Though on the surface a jaunty early-1970s singer-songwriter outing, "Military Madness" portrays the devastation that war wreaked on Graham Nash's family and native country of England. The song is based on autobiographical experience that is "totally true," Nash said. "I was born in this upstairs room in a kind of hotel that had been turned into a hospital in an evacuation area....My father was in the army, while my mother was having me--February 2, 1942, in the midst of World War II." Lead guitar on the track is supplied by fellow rock star Dave Mason.