Tim Morse Classic Rock Stories

Tim Morse: Classic Rock Stories: “The 25 Classic Rock Albums of All Time”

While the focus of the book Classic Rock Stories: The Stories Behind the Greatest Songs of All Time is more on songs, author Tim Morse also includes a section on the 25 classic rock albums of all time. Check out other best-of album lists by individuals/critics here. 1. The Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) 2. Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon (1973) 3. The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed (1969) 4. The Jimi Hendrix Experience Are You Experienced? (1967) 5. The Who Who’s Next (1971) 6. Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV (1971) 7. Fleetwood Mac Rumours (1977) 8. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Déjà Vu (1970) 9. Eagles Hotel California (1976) 10. The Doors The Doors (1967) 11. Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) 12. Steely Dan Pretzel Logic (1974) 13. The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed (1967) 14. Jethro Tull Aqualung (1971) 15. David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972) 16. Cream: Disraeli Gears (1967) 17. Peter Frampton Frampton Comes Alive! (live, recorded 1975, released 1976) 18. Lynyrd Skynyrd Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd (1973) 19. Boston Boston (1976) 20. Yes Fragile (1971) 21. Aerosmith Toys in the Attic (1975) 22. The Byrds Greatest Hits (compilation: 1965-67, released 1967) 23. Queen A Night at the Opera (1975) 24. AC/DC Back in Black (1980) 25. Deep Purple Machine Head (1972) Resources and Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: Best-of Album Lists by Individuals/Critics Tim Morse (7/15/1998). Classic Rock Stories: The Stories Behind the Greatest Songs of All Time. St. Martin’s Griffin: New York. Pages 181-195. First posted 6/10/2024

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young charted with “Our House”

Our House Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Writer(s): Graham Nash (see lyrics here) Released: September 1970 First Charted: September 19, 1970 Peak: 30 BB, 20 CB, 32 GR, 20 HR, 20 AC, 9 CL, 13 CN, 51 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.2 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 17.21 video, 160.07 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Rewind to 1968. Graham Nash was still a member of the British rock group the Hollies. Canadian singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell had released one album, which was produced by David Crosby, one of the original members of the Byrds. While the Hollies were on tour in Canada, Nash and Mitchell spotted each other at a radio station party and she asked the band’s manager to introduce them. SJ By year’s end, the two were living together in her home in Laurel Canyon. Laurel Canyon is an area of Los Angeles that became celebrated in the mid’-60s through the mid-‘70s for its music and counterculture scene. Mitchell’s home arguably became Laurel Canyon’s epicenter. She said it was “a little house, kind of like a treehouse…It was a charmed little place…It had a kind of soulfulness…[It] was hippie heaven.” SJ Nash would also leave the Hollies and form a supergroup with Crosby and Stephen Stills, formerly of Buffalo Springfield. One of the trio’s first gigs was a performance at the now-legendary Woodstock festival in 1969. They also released a self-titled album that year that went top-ten and achieved multi-platinum status. Their next outing was even bigger. 1970’s Déjà Vu saw Neil Young, Stills’ former bandmate in Buffalo Springfield, join the fold. The quartet produced an album’s worth of folk-rock gems, including “Our House,” which was Nash’s “ode to countercultural domestic bliss,” WK inspired by what he called “an ordinary moment.” WK They went to breakfast on Ventura Boulevard and bought a vase in an antique store afterward. He said it “was a very grey, kind of sleetly, drizzly L.A. morning” WK and when they got home he lit a fire in the fireplace while she got some flowers for the vase. He sat down at her piano and, an hour later, had written “Our House.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Crosby, Stills & Nash DMDB encyclopedia entry for Neil Young SJ Bob Shannon and John Javna (1986). Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll. Warner Books, Inc.: New York, NY. Page 154. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 4/25/2024.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young “Ohio” charted

Ohio Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Writer(s): Neil Young (see lyrics here) First Charted: June 20, 1970 Peak: 14 US, 14 CB, 25 GR, 13 HR, 2 CL, 16 CN, 44 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 24.25 video, 95.90 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Crosby, Stills & Nash arguably became the biggest supergroup of all time when they formed in 1968. David Crosby had been in the Byrds, Stephen Stills in Buffalo Springfield, and Graham Nash in the Hollies. The folk-rock trio released its self-titled debut album the next year and performed at Woodstock in August 1969. It would be seemingly impossible for the group to get any bigger, but in 1970 they added Neil Young to the mix. He had worked with Stills in Buffalo Springfield before launching a solo career. The quartet released the chart-topping, multi-million-selling Déjà Vu that year. Four singles were released to support the album, but right in the middle of them the foursome released the non-album cut “Ohio.” The song was in response to an incident at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Four students were shot and killed by National Guardsmen at an anti-Vietnam war demonstration on the Ohio college campus. The “tragedy galvanized anti-war sentiment nationwide, and deepened the country’s cultural divide.” SS The May 15 issue of Life magazine featured a photo of “a distraught girl kneeling beside Jeffrey Miller’s lifeless body.” SS Four days later, Young penned a “stinging denouncement” HL of the incident in just fifteen minutes. SS “The outrage remains as immediate today ias it ever was.” DT “There are few more stirring moments in their (or any other contemporary) catalog than this.” DT The song was rush-released, hitting stores just over a month after the incident. In spite of an airplay ban and vice-president Spiro Agnew’s declaration that the song – and rock music in general – was “anti-U.S.” HL the song reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Young deemed it his best work with Crosby, Stills & Nash. HL Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young HL Michael Heatley and Spencer Leigh (1998). Behind the Song: The Stories of 100 Great Pop & Rock Classics. Blandford Books: London, UK. Page 131. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 490. DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 69. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 4/12/2023; last updated 4/28/2024.

“Teach Your Children” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young charted

Teach Your Children Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Writer(s): Graham Nash (see lyrics here) Released: May 1970 First Charted: June 5, 1970 Peak: 16 US, 16 CB, 13 GR, 16 HR, 26 AC, 4 CL, 8 CN, 11 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 25.8 video, 84.6 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are arguably the biggest supergroup of all time. Each member is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. Their collective effort was recognized as were their previous groups. David Crosby had been with the Byrds, Stephen Stills & Neil Young with Buffalo Springfield, and Graham Nash with the Hollies. It was a song written by Nash while with the Hollies that became one of CSNY’s most beloved songs. In 1968, he penned “Teach Your Children” but the Hollies didn’t record the song until 1983. Crosby, Stills & Nash initially recorded it in 1969 for their debut album, but then held it over until their second album, Déjà Vu, WKSF Nash said it “started out as a slightly funk English folk song but Stephen put a country beat to it and turned it into a hit record.” SF It also featured the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia is featured on pedal steel guitar. Those two elements helped land the song amongst Dave’s Music Database lists of the top 100 folk/folk-rock songs as well as Southern rock/country rock songs. Cash Box cited the song for its “delicately composed material” and “incredible soft harmony luster.” WK Nash wrote the song about his own difficult relationship with his father, who spent time in prison. SF However, he has also associated the song with a 1962 Diane Arbus photo of an angry child holding a toy hand grenade. It “prompted Nash to reflect on the societal implications of messages given to children about war and other issues.” WK An updated version of “Teach Your Children” with a new arrangement was used for an Apple II computer TV commercial in 1985 “to show how to prepare your kids for the modern world.” SF Crosby, Stills & Nash re-recorded the song in 1994 with country artists Suzy Bogguss, Alison Krauss, and Kathy Mattea to benefit AIDS awareness. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Crosby, Stills & Nash DMDB encyclopedia entry for Neil Young SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 3/14/2023; last updated 4/26/2024.