Wind on the Water

Wind on the Water is the second album by Crosby & Nash, recorded at Rudy Records, San Francisco, CA
and Sound Labs and Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA. It was released on ABC Records on September 15, 1975, although cassette and 8-track tape versions of the album were distributed by their previous label, Atlantic Records. It peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and has been certified a gold record by the RIAA. Three singles were released from the album, "Carry Me," "Take the Money and Run," and "Love Work Out," of which only the first charted, peaking at #52 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

As on their debut album, most of the instrumental backing was provided by the group of session musicians known as The Section. This quartet consisting of keyboardist Craig Doerge, guitarist Danny Kortchmar, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russell Kunkel, along with multi-instrumentalist David Lindley and bassist Tim Drummond, would be dubbed by Crosby as 'The Mighty Jitters' and provide support for the duo both on stage and in the studio for the remainder of the decade. Sessions for the album took place at Rudy Recorders in San Francisco, and the Sound Lab and Village Recorders in Los Angeles.

Entering their mid-thirties, Crosby and Nash explored darker, trenchant themes in their lyrics for this album, "Carry Me" referencing the death of Crosby's mother, with "Wind on the Water" an elegiac plea concerning the slaughter of whales. As usual, songs topics included personal issues and friends: "Mama Lion" purportedly about Joni Mitchell; "Cowboy of Dreams" about Young; and "Take the Money and Run" concerning the financial aftermath to the mammoth CSNY 1974 tour.

Two songs feature the first issued writing collaborations of Nash and Crosby. The one on side two that closes the album, "To the Last Whale…," links two separate compositions: an a cappella sketch by Crosby "Critical Mass," into the title track by Nash.

Wind on the Water was reissued for compact disc on January 11, 2000, on MCA Records. On April 24, 2001, the album was repackaged as Bittersweet on the budget label Hallmark Records from a second-generation master tape and issued in Europe.