RARE! "Crosby, Stills & Nash-CSN" Group Signed Album Cover Todd Mueller COA

Up for auction “Crosby, Stills & Nash” Group Signed Album Cover (The album is not present).
This item is certified authentic by Todd Mueller and comes
with their Certificate of Authenticity.
ES-7806
Crosby,
Stills & Nash
(
CSN
) is a vocal
folk rock
supergroup
made up of
American singer-songwriters
David Crosby
and
Stephen Stills
and English singer-songwriter
Graham Nash
. They are
also known as
Crosby, Stills.
Prior to the formation of CSN, each
member of the band had belonged to another prominent group. David Crosby played
guitar, sang and wrote songs with
the Byrds
;
Stephen Stills had been a guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist and songwriter in
the band
Buffalo Springfield
(which also featured
Neil Young
);
and Graham Nash had been a guitarist, singer and songwriter with
The Hollies
.
Due to internal friction, Crosby was dismissed from the Byrds in late 1967. By
early 1968, Buffalo Springfield had disintegrated, and after aiding in putting
together the band’s
final album
, Stills was unemployed. Stills and
Crosby began meeting informally and jamming. The result of one encounter in
Florida on Crosby’s
schooner
was the song “
Wooden Ships
“,
composed in collaboration with another guest,
Jefferson Airplane
‘s
Paul Kantner
.
Graham Nash had been introduced to
Crosby when the Byrds had toured the United Kingdom in 1966, and when the
Hollies ventured to California in 1968, Nash resumed his acquaintance with him.
At a party in July 1968 at
Joni Mitchell
‘s house, Nash asked Stills and
Crosby to repeat their performance of a new song by Stills, “You Don’t
Have To Cry”, with Nash improvising a third part harmony. The vocals
gelled, and the three realized that they had a very good vocal chemistry. It is
disputed by members of the group whether it was at the house of Joni Mitchell
or
Cass Elliot
.
Stephen Stills recalls that it was at the house of Cass Elliot – he would have
been too intimidated to sing as a group in front of Joni Mitchell for the first
time. Nash and Crosby insist that the location was Joni Mitchell’s home.
Creatively frustrated with the
Hollies, Nash decided to quit the band and work with Crosby and Stills. After
an unsuccessful audition with
The Beatles
‘
Apple Records
,
they were signed to
Atlantic Records
by
Ahmet Ertegün
,
who had been a fan of Buffalo Springfield and was disappointed by that band’s
demise. From the outset, given their previous experiences, the trio decided not
to be locked into a group structure. They used their surnames as identification
to ensure independence and a guarantee that the band could not continue without
one of them, unlike both the Byrds and the Hollies. They picked up a management
team in
Elliot Roberts
and
David Geffen
,
who got them signed to Atlantic and would help to gain clout for the group in
the industry. Roberts kept the band focused and dealt with egos, while Geffen
handled the business deals, since, in Crosby’s words, they needed a
“shark” and Geffen was it.
Stills was already signed to
Atlantic Records through his Buffalo Springfield contract. Crosby had been
released from his Byrds deal with Columbia, as he was considered to be
unimportant and too difficult to work with. Nash, however, was still signed to
Epic Records
through The Hollies. Ertegun worked out a deal with
Clive Davis
to essentially trade Nash to Atlantic in exchange for
Richie Furay
(who was also signed to Atlantic by virtue of his membership in Buffalo
Springfield) and
Poco
,
his new band.
The trio’s first album,
Crosby, Stills & Nash
,
was released in May 1969. The eponymously titled album was a major hit in the
United States, peaking at #6 on the
Billboard
album chart during a
107-week stay that spawned two
Top 40
hits (“
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
” [#21] and
“
Marrakesh Express
” [#28]) and significant
airplay on
FM radio
.
The album ultimately earned a RIAA
triple
platinum
certification in 1999 and
quadruple
platinum
certification in 2001. With the exceptions of drummer
Dallas Taylor
and a handful of rhythm and
acoustic guitar parts from Crosby and Nash, Stills (accorded the moniker
“Captain Many Hands” by his bandmates) handled most of the instrumentation
(including every lead guitar, bass and keyboard part) on the album, which left
the band in need of additional personnel to be able to tour, a necessity given
the debut album’s commercial impact.