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.
We Can Change the World
Graham Nash Lyrics
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We can change the world
(We can change the world)
We can change the world
(We can change the world)
(Yes, we can)
We can change the world
(We can change the world)
We can change the world
(We can change the world)
We can change the world
We can change the world
We can change
The lyrics of Graham Nash's song We Can Change the World are a call to action during a time of social and political upheaval in the United States. The opening lines, "Though your brother's bound and gagged / And they've chained him to a chair," serve as a powerful metaphor for the oppression that many people were experiencing at the time. Nash then pleads with the listener to come to Chicago (where the 1968 Democratic National Convention was held) and join the fight for justice and freedom.
The song then shifts to a more direct message to politicians, urging them to "sit yourself down, there's nothing for you here." Nash is essentially telling them that they are not part of the solution and that their presence is not welcome. He then urges listeners not to rely on people like Jack (perhaps a reference to President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated just a few years prior), who will "turn the other ear." Instead, Nash urges them to "join the other side" and fight for change.
The chorus of the song is a powerful reminder that the world is dying and that it is up to us to change it. Nash urges his listeners to believe in justice and freedom, to let people live their own lives, and to reject rules and regulations that oppress them. The song ends on a hopeful note, with Nash pleading once more for people to come to Chicago and help change the world.
Line by Line Meaning
Though your brother's bound and gagged
Despite the fact that your brother has been tied up and silenced
And they've chained him to a chair
And his captors have bound him tightly to a piece of furniture
Won't you please come to Chicago
Could you please come to Chicago
Just to sing
Simply to perform a song
In a land that's known as freedom
In a country that is renowned for its liberty
How can such a thing be fair
How can this situation be just
For the help we can bring
To provide assistance that we are capable of giving
We can change the world
Working together, we can have a positive impact on the world
Re-arrange the world
Transforming the world into something different
It's dying, to get better
In order for the world to improve, it must change from its current state
Politicians sit yourself down,
Politicians, please take a seat
There's nothing for you here
There is no need for you to be present in this particular situation
For a ride
To join in on an adventure or expedition
Don't ask Jack to help you
Do not seek the assistance of Jack
Cause he'll turn the other ear
He will ignore your plea for help
Or else join the other side
Otherwise, choose to align yourself with the opposing faction
It's dying, if you believe in justice
The world is in decline if you hold justice to be important
It's dying, and if you believe in freedom
Furthermore, the world is fading away if you value liberty
It's dying, let a man live it's own life
The world is deteriorating because humans are not allowed to live autonomously
It's dying, rules and regulations, who needs them
The world is on the verge of death due to the excess of rules and controls
Open up the door
Give freedom to humanity
Somehow people must be free
In some way, people must be granted independence
I hope the day comes soon
I am hopeful that the day of change will arrive soon
Show your face
Appear in public
From the bottom to the ocean
From the lowest points to the depths of the sea
To the mountains of the moon
And up to the highest summits, such as those found on the Moon
No one else can take your place
You are uniquely qualified to help the cause
Lyrics © Spirit Music Group
Written by: NASH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind