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Long May You Run

Long May You Run is a studio album credited to the Stills–Young Band, a collaboration between Stephen Stills and Neil Young, released in 1976 on Reprise Records. It peaked at #26 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold in the United States by the RIAA. The album is the sole studio release by Stills and Young as a duo.

Background

Following the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young stadium tour of 1974, an attempt by the quartet to finalize a new album ended amidst acrimony without result. David Crosby and Graham Nash resumed their partnership, while Stills and Young continued their independent careers. Songs from the aborted CSNY album appeared on various albums by group members, and Stills covered two Young songs on his contemporary studio albums: "New Mama" on Stills and "The Loner" on Illegal Stills.

In early 1976, Stills and Young reached a rapprochement, and began to work on a joint album project from a desire by both to pick up where they left off with their Buffalo Springfield-era guitar explorations, a decade after the inception of the band. Crosby and Nash signed on as well, and briefly Long May You Run looked to be the awaited CSNY reunion album. However, on a deadline Nash and Crosby left Miami to finish the sessions for what would become their 1976 album Whistling Down the Wire, and Young and Stills reacted by removing the duo's vocals and other contributions from the master tapes. Crosby and Nash vowed never to work with either again, although less than a year later they would regroup with Stills for the album CSN.

In a 1981 Rockline interview, Young reflects on his working relationship with Stills and their collaboration on the album:

"I think it's been a pretty productive relationship inasmuch as there was a lot of balances that kept being adjusted and made the music alive really, especially in the earlier years. The Stills/Young band was a sort of attempt to wrap up something that we had started a long time ago. It really wasn't as hot as the early stuff we did. When we were about twenty we used to lock horns a bit and that was good for the group."

Writing

Reflecting Young's apparent desire to tie up loose ends with Stills and CSNY, several of the songs Young brought to the album sessions had previously been attempted by the group in previous years. The album's title track was sung as a duet on CSNY's 1974 "Doom" tour. The chorus to "Ocean Girl" bears similarity to the Young/Nash collaboration "War Song", a single from 1972 in support of George McGovern. The guitar playing on "Fontainebleau" recalls "Pushed It Over the End", first recorded by the group during the 1974 tour. Unused songs "Traces" and "Human Highway" were also recorded during the sessions, as was "Separate Ways", the lead track on Young's then-unreleased 1975 album Homegrown. Master takes of each of these songs would appear on 2020's Neil Young Archives Volume II: 1972–1976.

The album's advance single, "Long May You Run", peaked at #71 on the UK singles chart. The song was an elegy for Neil Young's first car (which he nicknamed "Mort"), a 1948 Buick Roadmaster hearse that died in 1962 when its transmission blew in Blind River, Ontario. Mort was a different vehicle from the 1953 Pontiac hearse, nicknamed Mort 2, that Richie Furay, traveling with Stills, saw Young driving in a Hollywood traffic jam in 1966 that led to the formation of Buffalo Springfield. On January 22, 2010, Young performed "Long May You Run" on the final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. A few weeks later, Young performed the song during the closing ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, accompanying the extinguishing of the Olympic cauldron.

Recording

The album was recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida in the Spring of 1976. The duo was backed by Stills' backing band of the time, Joe Lala on percussion, Joe Vitale on drums, George "Chocolate" Perry on bass, and Jerry Aiello on organ. The group had all appeared on Stills' previous album Illegal Stills which had also been recorded at Criteria a few months prior with producer Don Gehman.

During the sessions, Young lived in a houseboat in Coconut Grove, as he explains in his memoir Waging Heavy Peace: "Back when I was living in Coconut Grove in Florida in the mid-seventies, there was a houseboat that I slept in that was owned by a lady named Heather. We were recording the Stills-Young Band's Long May You Run at Criteria Recording Studios, and it was quite a trip from the studio in Fort Lauderdale back to the Grove every night." The schedules of the two artists rarely overlapped during the sessions. Roadie Guillermo Giachetti remembers in Shakey: "There was a lotta friction from the start. Stills would stay in the studio all night, and then when Neil came back the next day, everybody would be wiped out. Stephen had this majestic mansion with a pool, Greek pillars and a fleet of rental cars, Neil stayed on a funky boat down in Coconut Grove."

In March, Young took a break from the sessions to tour Europe and Japan with his band Crazy Horse. Upon returning to the sessions, he invited Nash and Crosby to participate. The duo were finishing up their album Whistling Down the Wire, but were able to contribute some of their own songs, including "Taken at All" and add background vocals to the material Stills and Young had already completed. Nash recalls the sessions "flowing beautifully" until he and Crosby took a break to finalize the mixes for their own album, meeting a tight deadline. He remembers in his memoir Wild Tales:

"Unfortunately, by mid-May David and I had to get back to LA to finish our new album on time. 'We're sorry,' I told the others, 'but we have studio time booked. We have to go. Let's figure out when to continue this baby.' That's the moment when the shit hit the fan. Stephen insisted we stay and finish their album, and suddenly all the positive energy began to shift. You could feel it just get sucked out of the room. Something else was driving this sucker, and it didn't take us long to learn what it was. Elliot Roberts had a Stills/Young Band tour booked and ready to roll. They had to have an album to support the tour and were counting on us to make sure it got done. Hey, too bad. We had just as important a deadline, and we weren't about to scrap it for their tour."

Stills and Young made the decision to excise Crosby and Nash's contributions, and release the album as a duo in order to meet their own deadlines for the upcoming tour. Young quietly bailed on the sessions and returned to California. Nash did not take news well and unleashed a memorable tirade towards Stills and Young: "I think it's his cock he keeps putting in the meat grinder. Stephen's totally stupid, man... I'll thump that fucker right in the nose when I see him again. I see Stephen's career going downhill and I see Neil's career going downhill, and I don't give a shit. I WILL NOT work with them again." Angered, Nash would later refuse to allow Young to include "Pushed It Over the End" on his 1977 compilation Decade. By 1977, however, tempers would cool enough for Crosby, Stills and Nash to release a new studio album together.

Tour

The Stills-Young Band, comprising Stills' then-current touring band behind the pair, began a tour in 1976 prior to the album's release. The tour commenced in Clarkston, Michigan on June 23, but after nineteen dates Young dropped out after July 20 via a telegram to Stills, forcing Stills to complete the concert tour solo through October. The telegram read: "Dear Stephen, funny how some things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach. Neil."

Young would later cite cryptic personal reasons for his departure, namely that he had "voice issues" but he has since stated the tour "wasn't working" and that the "balance was off in some way" as it progressed. During the tour, critics were writing harsh reviews of Stills while praising Young, titled "Young Hot, Stills Not". Stills began drinking heavily and started to take out his frustrations on tour personnel thinking they were purposefully making him look bad. However, even after Young told Stills not to read the reviews, he would not accept the advice, so Young left.

Track listing

Side one

"Long May You Run" (Young) (3:53)
- Neil Young – guitar, harmonica, vocal; Stephen Stills – guitar, vocal; Joe Lala – percussion, vocal; Joe Vitale – drums, vocal; George "Chocolate" Perry – bass, vocal; Jerry Aiello – organ
- Recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami, 2/5/1976. Produced by Stephen Stills, Neil Young & Don Gehman with special thanks to Tom Dowd.
"Make Love to You" (Stills) (5:10)
- Stephen Stills – guitar, vocal; Neil Young – guitar, vocal; Joe Lala – percussion, vocal; Joe Vitale – drums, vocal; George "Chocolate" Perry – bass, vocal; Jerry Aiello – organ
- Recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami, 4/13/1976. Produced by Stephen Stills, Neil Young & Don Gehman.
"Midnight on the Bay" (Young) (3:59)
- Neil Young – acoustic guitar, harmonica, vocal; Stephen Stills – guitar, vocal; Joe Lala – percussion, vocal; Joe Vitale – drums, vocal; George "Chocolate" Perry – bass, vocal; Jerry Aiello – organ
- Recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami, 2/19/1976. Produced by Stephen Stills, Neil Young & Don Gehman.
"Black Coral" (Stills) (4:41)
- Stephen Stills – piano, vocal; Neil Young – electric guitar, Univox Stringman keyboard, vocal; Joe Lala – percussion; Joe Vitale – drums, flute; George "Chocolate" Perry – bass; Jerry Aiello – electric piano
- Recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami, 4/19/1976. Produced by Stephen Stills, Neil Young & Don Gehman.
"Ocean Girl" (Young) (3:19)
- Neil Young – piano, vocal; Stephen Stills – guitar, vocal; Joe Lala – percussion, vocal; Joe Vitale – drums, vocal; George "Chocolate" Perry – bass, vocal; Jerry Aiello – organ
- Recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami, 4/14/1976. Produced by Stephen Stills, Neil Young & Don Gehman.

Side two

"Let It Shine" (Young) (4:43)
- Neil Young – guitar, harmonica, vocal; Stephen Stills – guitar, vocal; Joe Vitale – drums; George “Chocolate” Perry – bass
- Recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami, 2/4/1976. Produced by Stephen Stills, Neil Young & Don Gehman
"12/8 Blues (All the Same)" (Stills) (3:41)
- Stephen Stills – guitar, vocal; Neil Young – guitar, vocal; Joe Lala – percussion, vocal; Joe Vitale – drums, vocal; George "Chocolate" Perry – bass, vocal; Jerry Aiello – electric piano
- Recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami, 4/16/1976. Produced by Stephen Stills, Neil Young & Don Gehman.
"Fontainebleau" (Young) (3:58)
- Neil Young – electric guitar, vocal; Stephen Stills – organ, vocal; Joe Lala – percussion, vocal; Joe Vitale – drums, vocal; George "Chocolate" Perry – bass, vocal; Jerry Aiello – piano
- Recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami, 2/8/1976. Produced by Stephen Stills, Neil Young & Don Gehman with special thanks to Tom Dowd.
"Guardian Angel" (Stills) (5:40)
- Stephen Stills – electric guitar, piano, vocal; Neil Young – electric guitar, vocal; Joe Lala – percussion, vocal; Joe Vitale – drums, vocal; George "Chocolate" Perry – bass, vocal; Jerry Aiello – organ
- Recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami, 4/29/1976. Produced by Stephen Stills, Neil Young & Don Gehman.