Graham Nash: Deja Vu again with Crosby and Stills

By Steve James

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It took just 40 seconds, singing harmony with Stephen Stills and David Crosby, to convince Graham Nash to take the musical step that led ultimately to the Rock ''n Roll Hall of Fame.

Within a year, he would leave the chart-topping English pop group The Hollies and be playing at the 1969 Woodstock festival with one of rock''s first supergroups and penning some of the most enduring songs of the late 60''s and early 70''s.

"Whatever sound Crosby, Stills & Nash had vocally, happened probably in about 40 seconds," Nash recalled. "I was visiting Joni Mitchell and David and Stephen were there."

Crosby had left the group The Byrds in 1967 and Stills'' group Buffalo Springfield had broken up in 1968. The two were looking to perform together, he said.

"They sang ''You Don''t Have to Cry,'' and I asked them to sing it one more time, and the third time I put my harmony in and it was so good," said Nash.

"Understand, the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Hollies were good harmony bands, but this was something different!"

Thus was born Crosby, Stills & Nash, and this year they mark their 40th anniversary with a tour and a first new studio album in ten years.

Rhino Records, meanwhile, just released "Reflections," a three-disc set of Nash''s songs. And on the day this month that he turned 67 (Feb 2), Nash played a gig in Clear Lake, Iowa to honor rock legend Buddy Holly, who died 50 years ago.

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

"Buddy Holly died on my 17th birthday and I remember me and Allan Clarke were bawling our heads off," recalled Nash, who formed The Hollies with Clarke in Manchester, England.

It was Holly -- killed in a plane crash after playing the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake in 1959 - who inspired Nash to become a musician, Nash told Reuters.

Holly''s death was immortalized as "The Day the Music Died" in Don McLean''s 1972 hit, "American Pie," but for Nash, the music has never stopped, ever since he discovered American rock ''n roll as a teenager in post-war England.

"That music wasn''t available, it was only available when you heard it on Radio Luxembourg," he said, referring to the commercial broadcasts beamed into Britain at a time when the British Broadcasting Corporation did not play rock ''n roll.

"I remember Sunday evenings at 9 o''clock the American Top 40 came on, that''s when I got to hear all that early rock ''n roll," said Nash, his hair now cropped and snowy.

"It actually, physically excited me. When I first heard ''Bye Bye Love,'' by the Everly Brothers, something inside me happened, and I wanted to make music that would make my listeners feel what I felt then."  Continued...