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Graham Nash - Songs For Beginners (1971)

Track listing:
  1. Military Madness 2:56
  2. Better Days 3:50
  3. Wounded Bird 2:13
  4. I Used To Be A King 4:49
  5. Be Yourself 3:09
  6. Simple Man 2:18
  7. Man In The Mirror 2:49
  8. There's Only One 4:01
  9. Sleep Song 3:00
  10. Chicago 4:01

Notes

This wonderful album, recorded with help from an all-star crew including David Crosby, Neil Young, Dave Mason and Rita Coolidge, may not be the best solo record to come out of the CSNY orbit (Neil Young has it beat), but it is the most charming and genial. Like Nash's "Marakesh Express" and "Teach Your Children," it inevitably brings a smile to anyone who hears it. From the soaring "I Used to Be a King" (almost a distant, mature, altered point-of-view sequel to "King Midas in Reverse") through the gossamer "Simple Man" to the wah-wah laden "Military Madness," the record is filled with gorgeous melodies, flawless singing, and lyrical complexities that hold up decades later. "Man In the Mirror" is almost Nash's answer to Young's "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing," even containing similar tempo changes; only "Chicago," with its belated telling of one version of the tale of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, seems dated.