This was written by Graham Nash when he was a member of the Hollies, but it was rejected as not commercial enough. Here is a clip of the group trying out the backing track.
A clever person put it together with a Nash solo track and created how it might have sounded if the Hollies had persevered with it. It doesn’t work for me.
When Nash became part of Crosby, Stills and Nash it was recorded for the group’s self-titled album and released as a single in July 1969. It reached No 28 in America and 17 in Britain.
Here they perform it at Woodstock in August 1969.
I enjoyed all of those; fantastic stuff! The Woodstock version sounded the most heartfelt, making the single version sounding schmaltzy by comparison.
I love the first CSN&Y album; at one time I was totally preoccupied with it. “Wooden Ships” is very pretentious but I went along with it. The version by Jefferson Airplane even dafter. (JA are a completely preposterous group, but that’s their attraction for me).
I even went to Morocco (although not to Marrakesh) with records such as the CSNY one in my head, and stories of the adventures of the Rolling Stones. It was fun in those innocent times. Didn’t like the animal markets though.