byrdsongs, liii

Is it Nash and Crosby or Crosby and Nash?  Either way, I had their first album when I was a kid. I bought it for Immigration Man, a song in fairly heavy rotation on WNEW, 102.7 FM in New York. Hearing the song now, I can see why I liked it. To a ten year old, the song will sound like it has a serious message that imbues the music with an air of importance. I can't really remember what that message was for me back then, quite possibly because now, more than three decades later, I still can't really figure out what they're on about. I'll bet you a soda Nash and Crosby (or vice versa) don't know either. Is it a song about immigrants, how difficult it is for them to get into the USA, and/or how difficult it is for them once they get here? I know Nash had a very difficult time up in the hills, with two cats in the yard.  Apparently they don't even carry Marmite at the Laurel Canyon Country Store. Or maybe the song is one of those coming into Los Angeleeeez things, hippie paranoia in which the customs guy at LAX asks you to open your bags, then finds your stash, then throws you in the hole, quite possibly with a lot of other immigrants. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Immigration Man is an ersatz protest song, as vague as it is heavy handed, just the kind of thing that Crosby and Nash excelled at after very promising early careers as creators of perfect little boy-meets-girl pop songs.  The song is catchy enough, but it's also heavy, in every sense of the word. Just listen to how the organ weighs the music down, degrading it considerably in the process. What the song does more than anything is make you pine for the days when music was lighter and the main thing was to have fun...