60. Cowboy Movie -- David Crosby (from If I Could Only Remember My Name)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeZS3gpk2aI
61. Change Partners -- Stephen Stills (from Stephen Stills 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQLJveyV41k
62. Chicago -- Graham Nash (from Songs for Beginners)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxsQrZsqX0c
CSNY broke up in 1970 for a variety of ego-fueled reasons, including that Stephen Stills and Graham Nash were both in love with Rita Coolidge. While Neil was holed up with his back problems, C, S, and N all got busy with making solo albums that came out in '71 (the prolific Stills had already put one out in '70).
These are the best songs from each of those albums, and in "I can't quit you" fashion, their lyrics all refer to the other members of CSN(Y).
David Crosby's Cowboy Movie is a stinging, rustic tale of cowboys whose bond is broken by an "Indian Girl." It is in fact a thinly veiled metaphor for Coolidge's impact on CSNY. No matter how you want to characterize the imagery, what makes this song stand out is the spectacular lead guitar work of Jerry Garcia (he, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart from The Grateful Dead were the backing band on this track.)
Stills' Change Partners merges a graceful country rock backing track with lyrics that are again couched in metaphors. "It was about growing up in the south, attending the debutante balls, but Graham likes to refer to it as the Crosby, Stills & Nash theme song, which I suppose it is," Stills said, referring to the regular breakups, reunions and side projects in various combinations that occurred until their final breakup in 2016. Jerry Garcia surfaces again, this time on pedal steel guitar, and Crosby and Nash contribute backing vocals, because they probably knew this song was about them, didn't they, didn't they.
Nash's Chicago was his take on the turbulence of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and the subsequent trial of the Chicago Eight (later Seven). "Won't you please come to Chicago just to sing," however, is a refrain aimed at Stills and Young. Nash and Crosby had agreed to play a benefit concert for Chicago Eight defense fund, but Stills and Young did not want to join them, and the song is in part about Nash's attempts to convince them. Jerry Garcia does not appear on the uplifting, gospel-infused studio version, but Rita Coolidge does. And so we come full circle.
1971 also saw the release of the CSNY live album
Four Way Street, recorded in 1970 just before their (first) breakup.
It includes an anguished piano-ballad version of Chicago that I like better than the studio version.