Stephen Stills, of the
Buffalo Springfield, wanted to form a band with
The Byrds'
David Crosby; Crosby had even appeared with the Springfield at the
Monterey Pop Festival.
Graham Nash was soon added to the band-in-the-making. But the problem was that there were, apparently,
contractual obligations: Stills and the Springfield were
Atlantic Records recording artistes, while Nash and Crosby's bands were on
CBS;
Neil Young, having left the Springfield, signed with Reprise, and was happily out of the picture.
To Atlantic: Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
To CBS: the Springfield's "other guy", Richie Furay, and its bassist/producer Jim Messina, with their new band Poco. Country Rock was a hot new meme, and Poco was such a band.
A fair trade, right? And Atlantic even got Young later, both via CSN&Y and via the mergers and acquisitions that combined Atlantic, Reprise, and other labels into Warner Communications. In baseball, there's the legendary Frank Robinson trade, in which the Cincinnati Reds offloaded "aging" hothead ex-superstar Frank Robinson to the Baltimore Orioles for a good young pitcher, Milt Pappas, I think. Robinson then had his best seasons ever, while Pappas became little more than a journeyman. The Springfield divorce was the rock and roll equivalent of the Robinson trade.