sight of ‘LONG MAY YOU RUN‘ an album attributed to The Stills-Young Band, although in reality amounted to nine solo tracks (split five/four in favour of Young) that had been cobbled together, offering little evidence of being a collaborative work.
By the time this desultory collection appeared the two were no longer on speaking terms, the ever-willful Young having walked out of the tour halfway through leaving a drunk and dejected Stills to complete the dates – the artistic credibility of both taking a nosedive on account of a record greeted with hostile reviews. Engineer and Co-Producer Tom Dowd later described sessions for the album as ‘two superstars that were walking the same golf course but not playing the same game.’
Yet ‘Long May You Run‘ is not the unmitigated disaster many reviewers of the day would have their readers believe. True, there is material that is undistinguished, but even then Young contributes the memorable title-track and one other high quality piece, Stills for his part offering three songs that are competent, if brooding soft rock.
It does not reignite the spirit of the Springfield or evoke the compelling essence of CSNY, yet still deserved a fairer hearing than the one received on release.
First aired during the 1974 tour, Young opens proceedings with the resonant song giving the LP its name – this wistful country-rock composition an elegy to a car (in this instance a 1948 Buick Roadmaster hearse he christened ‘Mort‘) and a former lover, both of whom Young was acquainted with in his late-teens.
From the opening notes played on a plaintive harmonica and chugging acoustic guitar, the piece is unmistakably him, his quivering vocal style ideal for a coming of age story that is up there with ‘Night Moves‘ by Bob Seger in encapsulating how over time innocence gives way to experience:
‘We’ve been through some things together/With trunks of memories still to come/We found things to do in stormy weather/Long may you run.’
Ultimately the passing years take a toll on them all. Old Mort reaches the end of the road in 1962 (‘But we missed that shift on the long decline’), the girl seduced by the delights of California (‘Maybe the Beach Boys have got you now/With those waves singing “Caroline” (Oh “Caroline, No”)/Rolling down that empty ocean road/Getting to the surf on time‘), Young left with feelings of nostalgia that are respectful rather than regretful.
‘Long May You Run‘ has rightly become one of his most celebrated songs and deserved to be heard in better circumstances, sounding even more engaging when followed by a slow rumbling blues-rock cut from Stills entitled ‘Make Love to You.’
With its mention of ‘a smoke-filled bar in a southern town‘ Stills on lead guitar and organist Aiello conjure a suitably sultry atmosphere, a woman across the room coming under his desirous gaze:
‘I was lonesome as I could be/And a bad kind of tired/Till I saw you look at me/Where there’s smoke there’s fire/All of my troubles disappeared/When I watched you move.’
Despite the chorus being cliched to the hilt, overall the track itself is acceptable if not especially memorable soft rock fare. Stills undoubtedly can be heard to far better effect on countless other previous occasions, but still comes up with an intriguing line, ‘And how we got together anyway/Well that’s another song,’ on which to finish.
In the wake of ‘Long May You Run‘ being panned by the critics, Stills complained Young had made up his material on the spot while saving superior work for future albums. This assessment is borne out by several of the excellent songs that appeared on ‘American Stars ‘N Bars‘ the following year, all of which predated the Stills-Young effort. The point is reinforced by his other two contributions to side one, neither ‘Midnight on the Bay‘ and ‘Ocean Girl‘ having any great depth or resonance.
On the former Young drifts very close to sounding like America, which might just be him being perverse as they had often been harangued for their breakthrough hit ‘A Horse With No Name‘ having obvious similarities with the way he sang and played.
The latter is equally passive and undemanding, words seldom used in describing his lyricism, Young and his ‘Ocean Girl‘ found ‘Drinking bananas/From long tall glasses/In the open air‘ – this atop of a lilting melody that is as contrived as it is surprising from an artist of his stature.
Between that pair of lacklustre Young performances, the coastal connotations are continued by Stills on the marginally superior ‘Black Coral‘.
With Vitale making a contribution on flute, it appears some thought has gone into the breezy jazz-pop arrangement, the composer finding greater spiritual enlightenment closer to the sea bed than he does on land:
‘They call it rapture of the deep/But you’re not afraid/You’re too far down now to be scared/Two hundred eighty seven feet/I saw Jesus and it made sense that He was there.’
On side two the album takes a welcome step-up in momentum beginning with ‘Let It Shine‘ that namechecks another car (‘And my Lincoln is still the best thing built by Ford‘), Young also taking guidance from a higher power, even if it is hard to tell whether he is being agreeable or acerbic when singing:
‘I got religion in the airport, my Lord/They caught me waiting on my baggage when I was bored/
Let them chant, let them chant/Although they may not be the only one/Let them dance, dance, dance.’
For Stills the sparks truly begin to fly on ‘12/8 Blues’ (All the Same), the composer firing out feisty electric guitar lines in a plea for reconciliation (he returned from the ill-fated Stills/Young tour to find his wife, French singer/songwriter Veronique Sanson, had left him), regarding a relationship in tatters:
‘I wanna talk to you, listen too/Too many times I’ve swallowed my words/Is it a crime to want to be heard?
The improvement is maintained on ‘Fontainebleau‘, an edgy, slow-burning affair from Young that would not have sounded out of place on his 1974 opus ‘On The Beach‘.
Using the Miami hotel as a metaphor for his annoyance at how the natural beauty of the earth is being eroded and the antipathy he feels toward consumerism, Young cuts loose with searing guitar work in presenting the scene:
‘Who put all the tar on the morning sand?/Who took everything from where it once was/And put it where it last was seen?/Fontainebleau, they painted it green/Fontainebleau, for the well-to-do.’
Not only would the record have been better served by more of the energy generated in this inspired track – ‘Midnight on the Bay‘ and ‘Ocean Girl‘ both tepid in comparison – but improved no end by much more of the lyrical candour Young presents here, not least when his anxiety becomes of a personal nature:
‘I guess the reason I’m so scared of it/Is I stayed there once and I almost fit/I left before I got out of it/People
were drownin’ in their own…/Fontainebleau, was that me?’
While closing cut ‘Guardian Angel‘ is not at the same level of accomplishment, certainly in the lyrics, Stills manages to bring matters to a close in sprightly fashion, the track bolstered by a fine vocal, stinging guitar breaks and extravagant piano fills from Aiello.
On being released ‘Long May You Run‘ made no great commercial headway and although it rose to number 12 on UK album listings, stalled at 26 in the US charts. By way of irony the equally fitful ‘Whistling Down the Wire‘ effort from Crosby & Nash had climbed to the same US chart placing six weeks earlier before fading from view.
In the aftermath of their record receiving dismissive notices, Young resumed his idiosyncratic, self-determined solo career, restoring his reputation over the next eighteen months with a couple of solid, presentable albums. Stills meanwhile was at something of a crossroads, having earlier in the year had his name dragged through the mud by critics lambasting ‘Illegal Stills‘ – a May 1976 solo release that in truth had little to redeem it.
Yet salvation was at hand.
During his best song on ‘Long May You Run‘ Stills in ‘12/8 Blues‘ (All the Same) can be heard singing, ‘We’ll be old friends…tryin’/’Till the road ends…we’ll be flyin‘ which inadvertently foretold his next move.
Bridges rebuilt, within weeks he was back in the fold with Crosby and Nash – a critically admired, massive-selling CSN album just around the next corner.
The STILLS-YOUNG BAND – LONG MAY YOU RUN (Released September 27 1976):
Long May You Run/Make Love to You/Midnight on the Bay/Black Coral/Ocean Girl/Let it Shine/12/8 Blues (All the Same)/Fontainebleau/Guardian Angel;
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book.