Chapter 21: Bell Bottom Blues (September 1970 - March 1971)

September 12, 1970

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young performing at Woodstock, 1969.

By this point, the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young had already become big hit makers at Apple Records. Following the success of their self-titled debut album Crosby, Stills & Nash, as well as the singles "Marrakesh Express" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", Neil Young had joined the group for a tour beginning at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, but their real baptism by fire was performing at the Woodstock Festival.

During this tour, ending with three European concerts in January, the supergroup recorded the bulk of what became Déjà Vu, their second album released March 11, 1970, topping the charts in the United States and generating three hit singles - a cover of Joni Mithcell's "Woodstock", as well as "Teach Your Children" and "Our House".

A fourth single released during this period, "Ohio", was written and recorded as a response to the Kent State shootings on May 4, and it marked CSNY's first #1 single in the United States. "Ohio" had been recorded between the first (Denver) and second (Boston) shows during the the group's second tour in the United States, and even made its live debut during the shows. The best performances would later become immortalized as part of the live album 4 Way Street. (Bob Dylan had attended the show at the Fillmore East in Manhattan, and even met with the group backstage, saying that he liked the performance.)

The question now was, where could these four brilliant men go next?

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young rehearsing at Los Angeles, 1970.

STEPHEN STILLS: "We'd written and recorded so much material from late 1969 up to the summer of 1970 that we didn't know what to do with it. Half the time, we collaborated on songs. The other half, we were solo. We met up after the last show at Bloomington to discuss future projects." (1994)

NEIL YOUNG: "Clearly we were at a crossroad. Stephen and I each had enough material for our own albums and David and Graham were just getting started on their own projects. We had the choice to put out either a double studio album, possibly even a triple album, or put out solo albums instead. And let's not forget; the 70s were pretty much a decade of excess." (1999)

Neil Young was the first to finish up his own album, tentatively titled After the Gold Rush. Recorded mostly solo, save for vocals provided by Stephen Stills, Young had intended for the album to be released under Apple Records on September 19, but the week before the album was due for release, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were suddenly called into a meeting by Lord Beeching.

GRAHAM NASH: "Beeching had somehow heard about our intention to put out solo albums during the period and he did not agree to the idea at all. He even pointed out that we had such great potential as a group and even suggested that putting out material where at least half of us were on the same song all in one place would be a better marketing decision. 'You four as a group is far greater than the sum of you four as solo artists,' he said. We didn't agree at the time, but in retrospect, Lord Beeching did have a point. I mean, this was a guy who overhauled British Railways." (2010)

DAVID CROSBY: "As part of a compromise, any songs that were solo efforts would be put in storage for the time being, but may eventually be put out for side projects." (1988)

Neil Young, 1970.

After the Gold Rush was soon pulled from Apple's release schedule, and so the group members looked over all the material they had recorded thus far to determine what they would put out on the second (third overall) Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album.

NEIL YOUNG: "We decided it would be very democratic among us; it would be a twelve track album with four performers, each with three vocal spots. For Graham, that was no problem, and as for David and Stephen, both were quite reluctant to drop a song or two since they had five and four songs respectively. I must've had it even worse since I had a lot of songs where Stephen sang backup." (1974)

DAVID CROSBY: "After we picked out the best three of Neil's songs, that left just me and Stephen to decide what songs to drop. He eventually chose to drop 'Go Back Home' from the tracklisting whilst I ended up sacrificing 'Laughing' and 'What Are Their Names'. Fortunately, they ended up as B-sides so it wasn't a complete loss. It was another half year before something Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-related finally came out." (2004)

March 26, 1971

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Remember Our Names

Released: March 26, 1971

Recorded: 1969-1971

Producer: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Track listing[1]

Side A

Music Is Love
Love the One You're With
Better Days
Tell Me Why
Tamalpais High
I Used to Be a King

Side B
Sit Yourself Down
Traction in the Rain
Don't Let It Bring You Down
Man in the Mirror
When You Dance I Can Really Love
We Are Not Helpless

A little over a year after it was released, the followup to Déjà Vu, titled Remember Our Names, was released to positive reception. However, critics and fans were not quite as enthusiastic towards the album as they had been towards Déjà Vu, especially given that not all four of the members were in the same room together. But despite that, Remember Our Names still reached #3 in the United States and #7 in the United Kingdom. The album's singles, "Love the One You're With" (backed with "What Are Their Names"), "Tell Me Why" (backed with "Laughing"), and "Music Is Love" (backed with "Go Back Home"), were all Top 30 hits.

Although Neil Young would disparage Remember Our Names as a cynical produce in later years - though he still admitted to liking "Love the One You're With" as a personal favorite - Stephen Stills called it "good fun" (1972), and David Crosby and Graham Nash tend to speak favorably about it.

12 February 1971

Cream - Layla

Released: 12 February 1971

Recorded: 26 August - 2 October 1970

Producer: Eric Clapton and Bobby Whitlock

Track listing[2]

Side A

I Looked Away
Bell Bottom Blues
Keep on Growing
I Am Yours
Anyday

Side B
Tell the Truth
Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?
Snake Lake Blues
Layla
Thorn Tree in the Garden

While it looked as though Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were destined to continue for years to come, the same could not be said for Cream. Shortly after the release of Let It Rain, Jack Bruce had left following a dispute with Eric Clapton, leaving Cream without a bassist, once again leaving its future uncertain.

ERIC CLAPTON: "Delaney [Bramlett] had introduced me to Carl Radle whilst Cream was touring with Delaney & Bonnie, and after Jack left Cream, I called up Carl asking if he could play bass for me, Bobby [Whitlock] and Jim [Gordon], and the first thing he asked me was, 'When shall we meet up?' I took it as a yes." (2010)

The revamped lineup for Cream (with Clapton being the only remaining founding member left) was in the studio by the end of August, working on new material co-written by Clapton and Bobby Whitlock. It was musically inspired from The Band's album Music from Big Pink, which, as Clapton stated, was more concerned about songs and singing.

Pattie Boyd and Eric Clapton, 1970.

PATTIE BOYD: "We [Eric and herself] met secretly at a flat in South Kensington. Eric had asked me to come because he wanted me to listen to a new number he had written. He switched on the tape machine, turned up the volume and played me the most powerful, moving song I had ever heard. It was 'Layla'." (2007)

"Layla", soon to be the title track for Cream's sixth album, was inspired by The Story of Layla and Majnun, written by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, as well as meeting with the spouse of his close friend George Harrison, Pattie Boyd. In fact, most of the material Clapton had written for Layla was love songs dedicated to Pattie.

GEORGE HARRISON: "I was at Robert Stigwood's house asking where Pattie was, but he didn't know where she was. I was about to depart when I spotted her in the garden with Eric. I demanded to know what was going on, and the first thing Eric told me was, 'I have to tell you man, that I'm in love with your wife.' Pattie looked frightened, especially when I asked her who she was going to go home with. She went home with me, and our rocky marriage continued for another six years." (1995)

JOHN LENNON: "Ringo and I were over at George's place after filming for Willy Wonka when Old Clapper turned up drunk and challenged Georgie to a duel. Much like a gentleman of the 18th century handing a sword to his rival, he handed Eric a guitar and an amp, and the duel had begun." (1989)[3]

RINGO STARR: "George and Eric shredded the hell out of their guitars for two hours straight, showing no sign of stopping. John and I didn't do anything either; he could've dueled along with them whilst I had a drum kit to play on if the battle got intense, but we never did. I consider that a lost opportunity. If we were in George's recording studio, we could've made some damn fine music. Still, it was clear that Eric would win the duel despite being drunk. Pattie told us that his guitar-playing was just unbeatable." (2013)

The lineup for Cream, 1970.

Love rivalries and drunken antics aside, Layla was originally planned to be released in November of 1970, but it was pushed back to avoid competing with Badfinger's No Dice. Still, "Bell Bottom Blues" had been released as a single with an edited version of "Tell the Truth" as its B-side. The title track was made a single two months after that, also edited down to three minutes.

Layla reached #2 in the United States, being kept off of the top spot by the Ladders' Shine On, and topped out at #7 in the United Kingdom. The title track reached #6 and #11 on both sides, respectively. Despite the commercial success, critics dismissed the album, with some regarding the love songs as little more than fluff and even criticizing the lengthy songs as boring. There were some critics, however, like Robert Christgau of The Village Voice singing praises for Layla.

As years went by, Layla has been acclaimed by fans and critics alike as Cream's greatest overall album, and when it came to choosing favorite songs by the band, the title track would usually come out on top, though some tracks like "Badge" and "Let It Rain" do come close to matching it. Some even compared the album to the Beach Boys' Smile as being great pieces of music being made under the most stressful circumstances.

Footnotes

1. Tracks are sourced from David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name, Stephen Stills' 1970 self-titled album, Graham Nash's Songs for Beginners, and Neil Young's After the Gold Rush. Between the members, Crosby and Young each appear in seven songs, Stills appears in six songs and Nash appears in nine songs.
2. All tracks are sourced from OTL's Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, excluding "Snake Lake Blues", released on the Eric Clapton compilation Crossroads.
3. John and Ringo were never at Friar Park when George and Eric had their famous guitar duel.

Author's Comments

So here we go; the first chapter (and 21st overall) of Strawberry Peppers: Phase Two! Remember Our Names was one of the first albums made for the series, being thought of back in May 2018, and that was eight months before I'd even begun this blog!

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are perhaps one of the greatest supergroups of all time. Well, they are when they work together; for fifty years, they've constantly been at each others' throats, and all of their best material was either left unreleased or put out on obscure solo albums. And that's not even mentioning the fact that they went a similar direction their contemporaries did in the 1980s (we'll get to that in Phase Four, which may be a long, long way away).

My objective with CSNY is to give them a more prolific 1970s between Déjà Vu from 1970 and CSN from 1977. Overall, I have created six - yes, six - brand new CSNY albums from the period of 1971-1976 that they might have released, relying mostly on their solo/duet material from the period. I focus a lot on the material that featured at least two members on the same song; that, to me, is how you make a 1970s album. It also helps that some of the solo material has been performed live by them as a group such as Stephen Stills' "Love the One You're With" featuring David Crosby and Graham Nash on backing vocals. That's a potential CSNY single right there!

And as for Cream? Well, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that they will break up, but it'll be at the end of 1971. Their Apple-era discography is very interesting in that they're practically the Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos albums, plus Eric Clapton's self-titled solo debut, albeit under the Cream banner. Granted, the music may not have sounded like any of these albums had Cream continued, but who knows if "Layla" had been a Cream song instead?

So far, Phase Two is off to a flying start, but what are the Beatles - or rather, the Ladders and Paul McCartney - up to? Pretty unrelated, but I'd love to see somebody make a TV Tropes page of the Strawberry Peppers story.