Ranking CSN&Y by order of significance

David Crosby never wrote or co-wrote a hit, while the other three have their writing credits on hits for Buffalo Springfield, Hollies, CSN(&Y) and solo. He is still my favorite of the four.

 

In the context of the band CSN&Y, Stills. Neil only brought his B-game to the band and disrupted everything.

 

Never Co-wrote a hit?:

 

Which I acknowledged by saying he got 2nd for the work without the other three. If I were to list my top ten CSN/Y songs, none would be by Young. If I were to list my top 20, Ohio would.

 

It would be accurate to say he never sang lead on a top ten single.

 

And since Miles Davis covered "Guinnevere", that counts as 15 "hits" in my book...

 

Yes, I forgot that David is a co-writer for Eight Miles High; it is mainly a Gene Clark song finished by Roger McGuinn with some input by David Crosby.

 

If we're talking significance in the universe of rock music, I’d go with Neil Young, but if were talking significance in my personal universe, I play no other CSNY related solo album more than this one...

 

Fascinating discussion, which I initially tried to frame in a positive light in order to avoid the "Crosby sucks" or "Stills sucks" kind of banter. If nothing else, what's been said here so far will get me to listen to a little more late-period Crosby.

I have not yet heard anybody comment on Stills' work with Manassas, which to my mind is the best work of his career, even beyond that with CSN&Y.

 

Croon
Several
Notes
Yourself!

 

That's exactly where I am on this. I'm torn between Stills and Crosby.

 

Manassas is great, but to me his greatest work is the CSN debut, Carry On and Love The One You're With.

 

Not specifically to be a contrarian, but I disagree with the premise.

I view Neil Young as an appendage to CSN. I know they released albums and toured as CSNY, but as I review the nearly 50 year career of the four guys, I see CSN and Neil Young as mostly and usually separate. I would not be any more likely to compare Neil Young to ELP than to CSN.

CSN and their work as solo artists followed a fairly typical trajectory in my opinion. Their best work was done in their 20s to early 30s. Then the inspiration waned, they accumulated families, drug addictions, or both and gradually lost the initial spark. That isn't to say they didn't do a lot of great stuff after 1977. They did, but there is less of it, and generally diminishing returns. However, Crosby seems to be having a fascinating late career renaissance. And Nash just put out a good solo albums. And Stills has done some cool stuff with the Rides. It's just not possible to compare this work to the 67-77 years, even if the occasional song does rise to the quality of those earlier years.

Neil is an entirely different thing. He is a rarity among his peers. He keeps having peaks and valleys. He continues to find new inspiration and motivation to work that is almost incomparable with others. While the past several years have been a little weird, Neil still seems to be very much in the game, and engaged with an active creative career.

 

I'm embarrassed to say I had not known about Manassas. I just gave a listen on youtube. Very impressive. How could this have slipped through the cracks in my world.

 

Neil's a titan.

Below him, Stephen Stills was great in Buffalo Springfield, but I find his output after that massively disappointing. But before Neil joined, he was easily the strongest member of CS&N, providing nearly all of the music and contributing the best songs written within the group. I love the Byrds, one of my favorite American bands of all-time and Crosby had a big role in that band over the course of five great albums (though he's responsible for their worst track, "Mind Gardens," and maybe a few other duds as well). But I'm really not a fan of his work after the Byrds. Nash is okay, I find quite a few hits by the Hollies (with Nash) enjoyable, but I'm not really a huge fan and his popular hits with CSN(&Y) feel incredibly slight.

 

I'd forgotten about Manassas, as well. The wiki page has some interesting info I've never seen before, along with this tantalizing quote: "Manassas is best remembered for their first album. Regarding their first album Manassas, Criteria Studios engineer Howard Albert has said “Manassas was one of the greatest and the most underrated bands of the seventies. That double album, along with Eric Clapton’s Layla – which me and [Ron Albert] both worked on – stand as the most important and best albums we’ve ever been a part of.” Of the band’s prowess on stage, Stephen Stills has said “Manassas was such a terrific band. It really had some structure and reminded me of [Stills’ previous band] the Buffalo Springfield at its best. Manassas could play anything.”

 

Stills
Young
Crosby / Nash

 

Finally, thank you! Young is an unmitigated genius, and Stills an incredibly talented musician who wrote and performed several all-time classics and produced most of the couch album on which the CSN reputation largely rests. Crosby and Nash are both good composers and lovely singers, but they rose to fame beside others (McGuinn and Clarke). None of this delineation, however, considers the alchemy of the blend that made the outfit timeless in the grand scheme.

 

Guitar work-Stills
Songwriting-Nash
Harmony/Vocals -Crosby
Combination of the above-Neil

But to answer the OP...

Stills, Nash, Crosby, Young (in the context of CSNY)

 

In more ways than one...

 

Young,
Stills,
Crosby and
Nash.

 

I see it this way
In Context of the CSNY band:
1-Stills (it was ‘his’ band)
2-Young(Ohio alone!)
3-Nash (had the most accessible moments with our house, teach your children, marrakesh express, which brought folks in, was often a good interview as well)
4-Crosby (his harmonies were great, Guinevere is amazing but he wasn’t as responsible for the peaks as 1/2nor did he have the poppy bits that brought you back to adj to the substance of the others).

In context of their careers
1. Neil Young by miles
2. David Crosby slightly over Stills due to his envelope pushing Byrds days, first solo album and extra points for amazing harmonies on Blows Against the Empire’s ‘A Child is Coming” one of my favorite-sung tunes ever with Crosby and Slick going off in the background
3. Stephen Stills. At his peak he’s my favorite but he had a lot of valleys and wasn’t as innovative as the first 2 (Best guitarist though . Manassas is one of the all time great albums
4. Graham Nash. I like his domesticality more as I’ve gotten older but he’s clearly 4th...

 

Young by a wide margin. Followed by Stills. Crosby / Nash can be tied for insignificance.

I'd be very curious how much of that song Croz actually wrote.

 

The vocal harmonies really drew me into their music, so I always strongly appreciated Nash's contribution as the high harmonist. He'd probably rank lowest of the four in terms of overall significance, but he's still my current favourite, so here's my somewhat unusual order of preference:

Nash - Crosby - Young - Stills

 

I think it’s the line “rain gray town/known for its sound” only.

In terms of CSNY contributions, it’s SNCY, with Stills and Nash providing the hits. In overall career it’s YCSN, with Crosby overtaking Stills with his recent renaissance.