A change of tune: The Beatles song Graham Nash calls “insane”
No matter what era or clime he finds himself, Graham Nash knows his way around a song. Not only was he the driving force behind Manchester Merseybeat staples The Hollies, but after he left the band to chart his own course and found himself in California, he would throw himself right into the heart of the counterculture and become one of its most essential songwriters.
Simply put, Nash has lived a life of remarkable proportions. His story features a series of immense creative highlights, including being a member of the hippie period’s definitive act in CSNY, which had its roots in the trio of CSN. They were three songwriting masters who had all departed their previous groups for different reasons. Still, despite their recent pasts’ intricacies, the group were committed to constructing an authentic take on folk-rock and, at last, have their creative desires valued.
While Nash is a lauded singer-songwriter on his own, the highlight of his oeuvre is undoubtedly 1970’s Déjà Vu. It’s CSNY’s masterpiece and a flawless convergence of four of the era’s finest musical minds. Featuring songs such as ‘Woodstock’ – a cover of Nash’s ex-partner Joni Mitchell – ‘Teach Your Children’ and ‘Our House’, the latter two of his original compositions, it captured the essence of a period amid a metamorphosis. The times eventually morphed into something much bleaker than the reality subscribers to the counterculture had envisioned when it coalesced only three years prior.
Nash developed immensely as a musician after he left The Hollies in 1968. While much of this can be attributed to his burning desire to bring his creative vision to life outside of the confines of his old group, part of it was due to the spirit of the times. Creativity was at a fever pitch in the UK and the US, with innovation all around. Music was an area that developed beyond recognition during those consequential ten years.
The most significant act of the decade was The Beatles, and naturally, the eye-watering extent of their innovations in the second half of their career impacted him. This is ironic given that Nash had already been mired in a feud with the group after The Hollies released a cover of George Harrison’s ‘If I Needed Someone’ from Rubber Soul on the same day as their Liverpudlian peers. This rightfully angered the typically calm Beatles guitarist, who called it “rubbish” in the press only days later, saying they’d “spoilt it”.
Only a week after Harrison’s furious comments were published, Nash hit back. He told the same publication that had interviewed ‘The Quiet One’ that he was “sick and tired” of everything The Beatles did as being taken as gospel. This is interesting as, years later, Nash became highly enthusiastic about the era’s foremost tastemakers. This shift was likely influenced by hindsight and the intellectual maturity of ageing.
He’s even revealed that the psychedelic masterwork ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, from the Rubber Soul follow-up Revolver, greatly inspired his approach to songwriting. This was the moment that saw the Fab Four weaponise the studio as an instrument for the first time and really push boundaries lyrically, musically and with their recording techniques.
When speaking to Rolling Stone in 2018 to list five songs that influenced his development as a songwriter, Nash listed the consequential closing track of Revolver as one of them. He described ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ as “insane” before outlining how it opened up the doors of possibility for him and his generation of songwriters.
Nash explained: “What an insane sound. What brilliance. You gotta understand that nowadays you can have a thousand tracks on your phone. Back then, however, there was only 4-track machines and maybe 8-track machines. To hear that song as a musician, it opened a giant door. I was like, ‘Wow, you can do anything! You don’t have to stick to a certain regiment of how to write and record songs. You can go anywhere you want. Look what they’re doing then, backwards tapes and seagulls. It sounds like flocks of birds flying all over the place, fantastic. That’s great!’
It’s an ironic point, but there may not have been any CSNY as we know and love them without the work of The Beatles. Ultimately, even one of their most ardent critics could not deny the power of their work.