Peter Doggett has been writing about rock music and interviewing rock stars for more than thirty years. He is the author of several books, including CSNY, You Never Give Me Your Money, and Electric Shock. He lives in London. Find out more at PeterDoggett.org.
"An enthusiastic history of one of rock music’s most significant
supergroups. Rock journalist Doggett (Electric Shock: From the
Gramophone to the iPhone: 125 Years of Pop Music, 2015, etc.)
traces his protagonists from their origins through their early
success in the Byrds (David Crosby), the Hollies (Graham Nash), and
Buffalo Springfield (Stephen Stills and Neil Young). As the author
shows, the Los Angeles rock scene of the late 1960s was a meeting
place for nearly everyone who came to prominence in folk or rock.
Prime among them was Crosby, who strutted around in a cape and
whose counterculture credentials included introducing the Beatles
to LSD. After one night at a popular music venue, Crosby, Stills,
and Nash came together for a stoned singing party that gave birth
to a new sound. With the addition of Young and the band’s
appearance at Woodstock, the legend was underway as well as the
melodrama of fights, breakups, reunions, and excess. Doggett
frankly admits that he is a fan of the group, and he traces the
band’s career from concert to concert, recording session to
recording session. In addition to providing the stories behind the
better-known songs, the author spends plenty of time on their lives
offstage, including their liaisons with the likes of Joni Mitchell
and Judy Collins. Throughout, Doggett does a solid job
differentiating among the four members of the group, each an
interesting, if not necessarily likable, personality. Young gets
most of the blame for the group’s breakups, though with four
enormous egos, everyone receives a due share. The author backs it
all up with voluminous documentation, including interviews with all
the participants and ample quotations from contemporary reviews of
almost every record and concert, including the members’ solo
projects. The narrative is eminently readable, with few dull
passages, even when the protagonists are sulking during one of the
band’s numerous fights. A must for CSNY fans and anyone who
remembers the era when it ruled the pop
charts."
—Starred Kirkus Review
"Plenty of nuggets for the diehard fan...a more than welcome
addition to the band’s bookshelf."
*Houston Press*
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