David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name - C or D?

when scott seward posted on ILM, he often praised those Crosby-Nash albums.

and for a while they were staples of used record stores

I don't like CSN, I find them cloying, and I don't like much from that scene in general but I really like this album.

i think both helpless and ohio are neil songs, right? you probably mean crosby's harmonies on them, though. i do enjoy the CSN harmonies but i have a hard time picking out who is who on them

― Karl Malone, Friday, January 20, 2023 11:29 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, saying those are the two CSNY songs are the only ones I love was kind of backhanded -- I like the songs that Nash, Stills, and Croz had very little to do with! But their harmonies, and Crosby's ad-libbing on "Ohio," really do make them something that a straight Neil Young & Crazy Horse rendition wouldn't have been able to approach (and Young's solo acoustic "Ohio" falls flat for me).

Sorry for the derail, but not only is that video of CSNY with Tom Jones sweet, the linked video of Tom alone singing “Vehicle” is grebt too.

I've got mixed feelings about CSN&Y, including some of Crosby's songs - I think Neil definitely improved the group, but I think Crosby's contributions were better on the first album. His best post-Byrds song ("Long Time Gone"), a good one he co-wrote with Jefferson Airplane ("Wooden Ships") and a pretty number inspired by Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain ("Guinnevere"). Miles even paid Crosby the ultimate respect by covering it himself - by then Miles had already evolved into his fusion era, which made it all the more fascinating. I almost want to say it's like translating a poem into a different language, then translating it back into the original but with a very different dialect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y2d0t4PttE

Outside of that, they could be (but not always) great on-stage: I thought they were one of the great highlights of the Woodstock film, and this may be one of the few times I thought they achieved their potential with Neil Young:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5icrWZnl_1w

^^^ that's great, and Crosby's chukka-chukka rhythm is just what it needs

Miles even paid Crosby the ultimate respect by covering it himself - by then Miles had already evolved into his fusion era, which made it all the more fascinating.

iirc, in the Croz documentary he repeatedly lamented the fact that, unlike Stills, Nash (counting "Chicago" here), and Young, he never had The Big Hit Single. But hopefully he took some solace in the fact that he was the only rock musician of his generation to have a song covered by Miles Davis.

FWIW, here they are in Woodstock (only their second gig ever):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lembnHGIfU

I wasn't a fan at all at the time and the movie itself seemed way too long, so I was ready to completely dislike this. Instead I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, partly because the film got me to see them from a fresh perspective. It's 1969, you're among the counterculture, and three guys from a three groups you like (two you LOVE) come out to do a set during the acoustic part of the festival. Virtually no one's seen them perform together before. At that moment, I kind of get the hype.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcN1NVHY0G8

it's interesting to me that anyone would dislike If I Could Only Remember My Name, I was late in finding it but clicked immediately

the Croz doc from some years back (?) deal with his image rehab and iirc he's doing a lot of "all my friends are gone because i was a huge asshole, maybe still am"

csn debut is a joy

in the Byrds, I think he was the high harmony?

Yes, McGuinn and Gene Clark usually sang in unison with Crosby above. But even in his youth, he didn't have the kind of freakishly high tenor than Nash did.

Someone suggested that the three original singing Byrds each had a flaw in their voices that made them less than an ideal lead singers, but made for an excellent harmonic and textural blend. Actually, in terms of which Byrd has the nicest, clearest, most expressive voice, I might say Chris Hillman, who didn't even sing on their first three albums!

talked to my dad last night (who saw them at woodstock but cant remember much, shocker), i brought up If I Could Only Remember My Name and he started just ruthlessly clowning on me for liking it. "you can actually stay awake for the whole thing? he cant remember his name, i wish i couldnt remember that ALBUM, lolol!" etc. dunno if i'll ever recover from that in his eyes.

We've had CSN, CSNY, Stills & Young, Crosby & Nash ... have we ever had Stills, Nash & Young?

On "Words" on Harvest, it's the three of them singing.

We also had Nash & Young.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Song

Good song.

he cant remember his name, i wish i couldnt remember that ALBUM

For whatever reason, I heard Rodney Dangerfield's voice saying that.

Looks like there's a 1970 BBC live set by Crosby & Nash on BBC4 tonight.
9pm by listing I have

Some of the CSN records from Crosby's heavy drug period were actually GSN - Art Garfunkel recording the parts that Crosby would've if he were able.

The Garfunkel-Stills album is a hidden gem imo

That part of you that feels you're being attacked is your ego, it's your ego. It's not going to get you any more effing attention either. Try playing right!

I'm not mad on any of the CSN(Y) stuff - to the point that I couldn't honestly say I'd ever listened to anything longform all the way through. IOICRYN though is utterly transcendent. What a record. Also a fan of the Crosby/Nash albums.

IOICRMN, obvs. xp

Worst acronym since King Crimson's "ITCOTCK."

It's awful and I regret partaking in it.

lol

ITWOP isn't much better tbf.

So is the CSN (1977) worth resurrecting? It had "Wasted on the Way" but I didn't know it went 4x platinum; I guess it would've hit #1 if something called Rumours hadn't interfered. I know "Dark Star."

Yes it’s their best album

“Just a song before I go”, “shadow captain”, and yes “dark star”

“Cathedral” is something else too, re cros on that album

Oops, sorry -- I meant "Just a Song..."

xp sorry I’m stoned, “cathedral” is nash

lol Croz would approve, I think

R.I.P. He was absolutely right about Phoebe Bridgers.

"Dark Star" is among my top three CSN songs.

xp - absolutely not, his treatment of Bridgers was a good reminder that, nah, he really was still a huge fucking asshole and misogynist

FWIW, the Washington Post published a story on the confusion over whether he died:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/01/20/david-crosby-obituaries-variety-confusion/

An excerpt:

The first apparent news about Crosby came at 3:15 p.m. Eastern time. It was a one-paragraph statement attributed to Crosby’s wife, Jan Dance, disseminated via a news-release wire called NewsDirect. It carried the headline, “Legendary Musician, Husband, Father, and Friend David Crosby passes away.”

Reporters typically rely on close family members, associates of the deceased or law enforcement officials to corroborate a death. But it wasn’t clear who had written Dance’s statement; when reporters sought to verify its source, listed by NewsDirect as “J. Bickerton,” their emails bounced back. They were also unable to reach Dance.

Just before 5 p.m., Variety, the entertainment industry journal, confirmed Crosby’s death via two sources that it didn’t identify. It published a lengthy obituary that included Dance’s statement...About 90 minutes after Variety published its initial report, however, it added a seemingly ominous “clarification” to the bottom of its lengthy story: “An earlier version of this story included a statement attributed to Jan Crosby that Variety has not been able to independently confirm with others in Crosby’s camp.”

The clarification raised the possibility that Dance’s statement might be a fabrication, and news reports that relied on it might be wrong.

Unable to reach family members and lacking further confirmation, some news organizations, including The Washington Post, withheld their Crosby stories.

The New York Times finally published the news around 7 p.m., more than two hours after Variety’s story. The Times relied on an unusual source for confirmation — Patricia Dance, the sister of Crosby’s wife. The Times reported that Patricia Dance had said via text that Crosby had died “last night” but that she “provided no other details.”

Minutes later, the Associated Press, which provides news to thousands of other news organizations, conspicuously hedged. The wire service published an updated obituary that attributed the news — originally sourced to Crosby’s wife — to reporting by “several media outlets,” including the Times.

It added: “The Associated Press was not able to confirm Crosby’s death despite calls and messages to multiple representatives and Crosby’s widow.”

After the Times published its story Thursday night, a Post reporter reached Crosby’s sister-in-law. She declined to confirm the death.

The Post’s news story appeared online at 8:37 p.m., nearly four hours after Variety had reported the story. The newspaper’s obituary editor, Adam Bernstein, had finally reached a former publicist for Crosby, who cited family members in confirming the news.

The Wall Street Journal published its story more than three hours later. It cited “people close to Mr. Crosby,” and detailed the complications involved in pinning down corroboration.

As of Friday afternoon, it was still not clear that any news organization had reached Crosby’s wife to confirm his death.

Saw this newish track mentioned in STErlewine's newsletter, never heard of it before. It's a co-write with Donald Fagen, and very nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s4g9PhYthU

so weird. “J Bickerton” is one of those names that just sounds fake.

Sounds perfectly cromulent to me.

i think i'm just immediately thinking J Peterman

From Mark Wakefield on Facebook:

So sad to read of David Crosby's death. We lived in Summit, New Jersey in the 80's. One day I was driving down the main street in town and saw Crosby standing on the sidewalk. I pulled over to go back and tell him I was a huge fan, only to see him jump in a car and drive off. Turns out he was in Summit on a court-mandated stay at the drug treatment hospital in town. The next day it was reported he had escaped from the treatment center the day before. I figure I was the last one in town to see him before he went on the lam. My near brush with greatness!

more on his leaving that nj treatment center:

https://waynerobins49.substack.com/p/watching-david-crosby-relapse?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=361300&post_id=97965673&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email

hmm if that link doesn't work try this one:

https://waynerobins49.substack.com/p/watching-david-crosby-relapse

It worked for me. Great read, and yes he made the right call. Crosby paid it forward - he helped others clean up including Grace Slick in the late '90s (which may or may not be news, but it was in her statement after Crosby died).

^pvmic
(xpost)

wow that link is heartbreaking, speaking as a recovering addict I have had exactly that same embarrassed, confused, tearful breakdown after using and trying to go right back to normal life

I would love to read more about the paying it forward part if anyone's got other links, that he did that also shows a good grasp of recovery

At their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, he let Byrd Michael Clarke know that he would support his rehab if he wanted to go, but Clarke demurred.