Literally, yacht rock.
It’s so yacht rock, it’s “look at me! Now that I’m successful, I bought a boat! Ain’t it cool? Don’t you wish you could afford one? I must write a song about this!”
It’s so boring compared to the more excellent post-apocalyptic Wooden Ships.
Which benefited greatly from the contributions of Paul Kantner.
She’s certainly what pushed them over the top. But somewhere Marty Balin is spinning in his grave spitting obscenities 
. He had considered Jefferson Airplane to be his band and deeply and bitterly resented Grace Slick stealing the spotlight and de facto control from him.
Oh, but when the two of them were on and letting go, the results were amazing.
Or so I vaguely remember. It was 50 years ago and the drugs were better back then.
you need not cross the Equator to do that; my wife and I saw it for the first time in Costa Rica. It thrilled us both, it’s just so vivid and in your face. We’ve not yet made it below the Equator.
I don’t think those two songs can really be compared to each other, coming as they are from two different writers and viewpoints.
I’ve always thought Stephen Stills was the most talented member of the trio, and the best overall songwriter. (I’m sure he does too.) Heck, he played almost all the instruments on the first album himself. It was Nash, however, that brought them Top 40 radio success with Marrakesh Express, Our House and Teach Your Children, tunes in that light, breezy, radio-friendly style he was known for. I never much cared for any of those songs, preferring the songs by Stills and Crosby.
Southern Cross, written by Stills and others, sticks in my mind in a good way. Wasted on the Way is just OK. But I probably wouldn’t change the station on either of them in the increasingly unlikely event they showed up on the radio.
As an aside, the “space force theme” reminds me of the musical bit from the first Captain America movie.
What a beautiful story, friend. If I ever do make it to Costa Rica (which I hope to, some day) I will now have the knowledge that the SC is visible from there!
It was dopers who helped me figure out that I could see it in Costa Rica. We were down there, I tried figuring it out online, but gave up and asked here. I got good orderly directions to look due south at 4 AM, and DAMN, there it was! SDMB came thru again for me!
That’s like comparing it to “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” or Jamie Brockett’s “Legend Of the U.S.S. Titanic.”
Or “The Good Ship Lollipop.”
How many feet of rope you got?
Four hundred n’ ninety-seven n’ a half feet.
The lyrics to Southern Cross are sublime. I can generate a goosebump whenever I hear certain lines:
She is all that I have left and music is her name
‘Cause the truth you might be runnin’ from is so small, but it’s as big as the promise, the promise of a comin’ day
But on a midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away
Although I confess, for years I thought that last lyric was “…why, Christ, you ran away…”
mmm
Bu is it as good as Sign of the Southern Cross?
It’s not even as good as if Chris Cross covered Southern Man.
I’ve always considered ‘Southern Cross’ to be CS&N’s swan song. It’s the last “new” thing they did that had the vibe of the old CS&N. It’s sorta like Grateful Dead’s ‘Touch of Grey’ was also their swan song, which came out around the same time. Both of those songs signified the beginning of the end of two of my most favorite bands.