Over the years Neil has had a lot of backing groups: The Stray Gators, The Shocking Pinks, The Bluenotes, The International Harvesters, The Santa Monica Flyers, The Ducks, Promise of the Real, Booker T & The MGs, Pearl Jam… but the one that most people associate with Neil is a garage band formerly known as The Rockets that Neil re-christened “Crazy Horse”.

Here Neil found his calling. He was not a team player nor was he solo auteur. What Neil needed was to be the captain of the ship. It needed to be his ideas, and his vision, but he didn’t need to micro-manage everything. Having found the right configuration, Neil finally came into his own with Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, recording some of his best-known and well-loved songs like Cinnamon Girl and Down By The River.

Having figured out that being an equal member in a band didn’t work out for him (especially a band containing Stephen Stills), Neil’s next move was to join Crosby, Stills, & Nash. Stephen assumed that Neil would just be their backing band’s guitarist, while Neil assumed full member duties, necessitating a change in the name of one of the world’s last creatively named band. While this joint venture was very frustrating for all involved it was also quite fruitful and Neil’s star continued to rise commercially and critically.

While his work with Crazy horse may have served to showcase his loud, rocking, “godfather of grunge” side, CSN&Y was not as useful for allowing Neil to demonstrate his softer acoustic singer-songwriter side. So his next solo record was the lighter After The Gold Rush. While this album continued Neil’s hot streak, his next record, the similarly acoustic Harvest brought Neil his greatest level of success. This album was recorded with the Stray Gators, and toggling between the loud Crazy Horse and the quiet Stray Gators was a pattern that Neil would tinker with for the rest of his career.

This is the period during which Neil had the highest profile and most of his biggest hits were recorded, including his only #1, Heart Of Gold. But much like tales of genies or monkey’s paws, Neil found that once he got what he wanted he found it wasn’t what he really wanted after all.