As I mentioned last time, I picked this 1972 release up at a garage sale in 1979, with a number of albums that completely shaped my musical tastes for decades to come. But, this wasn’t one of those records. I was already into CSN in high school, and had already seen them perform, when I bought this in the summer after my freshman year of college. I’m sure I expected it to be some kind of revelation, an extension of the treasured “So Far” collection. It had two out of the three members of the band – how could it not be great?
Well, to my ear anyway, it wasn’t. I’ve listened to this over and over again through the years, thinking I’ve missed something, especially as I read glowing reviews of it. But other than “Southbound Train,” not a single song sticks with me. It just never clicked. I listened to it again this week, back to back with “Songs For Beginners,” and it’s just plain missing some of the groove that the Nash solo album has.
So there’s really nothing more to say than that, having held onto this for 44 years, I can really commit to a mistake. There were several years when I know this was in the crates of records consigned to the garage, where much vinyl went to die, eventually being sent to the local library sale. Somehow it got back in from the garage and back into the main collection, and here it sits, but the only reason I ever play it is to try to figure out why I’ve held onto it, and when I listen to it, the answer is never there.
