Since the subject was Crosby, Stills and Nash, it’s probably time to turn to one of their seventies Cali-pop offspring; America.
The band – three American air force brats who met in England during the mid-sixties – generally wrapped up all that was the worst about the entire California pop scene that Crosby, Stills and Nash helped spawn; oblique, tired-sounding minor-key noodling wrapped in ornate three-part harmony that never made me want to dance, sing, fight, cuddle or do much of anything but change the station.
Ventura Highway? Horse With No Name? Muskrat Freaking Love? Whatever else they did? Never could stand it. Bores me stiff. Move along.
Except for Sister Golden Hair:
Why, of all of America’s somnolent oeuvre, do I like “Sister?”
I dunno. Because it has a beat? A slide guitar?
Maybe because the vocal harmony harkens back to doo-wop more than Haight-Ashbury?
Dunno. But in a band whose entire catalog works on me faster than an Ambien/NyQuil speedball, “Sister Golden Hair” makes me smile.
Why ask why?
A good song is a good song. And “Sister Golden Hair” qualifies.
I have to agree, Mitch! I could not stand America, largely because we had a guy in our barracks bay that played them and another inane idiot, Lobo, any time he was in his room. On several occasions, we had to sneak in there and turn off his stereo because he fell asleep.
Mmmm, dunno. I always thought the line “…the ocean is a desert with its life underground and the perfect disguise up above…” was quite poetic.
I’m totally with you on everything else, including Sister. And I actually was there at the time.
All in all pretty lame. Good for them for making a buck. However, any commendation of their work is squashed by their having written and originally recorded Muskrat Love.
Horse With No Name was a bass player’s dream; one position from start to finish. The only way to screw it up was to be out of tune or doze off … I learned that lesson the hard way.