Posted on 08/11/2004 7:39:02 PM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
A summer night of love for protest songs of the Sixties
They came from the 1960s. Most were in their sixties.
But the crowd listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash in Bethlehem, PA did cross generations, and even the youngsters were singing the tunes that gave a bittersweet taste to those years seemingly long ago.
The band, however, brought them to the stage at MusikFest's RiverPlace Tuesday night.
With a vengeance.
They opened with "Carry On," and on a sour note to boot. Oh lordy, if this was the sound they were going to offer all night long, this was also a good time for them to retire for good.
But they pulled themselves together and, despite their old men bellies -- at least on Stills and Crosby -- and despite more gravel in their throats than they had when they mesmerized the megacrowds at Woodstock in 1969, these guys hadn't lost it.
And they were, after all, playing to an adoring group of fans. Many wore CSN and CSNY T-shirts, for Crosby, Stills & and Nash, with the Y bringing up the rear with Neil Young.
Nash did most of the singing Tuesday night, but Stills and Crosby were no slouches when it came to mixing it up with a pile-on style of harmonies. It was difficult to understand how such musicianship was possible outside of a studio setting.
And Steven Stills must have done a lot of practicing in the last 35 years to be able to whale away on his guitar the way he did. No, make that at least four guitars that he used in just the first set of songs.
The "Carry-on" opener, which most folks the age of these guys would recognize immediately oozed right in to "Questions."
Both songs had more of an edge to them than when originally brought out by the group. In fact, the sweet folksiness CSN was known for had a pounding rock beat that was occasionally distracting. Good stuff, but not what it had been.
Their third song was a new one -- "MILITARY MADNESS." It was a protest song, as many of their songs were. This one stung.
IT RAILED AGAINST THE WAR IN IRAQ and its chorus went like this:
"MILITARY MADNESS IS KILLING MY COUNTRY. /Solitary sadness creeps over me."
The last chorus ended in a mantra of "NO MORE WAR! NO MORE WAR! NO MORE WAR!" ever louder; ever harsher.
You can easily tell the politics of Crosby, Stills, & Nash. Just go to their official Web site. At the bottom is a banner urging visitors to "VOTE FOR KERRY."
Crosby was the clown of the bunch. He looked out over the extensive crowd and wondered aloud, "Boy that goes back a long way. That's OK, we go back a long way, too."
Crosby sang a solo bashing Enron and corporate executives who steal from the little guy and get away with it.
"Ain't no different than taking your money with a gun," he sang.
Later he said, "In my time, I think I've (angered) every group of people in the U.S. Government, except one. Being the fair and even-handed guy I am, I thought I'd sing one for the CIA."
And he did.
They ended the first set with Steven Stills' "Love the One You're With," and drew the audience into the chorus.
It was a love fest with a group who had been at the center of the love generation.
And the music wasn't bad either. Tony Nauroth is local desk editor for The Express-Times. He can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at tnauroth@express-times.com.
Cannot say that I blame you.
I won't go looking for spoof sites.
I have a knack for getting my computer into trouble.
Landed me a new hard drive last time I wandered far from home.
LOL, Maybe Ishould shoot for a new flat screen monitor!
These guys have been waiting for 35 years for it to be 1969 again.
I have this on my homepage, Hopefully it will help
To Newbies who are not familiar with Pings and how a Ping list works here is a quick (and hopefully coherent) explanation
A Ping is a post that alerts someone to a article you think they will find interesting, By Pinging them they will get a "New Post to You" message and it will appear in their My Comments. This way they will be alerted to the article even if it is no longer on the Freerepublic screen or under the Latest Post/Articles sections. There is nothing special about a ping post, It's just a normal post with the word "PING" in it.
A Ping list is a group of Freerepublic members each of whom want to be pinged to an article when a certain subject comes up. Usually one person is in charge of the Ping list and when an article on the subject appears on Freerepublic that person will ping all the members of the ping list at the same time. You usually freepmail the person in charge of the ping list to be added. As a member of a ping list if you post an article or find an article that you think would be of interest to the people on the ping list and it is not already pinged to that ping list yet you ping the person in charge (In the case of the Xer Pinglist that would be me) and they will then ping everybody else on the list.
early 70's....Songs for Beginners
I liked that album.
I heckeled CSN a couple of years ago when they came to Texas, I paid for concert tickets, and *from the stage that I helped pay for** they began telling us that Tom Delay and the Republicans were standing in the way of campaign finance reform.
I shouted "boo" a couple of times, until they mentioned Delay. Then I shouted "Yeay!! Delay!!!"
We need to stand up, yell at these paid entertainers who dare to fail to entertain after we've paid them.
Long time.
Here it is, but be forewarned. You may need to shower after leaving their site
www.swiftboatvets.com
Watch what happens in the address bar of your browser when you hit enter.
I usually don't wish ill against the elderly, but I wish these old timers would just kick the bucket.
That's the best picture I've seen here in a long time!
Midgets and monkeys -- always good for a laugh!
"Crosby sang a solo bashing Enron and corporate executives who steal from the little guy and get away with it.
"Ain't no different than taking your money with a gun," he sang.
"
I agree that Enron sucks, but am glad I didn't drop the admission fee to hear these fat ba$tards sing it to me.
Okay, but If my computer melts again, my husband will explode!
Can I give him your phone number if something bad happens whilst I stray to the dark side?
lol
Yes, these old hippies are now suffering from "oldtimers" disease.
They stink without Young.
Still stuck in the sixties.
Call BR549
The song "Military Madness" was on a 1971 album by Graham Nash.
Minor point----but isn't this typical of journalists in general today? The writer nor editor nor anyone else bothered to vet the accuracy of the article? This is just one example of journalists' general relationship with truth?
Hey, that's not nice. You should see these guys when you can. As a buddy on mine once said, how often are these three sober, straight, and out of jail all at the same time?...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.