David Crosby & Graham Nash – Wind On The Water (MCA 1975)

These two legends obviously decided to make a rockier album with this one, and why the hell not? There is some bite to this album that is very refreshing. It’s lovely to hear them let loose on excellent tracks like ‘Take The Money And Run’, ‘Mama Lion’ and not at least ‘Love Work Out’. Yes, this is a guitar oriented album, but make no mistake: Their glorious sense of melody and their trademark vocal harmonies are still all over the album. Every song is a classic, but my absolute favourite has always been the epic closer of the album: ‘To The Last Whale’, which is divided in two parts: ‘Critical Mass’ and the title track. It’s all so beautiful that you could cry. Vocal harmonies to die for! Crosby & Nash also showed, as if this wasn’t clear before, that they had a clear social awareness. Of course the song is about environmental issues, or more precisely how we treat the great whales. But, according to Graham Nash, it was initially about his own sympathy with Crosby because the English press always threw ‘harpoons’ at him, not liking The Byrds at all. In my opinion, this is the very best thing these two (with or without Stills and Young) have ever done. But let us not forget other gems on the album, like the touchingly beautiful opener ‘Carry Me’ and the highly atmospheric ‘Homeward Through The Haze’, with its short but emotionally charged guitar solo. Mighty! ‘Wind On The Water’ is simply one of my favourite albums ever. I never tire of it, and I never will. Sometimes love really can last forever.