Ranking CSN&Y by order of significance

NSYNC - although I haven't really decided which N Graham should be. I'm leaning towards the second one.

 

Young - Crosby - Nash - Stills

That is giving bonus props for the Hollies and Nash's work with Terry Reid. Without the Hollies, YCSN with Manassas heavily factored in.

 

Exactly...and his last few album are all co-written. A lot of people involved in those records to make them listenable. They remind me more of Ringo albums.

 

1. Y
2. S/N
4. C

And I love Croz...

 

YNCS

 

That's where I am. Maybe we should call it a tie. But if it's a guitar cutting contest, Croz is going to get destroyed.

 

You know, it slipped by me, too, until a few years ago. I guess we heard so much of CSNY in so many incarnations in the early 70s, a few things were bound to slip through the cracks. But there are about 10-15 Manassas cuts that are absolute killers.

 

I don't disagree with this at all. Neil is an appendage to CSN. Even though he has significant entries in the group's box set, the box is entitled CSN.

 

Stills and Crosby have been ranked in every position, 1 through 4. I'm so glad we could all disagree!

 

YCNS

 

"Rain grey town/Known for its sound" as someone already mentioned, plus McGuinn didn't even do that much as far as the composition of the song is concerned but he took songwriting co-credit since he arranged it - which would be the equivalent of him taking a partial songwriting credit for his arrangement 0f the wholly Dylan-written Mr Tambourine Man for The Byrds.

Byrds "politics" was a factor in songwriting credits, especially after the other city bus-riding members of the band noticed that Gene Clark was no longer riding the city bus with them anymore after the first album came out.

Also explains why the abysmal and embarrassing McGuinn/Crosby co-write 'Wait & See' made the Turnx3 album while several superior Clark written songs - though recorded by the band at the time - remained unreleased until the mid/late 80s and beyond.

Post Byrds, Clark has mentioned in at least one interview that he sometime gave away undeserved partial songwriting credit in The Byrds to ensure a song got recorded/released. 50% (or less) of something is better than 100% of nothing.

However, I bet Clark never imagined that McGuinn (after Clark died) would go so far as to switch the original songwriting credit to put his own name first in the credits instead on every release of the song going forward. How wonderfully and not at all hypocritically (born-again) Christian of him to steal proper credit away from a dead man!

 

Given the nature of the talent in CSN (and sometimes Y), I think Nash is under-appreciated. I used to generally think of him as the weaker of the group, but after a deep dive into the Hollies, I'm not so sure.

Going into CSN, Nash had the most experience and was more prolific. He made seven albums with Hollies, and numerous non-album singles. And the Hollies were a big established act, particularly in the UK. In the Hollies, Nash was the "heavy" guy wanting to push the group toward more experimental music.

Going into CSN, Nash brought his pop songwriting sensibilities with him. While that didn't make him the "coolest" member of the group, songs like "Marrakesh Express", "Teach Your Children", "Our House", "Just A Song Before I Go", and "Wasted On The Way". The popularity of those songs exposed CSN to far more people than the songs of Stills and Crosby. I would argue that the popularity of those songs, placed all of those guys (Neil included) on a level that would have been impossible otherwise. Neil joined CSN for the popularity it would give him. Nash was the reason for the popularity.

That's not to mention Nash as a singer, which is easy to take for granted until you really hear him belt it out on Hollies songs.

Not often appreciated is Nash's dark sense of humor and capacity for the quick cutting remark. He can be brutal. It's a shame that side doesn't come out very often. His take downs are almost Lennon-like. That stuff comes out on stage sometimes, and occasionally in interviews (he was pretty rough on West 57th)

 

As a huge Hollies fan since 1964, I have to go with Graham first. Then Young, Stills, Crosby.

 

In my opinion, Young brings little to CSNY. His most effective contributions were "Helpless" and "Ohio". Other than that.....???? "Country Girl" and "Everybody Loves You" (co-write with Stills): blah. Nothing on "American Dream" (although I'm fond of the title track) and "Looking Forward" are really great - sound more like throw-aways/scraps.

So given that position, I would rank it: SCNY. (although "Ohio" might arguably be the best song by the band). Just my two cents.

 

A lot of good points. And I would surmise the girls go for the Nash songs first.

 

Neil
Dave
Graham
Steve

 

Country Girl is a great song.

 

Have to disagree with this quite a bit. I don't know about Stills or Nash, but Crosby has had a creative resurgence at least since 2014's Croz (and two subsequent albums after that), and perhaps sooner with his CPR band with his son. He's also out touring his ass off in old age. True, Crosby had a severe "lost" period, perhaps worse than the others, but Young also put out his fair share of crap of the 80's and even since 2000.

In short, I wouldn't say Crosby is "resting on his laurels". I wouldn't even say that about Stills or Nash. They're not out flogging a bunch of old crap, and their music isn't popping up in fast food commercials or Nike ads.

 

At the time: SYCN

Today: CYNS

Average-0ver-time: CYSN

I prefer Stephen to Neil, but realistically, Stephen's best work was in that little 7-8 year burst, and it hasn't been great since then.

 

Stills used to be second but now it's clearly Crosby.

 

If I really have to rank CSNY, I'd go with:

Cohen (Leonard)
Nilsson (Harry)
Simon (Paul)
Yankovic (Weird Al)

 

#1 to me would have to be Stills. Difficult to rate great musicians and singers like Crosby, Nash and Young.

 

My favorite is David Crosby. His three recent albums are excellent and I love his voice and musical contributions to CSNY. "Guinevere" is my favorite of their many great songs.

I'd personally rank them: Crosby > Young > Nash > Stills

 

And it broke up the band once

 

YCSN