(Credits: Far Out / Glenn Francis)
Wed 7 January 2026 20:30, UK
A lot of what David Crosby wrote during his prime almost seemed to be second nature to him.
He had years of rock and roll practice when working with The Byrds, so when he began working with Crosby, Stills, and Nash and eventually started his solo career, he wanted to venture into other areas that didn’t have to fit into rock and roll. Something more could be done with the medium if they had the right idea, but the best tunes are usually the ones that are driven out of the musicians rather than the ones they have to think about.
And when looking at Crosby’s track record, a lot of his best moments tend to come from when he is working with a song that comes from the heart. ‘Almost Cut My Hair’ isn’t necessarily one of the most complex works of musical art by any stretch, but the reason why it works is because of how well he sells it. If you look at his ear for harmony singing, though, that was always where he truly excelled in the supergroup.
The arrangement of those voices were so seamless that it was hard to even make out who was singing what, and while that made for a great sound on the debut record, there were bound to be a few raised eyebrows when Neil Young was asked to join. After all, it’s not like Young was out there to win contests as a world-class singer, and even if he did bring an edge to the group, how the hell was anyone supposed to go from the sweet sounds of ‘Marrakesh Express’ to listening to Young’s more pointed material?
It was a fair problem to have, but Crosby, Stills, and Nash were already evolving. The whole point of their debut was to break free from their previous groups in a way, so when Young came in, it was like adding another musical flavour to their sound. Young clearly knew how to accommodate himself to the band when making tunes like ‘Helpless’, but the real classics came when they started looking at the world around them.
Every member of the band was attuned to what was going on with the hippie movement, but once the Kent State shootings happened, they were absolutely devastated. Here were people that most hippies would have called friends they hadn’t met yet, and despite having every right to protest, seeing law enforcement gun them down in cold blood for speaking their minds was a look at the ugliest sides of American culture.
So when Young came to the band with the ‘Ohio’, Crosby didn’t think about whether or not they should record it. It was their duty, and he told his manager the same thing when he questioned them, saying, “He said, ‘What are you tryin’ to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, actually, if you really want to know, I’m not really trying to do anything. But I think we’re gonna help tear it apart a little bit.’ And he got really scared. It isn’t as if I don’t dig civilization, I do, and I don’t want to blow it. But I do want to blow this political system.”
If you look at what the song’s about, though, there was nothing to be afraid of. All the band was doing was observing the problems that happened on that horrible day in Ohio and having the audience try and make sense of whatever they had just seen. People could have called it propaganda all they wanted to, but everyone in the band knew that there was no shame in telling the truth in song.
Because even if they kept on making lighter songs throughout their career, they were never going to stay away when ugliness came into the world. They weren’t in the business to ignore issues, and they were bound to do everything they could to make sure that people heard their stance on the greatest problems with the world.
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