Before There Was "Southern Cross," There Was This Song

Rick and Michael Curtis had been writing and performing their own country rock songs since the ‘60s.  But their music never connected with an audience and their singles never took off. 

During one fallow period, they befriended a struggling couple who were trying to get their own musical career off the ground, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.  And as a foursome, they cut two notable demos together.  One was a song the Curtises had written called “Blue Letter” which Lindsey and Stevie brought to Fleetwood Mac when they joined that group in 1974.  The other was a song called “Seven League Boots” that eventually caught the attention of Stephen Stills. 

In the liner notes to the CSN box set, Stephen called it “a wonderful song, but it drifted around too much.  I rewrote a new set of words and added a different chorus [and] a story about a long boat trip I took after my divorce.”

The result was the song “Southern Cross,” one of the strongest tunes to come out of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s later career.  Kudos to Stephen’s prowess as a musician and a songwriter.  He was able to hear the great musical ideas in the Curtis brothers’ original tune and build on them with a powerful story taken from his own life.

“It’s about the power of the universe to heal your wounds,” Stephen wrote in those liner notes.  “Once again, I was given somebody's gem and cut and polished it.”

(And it’s worth mentioning that the version of “Southern Cross” that you know is actually just Stills and Graham Nash.  Yes, the song was released under the name Crosby, Stills & Nash, but at the time it was recorded, David Crosby had not yet reunited with the other two musicians.)

But check out the original demo by Rick and Michael Curtis. You can hear “Southern Cross” in there itching to break out.