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

DAVID CROSBY R.I.P. 1941 - 2023

DAVID CROSBY, the singer, songwriter and guitarist who helped shape the sound of Sixties rock and beyond, died today at the age of 81. A source close to Crosby confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone(see below) , but did not disclose a cause.

A difficult iconoclastic figure but with a self knowledge and understanding surpassing his difficulties. His talent outshone his difficulties.

Author composer and singer songwriter in the Hall of Fame twice for both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Author composer and singer of one of my favourite albums of all time in If Only I Could Remember My Name. 

We will not see his like again

Let your Freak Flag Fly you ornery old cuss! 💜

David Crosby, the singer, songwriter and guitarist who helped shape the sound of Sixties rock and beyond, died on January 19 at the age of 81. A source close to Crosby confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone, but did not disclose a cause.[It had been reported that he was ill for a while.]

Crosby was a founding member of the Byrds, playing guitar and contributing harmony vocals to many of their most enduring songs, including “Eight Miles High,” “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” Shortly after being forced out of the group due to personality conflicts with frontman Roger McGuinn, he formed the supergroup Crosby, Stills, and Nash with Buffalo Springfield’s Stephen Stills and Graham Nash of the Hollies. The trio – which became a quartet in 1969 when Neil Young joined their ranks – played a major role in the development of folk-rock, country-rock and the emergent “California sound” that dominated rock radio throughout the mid-Seventies. Croz wrote many of their most beloved tunes, including “Almost Cut My Hair,” “Long Time Gone” and “Deja Vu.”

“It is with a deep and profound sadness that I learned that my friend David Crosby has passed,” Crosby’s former bandmate Graham Nash wrote in a statement. “I know people tend to focus on how volatile our relationship has been at times, but what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years.”

“I’m heartbroken to hear about David Crosby,” Brian Wilson wrote. “David was an unbelievable talent – such a great singer and songwriter. And a wonderful person. I just am at a loss for words.” 

- rollingstone.com

+ + + + +

happier days . . . . . . . 

The Byrds - San Francisco 1978 - Big O The Reunion Concert

With David Crosby
Track 10. Mr Tambourine Man 6:45
Track 11. You Ain’t Going Nowhere 4:17
Track 12. Turn! Turn! Turn! 2:51
Track 13. Knocking On Heaven’s Door 5:26
Track 14. Bye Bye Baby 3:47
Track 15. So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star 3:17
Track 16. Eight Miles High 4:25
Track 17. Feel A Whole Lot Better 3:19
67 mins

CSNY 1970 - Big O

 

Notorious Byrd Brothers (Re-Imagined) - Albums that Never Were - classic reimagining

featuring David Crosby

(reimagining by soniclovenoize)

Side A:

1.  Old John Robertson

2.  Triad

3.  Dolphin’s Smile

4.  Change is Now

5.  Draft Morning

6.  Universal Mind Decoder

Side B:

7.  Lady Friend

8.  Don’t Make Waves

9.  Tribal Gathering

10.  Goin’ Back

11.  Space Odyssey 

As ever the notes for these projects from Sonic are as interesting as the music is great . . . . . . . 

David at Big Sur Festival 1969

Night Croz . . . . . 

DAVID CROSBY

 

So the weekend television is notoriously rubbish here in the UK and found myself drawn to the new (to Freeview) channel of Sky Arts which featured a couple of music programmes I found absorbing if ultimately hugely depressing. The profile on David Crosby 'Remember My Name' by Cameron Crowe I found fascinating but with a heart breaking end in that it finishes with the acrimony from all of CSNY indicating that some fallings out are insurmountable. 

There's even a funny encounter with photographer Henry Diltz when they try to recreate the classic flag- gun-joint photo and David teases Diltz for his still new age thinking about what chinese sign animal they both are!

Now I loved David Crosby and number his solo album amongst my favourites of the era and I adored CSN&Y as well as making the distinction of CS&N as seperate and quite distinct bands [as does Crosby himself here]. The frank and revealing story is fascinating for a while and the journey from The Byrds to Woodstock to a Supergroup and at the heart of the 'counterculture' makes for a fabulous story and I don't think I recall the loss of his girlfriend at 21 in a car crash as such a seminal earth shattering as it would have been but the love and support from his colleagues is palpable here. Nash I think more than any saved Crosby's life . . . . .and yet he kinda didn't . . . . . Crosby's descent into heroin and cocaine use had the inevitable end I have witnessed time after time and too often and his spell in prison (8 months in Texas Pen!) seems to have been some kind of strange turning point not fully understood somehow. 

Crosby after handing himself in to the authorities

The finality of the reforming of CSN&Y is full of reports and, to his credit here, mostly by Crosby himself of his unforgivable, toxic and temperamental behaviour, has ruined it would seem his deep relationship with both Neil Young and his fellow vocal partner Graham Nash both of whom are on record saying they will not play with DC again. Crosby is magnanimous here and surprisingly honest maybe but that he has overstepped some boundary that is beyond forgiveness is difficult to take. 

That Crosby should have taken up with a younger pick-up band and started to release albums again is great but CSN&Y it ain't. Stephen Stills is notable by his absence here in Crowe's documentary and we wonder about this. It is an essentially sad film about superstardom, drug use and addiction, holding friendship too lightly, vanity and ego.

further reading . . . . . Classics du Jour

Laughing/What Are Their Names - Crosby [If Only I Could Remember My Name]

Happier Trails, David