Featuring a cover painting of the band's four members by Joni Mitchell, So Far is a "Best Of" compilation timed to coincide with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's reunion tour in 1974. The album contains a comprehensive slice of the group's work from the early days that showcases their trademark vocal harmonies and peerless songwriting talents.

Gems include the Neil Young compositions "Helpless" and the protest song "Ohio," about the four students shot dead on the campus of Kent State University during an anti-Vietnam war demonstration in 1970, as well as Graham Nash's wonderful "Teach Your Children" (featuring the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia on pedal steel), and the David Crosby/Stephen Stills song "Wooden Ships." There is also a cover of the Joni Mitchell song "Woodstock" originally featured on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's best-selling 1970 album Déjà Vu .

Helped by the publicity generated by the reunion tour, the album topped the US Hot 100 -- the band's third straight Number One -- and achieved a more modest, but still respectable, Number 25 in the UK.

As of 2004, So Far was the #35 best-selling album of the 70s.

- Hamish Champ, The 100 Best-Selling Albums of the 70s, 2004.

Bonus Reviews!

Some of the best of one of the major American super groups of the past five years, with each of these four major artists given his chance to take the lead. Not titled a greatest hits LP, but esentially, that's what this is. From the distinctive vocals of Neil Young to the romanticism of Graham Nash to the soft sounds of David Crosby t Stephen Stills always well done songs, this is a perfect retrospective on one of the major conglomerations of talent, both individually and collectively. Best cuts: "Helplessly Hoping," "Ohio," "Guinnevere," "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes."

This group might benefit from a compilation that concentrated on guitar interactions and uptempo throwaways. Needless to say, that's not the one we get. B-

- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.

This was music made for the market, not for the more personal expressive needs of its creators, and it shows (occasional quality additions from Neil Young notwithstanding). But popular older music is often enduring for its nostalgic value, if nothing else, and this collection provides a fair overview of some very popular late sixties and early seventies material. The sound is a mixed bag, sometimes compressed, sometimes harshly bright, sometimes marred by lound hiss, but it still surpasses the LP due to its spatial and dynamic enhancement. C-

- Bill Shapiro, Rock & Roll Review: A Guide to Good Rock on CD, 1991.

Released to coincide with CSN&Y's 1974 reunion tour, this compilation remains the best representation of the group's early work, featuring such hits as "Teach Your Children" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." It also put the one-off single "Ohio/Find The Cost Of Freedom" (CSN&Y's response to the shooting of four anti-war student protestors at Kent State University) on an album for the first time. * * * *

- William Ruhlmann, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

So Far, a greatest hits package after only two albums, contains the high points of the first two releases as well as the scathing single that came out in the wake of the Kent State shootings, "Ohio/Find the Cost of Freedom." * * * * *

- Brian Escamilla, Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, 1996.

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