Song of the Day 12/1: Tom Jones w/ Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “Long Time Gone”
How weird was America in 1969? This weird: Welsh singer Tom Jones not only had a TV show, “This Is Tom Jones,” he invited all manner of counter-culture artists on the show to perform with him. Crosby, Stills and Nash had just added Neil Young to their lineup that summer, allowing Stills and Young to trade off keyboard parts on various songs while the others played guitar (Stills played everything but drums on their first album). Stills is on organ for this number, but the real prize in this clip is his vocal performance. Apparently inspired by Jones’ emotive baritone, Stills employs a furious, soul-inflected falsetto I’ve never heard him use anywhere else.
Have to say, that was pretty awesome! Three weeks after Woodstock. Greg Reeves, the bass player, looks about 14 years old. In actuality, he was! He and Dallas Taylor, the drummer, were fired from the band in early 1970.
Love those primitive microphones! And the close-ups, too. And Neil Young’s leisure suit!
Thanks for sharing that clip. Hope you and Mrs. A. had a good Thanksgiving.
She’s in France, so she had Thanksgiving with ex-pats there. Apparently it’s very hard to find a turkey in Europe.
Greg Reeves was fired, Stills said, “because he suddenly decided he was an Apache witch doctor.” He had been hired on the recommendation of Rick James.
Another bit of CSN trivia: Their logo, the interlocking letters CSN, was designed by Phil Hartman, the SNL comic, in his prior career as a graphic designer.
Tom Jones holds his own with Janis Joplin, 50 years ago this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZmiefQ5y4U
An older Tom Jones shares his memories of that performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRNAe9yqmO4
Neil Young looks like he was recruited from Lancelot Link’s The Evolution Revolution.
lol. True.