Aug. 11, 1974 Review: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at Rich Stadium

 

The high point in the four Summerfest shows at Rich Stadium in 1974: 

Aug. 11, 1974 

Summerfest Takes Huge Throng

On a Magical Tour of the Past 

It was somewhere near the second hour of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s 2½ hour set in Rich Stadium Sunday that the rationale of the day became clear, all laid open in the chorus of the five-year-old “Déjà Vu:” We have all been here before.

An opportunity to relive the past was what drew the crowd of 60,000-plus to the third Summerfest ’74 concert in the first place. And whenever the past showed its face, it was welcomed enthusiastically.

The memories of CSN&Y, reunited for this tour after a four-year split, were particularly sunny and comfortable. Ideals of love and happiness sketched out in sweet high harmonies, ideals from 1969 and 1970.

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AND SO IT was that the brightly aware tunes of that period – “Our House,” “Helpless,” “Ohio,” “Teach Your Children,” “Carry One” – overshadowed the numerous selections CSN&Y pulled from their recent solo careers.

          The old memories and the old unities struck their strongest vibrations in the full-band electric numbers at either end of the set, climaxing in an enthusiastic jam in the “Carry On” encore.

          The acoustic section in between moved slowly by comparison. Each man has his turn, with David Crosby stopping proceedings at one point to lead the throng in calls of “Stills” when Stills’ time came up and he was gone on a visit to the dressing rooms.

          The solos reinforced impressions of CSN&Y’s recent individual efforts. The impish Stills in a number 2 football jersey. Nash, mysterious and full of the old CSN&Y spirit (his new songs sound the most like the old ones).

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YOUNG IN A baseball jacket and reflecting sunglasses, still working out his journey through the past. Crosby the genial spokesman and the dullest songwriter.

          Guitarist Carlos Santana, criticized by his long-standing fandom for playing too much spiritual music and not enough old standards since his conversion in Eastern philosophies, led up to CSN&Y with a 90-minute set which showed that he too has acquiesced to the power of the past.

          Mixed in with spacey snippets from his recent albums were spicy, drum-driven Santana standards like “Oye Como Va,” “Black Magic Woman” and a long “Soul Sacrifice.” Santana played as confident and serene as he looked onstage.

          We have all been here before. The power of the present was no match for the power of the past.

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IN THE PHOTOS: Rehearsing backstage in black-and-white at Rich Stadium – Graham Nash, standing left; Stephen Stills, kneeling; David Crosby, standing right; and Neil Young, seated. Photo copyright 1974 by noted photo artist Joel Bernstein, a CSN&Y archivist whose career began when Joni Mitchell asked him to be her photographer when he was 16. Color photo: Looking out from backstage onto the Rich Stadium crowd. 

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FOOTNOTE #1: Jesse Colin Young opened this concert and since he was an old favorite of mine, I’m sure I wrote something about him, but apparently he was trimmed from the review.

The CSN&Y setlist, courtesy of setlist.fm:

Love the One You’re With

Wooden Ships

Immigration Man

Helpless

Grave Concern (Graham Nash)

Black Queen (Stephen Stills)

Love Art Blues (Neil Young)

Almost Cut My Hair

Teach Your Children

Only Love Can Break Your Heart

The Lea Shore

For Free

Our House

Long May You Run

Change Partners

Myth of Sisyphus

You Can’t Catch Me

Word Game

Don’t Be Denied

First Things First

Déjà vu

My Angel

Military Madness

Long Time Gone

Pushed It Over the End

Pre-Road Downs

(encores)

Ohio

Carry On

          The Santana setlist:

Going Home

Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen

Oye Como Va

Love, Devotion and Surrender

Incident at Neshabur

No One to Depend On

Soul Sacrifice

Samba Pa Ti

Toussaint L’Ouverture

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FOOTNOTE #2: This show came in the middle of a mammoth two-month tour of stadiums and arenas that began in Seattle in July and ended at Wembley Stadium in London. Manager Elliott Roberts convinced the four of them to reunite after seeing the success of the tour that brought Bob Dylan back on stage with The Band earlier that year. Impresario Bill Graham, who did the Dylan tour, ran this one too.

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FOOTNOTE #3: Right next to this review was an article headlined “200 Towed-Car Owners Sing Summerfest Blues.” It read in part:

          Orchard Park’s 24-man police department tagged and towed away more than 200 illegally-parked cars Sunday afternoon, as more than 60,000 persons jammed Rich Stadium for the Summerfest rock concert.

          About 30 persons who became ill at the concert were treated at Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo. Ten were treated for drug overdoses and the others for minor injuries, the nursing supervisor said today.

          State Police said eastbound lanes of the Thruway were tied up from Lackawanna to Batavia most of the evening and attributed the tie-up to the rock concert.

          The traffic jam on the Thruway eased about 3 a.m. today.

          Authorities estimated attendance at the rock fest at 60,000. The stadium capacity is 80,629 and the various stadium parking lots hold about 15,000 cars.

          However, police estimated that fewer persons came in car pools and chartered buses than is usual for a football game, thus filling the stadium parking lots and spilling cars onto adjacent roads.

          “They were just abandoning cars on all of the major highways around the stadium,” Chief Robert C. Henning of the Orchard Park Police said today.

          “There is no parking permitted on any of the access highways to the stadium and all of them are posted with tow-away signs,” Chief Henning said.

          He said some of the illegally-parked cars were blocking private driveways of residents near the stadium. …

          Orchard Park Town Justice Charles W. Schold convened a special session of Town Court about 8 p.m. Sunday night for those whose cars were towed …