Wooden Ships - 2005 Remaster

In David Crosby's liner notes for the 1991 box set Crosby, Stills & Nash, he says this cryptic, apocalyptic, anti-war song was "written in the main cabin of my boat, the Mayan. I had the music already [and Jefferson Airplane's] Paul Kanter wrote two verses, Stephen [Stills] wrote one and I added the bits at both ends." He goes on to say that the songwriters "imagined ourselves as the few survivors, escaping on a boat to create a new civilization." Crosby called the song "science fiction," but with the Vietnam War escalating and nuclear weapons bunkered around the world, it didn't seem beyond the realm of possibility.

This is the only song on the Crosby, Stills & Nash album - the group's first - with more than one writer on the credits. The group came together in 1968 after the three members - David Crosby (The Byrds), Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield) and Graham Nash (The Hollies) left very successful bands. Each came with their own songs, which were evenly distributed throughout the album. Crosby and Stills made music together before Nash joined, which is how "Wooden Ships" came together.

If you smile at me, I will understand 'Cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language These opening lines Crosby cribbed from a Baptist church in Florida that had this message on their sign.