They were sensational – and each on-stage album from CSN&Y feels sensational too. Not that there were too many of those releases capturing David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and Neil Young in their prime: only 1971’s “4 Way Street” would count as such, with “CSNY 1974” from 2014 documenting the quarter’s second coming, with a few moments in the “Woodstock” and “Journey Through The Past” soundtracks rounding off the foursome’s officially available early-era concert recordings. Here’s why “Live At Fillmore East, 1969” which will be out on October 25th is a historic thing.
The platter that Young hinted at as early as in April of this year and that he and Stills mixed from the original eight-track is much more interesting than its predecessors not only because it comes from a single venue and a single date, September 20th – although there were two shows performed there – but also because it leans on the players’ solo material to a lesser extent. Comprised of two sets, acoustic and electric, the band’s repertoire on the night included “Our House” and “4 + 20” which would surface on “Déjà Vu” in 1970 – the former addressing Joni Mitchell, who inspired the song and was in the Fillmore to hear Nash serenading her – and “Find The Cost Of Freedom” which would appear later as a B-side of the “Ohio” single. Factor in BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD’s “I’ve Loved Her So Long” and pieces from the ensemble’s debut LP, and the significance of the forthcoming release becomes impossible to overestimate.
Live At Fillmore East, 1969
Acoustic Set:
1. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
2. Blackbird
3. Helplessly Hoping
4. Guinnevere
5. Lady Of The Island
6. Go Back Home
7. On The Way Home
8. 4 + 20
9. Our House
10. I’ve Loved Her So Long
11. You Don’t Have To Cry
Electric Set:
12. Long Time Gone
13. Wooden Ships
14. Bluebird Revisited
15. Sea Of Madness
16. Down By The River
17. Find The Cost Of Freedom
