![\"Neil](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Neil-Young-Stephen-Stills-Split-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Tidal \/ Atlantic Records)<\/p>\n
Wed 20 August 2025 20:30, UK <\/p>\n
Some of the best songs of all time usually sound better in the artist<\/a>\u2019s head than what they ended up with on a record. <\/p>\n Although John Lennon loved a song like \u2018Strawberry Fields Forever\u2019, it paled in comparison to his initial vision for it, and even when Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young got together, Neil Young felt their masterpieces had to be compromised a little too much.<\/p>\n But given how well they worked together in their earliest years, it was bound to be difficult to screw up what they were doing half the time. The power trio\u2019s fantastic use of vocal harmony was what made them one notch above everybody else in California at the time, and even when they recruited Young to join the group, all he did was give them a little bit more edge than they had before.<\/p>\n After all, look at the transition between their first album to Deja Vu. Nothing really changed in terms of quality, but outside of the acoustic-based tracks like \u2018Marrakesh Express\u2019, Young brought that rustic feel to many of their tunes, whether that was picking up his acoustic on the track \u2018Helpless\u2019 or eventually turning in one of the greatest songs they would ever write when putting out the protest song \u2018Ohio\u2019.<\/p>\n Young may have been the muscle of the group in many respects, but Stephen Stills was the real secret weapon half the time. He had already been one of the cornerstone pieces of Buffalo Springfield, but hearing him play nearly anything with strings on it and working out nearly every piece of the band\u2019s debut made him a key part of their sound for their sound. So when they finally decided to pick up the electric guitars, he made their cover of Joni Mitchell\u2019s masterpiece<\/a> sound a lot more forceful.<\/p>\n Mitchell\u2019s original vision is already one of the most beautiful songs of the \u2018Summer of Love\u2019, but hearing Stills\u2019s take on the tune feels like it should have been impossible. The whole thing is meant to be this plaintive song about kids trying to find their own way towards musical utopia, but the guitar fills Stills plays in between everything took the skeleton of the song and made it sound more earthy by comparison.<\/p>\n