0:01

BBC Sounds, music, radio,

0:03

podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren

0:05

Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs

0:08

podcast. Every week I ask my guests to

0:10

choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd

0:12

want to take with them if they were

0:14

cast away to a desert island. And

0:17

for rights reasons, the music is shorter

0:19

than the original broadcast. I hope you

0:21

enjoy listening. My

0:43

castaway this week is the singer-songwriter

0:45

Graham Nash. He was a

0:47

sulphured teenager when he formed the hollies

0:49

with a childhood friend. They were spotted

0:52

at the Cavern Club in January 1963,

0:54

shortly after another Mersey Beat combo had

0:56

made the venue famous. Their

0:58

foot stomping sound took them to the top

1:00

of the British charts, then to America, where

1:03

his next adventure began. In

1:05

Los Angeles, he was introduced to David

1:07

Crosby of the Birds and Stephen Stills

1:09

from Buffalo Springfield. In the

1:11

course of one life-changing, mind-altering

1:13

evening, they formed Crosby, Stills and Nash.

1:16

Their debut album spent over 100 weeks

1:18

on the US Top 40 and their

1:20

crystalline harmonies defined LA's Laurel Canyon sound

1:23

in the late 1960s and early 70s.

1:27

So many of their biggest hits, including

1:29

Our House and Marrakech Express, were written

1:31

by the lad from Lancashire. It

1:33

was the start of a lifelong,

1:35

shape-shifting creative journey for the band's

1:37

founders and sometime collaborator Neil Young.

1:40

Harmony on stage was a given. Offered? Not

1:43

so much. But the music endures

1:45

and Graham Nash's musical progress continues.

1:47

He's still touring at 81 and

1:49

recently released his seventh solo album.

1:51

He says, I

2:00

get on with my day and I write

2:02

about my life. That's all I've been doing

2:04

all my life. Graham Nash, welcome to Desert

2:06

Island Discs. Good morning. How are you? I'm

2:09

extremely well, all the better for seeing you. And

2:11

you are still making music, Graham, after almost 70

2:13

years. It's such an

2:15

extraordinary achievement. How much has your

2:17

songwriting changed in that time? It changed

2:19

when I started to hang out with David

2:22

and Stephen. In the Hollies, I kind of

2:24

learned how to write a melody that you

2:26

probably couldn't forget if you'd heard it a

2:28

couple of times. But the words left a

2:30

lot to be desired. When I

2:33

came to America and I saw what David

2:35

was writing and what Stephen was writing and

2:37

what Joni was writing and what Neil was

2:39

writing, I decided that

2:41

if I put better words to my

2:43

melodies, I'd have better songs. And that's

2:45

when my songwriting changed. I mean, such

2:48

an extraordinary high bar to set yourself, keeping

2:50

up with your contemporaries, as you say, Joni

2:52

Mitchell and Neil Young. You yourself

2:54

have written some monster hits. Do you know it?

2:56

In the moment when you've written a song like

2:58

that, that's going to connect. The

3:01

only thing I know is that I

3:03

want to not waste your time with a

3:05

song. And when I've written a

3:07

song like Our House, because

3:10

of my experience with the Hollies, I knew

3:12

it was going to be a radio hit.

3:14

It must have meant so much to you. You wrote it for

3:16

Joni Mitchell. I did. And Joni was

3:18

the only witness to the beginnings of Cars,

3:20

Whistles and Nash. I

3:23

had come to Los Angeles to spend three

3:25

or four days with Joni. I

3:28

got to the parking lot. There were other voices

3:30

in the house and that

3:32

kind of upset me a little. You know, I just

3:34

wanted to be with Jon. But

3:36

it was David and Stephen and they were having dinner

3:38

with Joni. And after

3:40

dinner, David said to Stephen, hey, play Willie,

3:42

that song that we were just doing. And

3:45

because the Buffalo Springfield had

3:47

broken up and because David had been thrown

3:49

out of the birds, they were trying to

3:52

get like a duo kind of thing together,

3:54

like an Everly Brothers kind of thing. And

3:56

they had this song that they sang called You

3:59

Don't Have to. to Cry, which is on

4:01

the first record. And

4:03

I said, do me a favor, sing it again. When

4:06

they finished the second time, I said,

4:09

trust me, do me a favor, just

4:12

sing it for the third time. When

4:14

we started the song, and

4:16

I added my harmony, after

4:19

45 seconds, we

4:21

had to stop. Unless

4:24

we were all in bands that were

4:26

pretty decent harmony bands, but

4:28

this was completely different. It

4:31

had a magic to it immediately.

4:33

And so the sound, whatever sound that

4:35

is of Crosby, Stills and Nash was

4:37

born in 45 seconds.

4:40

Graham, you're joining me today to share the eight

4:42

tracks that you'd take away to a desert island.

4:45

What's your first choice? I'm going to start

4:47

out with a record that really changed my

4:49

life in many ways. It's

4:51

Bebop-a-Lula by June Vincent. It

4:54

was the first record I ever bought. It was a

4:56

78, which I'm sure

4:58

there are many people out there have no idea what

5:00

a 78 is. And

5:02

I traded it with my friend

5:04

Fred Marston for four

5:07

pieces of toast. I

5:11

would always bring toast for a

5:13

little lunchtime snack. And

5:15

he liked my toast. And

5:18

we made a deal. I got the record.

5:20

He got my toast. June

5:23

Vincent. This record is an amazing

5:25

record. Thank

5:55

you. bebopalula

6:00

well worth those pieces of toast.

6:02

Yes, it's a nice song to start off with. So

6:05

let's go back to the beginning then, Graham Nash. You're born

6:07

in Blackpool in 1942 to Marianne

6:09

William, brought up in Salford. When you think

6:11

back to those early days, what is it

6:13

that you remember? I remember

6:16

rationing, where you had to have

6:18

a coupon to be able to

6:20

even buy basic, you know, bread and milk and

6:22

stuff. I remember

6:25

collecting pieces of coal, the

6:28

rubbish dump, filling

6:30

my sister's pram with coal for

6:32

the fire. I have very

6:35

warm feelings about

6:37

Salford. I didn't know that it

6:39

was a slum. Nobody

6:41

had any money, you know, and maybe

6:44

we had a ball to kick around,

6:46

you know, but yeah, I didn't

6:48

know I lived in a slum. That

6:51

post-war picture that you're paying, it would have been

6:53

heavily bombed in the area. Were you playing on

6:55

bomb sites? Absolutely. Tell me about

6:57

music. I mean, how old were you when you realized that

6:59

you had a voice that you could sing? When

7:01

I was six, I was

7:03

sitting in class, Mr Burke's class,

7:06

and the door

7:08

opened and an older lady

7:11

with this young boy came in, and

7:14

Mr Burke said, this is

7:16

Harold Clark, and they're moving

7:19

here, and where

7:21

can he sit? There was a seat

7:24

next to me that was empty, and he came

7:26

and sat next to me, and me and Alan

7:28

became friends, and we would sing in the school

7:30

choir, and we'd sing the Lord's Prayer. For

7:32

some reason, Alan always took the melody,

7:34

and for some reason, I always took

7:36

the harmony. For the two of you before,

7:38

long before you formed the Holies, you started in

7:41

church? Yes, yes. Alan had a

7:43

brother, his name was Frank, and he said,

7:45

you know, I see that

7:47

what you're doing, you're a couple of guitars, and you're

7:49

doing all this skiffle stuff and stuff. He says, you

7:51

know, this is a sportsman's

7:53

club. Maybe you can go

7:55

and just play a couple of songs, and we went

7:58

down there, and we did, I think. three

8:00

skiffle songs and

8:02

they loved us and at the end

8:05

of that Bill Benney took this incredibly

8:07

large roll of pound notes, five pound

8:09

notes, ten pound notes out of his

8:11

pocket and he gave us each ten

8:14

showings and we just sang, we had

8:16

a great time singing and we got

8:18

paid for it. Your eyes were still wide

8:20

at the memory I should say for our listeners

8:22

so that was a really important moment for you. It

8:24

was. Tell me about your mum Mary

8:26

when you remember her what kind of parent

8:29

was she? Incredibly proud of her

8:31

son. I had

8:33

two sisters, my sister Elaine and

8:35

my sister Sharon. She was

8:38

the reason that we're talking right now because

8:40

if she had not encouraged my passion for

8:42

music I don't know what I'd done with

8:44

my life. Where do

8:47

you think that came from in her because she

8:49

must have been struggling to bring the three of

8:51

you up in the circumstances you describe? It's

8:53

very interesting. I asked my mother that very

8:55

question and she said she

8:58

wanted to be a singer, she

9:00

wanted to be on stage but

9:02

she married my father, she had three

9:04

kids, you know, la la la, she

9:06

never got to fulfill her dream. It's

9:10

time for some more music on the program now.

9:12

I want to talk more about your early life

9:14

next though Graham. Disc number two, what are we

9:16

going to hear and why are you taking it

9:18

to your desert island today? We're going to hear

9:20

one of the best rock and roll songs from

9:22

that age. Jerry Lee

9:24

Lewis was a madman. I've

9:26

seen an experience in real

9:29

life his passion and his incredible

9:31

energy in terms of making music.

9:33

So what we're going to hear

9:35

now, Great Balls of Fire

9:37

by Jerry Lee Lewis. Great

10:09

balls of fire, Jerry Lee Lewis, so Graham

10:11

Nash, your dad William was a keen amateur

10:13

photographer when you were growing up I think.

10:16

Did he have a dark room at home?

10:18

Yes, in a way. He would take a blanket

10:20

off my bed and put it up against the

10:23

window and tape it down to block out the

10:25

light. I always will remember

10:27

the very moment that I fell in

10:29

love with the photography. My

10:31

father would take me and my younger

10:34

sister, Elaine, but he would take us

10:36

to Bellevue Zoo in Manchester and he

10:38

would take pictures and

10:41

he put a blank piece of paper into

10:44

a colourless liquid and he'd say,

10:47

wait, and there,

10:50

fading into existence, was

10:52

a photograph of me and my sister

10:54

that my father had taken that morning

10:57

and it changed my life. It

10:59

was a piece of magic that I remember to

11:01

this day. And photography was your

11:03

first creative passion and that continues in your

11:05

life. You have a very successful career as

11:07

a photographer in parallel to your work as

11:09

a musician. I know that your

11:11

dad bought you your first camera when you were

11:13

10, but what should have been a

11:16

lovely birthday present for you had

11:18

some terrible consequences for the family.

11:20

What exactly happened? My father

11:22

did give me this little small

11:24

Agva camera, had it

11:26

tiny, had little bellows and stuff,

11:29

but then the police came to the door and

11:33

that was shocking. And

11:35

they told my father that the camera that

11:37

he had bought from his friend at work

11:39

that he gave to me had been stolen

11:42

and who was it that sold him the camera. And

11:45

my father would not tell them and

11:47

they'd put him in jail for a year

11:50

and he died at 47. And

11:53

as a child, you know, to experience

11:55

that, it must have just been devastating.

11:57

What do you remember about your own

11:59

feelings? the news was just

12:01

delivered to you, you know, that wasn't coming

12:03

home. The only thing

12:05

that I always remember was my

12:08

father talking to me

12:10

at bedtime and telling me that

12:13

he would have to go away for a year. He

12:16

didn't tell me why, I was only 13, 14 maybe.

12:20

My father never spoke a word about his

12:22

time in strange ways. Could you see the change in

12:24

him though when he came home? Yeah, I

12:26

think he was feeling

12:28

a lot of shame, feeling that

12:30

he had let his family down, feeling

12:33

that his life was never going to be

12:35

the same. And in fact, it wasn't. But

12:37

it did affect me as a person.

12:40

I've always appreciated the underdog. I've always

12:42

rooted for the team that's not supposed

12:45

to win, but does. I hate

12:47

injustice. My passion against injustice comes

12:50

from what happened to my father.

12:52

And that makes it to weigh into many of

12:54

your songs. Yes. And

12:56

what about your mum? How did she cope? I mean, it

12:59

must have been incredibly difficult to make ends meet. I

13:01

remember her leaning against the wall and

13:03

telling me that my father had been

13:06

sentenced to a year in jail. She

13:08

was crying, of course. I

13:11

tried my best to help over

13:13

this emotional trauma that she was going

13:16

through. I would always

13:18

do the best I could to help

13:20

her throughout the day. I always did the dishes.

13:22

I tried to help my

13:24

mother as much as I could. Did music

13:27

and culture at the time provide an

13:29

escape from what was going on? Absolutely.

13:31

It saved my life and

13:33

still does to this day. Well, Grimnash,

13:36

I think we'd better hear your next disc on

13:38

that note. Number three, what is it? We

13:40

were the Hollies. We were named

13:42

after Buddy Holly. He was one of us.

13:44

He wore a suit and tie and he

13:46

had glasses. He wasn't like Elvis and you

13:48

slipped his hair back and shake his backside

13:50

and stuff. He wasn't one of those. He

13:52

was one of us. I remember

13:55

so distinctly when Alan and

13:57

I heard that he had

13:59

died. we were

14:01

both absolutely crying on the street.

14:04

So why don't we hear Maybe

14:06

Baby by Buddy Holly. With

14:42

Maybe Baby, Graham Nash as we've heard

14:44

at school you and Alan formed a

14:47

duo, you then expanded your line

14:49

up and became the four tones. So

14:51

then we had me and Alan

14:53

and Pete Bocking and Joe Abrams who

14:55

was the drummer and we needed a

14:57

bass player. So we got Butch Mepham,

14:59

great bass player. Then we were the

15:01

four tones even though there were five

15:04

of us. We

15:06

didn't quite understand that but anyway.

15:10

So you were off and gigging and already getting quite

15:12

good bookings by the sounds of it. I mean I

15:14

wonder what your school friends made of what you were

15:16

up to, your aspirations. Did you sing at school? Did

15:18

you have a bit of a name for yourself? I'll

15:22

be honest with you, if you did know two or

15:24

three chords and you can play a guitar at a

15:26

party, you know the girls would be much more interested

15:28

in you. At what point

15:30

did your horizons start to expand? What were

15:32

you dreaming of in the first

15:35

place when you and Alan first started to

15:37

play together? How big were your dreams? The

15:40

only dream we had was that we

15:42

would get paid for doing what we would

15:44

do naturally anyway. We didn't have done it

15:46

for nothing and we did often play shows

15:49

for free. But

15:51

we knew that that's what we wanted to

15:53

do. So we didn't have any dreams about

15:56

going to America and stuff like that until later because

15:58

we were all in the same place. We were

16:00

just thrilled that someone would

16:02

pay us to sing. It's

16:05

time for some more music. Your next disc today, if

16:07

you wouldn't mind, Graham Nash, number four, what have you

16:09

got for us and why have you chosen it? I

16:11

was, I think, 15 years

16:14

old, and me and Alan were

16:16

going to a Catholic schoolgirls' dance

16:18

on a Saturday night, and

16:21

Bye Bye Love by the Eveli Brothers

16:23

came on loud. And

16:28

it stunned me and Alan. We knew

16:30

that me and him could sing

16:32

together, but the

16:34

blend that Don and Phil

16:36

had was profoundly deep, and

16:38

it was DNA. They came

16:40

from the same mother. That

16:43

song changed my life. It

16:45

made me want to do that more

16:47

than we were doing. I

16:50

think we still remember that moment to this day.

16:56

They both my baby, but how

16:59

could you change

17:02

your life and be

17:05

hotter? She was

17:08

a little old. She

17:11

was a little old. But I'm

17:13

not a little

17:16

old. I'm not

17:18

a little old.

17:20

Bye Bye Love. The

17:23

Eveli Brothers and Bye Bye Love attract Graham

17:25

Nash that you said changed your life. Did

17:27

you ever see them live, meet them? They

17:31

played in the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, 1962.

17:35

And Alan and I decided two things.

17:38

One, we would go to the concert, but

17:40

two, we would meet them. The

17:43

best hotel in Manchester, or one of them, the

17:45

Midland Hotel, was only 100 yards away. So

17:48

we kind of figured that that's where they were staying.

17:52

And we waited. And we waited. And

17:54

just after 1 o'clock in the morning, they came around

17:56

the corner. They stood

17:58

and talked to me. for what

18:01

seemed like 20 minutes to me. It

18:03

may have only have been, you know,

18:05

two minutes. They called me Graham and

18:07

they called Alan Alan and

18:09

we said, you know, we sing together

18:11

and one day we'd really love to

18:14

make records and, you know, they patted

18:16

us on the head and that was

18:18

it. Three years later the Hollies

18:20

were playing at the London Palladium and

18:22

they were playing Sunday night. After

18:25

we did our sound check around 4.30,

18:27

the telephone rang and our road manager,

18:29

Rod Shields picked up the phone. He goes, yeah, uh-huh,

18:33

yeah, he's right here and he starts

18:36

to hand me the phone and I go, who

18:38

is it? He said, it's Phil Everly.

18:41

I said, hey, that's not nice. You can't, what

18:43

are we doing joking like that? He said, hey,

18:45

it's Phil Everly and

18:47

he goes, hey Graham, Don and I

18:49

are in town. We're about to

18:51

start a record called Two Yanks in England

18:54

and do the Hollies have any songs that

18:56

they haven't recorded yet and we

18:58

did. So they said,

19:00

come on down to the hotel and I think they were

19:02

staying at the Ritz here in London.

19:05

We went down to the hotel, we played

19:08

them a bunch of songs. They

19:10

chose, I think, six songs to sing

19:13

and we said, okay, we'd like to help you

19:15

with this. When are you gonna start the record?

19:17

And he said, tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock and

19:20

so we went and we helped him

19:22

record our songs and part

19:24

of the backing band was a pianist

19:27

called Reggie Dwight. I helped

19:29

John. Yeah and Jimmy

19:31

Page on guitar and John Paul Jones

19:33

on bass and they

19:36

made Two Yanks in England. Wow,

19:40

what a moment for you. Really. I

19:42

wonder what your parents made of your success

19:44

in the Hollies, Graham, because you know things

19:47

took off very quickly for you guys once

19:49

you got that deal. They were

19:51

very proud, particularly my mother, because she

19:53

knew what my passion was for

19:56

music and I always carried

19:58

a little container of my mother. mother's ashes.

20:02

And I've always sprinkled a

20:04

little of her ashes in the places

20:06

where I think she would have wanted

20:08

to sing had she become a singer

20:11

in her dreams. Carnegie

20:14

Hall, the Royal Albert Hall,

20:16

and a couple of other places. Oh,

20:19

how wonderful. She made it in the end. Don't

20:22

tell anybody, okay? Don't worry. I won't tell

20:24

anybody. Secret's safe with me. It's

20:26

time for some more music, I think, Graham Nash, your

20:29

fifth choice today, if you would. What is it? When

20:32

you were putting out albums originally, what

20:34

it was was basically a way for the

20:36

record company to make more money. And what

20:39

they would do is they put on eight

20:41

A sides and then four B sides, and

20:43

they would put it record out, right? But

20:47

it was the Beatles and the Beach Boys,

20:50

particularly Brian Wilson, of course, who

20:52

realized that an album could be

20:55

a journey. It didn't

20:57

have to be just chock full of

20:59

singles to make money for the record company. It

21:01

could be a journey. And the

21:03

Beach Boys had done a record

21:06

called Pet Sound, and

21:08

it was brilliant. So why don't we

21:10

hear a great song from the Beach Boys?

21:12

This is also one of

21:14

the best records in the world. God

21:17

only knows. The

21:52

Beach Boys and God only knows. Graham

21:54

Nash, you were one of the first

21:56

British artists to leave the UK and

21:59

live in America. the place had captivated

22:01

you from the very beginning. You

22:03

teamed up with David Crosby and Stephen

22:05

Stills to form Crosby, Stills and Nash.

22:07

And you've described that kind of quality

22:09

in your voices that within under a

22:11

minute, you knew that life had changed

22:14

for all of you forever. You had

22:16

to sing together. And that must have

22:18

been such a pivotal moment. But at

22:20

the same time, a really difficult one

22:22

because you were in a band

22:24

with your childhood friends. Yes. How did you break

22:26

it to Alan that you were leaving the Hollies?

22:29

I didn't. I didn't have the

22:31

courage. I was coward. I

22:34

had Ron Richards tell him. I

22:37

knew it was going to be difficult. As

22:40

a musician, I had fallen in love with the

22:42

sound that the three of us had created. And

22:46

at that moment, I knew that I'd had to go

22:48

back to England and leave my

22:50

band and leave my equipment and

22:52

my money and go to

22:54

America and follow that sound. And that that's

22:57

what I did. It was very

22:59

awkward for me and Alan. He was my

23:01

best friend then. I'd known him since, as

23:03

you know, since I was six years old.

23:05

We had done all this singing and started

23:08

the Hollies in December of 62 and

23:11

made all those records. And it was it

23:14

was very awkward for me. But

23:16

I wanted that sound.

23:20

Did you feel guilty? Yes. So

23:23

you had a musical partnership that you

23:25

had to pursue Crosby, Stills and Nash,

23:28

obviously, and then Neil Young. And

23:30

the collaboration between the three, sometimes

23:32

four of you actually sometimes two

23:35

of you, because you and David

23:37

Crosby made records together, was so

23:39

creatively fruitful and long standing. But

23:41

you were all huge personalities. How

23:44

did the creative process work? What

23:46

was an average day like? There was a huge

23:49

difference between the first Crosby, Stills and

23:51

Nash record and Deja Vaux. Basically,

23:54

it was this. When we made

23:56

the first record, I was in love with Joni and

23:58

living with her in Los Angeles. David

24:00

was in love with his girlfriend Christine.

24:03

Stephen was in love with Judy Conlin. A

24:06

year later when we're doing Deja Vu, I'm

24:08

no longer with John. Stephen

24:10

and Judy had broken up and Christine

24:12

had been killed in a car accident.

24:16

So it was darker. And

24:18

we had Neil. He was funny.

24:20

He was dark. And

24:22

at the end of breakfast, he looked me in the

24:25

eye and said, because I looked him in the eye,

24:27

I said, why should we invite you into this band?

24:30

And he looked at me and he said, you ever

24:32

heard me and Stephen play guitar together? I

24:34

said, yes. He said, that's

24:36

the reason you need me in this band. And

24:39

I agreed. And so it became

24:41

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. It

24:44

was just the most incredible adventure

24:46

for all of you. But often,

24:48

you know, offstage drug problems, alcohol

24:50

problems came to the fore and

24:52

caused difficulties. Crosby in particular had

24:54

serious substance abuse. And

24:57

I think, as you mentioned, he lost his girlfriend.

24:59

She was killed in a car accident. And that

25:01

really put him in a very

25:03

difficult place. How did the other band

25:06

members and how did you as a friend deal

25:08

with that? Because I know that you were particularly

25:10

close, the two of you. I

25:12

needed to really be with

25:14

him, support him. And

25:17

we decided that we would go around the

25:19

world and drink ourselves to death. We

25:22

had a favorite drink, which strangely

25:24

enough was a Cauffoisier and

25:26

Coca Cola. Strange. I

25:29

stayed with him because I knew

25:31

that he had a very short grip

25:33

on life. You know, I knew that

25:35

he how desperately

25:37

he felt because Christine had been

25:40

killed. So I

25:42

just wanted

25:44

to look to support him. You know, I

25:47

wanted to be his friend. And

25:49

that's what we did. We

25:51

went drinking around the world. You took

25:54

a boat trip together and I think you wrote

25:56

the song to the Last Whale. Yes. I

25:58

Think that's, you know, in a way. you. Wondering

26:01

about him and trying to figure him out as

26:04

a person and was to been incredibly hard to

26:06

support him. Via it was you.

26:08

In that time, it was difficult.

26:10

We went from Spam Fort Lauderdale

26:13

to San Francisco, through the Panama

26:15

Canal and up the coast. Either

26:17

way to San Francisco. nine weeks.

26:20

I've never sailed before in my life. I

26:23

put my life in his hands.

26:25

Crosby wasn't unbelievable. Captain of a

26:27

ship. When we

26:29

got to San Francisco, I'm. We

26:32

started to make Deja Vu. It was a

26:35

magic time and and when I wanted to

26:37

make sure that Davies who that I was,

26:39

his friend and I was gonna love him

26:41

and support him did. You understand and d

26:44

think to you as a cigarette that these.

26:46

Are not pretty complicated places I don't

26:48

think anybody see good cause me out

26:50

not even Crosby. He

26:52

was also. A

26:55

profound individual. Who

26:57

could light up a room with

26:59

a sentence and kill everybody? Was

27:01

another sentence. A minute later, came

27:05

the testimonies. it just under six.

27:08

Next and any choose a classical

27:10

piece of music.i've always loved. It

27:13

always puts me. In an incredible

27:15

mood. As most great

27:17

music does, i've

27:19

always loved the ceiling inside

27:22

of me when i listen

27:24

to this so why don't

27:26

we play the adagio for

27:28

strings by samuel bother Barbara

28:30

Zidagio for Strings with the City

28:33

of London Symphonia conducted by Richard Hickles.

28:36

Graham you've chronicled your life in photography

28:38

and alongside creating a fine art printing

28:40

company many of the images that you've

28:42

taken have become part of the rock

28:44

photography canon because of the access you've

28:47

had. Do you have a favorite shot? I

28:49

think that one of Crosby is my

28:51

favorite shot. He looks incredibly young and

28:53

very handsome and he had

28:55

no idea and once again

28:58

the look in his eye

29:00

I know deeply what he's thinking

29:02

and I want to be

29:04

invisible. I don't want people to know that I'm

29:06

taking that picture. And have

29:08

photography helped you understand yourself? I

29:11

had a show of my self-portraits

29:13

in Berlin. I was

29:15

in the gallery a lady comes

29:17

up to me and she says you know something

29:20

you should have your head examined. She said yeah

29:22

look at all these self-portraits there's

29:24

never one of them where I can

29:26

see your face. They're

29:28

distorted, they're reflections in broken

29:31

mirrors, they're not straightforward portrait

29:33

of myself. And

29:35

she said you better get your head examined.

29:39

Did you? No I do

29:42

have a therapist. A lot of people

29:44

in New York have a therapist and

29:46

I'm no different than anybody else. I

29:48

need someone to talk to occasionally and

29:50

so every week I talk to my

29:53

therapist. It's time to go to

29:55

the music. Graham Nash we've got to make room for

29:57

your seventh disc. What are we gonna hear next? Peter

30:00

Gabriel is a fantastic

30:02

musician, a

30:04

brilliant, brilliant record maker. He

30:08

did a song called Don't Give Up with Kate Bush

30:10

and I've loved it since the moment I

30:13

heard it and if anybody out there has

30:16

something that they would love to do, don't

30:18

let anybody put you off. Don't

30:20

let anybody dissuade you from doing what you

30:23

love. Don't

30:57

give up Peter Gabriel and Kate

30:59

Bush. Graham Nash is

31:01

still writing, still performing and taking

31:04

pictures at 81. Can you

31:06

imagine a time when you might step back and put

31:08

your feet up? My feet are always up.

31:11

I love what I do. That's the

31:13

thing about, you know, don't give

31:15

up. I love what I do. You

31:18

know, don't let anybody stop you. If

31:20

you have something that you love, get

31:22

to it. Do it. Well, I

31:24

appreciate that for you, the day job might

31:26

not feel like work, but you're still embracing

31:29

changes and new experiences. I mean, in recent

31:31

years, you've married for a third time, you've

31:33

relocated to New York. You know, a lot

31:35

of people in their 70s would find that

31:37

kind of upheaval quite difficult, but it seems

31:39

like you really relish it. I do. I

31:42

can't do anything about the past. You

31:45

can't buy a second of time.

31:48

Even Bill Gates and Zuckerberg can't buy

31:50

a second of time. And you talked

31:52

about using time wisely and the importance of

31:54

embracing it. I wonder for you, when are

31:57

you happiest? What's the best use of your

31:59

time? I love that

32:01

feeling within me that I've created a

32:03

song and I love the feeling

32:05

inside me when I think I've created a great

32:07

photograph. Will you sing on your

32:09

desert island, do you think, Groom? Absolutely.

32:13

Well, one more disc before we cast you away, Groom.

32:15

Nash, what's it going to be? Final

32:17

choice today. A program like

32:19

this needs to be a journey

32:21

and we have made the journey from the

32:24

early fifties all the way through to today.

32:27

I want to end up with

32:29

one of the greatest songs that was ever written.

32:32

It's incredibly profound. Let's

32:35

finish off this show with

32:38

a day in the life by the

32:40

Beatles. A

32:58

day in the life by

33:03

the Beatles. So

33:15

Groom, Nash, I'm going to send you away to

33:18

the island now. I'm giving you the books, the

33:20

Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare to take

33:22

with you and you can have one other of

33:24

your own choice. What will it be? I

33:26

just finished a book called The Island at

33:29

the Center of the World and

33:31

it's a history of Manhattan from

33:33

1600 to the present day and

33:35

it's a brilliant, brilliant book about

33:38

exactly what happened and

33:40

why all the politics was all

33:42

moved to Washington DC and why

33:44

in New York was only a

33:46

center made for making money. So

33:49

it's an incredibly beautiful book by a

33:52

man called Russell Shorto called The Island

33:54

at the Center of the World. It

33:57

sounds like quite a good place for someone with

33:59

such a... enormous drive to be

34:02

at the stage of life you're at. Yeah,

34:05

I'm lucky to be alive. Who

34:07

knows when I'll pass, but you

34:09

know what? When they're putting the coffin

34:11

lid down, I'll still be riding. You

34:15

can also have a luxury item to take with you to

34:17

the desert island, Graham. What would you like? I'd

34:19

want a great sleeping bag. Oh, a

34:21

sleeping bag. Tell me more. Are you an

34:24

outdoorsy person? Not at all. No

34:26

way. Okay. No, no, no. Just a

34:28

luxury sleeping bag of some

34:30

style. Yes, just to protect myself

34:32

at night so I can sleep well. Oh

34:35

yeah, I can do that. I'll even throw in

34:37

a quality camping mattress for you. Fantastic.

34:40

Finally, which one track of the eight that you've

34:42

shared with us today would you rush to save

34:45

from the waves first if you had to? A

34:47

Day in the Life. It's

34:49

the greatest song that was ever written, I think. Graham

34:52

Nash, thank you very much for sharing your

34:54

desert island discs with us. You're very, very welcome.

34:56

Thank you. Hello.

35:10

It was lovely to chat to Graham and I

35:12

hope he's happy on his island tucked up in

35:14

that luxury sleeping bag of his. There are more

35:17

than 2000 programmes in our

35:19

archive which you can listen to. We've

35:21

cast so many musicians away over the

35:23

years including Paul McCartney, Tom York, Adele

35:25

and George Michael. You can find all

35:27

those programmes if you search through

35:29

BBC Sounds or on our own desert

35:31

island discs website. The studio manager

35:34

for today's programme is Emma Hart and the

35:36

producer was Sarah Taylor. If

35:47

anyone is an artist in their

35:49

soul, it's Joni Mitchell. There are

35:51

some artists that change music forever.

35:53

The mastery of the guitar, the

35:55

mastery of voice, the mastery of

35:57

language. That shaped the musical landscape

35:59

for everyone. who comes after. When

36:01

the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand

36:03

as the most important and influential female

36:05

recording artist of the late 20th century.

36:08

Legend is a music biography podcast

36:10

from BBC Radio 4 that

36:12

explores the extraordinary lives of musical pioneers.

36:14

I think people would like me to

36:16

just be introverted and bleed for them

36:18

forever. Legend, the Joni

36:21

Mitchell story, with me, Jessica Hooke.

36:23

Listen now on BBC Sounds.