Crosby, Stills & Nash – Marrakesh Express & Blackbird (Woodstock 1969)

“Marrakesh Express” – Single by Crosby, Stills & Nash from the album Crosby, Stills & Nash
B-side “Helplessly Hoping”
Released: July 1969
Recorded: 1969
Label: Atlantic
Songwriter:Graham Nash
Producers: David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills.
Charted No.28 in US and No.17 in UK

Before he left The Hollies in 1968, Graham Nash offered this song to the band, but his bandmates rejected it as being not commercial enough. Their refusal to record this and other tunes he wrote was one of the main reasons Nash left the band and moved to Los Angeles to join up with Crosby and Stills.

“Marrakesh Express” was Crosby, Stills & Nash’s first single. The individual group members were accomplished and had name recognition (Crosby from The Byrds, Stills from Buffalo Springfield), but when they came together, their harmonies and presentation were unlike anything else in popular music. Their first album sold 4 million copies and made them a major touring attraction. For their next album (Déjà Vu in 1970), they added Neil Young and got even bigger. Over the next few years, they released various live albums and compilations that sold extremely well, but couldn’t get their heads together for another studio album. When their third album finally appeared in 1977, it was without Young.

Between 3 am and 4 am on August 18, 1969, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young came together as a band for the second time in public and performed a set that included what Graham Nash called “a medley of our hit,” referring to this song, the first single from their debut album.