Raconteurs, Fleet Foxes Members Revisit Graham Nash's 1971 Debut
Forty years ago, Graham Nash entered a California studio to begin work on his first solo album,Songs for Beginners. The Crosby, Stills and Nash member was going through a tsunami of personal turmoil at the time - his band had temporarily split and he had recently broken up with his then-girlfriend Joni Mitchell - but sessions for the album were "quiet," Nash has said. "I wanted it to be straight from my heart to whoever listened to it."
Songs for Beginners has set a high-water mark for just about every singer-songwriter since its release. On the album, Nash delivered indelible tracks like "Chicago" and "Better Days" - tunes that focused on not only the political and social turmoil of the time ("Chicago" addressed the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention, where thousands of protesters faced off with the National Guard) but also the deeply personal ("I Used to Be King" tackled Nash's relationship with Mitchell). When he finally released Songs in 1971, Nash's first batch of solo songs struck a chord with the country: "Chicago" was a Top 40 single while the album reached Number 15 on the charts.
