Search - Crosby, Stills & Nash - Long Time Comin' on DVD

The CSN owner's manual

running_man | Chesterfield Twp., MI | 07/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The nice thing about this 1990 VHS recording (now being offered on DVD) is the absence of narration. All you are getting is all you probably want... live footage of Crosby, Stills and Nash in the studio, on stage, and in sound bites culled from interviews. The music and the performers tell their own story. Here's how it all breaks down:

Of the twenty tracks listed, there are eleven complete performances. `Long Time Gone' opens the tape, live from their 1977 tour. This track includes some archival shots of the artists from performances not featured on the rest of the tape, and the credits are rolled over it as well. An acoustic `Marrakesh Express' follows from the 1969 Woodstock Festival. Next up is an interview/performance with Stephen and David from The Dick Cavett Show in 1969. Joni Mitchell and others are present as Stephen debuts `4+20' with a miscue in the opening verses (no one notices though as `Deja vu' was yet to be released). Later in the tape we have `Helplessly Hoping' and `Teach Your Children', two pristine studio performances sans audience. Further into the tape we have more tracks from the 1977 tour, `Wooden Ships', `To The Last Whale: Critical Mass and Wind On the Water' complete with the large screen video footage of dolphins and whales that supplemented the stage presentation on the tour, `Just a Song Before I Go', `Dark Star' and `Wasted On the Way'. `Suite: Judy Blue Eyes' can also be considered a complete track, two-thirds of the song drawn from the 1969 Woodstock Festival, spliced together with one-third of the 1989 Bridge School performance. The best track is the intense `Dark Star', which at one point transforms Stills into a lead-guitarist-whirling-dervish, and the two studio tracks. All of these recordings are of excellent sound and video quality. Stephen introduces `Wasted On the Way' as an autobiographical song about the band, and the Bridge School (run by Neil Young's wife, Pegi), benefit performance, though quite inspired, reveals that both Stills and Crosby had ascended to a critical mass of poundage by the late 1980's.

There are a number of fine tracks that are incomplete. Among them are The Byrds lip-synching a black and white `Mr. Tambourine Man' on the Hollywood A-Go-Go television show from 1966, an excellent live `Carrie-Anne' from The Hollies on The Smother's Brother's Show in 1967, and the classic `For What It's Worth' from Buffalo Springfield, also from The Smother's Brothers in 1967. The Tom Jones Show kicks in a visually and audibly beautiful `You Don't Have To Cry' from 1970, with Dallas Taylor on drums, Greg Reeves on an upright bass, and Neil Young adding a second acoustic guitar, but no vocals. The intro is cut from Neil's `Down By the River', performed by CSN&Y in 1970 for The Music Scene television series. Perhaps there were some copyright issues with showing these television performances in their entirety, but the 'Cavett' performance somehow made it. Aside from the hokey Byrds track, fans will certainly want complete copies of the other performances.

There are also snippets from various sources that really don't deserve to be credited as featured songs, most of them running less than a half minute. We have a home recording of Stephen performing `Black Queen', probably the lowest quality recording on the entire tape, but there is no questioning its historic value. There is a recording studio segment featuring `Find the Cost Of Freedom', and the tape concludes with a portion of `Carry On', the officially released version, playing while the credits roll.

As noted the tape also features interviews with the band members (and one brief segment with Joni Mitchell) discussing their origins as a band, their conflicts, their thoughts on composing socially relevant music, and their personal integrity as artists. Obviously if you are a fan of the band this tape is precious. You simply cannot obtain such a diverse selection of material from the three decades this tape traverses anywhere else. The only drawback is that so many of the tracks are not presented in their entirety. The tape will undoubtedly leave fans wanting more from the vault of studio performances and concert recordings. It would only make sense to release the available material as the CSN fan base is aging out. Remember, producers... fans can't buy a DVD from their grave, at least not given the limits of today's technology.


"

A harmonious display (3.5 stars)

Clare Quilty | a little pad in hawaii | 11/26/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Yes, after a brief delay (I, too, was disappointed when the DVD suddenly dropped off the market) "Long Time Comin'" is available again.

This is a string of live performances by Crosby, Stills and Nash that skips around chronologically, "Kids are Alright"-style, with brief interviews peppered in here and there.

How much you like it will depend on how much you like each individual song and time period. I love seeing the fledgling group making appearances on TV variety shows like "The Smothers Brothers" and "Dick Cavett." There's one spot on Cavett, right after Woodstock, where the stage is crowded by fans, Joni Mitchell, Grace Slick and the band and Cavett asks for a song and a mud-stained Stills, without waiting for a soul, launches right into a really cool solo version of "4 + 20." It's funny, it's tuneful, it's good old-school TV.

There's also a deleted scene from Woodstock and some footage of Stills raging at an apparently catatonic Crosby for being out of it, plus a brief appearance by Neil Young doing "Down by the River."

Other footage, particularly the stuff from the 80's, finds the band a little synthed out and suited up, clearly not working in their best mode. It's not bad, it just didn't interest me as much as the clips of the group in their prime.

A solid overview of the group, with several worthwhile moments and lots of their signature harmony.
"

Never Before Released?

Randy Remote | Laytonville, CA | 02/18/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is the same 60 minute program that was released on VHS in 1990, and shown on cable TV. It's pretty sleazy of them to try to pass this off as something new. At least they could have added some extras, or expanded it. That said, there is some good stuff on here, but the concert material is mostly from the 80's, and it's so frustrating when they show only half of a vintage TV performance of "You Don't Have To Cry" with Neil Young-it is the best thing on there! Also, they could have included the full Woodstock performance, instead of only two songs. This is one opportunity that was wasted on the way...."

Flashes of "Golden CSN Age"

James Wong | 04/01/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you think of CSN&Y as the "unfulfilled American Beatles" you'd want this to see this DVD of the boys in their early 70's youthful and creative vigor. Sadly, the performances also include 80's performances including a glassy-eyed-catatonic and very drugged drenched David Crosby.

Read the group's authorized bio "Crosby, Stills & Nash" (St Martin's Press) by Dave Zimmer and Henry Diltz and get background about each song while watching. The 1969 mystery of why Tom Jones is singing lead on "Long Time Gone" in a TV performance with the band is revealed that David Crosby was still grieving over the automobile death of girlfriend Christine Hinton. Many more great tidbits about how "Long Time Gone", "Teach Your Children", "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", and other classic songs came to be will enhance your listening pleasure.

This snapshot DVD doesn't "sugar coat" the volitility of young talented egos on the rise. Stills summed it up (sic): "(we were) 23 years old with more money than you can imagine and incredable adolation will do a number on your head". At its worse, it's a "Vh-1" docudrama of the rise-fall-redemption that the entertainment industry cranks out so regularly. However, as Crosby and Nash always sums it up, "It's about the music man" which is undeniably brilliant and stands the test of time that makes this fun to watch.

Ultimately, CS&N is about friendship, art, and people trying to grow up and be decent and true to loved ones and themselves. Sometimes the process isn't pretty but we have the benefit of the music as the soundtrack of their lives and the era.

I've seen clips of early 70's CSN&Y performing "Ohio" in an indoor venue (Fillmore East?) and would love to see more from it. Is it from Neil's Journey Through the Past movie? Seeing them performing in their glorious ascent period that the live "Four Way Street" album only hints at would be the ultimate video by this band. (Anyone in the CSN&Y clan listening?)

I've seen the other two recently released CS&N DVD's but they capture them in the 80's and they comes across more as nostalgia. Seeing them as middle aged musical professionals performing their "classic" songs is like looking at pictures of someone in midlife. However, "Long Time Comin'" shows glimpses of them when their music was fresh, viberant, full of youthful energy (at least most of the performances culled from late 60's-early 70's do), and ready to change the world. Those early career performances alone make this DVD worth watching."