As you’ve probably noticed, Classic Rock artists have recently been releasing old concerts, and now Crosby Stills Nash & Young are part of the trend. Neil Young joined CSN shortly before they played four times in two days at the Fillmore East. The four-man group had performed just two shows (including Woodstock) before appearing at the New York City venue. There have been poor-quality bootlegs of this concert from September 20th of 1969, but now we have the quality eight-track mixing-board recordings.
Live At Fillmore East, 1969 will be released October 25th, 2024.
The 2024 mix of the album was supervised by Stephen Stills and Neil Young. As an audio buff, Young was particularly happy with the result. He said “It’s all analog. The vinyl comes out just like it would have been in 1969. It’s a beautiful thing.”
The tracks are in the same order on the records and the CD. The acoustic set is on record one, and the electric set on record two. The group was joined by drummer Dallas Taylor and bassist Greg Reeves. This was before CSNY released the album Deja Vu (which was March 11th of 1970).
That timing makes for an interesting concert that covers ground from Buffalo Springfield (“On The Way Home” & “I’ve Loved Her So long”) to not-yet-released songs such as Still’s “4 + 20”, “Go Back Home” & “Find The Cost Of Freedom”, plus Graham Nash’s “Our House”. Seven of the songs are from the original Crosby Stiils & Nash album released earlier that year. The new live album features a 16-minute jam of “Down By The River”, a song from Neil Young’s 1969 Crazy Horse album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.
Graham Nash is pleased the concert is finally being released, he said… “I remember the first Fillmore East shows with great fondness. Hearing the music again after all these years, I can tell how much we loved each other and loved the music we were creating.” Stills also released a statement… “The acoustic part of the show took care of itself, but now we had the equipment and Dallas and Greg and sizeable shows to do, we just went for it. What we lacked in finesse, we made up in enthusiasm.”
One of the best aspects of this album is that old friends Stephen Stills and Neil Young are working together again. Besides mixing the live recordings, the two are performing at the Harvest Moon charity event October 5th, 2024.
Bonus photo: Fillmore East
I was there. It was magical and with my best buds’. The East felt seedy walking in , but when we left the whole world felt like a better place.
Be well
John L
I was there also and still have what I guess you would call the Filmore Playbill from that concert. Slept outside the Filmore the night before those tickets went on sale.