Gr@ham N@sh - 1972 - M!lit@ry M@dness

Chicago/Simple Man/Military Madness/ I Used To Be A King



 Graham William Nash, OBE (born 2 February 1942) is a British singer-songwriter known for his light tenor voice and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock super group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. A dual citizen of the United Kingdom and United States, Nash became an American citizen on 14 August 1978.

Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1997 and as a member of The Hollies in 2010.

Nash was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours List for services to music and to charity. 

 Nash was born in 1942 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, his mother having been evacuated there from the Nashes' hometown of Salford, Lancashire because of the Second World War. The family subsequently returned to Salford, where Graham grew up. In the early 1960s he co-founded The Hollies, one of the UK's most successful pop groups, with schoolfriend Allan Clarke. Credited on the first album as "Group Leader", he occasionally took a lead vocal. Nash was featured vocally on "Just One Look" in 1964, and sang his first lead vocal on the original Hollies song "To You My Love" on the band's second album In The Hollies Style (1964). He then progressed to often singing featured bridge vocals on Hollies recordings; "So Lonely", "I've Been Wrong", "Pay You Back With Interest". Also by 1966 Nash was providing a few solo lead


vocals on Hollies albums & then from 1967 also on B-sides to singles, notably "On a Carousel" and "Carrie Anne".

Nash encouraged The Hollies to write their own songs, initially with Clarke, then with Clarke and guitarist Tony Hicks. From 1964 to mid-1966 they wrote under the alias L. Ransford. Their own names were credited on songs from "Stop Stop Stop" from October 1966 onwards.
In 1965 Nash with Allan Clarke & guitarist Tony Hicks formed Gralto Music Ltd, a publishing company who handled their own songs and later signed the young Reg Dwight (aka 'Elton John' – who played piano & organ on Hollies 1969 and 1970 recordings).

Nash was pivotal in the forging of a sound and lyrics, often writing the verses on Clarke, Hicks & Nash songs. However, Nash also composed songs by himself under the 'team banner' (like Lennon & McCartney), for example, 'Fifi The Flea' (1966), 'Clown' (1966), 'Stop Right There', 'Everything is Sunshine' (1967). The Butterfly album included several of his songs that had less group participation and exhibited more of a singer-songwriter approach. He was disappointed when this new style did not register with their audience, especially "King Midas in Reverse" (Nash and producer Ron Richards clashed over this song because Richards believed it was 'too complex' to work as a hit single).

 Nash initially met both David Crosby and Stephen Stills in 1966 during a Hollies US tour. On a subsequent visit to the US in 1968, he was more formally introduced to Crosby by mutual friend Cass Elliott in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles. Nash left the Hollies to form a new group with Crosby and Stills. A trio at first, Crosby, Stills & Nash later became a quartet with Neil Young: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY).

With both configurations, Nash went on to even greater worldwide success, penning many of CSN's most-commercial hit singles such as "Marrakesh Express" (which had been rejected by the Hollies), "Our House", "Teach Your Children" (also rejected by the Hollies), "Just a Song Before I Go" and "Wasted on the Way". Nash, nicknamed "Willy" by his band mates, has been described as the glue that keeps their often fragile alliances together.

Nash became politically active after moving to California, as reflected in Nash's songs "Military Madness" and "Chicago". His song "Immigration Man", Crosby & Nash's biggest hit as a duo, arose from a tiff he had with a US Customs official while trying to enter the country. In 1972, during CSNY's first hiatus, Nash teamed with Crosby, forming a successful duo. They have worked in this configuration on and off ever since, yielding four studio albums and a few live and compilation albums.

 Nash briefly rejoined the Hollies in 1983 (to mark their 20th anniversary) to record two albums, What Goes Around and Reunion.
In 1993, Nash again reunited with the Hollies to record a new version of "Peggy Sue Got Married" that featured lead vocal by Buddy Holly (taken from an alternate version of the song given to Nash by Holly's widow Maria Eleana Holly)—this Buddy Holly & the Hollies recording opened the Not Fade Away tribute album to Holly by various artists.


In 2010, Nash was inducted a second time to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this time as a member of the Hollies. He received an OBE "for services to music and charitable activities", becoming an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Diplomatic and Overseas Division of the Queen's Birthday Honours List on 12 June 2010. Nash received the title of George Eastman Honorary Scholar at the George Eastman House on 22 January 2011, in Rochester, New York.  

On 22 January 2016, Nash announced the forthcoming release on 15 April 2016 of his new studio album entitled This Path Tonight (his first collection of new songs in fourteen years) and shared the title track from it through the MOJO magazine's website