tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7621501513493185029.post7784354093237963113..comments2024-03-27T12:50:36.135-04:00Comments on Everybody's Dummy: CSN 8: Live It Upwardohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07825405583474881509noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7621501513493185029.post-2384263199140869662022-09-04T23:54:38.592-04:002022-09-04T23:54:38.592-04:00 I asked my brother if I could borrow his CD. He t... I asked my brother if I could borrow his CD. He told me not to bother to bring it back when I was done with it. That should have been a big clue.<br />I didn’t think that they could get worse than “American Dream”. This sounds less than a follow up to that album and more like one to Nash’s “Innocent Eyes”. There’s that same awful 80’s production, with lots of programming apparent. The choices of outside material were obviously influenced by him, and he sings half of the lead vocals. <br />His lapse of judgement is apparent from the start with the title track, which was recorded either during or right after the sessions for “IE”, well over a year before the sessions for “AD” started. While Joe Vitale would collaborate on several of the worst songs on “AD”, he wrote this turkey alone.<br />The band’s other touring keyboardist, Craig Doerge, was Nash’s main partner on “IE”. So, he “helps out” Graham once again by constructing more 80’s “soundscapes” for “Yours and Mine” and “After the Dolphin”. The total tackiness, once again, obscures the social commentary. Graham’s other three sung contributions are entirely dismissible, but “If Anybody Had a Heart” deserves its own special dig. Written by two of their L.A. sessioneer buddies, it has horribly ungrammatical lyrics (“If everyone had a heart/yours would never be broken”. Really?). You didn’t mention that the “About Last Night” version was sung by John Waite (ugh!). This only illustrates Nash’s further deteriorating taste.<br />It’s left for the other two to rescue the album, but fat chance of that. With “Arrows”, Crosby begins his descent into dull adult contemporary, which would continue into his solo career. As for Stills, even though he’s writing solo again, he didn’t bounce back from his debacles on “AD”. At least, we had a break from his Latinisms there. “Open” is his worst in that genre, because of the over processed production. “Tomboy” may be my new least favorite, thanks to the appalling lyrics, coming from a guy who was 45 years old when the album was released. Who did he think he was, Mike Love? That leaves, of course, “Haven’t We Lost Enough?”, the universal choice for best song. Their harmonies were a bit ragged, but it does sound like a CSN classic.<br />This, in fact, was their worst seller up to this point. They had learned a lesson from this critical and commercial drubbing by their next album, but it was too late. Nirvana came along to sweep a number of classic acts into the oldies column, including CSN. Oh well…<br />trfesokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12631886869696528704noreply@blogger.com