He’s still got it
Graham Nash is 82 years young this week, and he’s about to show Kiwi music fans that he’s still got it, and he’ll share his long career with us, song by song. Tony Nielsen caught up with Graham Nash recently as he talked about his songs and his other crea
GEORGE HARRISON DID IT, so did Paul McCartney. You can add Graham Nash to the list of rock musicians who created two distinctive careers for themselves. In Nash’s case career one was as a foundation member of Lancashire band the Hollies, and later, again, as a foundation singer with the ultimate rock harmony group, Crosby, Stills, Nash (and later Young).
“The Hollies were a good band you know. I spent many years not listening to them when I was with David, Stephen and Neil. But we did write some of our own songs back then, Carrie Anne, On a Carousel, Look Through Any window, Bus Stop, Jennifer Eccles and so on.”
“Back in Blackpool days, me and Allan Clarke, that’s how the Hollies started. And later when the Hollies toured the States, and during that tour I met up with David Crosby and we hung out together. And once I heard David and I , I knew I would have to go back to England and leave the Hollies, and follow that sound.
The sound we had just discovered amongst ourselves.You know anyone can sing the same notes that we sang but no one could get the same sound that me and David and Stephen were creating. Once I heard that sound I wanted more of it. We were decent singers and decent players, and we had decent songs. After we went our separate ways I was making a lot of music with David Crosby. We made three or four albums together.
“Then in ‘83 I also reunited with the Hollies and we did a tour of America together. More recently David and I got together in the studio with David Gilmour, You know I never heard David play a wrong note yet. He’s an amazing guitarist and an amazing song writer.
“He heard me and David together in London and he wanted us to join him to record his debut solo album On an Island.
“You know I have been a photographer longer than I have been a musician. The portrait of my mother which is in my book A Life in Focus, I took it when I was 11 years old.
Looking back on our songs my favourite would have to be Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. When Stephen first played it to me I thought he was from a different planet. It was a brilliant song and I have loved it ever since.”