Songs for Beginners

Songs for Beginners
Studio album by Graham Nash
Released	May 28, 1971 September 23, 2008 (CD+DVD)
Recorded	1970-1971 Wally Heiders Studio III, Los Angeles and Studio "C", San Francisco
Genre	Rock
Length	32:13
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Graham Nash
Graham Nash chronology
Songs for Beginners (1971) Wild Tales (1973)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Allmusic	(CD+DVD)
Rolling Stone	(favorable)

Songs for Beginners is Graham Nash's first solo album, released in May 1971, and one of four high-profile albums released by each partner of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping Déjà Vu album of 1970. It peaked at #15 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, and the single "Chicago" made it to #35 on the Billboard Hot 100.

History

Nash brought in an impressive group of guests to assist in the recording, including David Crosby, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Dave Mason, David Lindley, Rita Coolidge and Neil Young (under his pseudonym Joe Yankee). The album featured the traits that Nash had come to be known for: a good sense of pop song construction, expressions of emotional sincerity, and fervent political activism. The Top 40 track, "Chicago," concerned both the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the infamous trial of the Chicago Eight, articulating the outrage Nash felt concerning those proceedings. The topicality which suffuses the album would always remain central to Nash's work: of the quartet, he and Crosby most directly professed sentiments aligned with those common to the Woodstock Nation. This similarity undoubtedly formed part of the foundation for their long-standing partnership even outside the parent group.

The album was released on compact disc on October 25, 1990, and a remixed version supervised by Nash was issued on 180 gram vinyl by Classic Records in 2001. Both issues are out of print. A reissued edition of Songs for Beginners was released on September 23, 2008 as CD+DVD-Audio pack, featuring a bonus multichannel hi-rez audio, all new 2008 video interview with Graham Nash, plus a photo gallery and complete lyrics along with the 11-track CD album remastered.

The song "Simple Man" featured in the opening sequence of the 2007 Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle film Reign Over Me, and Sandler's character later praises the album upon finding it in a used record store.

A demo version of "Be Yourself" plays during the closing credits of the film "Up in the Air".

"Military Madness" has been covered live by Death Cab For Cutie, and was covered by indie-rock band Woods on their 2009 album Songs of Shame."

Track listing

All songs by Graham Nash, except where noted.

1. "Military Madness" – 2:50
2. "Better Days" – 3:47
3. "Wounded Bird" – 2:09
4. "I Used to Be a King" – 4:45
5. "Be Yourself" (Nash, Terry Reid) – 3:03
6. "Simple Man" – 2:05
7. "Man in the Mirror" – 2:47
8. "There's Only One" – 3:55
9. "Sleep Song" – 2:57
10. "Chicago" - 2:55
11. "We Can Change the World" - 1:00

• Some versions of the album list the last two songs as "Chicago" / "We Can Change the World."

Personnel

Military Madness

• Graham Nash – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
• Johny Barbata – drums
• Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels – bass
• Joel Bernstein – piano
• Dave Mason – electric guitar
• Rita Coolidge – background vocals
• P.P. Arnold – background vocals

Better Days

• Graham Nash – lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar, organ, piano
• Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels – bass
• Rita Coolidge – background vocals
• Dallas Taylor – drums
• Neil Young – piano
• Sermon Posthumas – bass clarinet solo
• Larry Cox – whiskers

Wounded Bird

• Graham Nash – lead vocals, acoustic guitar

I Used to Be a King

• Graham Nash – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
• Johny Barbata – drums
• Phil Lesh – bass
• Jerry Garcia – piano, steel guitar
• David Crosby – electric guitar

Be Yourself

• Graham Nash – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
• Johny Barbata – drums
• Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels – bass
• Rita Coolidge – piano, electric piano
• Everyone Loose There – chorus

Simple Man

• Graham Nash – lead vocals, background vocals, piano
• Rita Coolidge – background vocals
• Dorian Rudnytsky – cello
• David Lindley – fiddle

Man in the Mirror

• Graham Nash – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
• Johny Barbata – drums
• Neil Young – piano
• Jerry Garcia – steel guitar
• Chris Ethridge – bass

There's Only One

• Graham Nash – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, organ
• Johny Barbata – drums
• Rita Coolidge – background vocals, piano
• Larry Cox – whiskers
• Chris Ethridge – bass
• Bobby Keys – saxophone solo
• Venetta Fields, Sherlie Matthews, Clydie King, Dorothy Morrison – background vocals

Sleep Song

• Graham Nash – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, paper, comb
• Dorian Rudnytsky – cello

Chicago / We Can Change the World

• Graham Nash – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, organ on "We Can Change the World", piano, tambourine
• Johny Barbata – drums, tambourine on "We Can Change the World"
• Rita Coolidge – background vocals
• Larry Cox – whiskers
• Chris Ethridge – bass
• Venetta Fields, Sherlie Matthews, Clydie King, Dorothy Morrison – background vocals

Additional personnel

• Bill Halverson, engineer
• Gary Burden, art direction
• Russ Gary, engineer

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1971	Pop Albums	15

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1971	"Chicago"	Pop Singles	35
1971	"Military Madness"	Pop Singles	73