Timed to the 50th anniversary of Woodstock and the formation of the band, the first ever biography focused on the incredible early years of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young when they were the most successful, influential and politically potent rock band in America.

For five years, between 1969 and 1974, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were the most successful, influential and politically potent rock band in America. More than any of their peers, they channeled and broadcast all the radical anger, romantic idealism and generational angst of their era. The vast emotional range of their music, from delicate acoustic confessionals to raucous counter-culture anthems, was mirrored in the turbulence of their personal lives. Their trademark may have been vocal harmony, but few if any of their contemporaries could match the recklessness of their hedonistic and often warring lifestyles, as four stubborn, driven songwriters pursued chemical and sexual pleasure to life-threatening extremes (David Crosby is still being introduced to children he didn't know he had).

CSNY chronicles four iconic musicians and the movement which they came to represent. It concentrates on their prime as a collective unit and a cultural force: the years between 1969, when Woodstock telegraphed their arrival to the world, and 1974, when their arch-enemy Richard Nixon was driven from office, and CSNY (in Graham Nash’s lyrical phrase) ‘lost it on the highway’. The book’s coda chronicles in brief a further four decades of attempted and abandoned collaborations, and the political crusades that ensured their partnership could never quite be put to rest.

Peter Doggett is regular contributor to Mojo, Q and GQ, his books include THE ART AND MUSIC OF JOHN LENNON, a volume detailing the creation of the Beatles' Let It Be and Abbey Road albums; the pioneering study of the collision between rock and country music, ARE YOU READY FOR THE COUNTRY?; THERE'S A RIOT GOING ON: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars and the Rise and Fall of 60s Counter-culture; and, YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY: The Beatles After the Breakup.