Last night, accompanied by the love of my life, I went to our gorgeous Morris Civic Auditorium to see Crosby, Stills and Nash perform. It seems important to express our gratitude to those who donated funds and those who did the hard work of restoring this wonderful venue. At one point, Graham Nash told us that it was a privilege for them to perform in such a wonderful place.
But, of course, the privilege was mostly ours.
It seemed to me, by the tenor of the first set, that one reason that these guys who couldn't possible need to tour, are on the road to - at least in part - give energy to folks who aren't fans of war and injustice. If I'm right about that, it sure worked at The Morris. There was an abundance of energy on the stage and in the seats.
If I were a better reporter, I could fill you in on the very talented backing performers. I do know the bassist hails from our little town. He got quite a cheer. One of the keyboard players was James Raymond - son of David Crosby. A son David didn't know existed until a few years ago.
Back around the turn of the century, there was a little-publicized event at a club (then) called Heartland featuring a group called CPR (Crosby, Pevar and Raymond). The brief article in The Trib mentioned that David Crosby had recently discovered James' existence and that they had formed a band along with Jeff Pevar (who had played lead guitar with CSN in the past).
If you haven't been there, it's a very small place. You sat on stackable chairs and it was pretty informal. I don't think I was alone in wondering what to expect.
Suddenly, they strode out, waved briefly and a launched into an amazing, high energy version of "Eight Miles High".
Andrew Hughes, reviewing the show for The Trib, started his assessment with "I have to warn you, this is going to be a gush".
By the time they were into their second number, people weren't just on their feet. They were on their feet standing on their chairs. Not long after, David Crosby stepped back, his face a bit flushed, said "You people are flat, fucking, wonderful".
Back at you, guy. It was the best show I'm likely to ever experience.
But, this one was real good, too.
People who sing, even just a little, realize how hard it is to sing close harmony (CSN's hallmark) cleanly. If you don't sing, just take your appreciation of these guys up 50%.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who came back after the show to look over my collection of their work. One number they didn't do also seems appropriate in our current situation. The song I'm thinking of came from the American Dream CD of 1988 which included Neil Young. This was, in fact, Neil's song.
You have people near you right now going through something like this. If you can listen to this and keep your eyes dry - you're stronger than I am.
Midnight...that old clock keeps ticking
The kids are all asleep - and I'm walking the floor
Darling, I can see that you're dreaming
And I don't want to wake you up
When I close the door
This old house of ours was built on dreams
And a businessman don't know what that means
There's a garden outside she works in every day
And tomorrow morning a man from the bank's gonna come and take it all away
Lately, I've been thinking about Daddy
And how he always made things work
When the chips were down
And I know I got something inside me
There's always a light there to guide me
To what can't be found
This old house of ours is build on dreams
And a businessman don't know what that means
There's swing outside the kids play on every day
And tomorrow morning a man from the bank's gonna come and take it all away
Take it all away...take it all away...take it all away...
Remember, how we first came here together?
Standing on an empty lot - holding hands
Later, we came back in the moonlight
And made love right where the kitchen is
And we made our plans
This old house of ours is built on dreams
And a businessman don't know what that means
There's a garden outside she works in every day
But tomorrow morning a man from the bank's gonna come and take it all away.
Take it all away...take it all away...
Take it all away.
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