Crosby, Stills, & Nash: Dark Star

For today’s Friday flipside, we have to turn to a live recording as Atlantic Records won’t allow the studio versions of Crosby, Stills, and Nash to be posted on YouTube. “Dark Star” was the “B” side to the 1977 single release of “Just A Song Before I Go” from the “CSN” LP. The “Just A Song Before I Go” single charted at #7 and the “CSN” LP did quite well peaking at #2 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart.

“Dark Star” received quite a bit of album airplay and I remember groovin’ to it while listening to Charleston, WV’s WVAF while driving 30 miles to a from work every day. This was back before WVAF became V-100 with their top forty and later adult contemporary radio formats.

It is unfortunate that we can’t share the studio version – which was the actual flipside; however, to compensate, here are two live versions of this CSN classic. The first doesn’t show the band; however, it is a little truer to the studio rendition. The second is from a more recent concert and some slight modifications to the arrangement were made to the tune by this performance.