American Dream (album)
Encyclopedia
American Dream is the 1988 reunion album for Crosby, Stills & Nash
with Neil Young
.
Released on November 3, 1988, there was great anticipation for the quartet's first studio album in eighteen years, but all four performers were in fact at various ebbs in their songwriting. The harmonies still sounded intact, but critics found the songs too placid and trite. The title song, written by Neil Young, was a satire of sensational political scandals involving Oliver North
, former presidential candidate Gary Hart
, and televangelist Jimmy Swaggart
. Other songs included "Got It Made," written by Stephen Stills
with help from Young, addressed CSNY's earlier fans expressing happiness that they were secure and comfortable in their personal lives yet simultaneously urging them to remember their earlier idealism. It also included "Compass," David Crosby
's lament on how much time he had wasted on drugs.
American Dream was meant to be a concept album on the meaning of American dreams and aspirations, but critics and fans alike found that CSNY had fallen short of their goals. Writing in Rolling Stone, critic Anthony DeCurtis
wrote, "Despite pleasant melodies, the occasional interesting song, and the signature harmonies, American Dream is, for the most part, a snoozefest." Writing in their 1991 book The Worst Rock and Roll Records Of All Time, Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell were especially vicious, rating American Dream as the fourth worst album ever. As ardent detractors of Crosby, Stills and Nash, the two authors declared that they had not expected anything worthwhile from the trio anyway and took Young to task for his songs, which they felt made the album especially bad. Guterman and O'Donnell declared that Young's contributions to American Dream were flops that he never would have put on any of his solo albums. "Here, of course," they wrote, "they were the highlights."
David Crosby, in fact, agreed that the album had too many songs and that the writing was not up to par. "The whole thing, the recording of American Dream, it got stretched out. And we did not have, really, the best group of songs to work with. . . . Then, even though we did not have enough good songs, we ended up putting fourteen of them on the album! I think that was stupid."
American Dream peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard charts and went platinum. Young moved on and revitalized his solo career, while the remaining trio turned to touring and recording occasional albums together.
2. "Got It Made" (Stills/Young) – 4:36
3. "Name of Love" (Young) – 4:28
4. "Don't Say Goodbye" (Nash/Vitale) – 3:23
5. "This Old House" (Young) – 4:44
6. "Nighttime for the Generals" (Crosby/Doerge) – 4:20
7. "Shadowland" (Ryan/Nash/Vitale) – 4:33
8. "Drivin' Thunder" (Stills/Young) – 3:12
9. "Clear Blue Skies" (Nash) – 3:05
10. "That Girl" (Stills/Vitale/Glaub) – 3:27
11. "Compass" (Crosby) – 5:19
12. "Soldiers of Peace" (Nash/Doerge/Vitale) – 3:43
13. "Feel Your Love" (Young) – 4:09
14. "Night Song" (Stills/Young) – 4:17
Additional personnel
Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young)
Crosby, Stills & Nash is a folk rock supergroup made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, also known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young...
with Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
.
Released on November 3, 1988, there was great anticipation for the quartet's first studio album in eighteen years, but all four performers were in fact at various ebbs in their songwriting. The harmonies still sounded intact, but critics found the songs too placid and trite. The title song, written by Neil Young, was a satire of sensational political scandals involving Oliver North
Oliver North
Oliver Laurence North is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, political commentator, host of War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel, a military historian, and a New York Times best-selling author....
, former presidential candidate Gary Hart
Gary Hart
Gary Hart is an American politician, lawyer, author, professor and commentator. He served as a Democratic Senator representing Colorado , and ran in the U.S...
, and televangelist Jimmy Swaggart
Jimmy Swaggart
Jimmy Lee Swaggart is a Pentecostal American pastor, teacher, musician, television host, and televangelist. He has preached to crowds around the world through his weekly telecast...
. Other songs included "Got It Made," written by Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
with help from Young, addressed CSNY's earlier fans expressing happiness that they were secure and comfortable in their personal lives yet simultaneously urging them to remember their earlier idealism. It also included "Compass," David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
's lament on how much time he had wasted on drugs.
American Dream was meant to be a concept album on the meaning of American dreams and aspirations, but critics and fans alike found that CSNY had fallen short of their goals. Writing in Rolling Stone, critic Anthony DeCurtis
Anthony DeCurtis
Anthony DeCurtis is an American author and music critic, who has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Relix and other publications.-Career:...
wrote, "Despite pleasant melodies, the occasional interesting song, and the signature harmonies, American Dream is, for the most part, a snoozefest." Writing in their 1991 book The Worst Rock and Roll Records Of All Time, Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell were especially vicious, rating American Dream as the fourth worst album ever. As ardent detractors of Crosby, Stills and Nash, the two authors declared that they had not expected anything worthwhile from the trio anyway and took Young to task for his songs, which they felt made the album especially bad. Guterman and O'Donnell declared that Young's contributions to American Dream were flops that he never would have put on any of his solo albums. "Here, of course," they wrote, "they were the highlights."
David Crosby, in fact, agreed that the album had too many songs and that the writing was not up to par. "The whole thing, the recording of American Dream, it got stretched out. And we did not have, really, the best group of songs to work with. . . . Then, even though we did not have enough good songs, we ended up putting fourteen of them on the album! I think that was stupid."
American Dream peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard charts and went platinum. Young moved on and revitalized his solo career, while the remaining trio turned to touring and recording occasional albums together.
Track listing
1. "American Dream" (Young) – 3:15- Recorded March 3, 1988
2. "Got It Made" (Stills/Young) – 4:36
- Recorded July 28, 1988
3. "Name of Love" (Young) – 4:28
- Recorded February 25, 1988
4. "Don't Say Goodbye" (Nash/Vitale) – 3:23
- Recorded September 15, 1988
5. "This Old House" (Young) – 4:44
- Recorded May 4, 1988
6. "Nighttime for the Generals" (Crosby/Doerge) – 4:20
- Recorded March 24, 1988
7. "Shadowland" (Ryan/Nash/Vitale) – 4:33
- Recorded April 24, 1987
8. "Drivin' Thunder" (Stills/Young) – 3:12
- Recorded March 2, 1988
9. "Clear Blue Skies" (Nash) – 3:05
- Recorded March 28, 1988
10. "That Girl" (Stills/Vitale/Glaub) – 3:27
- Recorded May 10, 1988
11. "Compass" (Crosby) – 5:19
- Recorded March 22, 1988
12. "Soldiers of Peace" (Nash/Doerge/Vitale) – 3:43
- Recorded September 16, 1988
13. "Feel Your Love" (Young) – 4:09
- Recorded July 21, 1988
14. "Night Song" (Stills/Young) – 4:17
- Recorded July 28, 1988
Personnel
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young- David CrosbyDavid CrosbyDavid Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
: Lead Vocal (6,11), Acoustic Guitar (9,11), Backing Vocals - Stephen StillsStephen StillsStephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
: Lead Vocal (2,8,10,14), Electric Guitar (3,4,6,8,9,10,14), Keyboards (1,2), Bass Synth (4), Guitar Solo (6), percussion (8), Acoustic Guitar (12), Synths (14), Handclaps (14), Bass (14), Backing Vocals - Graham NashGraham NashGraham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
: Lead Vocal (4,7,9,12), Piano (4), Electric Guitar (6), Sound Effects (7), Keyboards (9), Backing Vocals - Neil YoungNeil YoungNeil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
: Lead Vocal (1,2,3,5,8,13,14), Electric Guitar (1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,12,14), Percussion (3,13), Additional Piano (4), All instruments (5), Harmonica (11), Acoustic Guitar (13), Backing Vocals
Additional personnel
- Joe VitaleJoe Vitale (musician)Joe Vitale is an American musician primarily known as a drummer but also a flautist, keyboardist and singer. He has played with many of the top names in music during a career dating back to the 1970s.-Biography:...
: drums (1,2,3,4,6,8,9,14), synth (4), almost all instruments (7), sound effects (7), additional vocals at the end (7), percussion (8,13), keyboards (9,10,11,12), vibes (13) - Bob GlaubBob GlaubBob Glaub is an American bass player and session musician. He's played with such artists and bands as Journey, Jackson Browne, Bee Gees, Eric Carmen, Linda Ronstadt, Leo Sayer, Warren Zevon, Rod Stewart, Donna Summer, Bonnie Raitt and many others....
: bass (1,2,3,6,8,9,10,12) - Joe LalaJoe LalaJoe Lala is an actor and voice actor, notable for his dubbing of Kun Lan of the video-game Killer7.He also played drums and percussion on 32 gold and 28 platinum albums. His credits include Blues Image, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Manassas, The Bee Gees, Whitney Houston, and many...
: percussion (2,7,9,10), drums (12) - Niko BolasNiko BolasNiko Bolas is an American music producer, sound engineer, and consultant and business developer in the fields of virtual reality and Internet radio...
: hand-claps (1) - Tim Mulligan: hand-claps (1)
- Tim FosterTim FosterTimothy "Tim" James Carrington Foster MBE is a British rower. He began rowing at Bedford Modern School and competed in the Junior World Rowing Championships in 1987 and 1988. In the latter he competed in a pair with a Matthew Pinsent. He became the first British rower to win gold medals at two...
: hand-claps (1) - Brentley Walton: hand-claps (1)
- Brian BellBrian BellBrian Bell may refer to:* Brian Bell , American football fullback* Brian Bell , Australian-born business tycoon in Papua New Guinea* Brian Bell , guitarist for the band Weezer...
: synth programming (5) - Michael Finnigan : b.3. organ (6), keyboards (12), additional vocals (12)
- Rhett LawrenceRhett LawrenceRhett Lawrence is a record producer and songwriter. He is originally famous for producing the Grammy Award–winning, Billboard #1 Hot 100 and #1 R&B single "Vision of Love" for Mariah Carey. He produced and co-wrote the Kelly Clarkson pop rock hit "Miss Independent” which was #1 for 6 weeks at Top...
: additional synth programming - The Volume Dealers Choir: last chorus (12)
- Bill Boydstun: sound effects (7)
- Don Gooch: sound effects (7)
- Bill Lazerus: sound effects (7)
- Chad CromwellChad CromwellChad Cromwell is an American drummer, best known for his work with Neil Young and with Mark Knopfler.- Personal life :Cromwell was born in Paducah, Kentucky, and three years later moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee...
: drums (10) - The BluenotesThe BluenotesThe Bluenotes were a vocal group featuring Tom Underwood, Joe Tanner, Pat Patterson, and Ralph Harrington. They recorded for the Brooke and Colonial record labels. Their first single, Page One/Mighty Low, was released in 1957 on the Colonial label and the last single, It Had To Be You/Summer Love,...
: horns (10) - Larry Cragg: horns (10)
- Steve LawrenceSteve LawrenceSteve Lawrence is an American singer and actor, perhaps best known as a member of a duo with his wife Eydie Gormé, billed as "Steve and Eydie"...
: horns (10) - Tommy Bray: horns (10)
- Claude Cailliet: horns (10)
- John FumoJohn FumoJohn Fumo is an American trumpet, flugelhorn, and electric trumpet player. He maintains an active performing, recording, and touring schedule in addition to his CalArts teaching....
: horns (10)
Production
- Producers: Niko Bolas, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Neil Young. Assisted by Tim Mulligan