They Called It "Yacht Rock", You Know
Back from Portland, finally. The 1 Show didn't disappoint, although I was in considerable pain after walking around the city for three days straight. Some of the motorcycles showcased were brilliant, some were so-so. The flat-track racing in Salem was brilliant and the final V-twin race featured no fewer than three bikes with license plates and functioning headlights. You have to love it, even if there were no fewer than four leavin'-in-the-bambulance crashes and a dozen nontrivial injuries over the course of just six races.
After the show, I stopped by to see Sean Smith, whose gnarly Aprilia crash a few years ago made him a minor legend in the sport. When I walked into his house and saw the record that he's holding in the above photo, I, like, totally freaked out.
Only the early pressings of the "CSN" reunion album have the photo that you see Sean holding above. Subsequent releases, and all the various CD pressings, have a different photo, taken immediately afterwards by the same photographer, that show the trio laughing. You can find the early releases of this pretty easily --- they sold a zillion of them from the very first day, as a lot of people had been waiting for the band to get back together --- but this was a well-preserved example.
The record itself has a shot of Crosby's yacht, the Mayan. Which makes CSN the Ur-record of Yacht Rock. I have the Steve Hoffman remaster and it's one of my favorite things in the whole world.
There's something great about seeing younger people connect with a record that was released during my early childhood. It suggests the idea that good music is timeless. It isn't, of course; only truly great music is timeless, and even Bach endured a period after his death where his work was little-known. Still, if you've never listened to CSN, it will reward your attention.
O captain, what are we hiding from? You've been hiding from the start Did some lover steal your heart Or did the full moon make you mad?