GRAHAM NASH - OVER THE YEARS

[dirtyfaz]

New one coming from Graham. A 2 cd set one being just demo of songs.

Graham Nash – Over The Years… 2CD

Cover Art Coming Soon.

Disc 1:

1. Marrakesh Express (Remastered)

2. Military Madness (Remastered)

3. Military Madness (Remastered)

4. Just A Song Before I Go (Remastered)

5. I Used To Be A King

6. Better Days

7. Simple Man (Remastered)

8. Teach Your Children (Remastered)

9. Lady Of The Island (Remastered)

10. Wind On The Water (Remastered)

11. Our House (Remastered)

12. Cathedral (Remastered)

13. Wasted On The Way (Remastered)

14. Chicago / We Can Change The World (Remastered)

15. Myself At Last

Disc 2:

1. Marrakesh Express (Demo)

2. Horses Through A Rainstorm (Demo)

3. Teach Your Children (Demo)

4. Pre-Road Downs (Demo)

5. Our House (Demo)

6. Right Between The Eyes (Remastered) [Demo]

7. Sleep Song (Remastered) [Demo]

8. Chicago (Remastered) [Demo]

9. Man In The Mirror (Demo)

10. Simple Man (Demo)

11. I Miss You (Demo)

12. You'll Never Be The Same (Demo)

13. Wind On The Water (Demo)

14. Just A Song Before I Go (Demo)

15. Wasted On The Way (Demo)

Audio CD: June 29, 2018
Label: Rhino/Atlantic Catalog Group

Chris

[rokinrobinoflocksley]

I found this track listing with more info. Note track 3 is not a repeat of Military Madness, but rather Immigration Man.

And note the demo of Marrakesh Express is listed as London 1968. Could this be a Hollies version? Or just a Nash acoustic version?

If the latter, maybe Cameron can do another mash up, adding this vocal version to the Hollies instrumental version he found a few years ago. Maybe they're in the same key?

Disc One
1. “Marrakesh Express” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
2. “Military Madness” – Graham Nash
3. “Immigration Man” – Crosby/Nash
4. “Just A Song Before I Go” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
5. “I Used To Be King” – Graham Nash *
6. “Better Days” – Graham Nash *
7. “Simple Man” – Graham Nash
8. “Teach Your Children” – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
9. “Lady Of The Island” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
10. “Wind On The Water” – Crosby & Nash
11. “Our House” – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
12. “Cathedral” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
13. “Wasted On The Way” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
14. “Chicago/We Can Change The World” – Graham Nash
15. “Myself At Last” – Graham Nash
•Previously unreleased mixes

Disc Two: The Demos
1. “Marrakesh Express” – London, 1968
2. “Horses Through A Rainstorm” – London, 1968
3. “Teach Your Children” – Hollywood, 1969
4. “Pre-Road Downs” – Hollywood, 1969
5. “Our House” – San Francisco, 1969
6. “Right Between The Eyes” – San Francisco, 1969 *
7. “Sleep Song” – San Francisco, 1969 *
8. “Chicago” – Hollywood, 1970 *
9. “Man In The Mirror” – Hollywood, 1970
10. “Simple Man” – Hollywood, 1970
11. “I Miss You” – San Francisco, 1972
12. “You’ll Never Be The Same” – San Francisco, 1972
13. “Wind On The Water” – San Francisco, 1975
14. “Just A Song Before I Go” – San Francisco, 1976
15. “Wasted On The Way” – Oahu, 1980

www.levykauppax.fi/artist/nash_graham/over_the_years/

[cameron]

This is exciting, though I know for a fact that it won't be the Hollies' version of "Marrakesh Express", as Graham recorded his own demo tape compete with vocals to play to the Hollies. A brief section of this was included on a Graham Nash documentary about 15 years ago. That said, the CSN demo version was a nightmare to sync to the Hollies track as it was in the wrong key and featured a syncopated guitar strum that was very bass-heavy and difficult to remove without taking away from the vocal quality. It had to be removed as it didn't fit with the Hollies demo at all. So fingers crossed this new version will be a simpler demo and I definitely will have a go at creating a 'complete' Hollies version with this new track if it's suitable.

"Horses Through A Rainstorm" will also be an interesting one, co-written with Terry Reid. Curiously, both the Hollies cut a version ("Man With No Expression") and CSN cut a version ("Horses Through A Rainstorm") and both versions remained unreleased until 1993 and 1991 respectively.

I am surprised, though it's probably due to copyright reasons, that there's no Hollies songs on the compilation. Especially given Graham's seemingly changing shift recently from CSN in more favour of the Hollies.

[Deleted]

I have recently played the Confessions album, and had forgotten that the track survival of the fittest was a Clarke, Hicks, Nash composition.

Did he ever record a version with The Hollies, before he moved on?

[gee]

yes the Graham Nash Hollies  version of 'Survival of The Fittest' was recorded over 12-16 August 1968 at Abbey Road but while apparently a complete recording as a song  it was then left unissued and apparently incomplete re final mixing - Tim Chacksfield told me it was not in any 'useable' state several years back, hopefully it has since been finalised...

With any luck maybe Ron Furmanek will include this on the forthcoming Hollies sets !

Bobby Elliott suggested the title and more or less challenged messrs Clarke, Hicks and Nash to pen one final number together in a hotel room in Sweden I think

the lyrics probably refer to Nash's feeling of having to 'give a good show' and 'say what he had to say, he played his part to perfection...' etc increasingly so over the last two years of 1967-68 when his heart more and more really wasn't in doing the old hits etc anymore (hence his songs;  'Away Away Away', 'Postcard', 'Butterfly flutter by...' and even 'Maker' - all songs with escapist themes)

- Nash's situation being transformed into a song re an unhappy actress having to perform to her best despite feeling so down and frustrated etc...

hence; 'she's so empty inside, lies to herself and her public...'

I suspect the line; 'public acclaim not the same such a shame...' refers to (for Nash) it just not working anymore on a personal fufilment level rather than the public acclaim for The Hollies as a band diminishing (which it certainly was not)  - bearing in mind that Nash by then so hated the 'screaming girls' thing (just like messrs Lennon and Harrison in The Beatles by 1966)

Nash probably wrote the verse lyrics, very likely with Clarke hence;

'start of the show she was true to herself and everything went as reported...'

which probably refers to their earlier group days when all was well 

while they may well have still had their very good friend singer Marianne Faithful (who inspired 'Carrie Anne' and possibly 'The Games We Play')  in mind re the actress figure in the song re the line;
'rumours about herself came along that's when it all got distorted...'   

or that might just be a reference to Nash's personal artistic
dis-satisfaction being reported in the UK music press then as it was becoming known in 1968 that all was not well within The Hollies group and no new studio album was made that year

Bobby whose idea it was treated himself to a great if all too rare drum solo mid track and has said he  also felt the song's title theme duly  applied then re both Nash and The Hollies themselves about to be going their separate ways as each had then to 'survive' - and happily both did !

Note that the song title is never mentioned in the song, like Cream's 'Badge' and The Beatles 'The Ballad of John and Yoko' songs of around that time

hopefully the Terry Sylvester version of 'Wings' from 6 March 1970 might also finally surface too ?

[cameron]

I'm sure the rumour that the 1968 version is "unfinished" is two-fold: firstly, it's not mixed from the multi-track tape, as Gee suggests, and secondly, the 1970 version IS the 1968 version with various new overdubs. Allan's double tracked vocals don't sync very well at all, so I would suggest that they took his 1968 vocal and just doubled it up. Tony's guitar licks sound obviously overdubbed too, particularly the ones when the drums come in as the guitar quite abruptly stops when Allan starts singing.

I believe that the 1968 version has all the vocals, single tracked, with Nash but it is missing both Tony's guitar intro and little guitar licks throughout and the double tracking on Bobby's drum solo too. They created a BBC version at Abbey Road, just by using the pre-recorded backing tracks but adding new vocals. On this, Bobby's drums are only single tracked too and sound very flat.

The BIG tell-tale sign that the 1970 version is indeed the 1968 backing track is the unmistakable heavy acoustic guitar strumming of Graham Nash. That is a very distinguished sound, as is Tony's guitar playing, but it was missing from Hollies songs after Graham's departure. His strumming sounds very laboured and slightly out of time, which gives it a more fuller obvious sound. We know that often Tony would play all guitars on the backing track, but sometimes Graham would add the rhythm guitar purely to speed the recording session up so that they could track four instruments at once.

I am prepared to bet that when the Hollies LTD were reviewing the track for release (bearing in mind that they have been known to mix rarities from the master tapes for various releases from 1985-2003), Tony and Bobby would have listened to the 1968 SOTF version and heard it as 'unfinished' compared to the 1970 album version during a quick side-by-side comparison. I don't think it needs finishing; Beneath Tony's guitar is a very solid piano part from Bernie and some of the last over-the-top drumming that Bobby probably did on a Hollies album, as he soon after toned down his style. Perhaps now that they have decided to green light Ron Furmanek's project, they agree that these recordings are historically significant and do not need 'finishing off'.

[dirtyfaz]

Have a hard listen at 57 seconds into the version on Confessions. You can faintly hear Graham shout "hey". Also about 1.17. I believe the 68 version did become the 70 version with some overdubs and Terry.

[gee]

That's very probably correct Cameron and Dityfaz - the 'strumming' style on 'SOTF' certainly does resemble say; 'Then The Heartaches Begin' back in 1967

and if you think re 'Blowin in The Wind' 'Nash' version from 1968 being revamped for the 'Sylvester' version in 1969

tho' as stated they likely added more to the later SOTF track for use on 'Confessions' making it a more distinctly different version than re 'Blown' where new vocals were put on the existing backing track

the notion that Nash never played guitar or 'plugged in' etc - which curiously Nash himself has also said - actually wasn't quite true at all as live footage from 1967-1968 plus live concert tapes that have emerged in latter years prove otherwise and it is noticeable how the 'backup' guitar style does alter somewhat from 1970 onwards when Terry Sylvester took over suggesting Nash did more backup guitar duties earlier on than either they or he later would have us believe

They often say how they were just a guitar/bass/drums outfit like say The Pirates, Who, Mindbenders, Cream, Hendrix etc (and even those bands used backup guitars on studio recordings too) ...which possibly sounds more 'fashionable' now, and while there were tracks that only featured three core group instruments most Hollies recordings did feature a backup guitar, often several guitars with Hicks adding the lead solo after....and a very basic acoustic rhythm guitar loosely strummed IS present on most earlier tracks which CD sound has brought out far more audible than before

[rokinrobinoflocksley]

The demos disc is up in full for your listening pleasure on NPR, check it out:


www.npr.org/2018/06/21/621319845/first-listen-graham-nash-over-the-years