Exclusive Premiere: Graham Nash Shares the Original Demo of 'Just A Song Before I Go'
Graham Nash is an iconic singer, songwriter and guitarist and his upcoming release, Over The Years, shares not only many of his outstanding hits, but also the original demos of many of the world’s favorites. The album releases on June 29, but we’re lucky enough to be able to share the demo from the 1977 hit, “Just A Song Before I Go” today.
The simple piano and solitary vocal cut to the essence of this iconic classic. A wistful harmonica solo enhances the melancholy feel. The song was written in the space of one hour on a dare, and demo’d in November 1976, and became a Top 10 single, the biggest hit of CSN’s career.
Nash shares this about the inspiration for the song, “‘Just A Song Before I Go’ was one of the fastest songs I’ve ever written. I was in Maui and had a couple of hours to kill before I had to catch a plane. I was at the house of a friend of mine, and even though he was a friend of mine, he had no respect for me. As I stood up to leave he said, ‘Hey I bet you $500 you can’t write a song just before you go.’ And he had no idea that he had given me the title for the song in the question!”