Electric Eden

Just finished reading Fire And Rain: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the Lost Story of 1970, by David Browne (Da Capo). It’s a very detailed account of the interlinked fortunes of these artists and groups at a transitional point in rock history (see Jon Savage’s compilation of a few years back, Meridian 70), and the author has already tackled the twin biography of Tim and Jeff Buckley and the story of Sonic Youth. Although the Beatles breakup year feels very well chronicled elsewhere, it's an engaging read, particularly for the mass of material on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – I could have happily read a whole book on these volatile personalities who managed, for a brief interlude, to make some of the most gorgeous folk-rock on earth – and let’s not forget that a good deal of it was powerful reactions to horrific political events – “Ohio”, for instance, written spontaneously two weeks after the Kent State University shootings.

I’ve reviewed the book for the next issue of Word, but meanwhile I recommend steering your wooden ship back to solo albums like Crosby’s If Only I Could Remember My Name and Stills’s first solo LP. Those, at least, are my current soundtrack to these early summer breezes.