Wind on the Water

Wind on the Water
Studio album by Crosby & Nash
Released	September 15, 1975
Recorded	Rudy Records, San Francisco, CA Sound Labs and Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA
Genre	Rock
Length	40:57
Label	ABC Records MCA Records (1979)
Producer	David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Barncard
Crosby & Nash chronology
Graham Nash/David Crosby (1972) Wind on the Water (1975) Whistling Down the Wire (1976)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Wind on the Water is the second album by Crosby & Nash, released on ABC Records in 1975, although cassette and 8-track tape versions of the album were distributed by their previous label, Atlantic Records. It peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and has been certified a gold record by the RIAA.^[2] Three singles were released from the album, "Carry Me," "Take the Money and Run," and "Love Work Out," of which only the first charted, peaking at #52 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.^[3]

Background

After the summer 1974 tour by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the quartet made a second attempt at a new CSNY studio album. Like the attempt from 1973, this proved fruitless, although the track "Through My Sails" showed up on the 1975 Zuma album by Neil Young. The quartet pursued their own directions, Young forming a new version of Crazy Horse to record Zuma, and Stephen Stills resuming his solo career with a new album in early 1975. David Crosby and Graham Nash opted to reactivate the partnership that had yielded tours in 1971 and 1973 and an album in 1972. This time they made it a going concern, signing a three-album deal with ABC Records, of which this album was the first of their contract.

Content

As on their debut album, most of the instrumental backing was provided by the group of session musicians known as The Section. This quartet consisting of keyboardist Craig Doerge, guitarist Danny Kortchmar, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russell Kunkel, along with multi-instrumentalist David Lindley and bassist Tim Drummond, would be dubbed by Crosby as 'The Mighty Jitters' and provide support for the duo both on stage and in the studio for the remainder of the decade. Sessions for the album took place at Rudy Recorders in San Francisco, and the Sound Lab and Village Recorders in Los Angeles.

Entering their mid-thirties, Crosby and Nash explored darker, trenchant themes in their lyrics for this album, "Carry Me" referencing the death of Crosby's mother, with "Wind on the Water" an elegiac plea concerning the slaughter of whales. As usual, songs topics included personal issues and friends: "Mama Lion" purportedly about Joni Mitchell; "Cowboy of Dreams" about Young; and "Take the Money and Run" concerning the financial aftermath to the mammoth CSNY 1974 tour.

Two songs feature the first issued writing collaborations of Nash and Crosby. The one on side two that closes the album, "To the Last Whale...," links two separate compositions: an a cappella sketch by Crosby "Critical Mass," into the title track by Nash.

Wind on the Water was reissued for compact disc on January 11, 2000, on MCA Records. On April 24, 2001, the album was repackaged as Bittersweet on the budget label Hallmark Records from a second-generation master tape and issued in Europe.

There will be vinyl-only reissue of the original album on Invisible Hands Music in August 2016.

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Personnel

• David Crosby — vocals; electric guitar on "Carry Me," "Mama Lion," "Love Work Out," "Low Down Payment," "Homeward Through the Haze," and "Fieldworker"; twelve-string guitar on "Carry Me"; guitar on "Naked in the Rain"; piano on "Bittersweet"
• Graham Nash — vocals; electric guitar on "Mama Lion," "Low Down Payment," and "Cowboy of Dreams"; piano on "Love Work Out," "Fieldworker," and "To the Last Whale..."; organ on "Homeward Through the Haze"; congas on "Naked in the Rain"

Additional personnel

• Craig Doerge — electric piano on "Bittersweet," "Naked in the Rain," "Low Down Payment," "Homeward Through the Haze," and "To the Last Whale..."; piano on "Carry Me," "Mama Lion," "Low Down Payment," and "Cowboy of Dreams"; organ on "Love Work Out"
• Carole King — organ on "Bittersweet"; vocals, piano on "Homeward Through the Haze"
• Stan Szelest — electric piano on "Fieldworker"
• David Lindley — slide guitar on "Mama Lion" "Take the Money and Run," "Naked in the Rain," "Love Work Out," "Low Down Payment," and "Fieldworker"; fiddle on "Take the Money and Run" and "Cowboy of Dreams"
• Danny Kortchmar — electric guitar on "Mama Lion," "Bittersweet," "Take the Money and Run," "Naked in the Rain," "Love Work Out," and "Low Down Payment"
• Joel Bernstein — guitar on "Mama Lion" and "Naked in the Rain"; backing vocals on "Cowboy of Dreams"
• James Taylor — guitar on "Carry Me" and "To the Last Whale..."; backing vocals on "To the Last Whale..."
• Ben Keith — slide guitar on "Fieldworker"
• Tim Drummond — bass on "Mama Lion," "Take the Money and Run," "Naked in the Rain," "Love Work Out," "Cowboy of Dreams," and "Fieldworker"
• Leland Sklar — bass on "Carry Me," "Bittersweet," "Low Down Payment," "Homeward Through the Haze," and "To the Last Whale..."
• Russell Kunkel — drums on all tracks except "Fieldworker"; percussion on "Fieldworker"
• Levon Helm — drums on "Fieldworker"
• Jackson Browne — backing vocals on "Love Work Out"
• Jimmie Haskell — string arrangements on "Wind on the Water"
• Sid Sharp — orchestra leader on "Wind on the Water"

Production personnel

• Crosby & Nash — producers
• Stephen Barncard, Don Gooch — engineers
• Stanley Johnston — assistant engineer
• Gary Burden — art direction
• Joel Bernstein — photography
• Stephen Barncard, Mike Ragonga — reissue producers
• Erick Labson — remastering engineer

References

External links

• Crosby & Nash