Graham Nash Shares Previously Unreleased Nixon-Era Song “Vote”
Neil Young isn’t the only ex-CSNY member releasing old music today. Hours after Young shared “Homefires,” a previously unreleased track from 1974, Graham Nash has released a song from the same era. Nash wrote the protest song “Vote” during Richard Nixon’s administration, and he’s just now putting it out. He hopes it will help drive citizens to the polls to vote Donald Trump out of office.
“Vote” is a soft, jazzy acoustic folk-rock track laced with saxophone. At Rolling Stone, Nash explains that he dug up the Watergate-inspired song last year and showed it to collaborator Shane Fontayne. On tour early this year, they began working out a new demo of the song. Once the pandemic hit, they sent the basic tracks around to be fleshed out by various players, and Nash recorded his final vocals at his apartment in a space he calls “the Studio Toilette.”
“In 2016, 48% of the American people who could vote, didn’t,” Nash tells RS. “Now, maybe they thought Hillary had it sewn up. Maybe it was snowing that day. Maybe the kids were driving them crazy and they couldn’t get to the voting booth. But 48% of the people didn’t vote and look what happened. We must use the most powerful voice that we have, which is our vote.”
The “Vote” video begins with a message: “In the time it takes to watch this video, you can change the world with the most powerful form of protest ever!” Watch below.