I was fortunate to grow up in the San Francisco Bay Area and be exposed to some of the great Rock and Roll bands. Bill Graham produced shows at Winterland, the Fillmore Auditorium and later Days on the Green at the Oakland Coliseum that featured great artists in the golden age of Rock and Roll.
Now, I enjoyed the music, but wasn’t as keen on the behind the scenes activities as some of my friends. They would know seemingly in advance which bands were having issues with their members and often predicted breakups before they occurred. When the splits happened, the bands almost always dropped off the charts in a hurry.
David Crosby was a driving force in the most successful years of the Byrds. Once Stephen Stills abandoned Buffalo Springfield, that top band was gone in a flash. The Hollies had some hits, but once Graham Nash hit the road the band hit the skids.
Now, those three artists combined after leaving their previous bands to form Crosby, Stills and Nash, which was like the great football teams that win with triplets in key skill positions. The Dallas Cowboys with Troy Aikman, Emmit Smith and Michael Irvin come to mind. Great years in San Francisco featured Joe Montana directing an offense that included Jerry Rice and Roger Craig.
Three seems to be the magic number for success.
Now, while I wasn’t a true student of Rock and Roll, rather just enjoyed the music, I am a student of my game, the National Football League. And like a great band, in recent years the Detroit Lions had a trio of coaches as good as any team in the league. Read that as better than any team in the NFL.