CSNY's Carry On: Questions

There's very good songs on there but it is the highlight... Maybe on par with Woodstock

 

My first csn album, I bought when I was 13 in 1983. Was looking for the album with southern cross on it, didn't know the title yet, also didn't know that replay was a compilation lp - I was young

 

This one, IMHO, blows away the CSNY version.

 

I think it's more than that - I get the sense that musicians often live in a bubble wherein they don't realize that the people who read this stuff aren't all just fans; they actually understand music as well. I'll grant you (or more properly, him) that by 1970 in the context of rock, 6/8 wasn't exactly rampant, but bands like King Crimson, the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, and Zappa's Mothers had used it (or the derivative 12/8, which is mostly a "how it's written" relationship to 6/8) and also even more adventurous time signatures. Certainly there are more examples, but the four I mentioned aren't exactly obscure by any means.

 

I suppose this thread is as good an excuse as any to post this:



I'm sure Stills would approve.

 

Was this solo put down in 1980 for the remix, or was it an outtake from the original sessions?

 

By "6/8" he could just mean the triplet feel of the melody in the "Questions" section ... "Where-are-you going"... "Where-will-you be"... Though you'd think a drummer would know the music is still in 4/4 through that.

 

stills had a few tunes to pick from

 

Not in my opinion. For me the CSNY fragment has a better groove, better vocal, the melody is a bit more refined. The BS version feels not quite fully baked to me. It's main advantage is that it's got a full set of lyrics.

 

Just for that remix

 

This does puzzle me too. That nod to S&Y giving them an extra song (though I guess it's an artificially-fabricated collaboration of two half-finished songs, rather than the two of them sitting down to write together), and Stills singing lead on 'Woodstock' really destroyed the view that all four were equal partners for me.

I guess Stills did most of the legwork in the studio on Deja Vu and Young's presence was a selling point, so that gave both of them an edge in terms of visibility, but I can't believe C and/or N couldn't have contributed one cowritten song to the album to balance out the S&Y song. What else of theirs was recorded? The Lee Shore? Horses Through A Rainstorm?

 

yes those 2. "almost cut my hair" was edited a lot. I imagine a few songs that made the solo albums released right after deja vu were kicked around during the deja vu sessions

 

It is different, that's for sure...I just picked up a copy of Replay a couple of weeks ago, never heard that version of "Carry On" before. I much prefer the original Deja Vu version.

Now, the Replay mix of "I Give You Give Blind" on the other hand...IMO removing the strings improves the song considerably. It "rocks" more, and though the 1977 album is my favourite CSN, it needed a rockin' Stills tune like that. The strings were overkill.

 

No I think it was specifically recorded for the remix.

 

That's were from the Journey through the Past soundtrack... get these version, these are the best ones officilly released.

 

I have an italian promo vinyl copy of Replay with no liner notes, no cover, no nothing. I seem to remember that Joe Vitale played drums in the 'new solo' section, but I could be wrong

 

Not Joe Vitale, Billy Meeker (whoever that is)...and yeah, the guitar solo at the end was Stills in 1980 as well. Not that great of a solo, actually, it never really gets going and then just sort of peters out...when I heard it I said, "Oh, it's Stephen Stills channeling George Harrison on 'All You Need Is Love'!"

 

I'm glad CSN&Y resurrected this - just wish they'd done a full version. BS version sounds dull to me.

 

Yes, "Find The Cost Of Freedom"/"Ohio" were together on Neil's "Journey Through The Past" soundtrack. I reconstructed that same thing from digital versions of both songs. The "Journey …" soundtrack, to my knowledge, has never been released digitally yet?

 

Yes, the new solo did little for me, especially as I love the original CSNY version of Question in the song. I can't see the point of revising a great historical recording 10 years after the fact.

 

i think the boat album is really close to being aas good as the couch album, every song is just fabulous, every song.

 

"carry on" is not only remixed, it is basically redone entirely. the whole "questions" segment is gone and there is a guitar solo tacked on as the outro, clocks in at just over 3:15.

if one is real careful, and has the patience and the wherewithal, one can splice the two versions together into a very very nice tune that contains the outro and the 'questions" part.

 

If I remember from the Dave Zimmer CSN bio (or maybe it was his "CSN Reader" book, a fine compilation of lots of CSN interviews and articles) Stills had to sack Dallas Taylor from his band (again) around '79 or so 'cos Dallas was using drugs heavily...Stills might (and I repeat might) have redone "Carry On" as a bit of a f--k you to Dallas, since Taylor had quite a bit of input to the original track. On the other hand, since CSN would adopt this Replay arrangement of "Carry On" for live performance, Stills just might have wanted to rearrange the song, since he claimed he wasn't a big fan of the "Questions" section anyway. Who knows? And at this late date I wouldn't be surprised if Stills doesn't know either

Terrible rearrangement on Replay, though (IMO)- a fine example of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

Interesting perspective

 

Confession: I heard "Carry On" long before I heard "Questions".