Atlantic 902
Producers: David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash & Neil Young
Track listing: Suite: Judy Blues Eyes / On the Way Home / Teach Your Children / Triad / The Lee Shore / Right Between the Eyes / Cowgirl in the Sand / Don’t Let It Bring You Down / Bye-Byes / America’s Children / Love the One You’re With / Pre-Road Downs / Long Time Gone / Southern Man / Ohio / Carry On / Find the Cost of Freedom
May 15, 1971
1 week
Almost a year to the day after Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young scored their first Number One album with Deja Vu, the band found itself atop the charts again with 4 Way Street. The two-record live set featured performances recorded during the summer of 1970 at the Fillmore East in New York, the Chicago Auditorium in Chicago, and the Forum in Los Angeles. It wasn’t the first time that a CSN&Y performance had been featured on Number One album. Woodstock captured songs from the band’s second-ever live performance.
By the time 4 Way Street was released in April 1971, the members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were flying solo. Stephen Stills’s self-titled album, released in late 1970, eventually climbed to number three, thanks to the hit single “Love the One You’re With.” Crosby followed suit with If I Could Only Remember My Name, which stalled at number 12. Young, who was recording solo before joining the band, continued with After the Gold Rush, which reached number eight in late 1970.
Appropriately, 4 Way Street featured a mix of material the group recorded together and songs the band members recorded on their solo albums. The studio version of Young’s “Southern Man” was featured on After the Gold Rush. Crosby’s “Triad” was a Byrds reject that was recorded by the Jefferson Airplane. Nash’s “Chicago” was featured on his then-forthcoming solo debut, Songs for Beginners, released in June 1971. Stills took the spotlight with a live rendition of “Love the One You’re With.”
For Nash, a live album made perfect sense. “We were obviously very capable of doing perfect harmonies,” he says. “So we allowed ourselves the luxury of live recording on 4 Way Street. There are no overdubs on it. Consequently, there are some flat notes and some slightly off harmonies, but I think it is completely overwhelmed by the spirit of the piece.”
Stills, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure a pure live recording was the right approach for CSN&Y. “It’s really out of tune,” says Stills, who suggested that the group overdub some vocal parts. “I said, ‘Graham, it ain’t cheating, it’s just making it so I can bear to listen to it.’ But he said, ‘No, we don’t want to destroy the purity of it.'”
Crosby sides with Nash. “There was a real powerhouse energy when we performed together,” he says. “And 4 Way Street captured that.”
THE TOP FIVE
Week of May 15, 1971
1. 4 Way Street, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
2. Jesus Christ Superstar, Various artists
3. Up to Date, Partridge Family
4.Pearl, Janis Joplin
5. Golden Bisquits, Three Dog Night