Military Madness

In 1970, as the inner-turmoil of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young threatened to tear the band apart, Graham Nash was having problems on another level. His longtime girlfriend, Joni Mitchell, was splitting his sheets and his blues were deep and personal.

Nash began writing for himself again, something he hadn't done since his pop heyday with the Hollies years before.

The result was his first solo album, "Songs for Beginners," a title he claimed represented the new beginning that is redundant in life, especially after a rough breakup like he was having with Mitchell.

"Songs for Beginners" was one of my favorite albums of 1970. However, I wasn't taken so much by Nash's personal troubles as I was his political statements on the album. Particularly this one:

In an upstairs room in Blackpool
By the side of a northern sea
The army had my father
And my mother was having me
Military Madness was killing my country
Solitary Sadness comes over me

After the school was over and I moved
To the other side
I found a different country but I never
Lost my pride
Military Madness was killing the country
Solitary sadness creeps over me

And after the wars are over
And the body count is finally filed
I hope that The Man discovers
What's driving the people wild
Military madness is killing your country
So much sadness, between you and me
War, War, War, War, War, War

That is "Military Madness," his remembrance of WW II, but also a protest song for the ages.

I will play it and a few others off "Songs for Beginners" on Sunday's Round Bend Hour, 2 p.m.


TS