CSNY Live at the Fillmore East 1969

From Neil Young….

After famously playing their second show at Woodstock in August 1969, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young spent the rest of the year touring and writing songs for what would become CSNY’s 1970 debut, Déjà Vu. A newly discovered multi-track recording of the band’s September 20, 1969, concert at the historic Fillmore East in New York City captures an early moment from that first tour and will be released as a double live album on October 25.

Live At The Fillmore East, 1969 will be available from Rhino.com on vinyl (2LP) and CD on October 25. A special clear-vinyl edition will be available exclusively at select retailers on the same day. An unreleased live version of “Helplessly Hoping” is available today digitally.

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young were heavily involved in the creation of this never-before-heard live show. Stills and Young compiled and mixed the original eight-track concert recordings with John Hanlon at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles. The audio is AAA lacquer cut for the vinyl release to provide the highest audio fidelity.

Young recently said: “[We] have the tapes, and they sound so real. We mixed at Sunset Sound – the analog echo chamber, no digital echo. We’re staying all analog throughout the production…Pure. Analog. No digital – an Analog Original.”

Recorded only a month after Woodstock, the September 20 concert was the band’s fourth show in two days at the Fillmore East and featured both acoustic and electric sets. Stills shares they were still figuring things out, “the acoustic part of the show took care of itself, but now that we had equipment and Dallas [Taylor, drums] and Greg [Reeves, bass] and sizable shows to do, we just went for it. What we lacked in finesse, we made up for in enthusiasm…A band on the run. Expecting to fly.”

The setlist spotlights soon-to-be classics from CSN’s self-titled debut and Young’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere with “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helplessly Hoping,” and “Down By The River.” The concert also features early versions of two future Déjà Vu tracks. Stills delivers a stunning solo acoustic performance of his introspective ballad “4 + 20,” followed by Nash, alone at the organ, singing “Our House” to its inspiration, Joni Mitchell, who was in the Fillmore audience.

In the acoustic set, Young gave a nod to Buffalo Springfield (his first band with Stills) playing “I’ve Loved Her So Long,” a song he wrote for the group’s final album, 1968’s Last Time Around. Young says, “For me, CSNY was a chance to reunite with Steve Stills and carry on the Buffalo Springfield vibe. Crosby’s great energy was always our catalyst. Graham and Stephen’s vocals, along with David’s and mine, were uplifting every night. Great moments I will never forget.”

The electric set is powerful and intense, highlighted by expansive versions of “Wooden Ships,” “Long Time Gone,” and “Sea Of Madness.” The band closes the show with “Find The Cost Of Freedom,” a new song by Stills that later would be released as the B-side to the protest anthem “Ohio.”

“Hearing the music again after all these years, I can tell how much we loved each other and loved the music that we were creating,” Nash says. “We were four people reveling in the different sounds we were producing, quietly singing together on the one hand, then rocking like f**k for the rest of the concert.”

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