No. 924 – Southern Cross

Performer: Crosby, Stills & Nash

Songwriters: Stephen Stills, Richard Curtis, Michael Curtis

Original Release: Daylight Again

Year: 1982

Definitive Version: None

I suppose this is natural, but some songs are so closely associated with a particular visual image that when I hear the song, I can’t help but to think of the video. This is one of those songs. I hear the chorus, and I see Stills on the boat and CSN’s silhouette. That video must have been on every time I turned on MTV my freshman year at college, and I liked that one of my old-school faves was on there amidst the Duran Durans of the world. This was essentially CSN’s last hit, nearly 30 years ago.

I could tell a story from my freshman year, but I have so many of those still to come that I’m going to tell something different and to which only this song applies. I saw CSNY for the third (and hopefully not final) time in 2006. That time, they were essentially touring as Neil Young’s backup band. He had just released Living with War and decided for whatever reasons—financial, I’d think, because they played and sold out the Your Corporate Name Here Amphitheater in Tinley Park, or Neil wanted more people to hear his stuff than would have otherwise—to tour with the rest of the old gang. And I’m pretty sure they were glad to be with him.

Anyway, I took Laurie, who had seen CSN several times but had never seen Y solo or with CSN. I told her: It’s a whole different ballgame when you see all four together, because Y totally changes the energy. With the exception of having the new stuff sprinkled in, the set was a near carbon copy of earlier shows at first. But the middle acoustic section had a number of different and more obscure songs than previously. They featured various members in solos or duos of various configurations when suddenly the full band stepped on stage and broke out this song in all its warm-breeze glory.

It was a shock, because the setlist that night—and the two previous times I had seen CSNY—was skewed so heavily towards their career poles. Either they played something off the latest album or it was something from 1971 and back—the exception being Rockin’ in a Free World. I’d almost wondered whether they’d forgotten there was a 30-year gap of music in there.

This song sounded great, and it took me right back to a time when I was 18 and being on a sailboat in the Caribbean accompanied by pitch-perfect three-part harmonies seemed idyllic.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.