David Crosby: August 14, 1941 – January 18, 2023

well it had to come . . . . . I was expecting this but Kostas has penned and compiled a nice biography of David Crosby looking at If Only I Could Remember My Name and the joint album with Graham Nash of 1972

I guess it doesn’t bode well to speak ill of the dead but the programme/film Remember My Name is worth a visit if you can find it and re-look at the links below to look at the more difficult side to the toxic relationship he engendered in both the Byrds and CSNY. There was a reason why they ended up not speaking and refusing to ever play with Croz ever again and the cause was largely him! (Cocaine and heroin will do that to your ego but to be fair he had much the same result on The Byrds and Roger McGuinn) . . . . .  . a powerful ethereal voice of the sixties I am glad he ended up saying what he needed to with a self awareness and self critical awareness at that which may have affected all those concerned to the better. We can but hope. Graham Nash has already said his magnanimous best at Crosby’s passing . . . . . . 

 

Happier trails Cros

Crosby Biog - URBANASPIRINES

A younger Crosby in a folk club . . . aah but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now

Joni Mitchell with David Crosby at the Reprise Records contract signing of her debut album with Warner Brothers record executive Mo Ostin and manager Elliot Roberts in March 1968.

Laughing - David Crosby 

Footnote: David Crosby's debut solo album, "If I Could Only Remember My Name" is a one-shot wonder of dreamy but ominous California ambience. The songs range from brief snapshots of inspiration (the angelic chorale-vocal showcase on "Orleans" and the a cappella closer, "I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here") to the full-blown, rambling western epic "Cowboy Movie," and there are absolutely no false notes struck or missteps taken.

The song “Laughing” was, in Crosby’s words, “Written to and for GEORGE HARRISON about the MAHARISHI, and telling him that nobody’s really got the answer.” Another soothing and hypnotic listen, with some lovely backing vocals by Joni, and heavenly pedal steel by JERRY GARCÍA. Many prominent musicians of that era appear on the record, including Nash, Young, Joni Mitchell, members of the Grateful Dead (most notably Jerry Garcia, who helped to arrange and produce most of the album), Jefferson Airplane, and Santana. The ensemble was given the informal moniker of The Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra by Jefferson Airplane bandleader, longtime Crosby associate and fellow science fiction fan Paul Kantner; the core of this agglomeration (including recording engineer Stephen Barncard) also worked on Kantner's Blows Against The Empire (1970) and/or the Grateful Dead's American Beauty (1970), both recorded concurrently with Crosby's album at San Francisco's Wally Heider Studios. Graham Nash; Stephen Stills and Neil Young, etc. As it is, If I Could Only Remember My Name is a shambolic masterpiece, meandering but transcendentally so, full of frayed threads. Not only is it among the finest splinter albums out of the CSNY diaspora, it is one of the defining moments of hungover spirituality from the era.

UPDATE: The wonderful Zero Sounds has posted several ROIOs of David Crosby with Nash and the CSNY boys (6 I think!) so go and check those out