“Wooden Ships” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash

"Wooden Ships" drifts across Crosby, Stills & Nash's self-titled 1969 album, but it was born a year earlier on the water: David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kantner put it together aboard the Mayan, Crosby's boat, in Fort Lauderdale. Crosby brought the music, and Kantner and Stills supplied most of the words, which land it squarely among the era's protest songs.

Kantner's name was missing from the original pressing, because he was tangled up in a legal fight with the Airplane's manager, Matthew Katz; later editions set the record straight, and Crosby says they paid him handsomely once the album took off. Here the trio produced it themselves, Stills doubling on bass, guitar and organ, Crosby on guitar, Dallas Taylor on drums, and all three voices braided together, with Bill Halverson at the recording desk.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.