Can't believe I almost passed on this. I firmly believed my BG Classic vinyl was all I needed to keep me happy. So far I've played the cB vinyl, read Cameron's essay and enjoyed the photos in the booklet. Now listening to the first CD while trying to stay physically cool on this very hot day. My earliest memories of owning this was a cassette from some record club I had joined back in '72. After that, vinyl ( I think ), then the CD, then the Classic vinyl, and now this set.
Feeling similarly, I sat on this till last week, arrived a few days ago, and I don't know what I was thinking to hesitate. Have to say, much as I've loathed the no-choice CD/LP combos, this one sure is a beautiful marriage if ever there was one. Having this cover in its full-size tactile splendor, and the original album on vinyl, just feels right. Even having bought the package for the bonus CDs. Any chance Stills' alternate Woodstock vocal is the "superior" one Young said Stills erased? The others' vocals aren't the same, either, so it's not a straight (Stills-centric) comparison to the album version. Which wins here, but still cool to hear the alternate.
Okay. Received confirmation from Rhino, my scratched album LP will be replaced (relieved/grateful). I've only played it the once and was basically pissed of the whole time because of the ridiculously loud clicking running through it, lol, so I'll reserve judgement re Bellman's work till I've got a decent copy and can CRANK it. That said, I've got more than enough to contend with listening to the other LPs. I wasn't impressed when I first heard how the set was made available (no single album LP on offer was especially annoying) and the price tag for the LP box made me roll my eyes and swear out loud. I was just going to bite down and wait for the single album to appear, presumably toward the end of the year. But - yeeeah - streaming the material in the interim soon made me realise how special a collection of music this is. Having spent now the best part of 2 weeks with the demos, outtakes and alternates on vinyl, I can say to those wondering: the set is fantastic, Bellman has worked his magic, and its worth the price of admission. Let's be honest, a lot of the time, demos can be pretty bloody boring or inferior - the sort of stuff you listen to once or twice and... forget about. Not so here. I'd never heard any of these before. I straight up prefer Our House in this form; every single one of the Crosby demos are revelatory; Horses Thorough The Rainstorm has made me reevaluate my Graham Nash stock options. The alternates disc was the one I was least enthusiastic about but has essentially become a stand-in while I wait for my replacement album LP - I'm glad I've been forced to spend time with it. All these versions have something cool about them and the epic version of Almost Cut My Hair is a face-melter, it justifies the whole disc. Love it. The real juice though are the outtakes - my fave disc. Again, never heard any of this stuff before. The Lee Shore - I struggle but—yeah OK fine—can sort of see how it didn't make the album proper (would have disrupted the flow right?) but, my god, how the hell didn't it end up on IICORMN? Or another official 70s Crosby album? Its a ridiculously beautiful piece of music. But biggest epiphany comes by way of the Stills contributions. Many of you are ahead of me on this front: I have totally been underrating/writing him off for years. This collection makes absolutely clear the man was on fire in 1969. He had so many tunes at this point and his singing/playing is so good, before affectation/overplaying/lazy habits crept in. You get the sense too that these versions aren't quite complete, which benefits his stuff immensely - Bluebird Revisited is a perfect case in point. I actually do dig the version on SS2 but this one is way, waaaaaaay better. The unfinished vibe and his wounded singing, particularly during the intro, is just stunning. I've found it hard to take the guy seriously - the crazy, competitive ego; the coke bloat 70s rock persona - but the guy was a serious artist. Realising this is probably the coolest thing of all about the box, setting me on a path of exploring all of his 70s stuff (Manassas? Oh mama). I've rabbited on but - short version - the set is incredible. Would I have liked more Neil Young? Absolutely. Would it have been better including track details? No doubt. But: is this thing amazing? Yes. Yes it is.
Listening to the demos on Spotify made me shell out for the vinyl box. I had heard a few of them before on other releases, but having them all in one place on vinyl is what drew me in. The demo of “Our House” that leads off the demos really is special. The alternate “Almost Cut My Hair” is, as you note, also super cool. I’ve long thought Stills was on fire from the first Buffalo Springfield album through the first Manassas album. From 1966 to 1972, he was as good as anyone. His contributions to the first Crosby, Stills, and Nash album in 1969 are as good as anything anyone ever did in the 60s. That Stills kind of faded away after the 1974 tour, while Neil enjoyed second, third, and fourth acts and reinventions, has caused many people to write off what Stills did accomplish when he still had it going on. It is what it is. Stills can be our little secret.
i went ahead and ordered the vinyl box from rhino. FYI if you sign up for a new account/mailing list they'll send you a 10% off coupon. really can't wait for this one. thanks to all the enablers and folks who've shared photos and reviews of it.
100% - spot on man. Silly but true admission: Jimmy McDonough's Shakey influenced how I considered Stills. I love (love) that book. Its completely responsible for accelerating my Neil Young worship and I return to it frequently - such a source... But boy oh boy, McDonough diminishes Stills! To the point that I actually think its a flaw. I recently finished the Browne CSNY book which was instructive, I got a much more balanced take on the 4 of them, particularly Stills and Neil. In Shakey, there's this sort of cavalier framing of Neil's behaviour—McDonough more or less celebrates his brutal decision making during the 70s vis-a-vis CSN—while snickering at Stills (who, lets be honest, did himself no favours). Reading Browne, who clearly marks out the impacts of Neil's leveraging the group's popularity when advantageous then deserting them at a the drop of the hat, I found myself sympathising with the others, particularly Stills. I'll always be a Neil guy but - what a bastard!
I’ve said it before, but, to me, in the beginning, all four guys were equals. All of them, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Obviously Neil came back all the way in the 90s and others didn’t, but in the early 70s, they were all great.
For those who purchased the CSNY 5lps deluxe set from Rhino, how was the packaging, was the actual(dark brown)set came inside another box, that box was in a larger box? I purchased the 4cds/1lp set from CSNY site, and the brown box was inserted into lp cardboard shipper liner. Luckily it wasn't crushed or damaged, no protection what so over. I'm thinking about ordering since I didnt purchased the CSNY 1974 superdeluxe edition, $499. I like the reviews I've read on here.
That's too bad. I just received my copy yesterday, along with a 6 album box of Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival from get_importcds and they arrived in a state-of-the-art box I had received from them once before. When you open the outer box, an inner box is revealed with a tongue-in-groove flap and deep well the records are placed in.
Let’s just say Stills was the Paul McCartney of the group, making everyone else’s songs better than what was brought in original form
For sure he was the most talented musician of the bunch, but he couldn’t control himself. The 49 bye byes/America’s children track on 4 way street is a perfect example of Stills going off the rails. I cringe when hearing it. Imagine if he decided to sing Do For Others instead. Or Singin Call.
He is my favorite single musician of all time...I hear what you’re saying though. I think he had a lot of music in him and simply needed to purge once in a while. At least he was good at what he did.
It was always the challenge for Stills fans. This was a guy with so much talent, and he was capable of such incredible subtlety in his music. Yet inside him was this macho tendency to over do. To over sing, to over play. To take pieces like 49 Bye Byes and For What It’s Worth and turn them into THAT. He did it more often in electric sets, just totally overblown vocals. Even at Woodstock, where CSNY acquitted themselves quite well, his accompaniment to Neil in the acoustic set includes overplaying on Mr. Soul and intrusive vocals on I’m Wondering. On his second solo album it took the form of some overblown arrangements. He was so much better when he stayed within himself.
Yeah, I don’t care for the intense, loud and aggressive style he brings to songs like fwiw. I stick to the studio albums. Also can’t stand his electric guitar tones in live settings.
Actually a question for the Americans... does Stills down home accent tally with the States he grew up in? Always seemed a bit put on to me...
it sounds a bit like a texas mixed with louisiana area accent. it has nothing at all in common with a florida accent so it all depends on how long he lived in places and when he learned to talk and who was he around
Hmmm - still waiting for someone to show us both CSNY LP sets together. I don’t think i’ve seen any shots of CSNY ‘74 in the wild. It looked to be such a beautiful set, but couldn’t justify extreme price for what would be very infrequent vinyl spins. Anyone?
Thats awesome! One of my biggest musical wants is a dressed down more affordable vinyl version of that CSNY 74 set. I absolutely love the music and presentation of the CD set and it would be an incredibke set to have on vinyl but I just could never justify the price though I had my finger circling the buy it now button many times on it. Just a bare bones set with the music and a simplistic booklet on 6LPs for around $150 or so and I'd be picking it up in a heartbeat.