I mean, I know The Hollies and the Springfield were good harmony bands, but this was very different.'īy the mid-'70s, the band had imploded, and for a while at least, only Crosby and Nash were still working together. But that sound that Crosby, Stills & Nash created in Joni's living room was amazing to me and David and Stephen. We double-tracked our voices occasionally. And of course once it got to the tape machine, you do what you do with it. So we knew how to balance our voices before it ever got to the tape machine. Of CSN's singular vocal harmony sound, Nash says, 'We wanted to make our three voices sound like one. That's what Ahmet Ertegun brought to the picture, because he allowed us to do that.' Get out of our way and just let us do it. Because obviously we'd sold a lot of records between The Byrds and the Springfield and The Hollies. 'We kept people out, no musician's union people came, nobody from the record company came, apart from Ahmet Ertegun. 'We knew what we were doing,' allows Nash. 'We brought it down to Heider's and we recorded that first record on 8 track.' Nash recalls the studio's vintage gear being a key component of the sound, including a Neve board and Neumann U 87 microphones.Ĭrosby, Stills & Nash - 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes'įor all of Halverson's expertise, though, it was CSN's firm artistic vision that really defined the sound of classic self-produced records like 1969's Crosby, Stills & Nash and 1970's Déjà Vu, which added Neil Young to the artistic equation. 'We had done some work with a Studer 8 track at Stephen's house,' remembers Nash. Nash describes Heider's Hollywood spot as 'a very simple room… maybe 22' X 30' with a control room at one end.' That room was modeled after the legendary United Western Recorders, which was the creation of Heider's mentor, the 'father of modern recording,' Bill Putnam. They began work on their 1969 debut album in Studio III at the Hollywood location. The now-famous studios provided just the right environment for CSN to capture their trendsetting folk-rock sound. and San Francisco locations were the headquarters for Nash and his cohorts in those days. On the bulk of those early tracks, location was key. 'I've been the archivist for the band for many years, and I knew exactly where they are.' 'To make it different I wanted to put on the demos,' Nash explains. I've always wanted the best, I've always wanted to get the job done.' Part of the appeal of the two-disc collection is hearing how the job was done, following some of the songs in their evolution from foal to sure-footed stallion stage. 'I haven't changed much in my life,' says Nash, assessing the time passed.

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