Nash was born in Blackpool, England, during World War II. His mother was evacuated from the Nashes' hometown of Salford (now in Greater Manchester ), where Graham grew up. In the early 1960s he was a leading member of The Hollies, one of the UK's most successful pop groups ever. Although recognised as a key member of the group, he seldom sang lead vocals, although he did write many of the band's songs, most often in collaboration with Allan Clarke. Best known in the US for their 1965 hit "Bus Stop", the Hollies also scored with "Look Through Any Window" in 1965, "Stop, Stop, Stop" in 1966, "Carrianne", and "On a Carousel " in 1967, among others. Nash was pivotal in the forging of a sound and lyrics showing an obvious hippie influence on The Hollies' album Butterfly, a collection that brought differing opinions on the band's musical direction to the fore.
In 1968, after a visit to the US during which he met David Crosby in Laurel Canyon and began recreational drug use, Nash left The Hollies at the height of their fame to form a new group with Crosby and Stephen Stills. A threesome at first, Crosby, Stills & Nash later became a foursome with Neil Young: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY). With them, Nash went on to even greater worldwide success. Nash, nicknamed "Willy" by his band mates in CSNY, has been described as the glue that keeps their often fragile alliances together. A mark of this is the loyalty and support Nash showed to his best friend, Crosby, during Crosby's well-documented period of drug addiction ending in the mid 1980s. Nash's solo career has often been shelved in favour of reunions on stage and in the studio with either Crosby and Stills or Crosby, Stills and Young. His own solo work shows a love of melody and ballads. His solo recordings have experimented with jazz and electronic percussion but tend not to stray too far from a pop format with well-defined hook lines.
Nash became very politically active after moving to California to join with David Crosby and Stephen Stills, as reflected such in Nash songs as "Military Madness" and "Chicago (We Can Change the World)". His song "Immigration Man", Crosby and Nash's biggest hit as a duo (see below), arose from a tiff he had with a US Customs official while trying to enter the country. Nash became an American citizen on August 14, 1978.
Starting in 1972, Nash teamed with Crosby, the two continuing as a successful recording and performing duo until the more or less permanent reformation with Stills for the CSN album of 1977. The pair reunited for another Crosby & Nash studio album in 2004, and a legitimate release of music from a 1970s Crosby-Nash tour as on a widely circulated bootleg appeared in 1998.
In 1979, Nash co-founded Musicians United for Safe Energy.
In 2005, Nash collaborated with Norwegian musicians a-ha on the songs "Over the Treetops" (penned by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy) and "Cosy Prisons" (penned by Magne Furuholmen) for the Analogue recording.
In 2006, Nash worked with David Gilmour and David Crosby on the title track of David Gilmour's third solo album, On an Island. In March of 2006, the album was released and quickly reached #1 on the UK charts. Nash and Crosby subsequently toured the UK with Gilmour, singing backup on "On an Island", "The Blue", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", and "Find the Cost of Freedom".
Nash is part of the No Nukes group which is against the expansion of nuclear power. In 2007 the group recorded a music video of a new version of the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth".
Graham Nash has been putting the finishing touches on a 65-song career-retrospective box set, Reflection, due in February 2008.
Nash became an early collector of photographs beginning in the 1970s. The sale of his collection in 1990 by Sotheby's became an important milestone in establishing the market for fine-art photography. Proceeds of the sale funded charitable causes and provide the means for Nash to co-found Nash Editions, a digital fine-arts printmaking firm that used some of the most advanced scanning and printing equipment in early days. The company continues to operate today. Starting with an IRIS printer, a device initially designed for color-proofing for commercial printing, Nash experimented in the late 1980s with creating large-scale digital photos. Using image management software written by Nash and Holbert, a hand-built scanner, and an IRIS Graphics IRIS 3047 printer, they developed methods to adapt the printer's output to the fine-arts printing of black-and-white photographs on archival-paper substrates. In August 2005, Nash and colleague Mac Holbert donated that IRIS 3047 printer to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
Nash has also exhibited a collection of his photographs at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego and elsewhere. In 2004, he released a catalog of his photography as a book entitled Eye to Eye.
Another Sleep Song
Graham Nash Lyrics
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Much of me has gone to sleep and I'm afraid to wake up
Shake me by the shoulder if I'm lying with you now
When I talk about the time I sleep away
When it's hard to face the day.
When I think of all the love that's taken me
How much do I get to keep and much should I give up?
Shake me by the shoulder if I'm lying to you now
I'm listening to the lies inside my head
Who can hurt you in your bed?
Fear of other people is a thing I hate
I travel in a bubble and I can't relate.
Something is happening to my head
I don't want to hurt you
But I never heard a word you said
Has this empty hollow heart forsaken me?
I wonder if I'll ever get to feel like I did
Before I grew up.
Shake me by the shoulder if I'm lying with you now
There is no time to waste another day
'Cause we watch them fly away.
Graham Nash's "Another Sleep Song" is a contemplative tune that delves into the singer's fears and anxieties about waking up and facing reality. He feels like much of himself has gone to sleep and is hesitant to face the day. The singer is haunted by the love he's experienced, questioning how much he should keep and how much he needs to give up. He's listening to the lies inside his head, and the fear of others is something he hates. The singer feels like he's living in a bubble, unable to relate to others, particularly when something is happening to his head, making it hard for him to understand those around him.
The lyrics suggest that the singer is possibly struggling with anxiety, depression or trauma. He wants someone to shake him by the shoulder if he's lying in bed with them, to bring him back to reality. The singer is yearning for someone to awaken him from his sleep, his dreamlike state, so he can face the day and stop wasting time. The song conveys the message that the singer feels lost and disconnected, and he wants to feel normal again. The lyrics are melancholy and poignant, and Nash's gentle vocals match the dreamlike quality of the song.
Line by Line Meaning
All is need is someone to awaken me
I need someone to snap me out of my current state of slumber.
Much of me has gone to sleep and I'm afraid to wake up
I have been in a state of mental hibernation for a while now and the prospect of waking up scares me.
Shake me by the shoulder if I'm lying with you now
If I'm currently lying to you, snap me out of it with a quick physical jostle.
When I talk about the time I sleep away
When I mention the amount of time I spend in this mental stupor.
When it's hard to face the day.
When it's a struggle to begin the day because of my current mental state.
When I think of all the love that's taken me
When I consider all the love that has come and gone in my life.
How much do I get to keep and much should I give up?
I am pondering how much of that love I should hold onto and how much I should let go of.
Shake me by the shoulder if I'm lying to you now
Again, if I'm deceiving you, wake me up from my trance.
I'm listening to the lies inside my head
I'm succumbing to my own negative self-talk and allowing it to influence my state of mind.
Who can hurt you in your bed?
It's a sad thought, but even in your own bed, you can be tormented by your own thoughts and demons.
Fear of other people is a thing I hate
I despise the fact that my fear of other people is controlling my life.
I travel in a bubble and I can't relate.
I feel completely isolated from other people and their experiences.
Something is happening to my head
I'm experiencing some kind of mental breakdown or shift in my thought patterns.
I don't want to hurt you
I am afraid that my own mental state may end up harming those around me.
But I never heard a word you said
Despite your attempts to help me or communicate with me, I am too far gone in my own head to truly process your words.
Has this empty hollow heart forsaken me?
I feel like my heart has betrayed me and left me feeling cold and alone.
I wonder if I'll ever get to feel like I did
I yearn for a time when I felt more alive and connected with the world around me.
Before I grew up.
Before the harsh realities of life forced me to retreat into my own mind.
There is no time to waste another day
I need to make a change now because time is running out.
'Cause we watch them fly away.
Because the opportunities and experiences that we let slip away cannot be recaptured.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Spirit Music Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: NASH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind