If you smile at me...

I've been a fan of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young for as long as I can remember. Although I do not claim to know every public information about them, there are still a few interesting details worth knowing.

For instance when I was listening again to their very first album, their self-titled Crosby, Stills & Nash (without Young), I was struck by the evocative mood of the first track on Side Two.

To me, Wooden Ships - co-written by Crosby, Stills and Paul Kantner (of Jefferson Airplane fame) - was a song of surviving and hoping. The song had very profound lyrics, and the most memorable were the opening lines that went:

If you smile at me I will understand, 'cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language.

According to Crosby's notes in the CSN CD box set released in 1991, he had borrowed this simple and strong message from a signboard in a little Baptist church in Florida, USA. It should be a timeless message as well but in this age and times, there's very little of this understanding now. What a pity!

Side One: Suite: Judy blue eyes, Marrakesh express, Guinnevere, You don't have to cry, Pre-road downs
Side Two: Wooden ships, Lady of the island, Helplessly hoping, Long time gone, 49 bye-byes