“Teach Your Children” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

Graham Nash wrote "Teach Your Children" in 1968, while he was still one of the Hollies, and after a first pass at it for the Crosby, Stills & Nash album in 1969, the song found its home on Déjà vu, the 1970 album by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash's demo had a Henry VIII flavor until Stephen Stills gave it a country swing. Nash tied its message to a Diane Arbus photograph of a scowling child gripping a toy hand grenade in Central Park, and what grown-ups teach kids about war runs under all that sweetness.

Jerry Garcia plays the pedal steel, stitched together from pieces spliced in the studio, and his price was a harmony lesson: CSNY would help the Grateful Dead with their singing on Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. Crosby, Stills and Nash sing it, Dallas Taylor keeps time, and all four members share the production credit.

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