Rolling Stone recently sat down with Crosby, Stills & Nash to go track by track through their landmark 1969 debut album. Recorded before Neil Young joined their ranks, it contains many of their most enduring songs. “We were in love with each other at the time we recorded that album,” Graham Nash says. “We were new friends discovering new parts about each other and we had songs. And we had the ability to translate those songs into records that was astounding and we knew it. When we walked out of the studio with that two-track under our arm, we knew what it was going to do. We knew that it was going to be a hit. We knew that we had nailed something that wasn’t really that popular kind of then. It was all Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix and stuff and here comes this little acoustic record.”

Here’s the story behind seven songs from Crosby, Stills & Nash:

• Track by Track: Crosby, Stills & Nash on Their Debut Album