Songfacts®:

• Graham Nash wrote this song, which tells of the beauty of sea life and admonishes us for not taking care of the sea creatures. Nash told the Illinois Entertainer how he came to write it: "Let me set the scene for you. It was my first sail. On that journey, I saw a blue whale. It was insanely lucky to even come across a creature that was half again as long as David's boat, and David's boat is 70 feet. That's why I wrote 'Wind On The Water,' because we were killing these things, apparently for food, which sounds preposterous."
• David Crosby and Graham Nash included "Wind On The Water" on their 1975 Crosby & Nash album, also called Wind on the Water. It's the last track, part of a two-song suite called "To The Last Whale..." that begins with a Crosby vocals-only composition called "Critical Mass."
• "Wind On The Water" was adopted by the ecological movement and got some attention in the 1980s when Crosby, Stills & Nash added it to their concert repertoire. It was included on their 1991 self-titled box set.
• Stephen Stills didn't perform on this track - he wanted nothing to do with Crosby and Nash in 1975 (Crosby, Stills & Nash got back together and tried recording an album in 1974; it did not go well). The third voice on the track is another heavy hitter of harmony: James Taylor, who also played acoustic guitar on it.