Crosby, Stills and Nash still ranks as one of my all time favorite acts. I’ve seen the band in numerous combinations and incarnations through the years, with and without Neil Young, and they never disappoint. Not many bands can bring the acoustic and electric music with equal beauty, precision and intensity. Stephen Stills is hardly ever mentioned when the great rock guitarists are discussed but he ranks right up there with some of the best and he is under appreciated in that regard. The harmonies of David Crosby and Graham Nash, the unparalleled songwriting, the passion for music and civil activism all make the band members a fascinating ever evolving dynamic. To this day, songs like “Almost Cut My Hair” still provide chills.

While age and wear and tear have taken a bit of a toll on the elder statesman of rock, David Crosby’s voice remains as powerful as ever- a force of nature and a true gift as he proved once again that he still has chops with his latest solo album and a tour which landed at City Winery NYC.

Back in 1977, we left ourselves plenty of time to head in to Manhattan by subway to hang out before the CSN show as part of the MSG concert experience was bound to be all of the activity outside the building and we wanted to get in early. We jumped on the #7 train in Flushing, Queens to travel to Madison Square Garden for the highly anticipated concert expecting that a big night was in store.

Unfortunately our plans got somewhat derailed as the train stopped for an extended period mid trip and we found out that someone had decided to jump in front of a subway car on the train ahead of us. A crime scene was not something we could have anticipated and as the time passed we started to wonder if an apparently troubled soul was going to keep us from ever getting to the Garden that night. Troubled, maybe, but we had to admit that the thought crossed our minds that whoever it was could have been more considerate to the traveling public when choosing THIS night to take a tragic final leap. Fortunately we had enough beer to make the delay tolerable then at some point the train lurched forward and we began to move again. It was going to be close but we were going to make it! Our catastrophe was averted and our snapshot Woodstock moment with CSN would not be lost.

No one could have known then that any band could have the staying power so that I would eventually get to see the band IN Woodstock 37 years after the Madison Square Garden show. My wife and I drove to upstate NewYork this past July 5th to see the band at Bethel Woods- a beautiful outdoor venue with covered seating and a huge general admission lawn area . An added bonus to the trip was that Bethel Woods is home to the Woodstock Museum containing interesting artifacts, a movie about the event and historical perspective of the original Woodstock music festival that is different than any other- pretty cool stuff.

My wife’s Woodstock moment has always been being stuck in the legendary New York State Thruway traffic jam with her parents and sister on the way to an upstate family vacation.

Yes, she finally got to Woodstock.

Let Your Freak a Flag Fly
And Rock On

GQ

Less than a week after the epic Led Zeppelin show at Madison Square Garden, we were off to see Lynyrd Skynyrd and Ted Nugent at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Now I only knew how to get to Jones Beach and the Roosevelt Field mall from Queens and the police on Long Island had a reputation for being tough on long haired rockers. The half hour trip to Uniondale may as well have been a cross country trek. This was not the New York City we were familiar with and there was an element of danger as we traveled eastbound through the toll booths on the Southern State Parkway where we crossed over the Nassau/Queens border toward a new rock and roll adventure.

I have no recollection of the band Rough Diamond as they opened for the co-headliners.

On its surface teaming Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Motor City Madman on the same bill seemed like on odd match but they were on the same record label and it just worked somehow.  I had spent much of the past year cranking my homemade “Free For All” cassette on my boombox and one of the best singles that I had bought growing up was “Journey to the Center of the Mind” by the Amboy Dukes featuring the blistering guitar of Ted Nugent.

The original Lynyrd Skynyrd lineup was legendary and Ronnie Van  Zant was its heart and soul. Our vantage point was high and to the left of the stage with the white piano as a visual centerpiece.  Live “Freebird” was, and is, an all time classic and the Mr. Young mention on “Sweet Home Alabama’ is one of the great retorts of all time.

Later on, Ronnie Van Zant would wear a Neil Young ‘Tonight’s the Night” T-shirt on the cover of the ‘Street Survivors” album that showed the band members enveloped by flames; an album cover that was suddenly pulled from record store shelves and repackaged without the fire after the tragic plane crash that changed the Lynyrd Skynyrd dynamic forever. 

A few weeks later following the Coliseum show as we ventured back to Queens from a Nassau County rock club, we got lost driving through Valley Stream in the western part of Nassau County not to far from home base. The same “Free For All” cassette was blasting and we were having a great time driving around surburbia at night. We were lost and checked the local street signs as we drove to try and figure out where we were. We had lost our bearings and really had no idea even which direction we were heading but found ourselves on, of all places, Nugent Street- no joke. We were actually traveling on NUGENT STREET ! This was obviously a cosmic coincidence and action needed to be taken. We parked the car underneath the street sign and I stood on the car hood. Unbelievably I could reach the top of the sign post and the whole thing was held together with one bolt that was easily unscrewed. As I had just about dismantled the street sign, an angry older man came out of his house and yelled that he was going to call the dreaded Nassau County Police regarding our metal mischief. As the well intentioned resident ran towards us, I grabbed the rectangular white street sign with black trim and Nugent Street was now in our possession. Our car careened down the otherwise quiet street with headlights off so as not to have the railing square see the license plate and get us caught; the four of us elated traveled home with Ted providing the soundtrack to the fun.

I’ve always wanted to show the Motor City Madman the street sign and tell him the story of our well intentioned thievery in the name of rock and roll. The sign is still in my attic, along with a Fallout Shelter sign from an old apartment building in Queens.

New Year’s always reminds me of the Allman Brothers Band/Molly Hatchet concert at the Nassau Coliseum that took place on 12/31/1981; my future bride and I headed back home on the Northern State Parkway after the show and we saw a tall young man wearing a cardboard Happy New Year hat happily walking on the white line in the middle of the roadway. He seemed to be quite content strolling down the road as cars whizzed passed him at 50 MPH (or more) oblivious to his precarious situation. Here’s hoping everyone had a good time and got home safe last night.

Happy New Year

and Rock On

GQ