Sunday, October 21, 2012

"..so much water moving underneath the bridge.."



Songwriter: Graham Nash
Performed by: Crosby, Stills and Nash ("CSN")
Album: Daylight Again (1982)
When I heard it: 1994, unless my memory fails me.

Crosby, Stills and Nash. Their unique vocal blend carried an entire generation. They voiced concerns of a generation in protest in an era which saw unprecedented definition and redefinition of the word "freedom".

It was a unique coming together of three uniquely talented musicians, each capable of tapping into a rich vein of songwriting skills, each almost flamboyantly gifted. For great musicians to come together is not as simple a thing as mere logic would have it. Each has their own distinct musical vision and idiom; and to almost sacrifice their own individual vision on the altar of the cause of the group is for many an impossible thing. It has led to more breakups among musical groups than any other difficulty.

Against all odds, Crosby, Stills and Nash came together from diverse musical backgrounds and actually sounded like a single unit. Their harmonies to this day remain mostly unattainable, the sum transcending its parts with boundless ease. The lode of inspiration was so rich that more than any other singing group, they still represent the late 60s-early 70s most distinctly.

Still, the same old bugbear laid them low; and, as Stephen Stills admitted on one of the videos of the song I showcase today, they felt the stifling and the suffocation of being constrained by each other, and "couldn't talk to each other for many years"; and then, as he rightly says, here they are many songs, bands and harmonies later, many dollars later, many years later, after "much water moving underneath the bridge", together again to sing a song telling us all about it.

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"Wasted on the way" comes from a Crosby, Stills and Nash LP that is best consigned to the scrap heap of musical history. It features just three tracks worth the effort ("Wasted on the way" being the best of these), but those three tracks remind us amply of their halcyon days when the vocal blend was infused with rich, soulful inspiration. The rest of the LP is eminently forgettable, just little more than musical noise. Only those who have heard Daylight Again in its entirety will know what a forlorn, dismal LP most of it is. This is certainly no "daylight", not to speak of daylight "again".

But "Wasted on the way" tells the story of this unique group who made musical history, then plummeted into oblivion and then regained their chemistry for 3 unique minutes. Perhaps you think I'm making too much of the song. But then, to be able to say that, you'd have to have heard the Crosby, Stills and Nash LPs that defined their generation, and then listened to "Wasted on the way" in the context of the surrounding ruin of its LP.

The song itself is written by Graham Nash, and it is very redolent of his best efforts for the group - especially songs like "Teach your children". It holds together triumphantly well in the studio recording, but technically, I'd have to say it is a deeply flawed song; either that, or it is songwriting genius. I want to draw attention this because I spent a considerable of time first trying to distill out the main melody from the lush harmony, and then, in desperation, I looked on the tube for live recordings that could unravel the melody. What I found shows the song up - there isn't one single live performance that sounds anywhere like the studio recording. There are still 3 parts, 3 singers; but something is unmistakeably missing. For starters, the melody is not sung by one part, but different parts on different lines. Secondly, the appearance of a melody (if indeed there is one; I suspect there isn't one after all) is reinforced on the studio recording by a single voice overlaying ("overdubbing") the "melody" in falsetto. In live performances, there is no such overlaying and this shows up the song for the threadbare effort it really is (see the live videos later on in this post). In my view this is a fatal flaw; but many might equally say it is proof of unique songwriting skill and I don't find it difficult to agree, in a certain sense.

The song's musical problems notwithstanding, what emerges even through the flaws is a glorious, free-flowing, soulful flamboyance that finishes up in a crescendo of rich harmony, every single decibel Crosby, Stills and Nash as any of their best work.

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In many ways I felt they would not have been able to do a song like this during their heyday; it had to be during their decline. Its insight can only be tested over time; when the creative juices are flowing and you feel like Superman, insightful reflection is neither easy nor even wanted. I'd say it took the intervening years, the loss of togetherness, the internal friction, the "time out", the exhaustive aftermath of road-weariness, and a bunch of individual life experiences through which each emerged, to bring out a song like "Wasted on the way". Stills never matched the creative genius he displayed in his first LP (Stephen Stills, 1971); Crosby went through repeated brushes with drug addiction and run-ins with the law. "Wasted on the way" is a tribute to the endearing candour of a unit that did not mind calling the lows. Actually, upon reflection, one must allow that they had always been known for their candour.....

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The song did not come home to me immediately. I heard it in 1994, I think, and there was a time when I had a singing group I sang with, a few uniquely talented friends, and I spent a long time trying to bring "Wasted on the way" on to our repertoire, without any success. We never even practised it once. Looking back, it might have been quite a learning experience for us if we had indeed tried. The song grew on me over the years and is now a staple very much on repeat on my iPod; it never fails to bring comfort about the passing of years.

I must include two videos of remarkable attempts to harmonise the song, just to draw attention to the very interesting problem of untangling the melody from the harmony. It's one of the toughest songs to sing, to be sure.


To those of us who only remember Crosby, Stills and Nash's heyday, "Wasted on the way" is needed for closure. Indeed it is the last significant song to have their uniquely stamped inspiration on it as a vocal trio; they have not managed to get it back since, to this very day. Sometimes we must soberly acknowledge to ourselves that our talents are slippery and elusive; and we never know and can never measure or even predict what we have, the essence of our gifts as individuals. Friends are vital; they help us transcend ourselves and give us memories and souvenirs. And though it all slips away......as it most inevitably will, it must not slip away for want of trying.......

Look around me,
I can see my life before me;
Running rings around the way it used to be
I am older now,
I have more than what I wanted,
But I wish that I had started long before I did

 And there's so much time to make up
Everywhere you turn
Time we have wasted on the way,
So much water moving underneath the bridge..
Let the water come and carry us away

 Oh when you were young,
Did you question all the answers?
Did you envy all the dancers who had all the nerve?
Look around you now,
You must go for what you wanted,
Look at all my friends who did and got what they deserved

 And there's so much time to make up
Everywhere you turn
Time we have wasted on the way,
So much water moving underneath the bridge..
Let the water come and carry us away

 So much love to make up
Everywhere you turn
Love we have wasted on the way,
So much water moving underneath the bridge..
Let the water come and carry us away
Let the water come and carry us away
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