Crosby Stills Nash - on Apple Records?

I remember reading a story in Rolling Stone, Circus, or one of the late sixties, early seventies music magazines about Crosby Stills and Nash.

The story went something like this. These three guys were over in England, and were "hanging around" Apple. George heard them and was interested in producing and recording them. Things were very close to coming to fruition, when one of the three (C, S or N) asked George if he could get Paul to produce them.

This apparently irritated George, and the project fizzled.

Does anyone else remember this story?

 

The story I've read is that CSN were in London and someone brought their audition tape over to Apple, where everyone was amazed and wanted to sign them to Apple. But John came in and thought the music was nonsense so that was that.

Can anyone confirm/deny this story (or the one about George wanting to produce CSN)?

 

Dunno about CS&N but Fleetwood Mac was considered at one time as well, so was Delaney & Bonnie.

 

Maybe JL was p.o.'d because they covered "Blackbird" and not "Glass Onion."

 

CSN was rejected because Apple was in the throes of collapse. Years later George Harrison told Stills that CSN was lucky to have been turned down by Apple so as not to get involved in all the litigation and stuff. I have seen a picture of "Suite:Judy Blue Eyes" on an Apple acetate.

 

In 1969? Apple had only just started!

They were much better off on an American label. Being on Apple didn't seem to do much for anyone.

 

From what I was told by Tony Bramwell (one-time promo manager for Apple, amongst other things), John made a statement similar to that about the band Yes.

 

Klein came on board in 1969 and he probably would have said yes to signing CSN. More than likely they never heard back from anyone before they heard from Atlantic.

 

This much is certain: As soon as Atlantic heard them (I can't recall if they heard a demo tape or saw them in person, but seem to recall it was a demo tape), they were on FIRE to sign them...I think part of this story may be recounted in the book Mansion on the Hill...

If Apple had first shot at them, they would have had to jump VERY quickly to sign them, and knowing the way Apple was (mis)managed back then, that probably wasn't going to happen.

I believe the period between coming together casually and getting signed was quite short.

Kwad

 

The version I remember is that Ahmet Ertegun gave them the money to go to England in the first place and he already had his hand in, as Stills was under contract to Atlantic. Then David Geffen traded Poco to CBS in exchange for a release for Grahma Nash and at that time Crosby was more or less a free agent as CBS had herad his demos and was eager to pursue their options on him.

 

What I remember from liner notes on a Poco anthology, The Forgotten Trail: the exchange involved Atco/Atlantic giving Jim Messina to Epic in return for Nash and Crosby, Messina having been a member of Buffalo Springfield. (I don't recall a mention of Crosby's free agent status in the booklet, although I'm sure that's probably true...the trade would be too unbalanced otherwise.)

The interesting side note is that Messina was able to engineer on the Springfield recordings, but couldn't for Poco - he says in the booklet that due to union restrictions, he wasn't allowed to touch the mixing board.

 

i've read tons and tons over the years about CSN(Y), and i never heard this one.

i know that while they were recording CSN (the couch album) the beatles were recording the "white album". CSN stopped in to hear a little of it, and immediately went back and recorded "blackbird" for their album. it went unreleased. however for years until the studio version appeared on the CSN box set. there is also a live version of "blackbird" on "allies".

renny

 

Apple started around 1968, but the slew of people replying to the ad ("This man now owns a Bentley") past the artists the Beatles and their partners had was just too much.

I think about the James Taylor Lp on Apple. It was a decent record, but it didn't sell... Not sure if CSN's debut would do much better...? It's true though; Apple did maginally well for Badfinger and Mary Hopkin, but that was about it.

 

If they had signed CSN, they might have been able to stave off collapse for a few years longer. The first album and Déja Vu sold a lot of units, and would have added another superstar act to Apple's roster besides the Beatles.

Weren't there rumors or discussion in the music press that the Stones were going to sign with Apple or join the Apple partnership with the Beatles after the Stones' Decca contract expired in '69?

 

Here's some from my archives. The quotes are from a two part book on the history of CSN.

Around December 1968 George Harrison and Peter Asher paid a visit to Crosby, Stills & Nash in their apartment in Moscow Road, London.
Stephen Stills: “We invited George Harrison over to listen, to see if Apple might be interested in us. After we finished he went, ‘Wow.’ Then he turned us down. The English attitude towards American musicians was a lot more competitive than I expected.”
But Stills himself was to blame too.
Stephen Stills: “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know I offended George when I asked him if Paul could produce our record. I had absolutely no idea that he hadn’t the time for that and that George was willing to do the production himself….”
Graham Nash: “We could hear we had quality, why couldn’t they?”
There's also a rumor that the band demanded too much money.
Tony Bramwell: “There were some missed opportunities. The William Morris Agency was next door to Apple. The main guy there, Larry Cuzon, had a mews house just off Glouchester Road, where Crosby, Stills & Nash were rehearsing. They brought their demos in to Apple and everybody loved them except John, who thought it was just twee nonsense, so they were rejected.”

 

THANKS! I knew I remembered seeing this many years ago, and it somehow stuck with me after all of this time. Very cool!

 

Stave off collapse a few more years because of signing CSN? Apple was home to the biggest act in the world .

Mismanagement was Apple's problem. Apple could have had the Beatles, the Stones and CSN on the label and it wouldn't have changed a thing. What Apple really needed was an CFO with fiscal responsibility and an experienced CEO who could make decisions.

Let's face it, four individuals making (some) business decisions independently of each other and withdrawing money from the business on an as-needed basis was a recipe for disaster.

 

Amen. Perfect Apple epitaph.

 

I just read that Queen was close to signing with Apple in 1970. I'll dig the article out for some quotes. Ron

 

I posed the question to Graham Nash on his forum. Here is his response:

GN: It was true indeed... When we were in London we were turned down by Apple...

Graham

I guess that settles it, eh? Straight from the source!

:-jon

 

no!!!! oh my.. that's a pity that he found them nonsense ))))