What is going on in "Questions"/"Carry On"?

As many of you know, Stephen Stills recycled lyrics from Buffalo Springfield's "Questions" in CSNY's "Carry On." Just compare the lyrics:

"Questions":

Where are we going love?
What are you feelin'?
Now that I've caught my love
My head is reelin',

With the questions of a thousand dreams,
What you do and what you see.
Come on lover, talk to me.

When I was on my own
Chasin' you down,
What was it made you run.
Tryin' to get around

The questions of a thousand dreams,
What you do and what you see.
Come on lover, talk to me.

Now that we've found each other
Where do we go now?
I'd like to know what you're thinkin'.
Answer me slowly now

The questions of a thousand dreams
What you do and what you see.
Come on lover, talk to me, yeah.

"Carry On":

One morning I woke up and I knew you were really gone
A new day, a new way and new eyes to see the dawn
Go your way, I'll go mine, carry on

The sky is clearing and the night has gone out
The sun, he come, the world to soften up
Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice but to carry on

The fortunes of fables are able to sing the song
Now witness the quickness with which we get along
To sing the blues you've got to live the dues and carry on

Carry on, love is coming
Love is coming to us all

Where are you going now my love?
Where will you be tomorrow?
Will you bring me happiness?
Will you bring me sorrow?

Oh, the questions of a thousand dreams
What you do and what you see?
Lover can you talk to me?

Girl when I was on my own, chasing you down
What was it made you run?
Trying your best just to get around

The questions of a thousand dreams
What you do and what you see?
Lover can you talk to me?

What is going on here? Did Stills consciously or unconsciously plagiarize himself? Did he include these lyrics from a BS song as a "nod" to working with Neil Young again in CSNY? Or did he include them as a "dig" against Young (perhaps Young criticized the lyrics in BS, and now Stills is recycling them to annoy him further). Or perhaps he is commenting on the nature of art itself -- specifically, 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," as Walter Benjamin would outline it (Google it). Perhaps there is a Baudrillardian engagement with the idea of the simulacra (a copy which has no original) at work as well to describe the artistic process. It's a copy, but what's the original? Isn't all art just a remix of what came before (yes, even the Beatles drew upon influences)? Music/art works within and draws upon certain traditions, so, in that sense, a work can be considered derivative/a copy, even if a work is not an explicit duplication of some original. Stills is drawing attention to that process.

Thoughts?

 

For Deja Vu Nash asked for a 'strong opening' in the Judy Blue Eyes style (he says it in his book). Stills had just three lines of Carry on (probably stealing something from Cat's Squirrel), so he had the idea of pasting Questions. If I remember correctly, Carry On was the last song they've worked on for the album. My theory, I could be wrong.

 

Did this pose a problem on the publishing front?

 

In that case, Ahmet fixed it.

 

Stills would repeat the recycling process to a lesser degree with "Everybody I Love You" from Deja Vu and "Know You've Got To Run" from his second solo album.

I can't remember where I read it (Dave Zimmer's CSN biography I think) but supposedly Stills disliked the "Questions" section of "Carry On" enough that he lopped it off the "Carry On" track and then recorded a new coda for "Carry On" for CSN's 1980 compilation Replay.

 

I like that version. Sought out the record just for that track.

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Why do you figure Neil Young has anything at all to do with this song?

 

if you are very meticulous you can make a just under 6-minute version of this by splicing the 2 songs together....you get both the 'questions' part and the new guitar solo ending in the same song.

it actually turns out to be a pretty nice listen.


and to answer the above, yes 'questions was on 'last time around'.....and neil young has absolutely nothing to do with 'carry on/questions, doesn't sing or play a note on it. (either version).

 

Did he change publishers in the two years between Last Time Around and Deja Vu? I doubt it, but don't remember the credits offhand.

 

I am aware that Young had nothing creatively to do with either song . . . just throwing it out there that he possibly hated the lyrics when Stills presented it as a BS song, so then when Young joins CSN, Stills, bristled at the situation, says, 'Dump on my songwriting, huh? Well, here are those lyrics you loved so much last time again' or somesuch. (note: Young and Stills did not get along).

 

by the time of Last Time Around, Neil probably didn't even know himself what would be on the album (only interested in his own songs), let alone what Stills was up to. They weren't recording as a band so much even by that point.
People recycle bits, Stills probably just thought it worked well after carry on, he's an artist too, he's composing music. BTW, that questions part of Carry On has always been a favorite of mine, they way Carry On cuts out, the organ comes in and that killer wah guitar kicks in.

 

how did he ripoff himself when the song is cited as being "questions"? he tagged the buffalo springfield song onto the end of "carry on". its listed just like that. we didn't need sherlock holmes to crack the code

 

Calling the song "Carry On/Questions" is a relatively recent thing -- for years and years the song was listed as simply "Carry On" on the Deja Vu sleeve and elsewhere. Someone else can give you the exact details... it may have started on the CSN box set in 1991?

 

Yeah that's the story. But what was Stills going to have on the album if he hadn't come up with this?

 

Questions is such a trifle on Last Time Around that I always assumed Stills liked it and wanted to use it somewhere worthwhile. The fact that he cut that section out of Carry On later seems to refute this theory.

 

Wrong. As has been pointed out, this is revisionism (on whose part, I don't know), and 'Carry On' was never listed as 'Carry On/Questions' on Deja Vu. There was no acknowledgement of 'Questions' sourcing a verse at all. Perhaps Sherlock Holmes shouldn't be retired just yet.

 

I have a feeling (could be wrong - not 100% about the timelines) that both songs reference his relationship with Judy Collins, which may have been in full swing when he wrote Questions but was long done by the time they recorded Carry On. Still was burned by the end of the relationship (Collins ended it), so Carry On documents his 'recovery' by prefacing the 'old' song with a 'new' song about...carrying on.

Just a (rather lame) theory, but it could mean something....

 

I like it!

 

You can't plagiarize yourself, can you?

 

It was clearly a suite though of 2 different songs

 

Good point. Maybe Nash wants us to believe that without him = no Carry On...

 

Now 'Carry On' is two songs in one? Give me a break.

 

Considering the song appeared on an album named Deja Vu (or as the French say, "already seen"), it seems entirely appropriate...

 

I don't know whether the decision to start calling the track "Carry On/Questions" came from Stills or the publishers. I think on copies of "Deja Vu" it is still the old way but when it appears on compilations both parts are named.

 

Ask John Fogerty; he was sued for it...