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.
Spotlight
Graham Nash Lyrics
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With my guitar in hand
I'm at the microphone stand
I think the reason should be very clear
You see the spotlight it's for a good night
Something happens to you
And the same thing happens to me
You can see them once again through me
But it's only me
So if you catch me handing you a line
Please forgive me ah but let me be
I've got to do it almost all the time
It fills a big hole in my young soul
Something happens to you
And the same thing happens to me
You can see them once again through me
But it's only me
The lyrics of Graham Nash's song "Spotlight" express the emotion and passion that he feels when performing live on stage. He is asked why he is there with his guitar in hand and his response is that he is there to sing and perform for the people in attendance. Nash believes that the spotlight is like a beacon for a good night and that it has the power to transform not only the audience, but also himself. When he sings about the places that the audience has been to, he feels as though he is taking them on a journey and allowing them to relive those experiences through his music.
Line by Line Meaning
How come you ask me what I'm doing here
I'm surprised that you're asking me why I'm here
With my guitar in hand
I have a guitar with me
I'm at the microphone stand
I'm standing by the microphone
I think the reason should be very clear
I believe that the reason why I'm here is obvious
You see the spotlight it's for a good night
The spotlight is used to create a good atmosphere
Something happens to you
You feel something
And the same thing happens to me
I experience the same feeling
So if I sing about the places you've been to
If I sing about the places you've visited
You can see them once again through me
You can relive those experiences through my music
But it's only me
But it's just my interpretation
So if you catch me handing you a line
If you catch me using clichéd phrases
Please forgive me ah but let me be
Please forgive me, but I need to use those lines
I've got to do it almost all the time
I need to do it most of the time
It fills a big hole in my young soul
It fills a void in my soul
Something happens to you
You feel something
And the same thing happens to me
I experience the same feeling
You can see them once again through me
You can relive those experiences through my music
But it's only me
But it's just my interpretation
Lyrics © Spirit Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: KORTCHMAR, NASH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind