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Graham Nash credits partner Stephen Stills for saving “Teach Your Children.” Nash spoke about his 1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young standard from the band’s 1970 Déjà Vu collection, and revealed to Goldmine magazine, “The first time I ever played it for Stephen, after I finished the song, he looked at me and said, ‘That’s a really good dong. Don’t ever play it like that again. You sound like Henry the Eighth.’ He played my song back to me with that beautiful, right hand picking style that Stephen is so well known for. And obviously he turned my Henry the Eighth song into something special.”
Nash was asked about the song’s arrangement being the example of working as part of a collective, and explained, “You still have to listen. At least I listened to Stephen and at least I didn’t get upset that he didn’t like the way I sang my song. So when he played it back to me, it was obvious that that’s the way that song should go. And of course, (Jerry) Garcia put in his pedal steel on our record for the very first time. It was fabulous.”
Nash spoke about his current project — a new studio album reuniting him with fellow Hollies co-founder Allan Clarke: “We’re doing it remotely, from a 5,000-mile distance. It’s been incredible. He’ll send me a track with his voice, and then I’ll put my harmony on it and send it back to him. And then I send him a track and he sends it back to me. It’s fantastic. I’m loving it. It’s gonna be a very good album.”
Graham Nash was asked if he ever found it difficult wrapping his talents around David Crosby and Stephen Stills’ distinctive styles: “Nah, it’s just the way we were brought up writing. My songs are usually about three minutes, ’cause I was brought up writing songs with the Hollies, y’know you need your pop songs right before the news. And mine are chopped short and to the point, and get the point across immediately. And David’s tend to meander a little, y’know? And his stories are always unfolding as is his melodic chord structures. And Stephen with his Southern blues brings what he brings, y’know?”