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

RIP. I loved lots of his work (thread subject especially) plus what an odd character to be pretty famous for my entire life

RIP. Not really a fan of much of anything I know post-Byrds but I love much of his material with the band (esp Mind Gardens can't lie)

RIP. Miraculous he made it this far tbh.

I discovered this LP through the "Can we talk about early-mid70s West Coast post-psych/pop/rock/folk-rock/country-rock?" thread eight years ago (geez, how could it be so long ago...), and it became one of those records I've recommended to anyone who mentions having an interest in '70s California vibes. "Laughing" is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard--that slide guitar! Bummed I never got to see him live.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D57SvLGXkAI4LTT?format=jpg&name=small

That was weird. Yahoo Finance pulled that story, but if Variety had direct contact with his wife, that's it then.

A shame. Love, LOVE the Byrds, and even though I remained skeptical of his later work, I saw his free show at Lincoln Center a few years ago and it far exceeded expectations. The highlight was when he got people to stand up and sing along to "Ohio," which he re-cast as a protest for the current times.

I had a bit of weird relationship with this guy. Growing up I always associated him with the absolute worst of boomer-era folk rock, just the epitome of what I hated in music from that era. In fact, I still don't connect with the pre-Y, CSN albums, and only backdoored my way into his work through the CSNY albums and, eventually getting deeper into The Byrds.

Eventually, by getting deeper into the Dead and Garcia's work, I discovered the album this thread is about and fell head over heels for it. Still my very favorite thing he's ever done. I did check out and like a few of his more recent albums too.

Of the three songs he wrote or co-wrote on the first CSN album, never liked "Guinnevere," but I think "Wooden Ships" and "Long Time Gone" are good; his two on Deja Vu, pretty good too, even if "Almost Cut My Hair" might be a little confusing today.

His final review:

I’d say that’s beautiful…..really fine https://t.co/eFZi2tFFMJ

— David Crosby (@thedavidcrosby) January 16, 2023

Perfect!

rip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSDrYvbT9wc

Listening to this for the first time, finally. RIP

sweet little garcia / croz jam from the If I Could Only sessions ...

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

thanks for posting, love that one, a real revelation from the reissue that was new to me

a lot of famous people have died recently, sad. RIP.

This one hits me a little hard. I love how many lives this dude had – Byrds, CSN-and-sometimes-Y, the CPR band with the son he never knew he had, his cool little comeback over the last decade, as well as the non-music stuff like his awesome Twitter feed (which he was still active on as of yesterday) and his general position as Rock’s Most Opinionated Grampa. The guy was everywhere for almost six decades, and beyond the music itself—a lot of which I adore—I just totally respect that. I only wish I’d actually had the courage to go up and say hello to him at a DC hotel bar a decade or so ago, YOLO and all. But I guess he knew that. RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_AFsDgNW2k

I should’ve said, Rock’s Most Opinionated Grampa and Foremost Joint Connoisseur.

I saw CSN once back in ... I'm going to say it had to be summer of'94? Was not memorable, but tbh I'm going to say that year it was particularly Not For Me.

"Laughing" is a great song and production.

It is indeed amazing in every aspect.

This BBC doc is pretty solid, with lots of classic Crosby:

https://archive.org/details/BBC.Hotel.California.LA.from.the.Byrds.to.the.Eagles.2007.DVBC.XviD.MP3.MVGroup.org

The best may be him on the Eagles around 1:11 in...

I didn't follow his tweets, I just don't follow anyone on Twitter, but when I did see them, I thought something close to NTI's reaction--he's still out there saying whatever he wants to say, good for him, and even though I don't know if I'd connect to his recent music (there was some of it in the documentary), I liked that he was still doing that, too. Weirdly--he'd despise this comparison, or at least the person making it--he reminds me of Nixon's characterization of Theodore Roosevelt in his bathetic farewell speech: "always in the arena, tempestuous, strong, sometimes wrong, sometimes right." (Sorry, David Crosby.) I doubt if I know more than a third of the music he made in his life, but from my vantage point, having a hand in writing "Eight Miles High" is enough in and of itself for one lifetime (Outic and I argued about the extent of his contribution once in some other thread; I thought his discovery of Coltrane was crucial to "Eight Miles High"), and obviously he did lots else too. He was also supposedly key in getting CSNY into the studio to record "Ohio" immediately.

Posted this on Facebook earlier, a clip I saw a few years ago and never forgot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCT9naHt2oo

Should also mention: he was a helluva acoustic guitarist, writing songs around his weird spacey chords. It's what drew him to Joni Mitchell, whom he produced (and the last time anyone produced her).

alfred otm— i initially "gave him a chance" as i was taking a bigger interest in acoustic plucking about a decade ago and that's when i really took notice of the album this thread is named after. shame the whole thing isn't on streaming (or spotify anyway). even the deluxe edition is missing tracks. big sigh.

always a favorite deep cut from cs+n proper—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5EvWBj5SAQ
"in my dreams" (1977)

and a last, more personal note—
i know i'm not a pro or anything, but after i did start paying closer attention to his acoustic playing and those "weird spacey chords" it really did open up a world of possibilities for my own playing and music. i know discussing influence is tacky, but i really did feel a deep connection to his music for a few years there. i never got good enough to play it exactly, but it was always fun to noodle along to records and marvel at him. i liked his grouchiness a lot. somehow, his guitar playing sounded exactly like his disposition; especially on the crosby+nash albums (which i obvs highly recommend).

really a huge figure for everyone around my age, in one way or another.

He was self-deprecating about his production work with Joni Mitchell, but I think that album sounds pretty good, beautiful in certain moments, so that‘s a legit credit.

Yep! And to his credit he didn't stop reminding people she was the best songwriter of them all.

Austin, thanks for posting that CSN deep cut.

RIP. Bet the big guy is up in heaven trying to talk a couple of angels into a threesome.

no no no

it's a "triad"

I only heard the first Crosby/Nash album and it didn't do much for me (though Nash's "Immigration Man" was good). It didn't have any of the rock detours of the Crosby solo record, and you could see why he/they eventually went in a yacht rock direction, cause there really wasn't enough substance to call it art rock or anything more than oblique mood music.
I mean, you could make a case that Crosby, Stills and Nash each peaked in 1967, before they even got together...not to say that there wasn't occasional interesting stuff from each of them for the next decade and a bit.

don't ever use "yacht rock" on ILM

lol Darin

Speaking of "Triad", dig this cover by Sally Keller man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtJp8gSqkmU

Arranged by Barry Manilow, who also produced with Ron Dante.

I thought Crosby actually owned a yacht, but I guess it was a schooner...the difference, according to one explanation I found, is that "all schooners are yachts, but not all yachts are schooners."

https://medium.com/schoonermayan/mayans-history-the-david-crosby-years-517d8c0cb389

So he invented Schooner Rock.

Just scrolled though all today’s posts and the one thing that really caught my eye was “Ron Dante.”

I mentioned on a Dennis Hopper thread that I've been reading Mark Rozzo's Everybody Thought We Were Crazy, about Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward (and L.A.) in the '60s. Synchronicity: when I was reading over at the gym tonight, I just got to the 20 pages that had lots on the Byrds and Ciro's.

Dennis seemed particularly fascinated by Crosby.

(Big surprise, they were so different...)

Hillman noticed the connection: "They were both obnoxious, overly aggressive," he said. "They were very much alike. David could lead you into the abyss seven times a week. I'm sure David and Dennis shared the same operating methods." They even said the word "man" the same way.

That sounds a little harsh...as a photographer, Hopper seemed to take to Crosby's smile.

Polly Parsons, on FB:

David Crosby

In 1966 my mother was engaged to marry sweet David, when my father swept in and stole her from him at a party one night. David would later write Guinevere about her and Gram would write 1000 Dollar Wedding among others.

Loving, magic and muses. This was the base air altitude of Laurel Canyon in the 60’s. Surrounded by the smells of frankincense and myrrh and sounds of harmonies and acoustic guitars. We were constantly barefoot, joyful and oh so full of life. This is how I will remember you.

Here’s to our lions among men. The unapologetic forces of nature we are so blessed to have had in this world at all.

We love you.

I did not know that.

I saw him once in 2010 sitting on a bench in Hyde Park London by himself, completely undisturbed and apparently unrecognised, as the crowds gathered in the early evening before a Paul McCartney concert.

like in the Neil Young song "Thrasher"?

No real feelings for his work on my end. But I enjoyed this story Paul Myers posted about a 1999 encounter with him, and indeed, always flying the Joni flag.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnnqzNsLHbl/

i last saw him at an obama rally in a local park. it was poorly advertised that theere would be performances, and the music came on after most people had left, so it was just the stalwart few clustered around the stage to see crosby / nash. i still remember how the three intro chords to 'wooden ships' just destroyed me. i can't find a video of it, but this one from the same set is equally ambitious. i unironically love this stuff and always have. prog folk. that open chord they both chomp down on just before the one minute mark is really something. serious 'hard day's night' vibes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNZJ4VG6U3o

Havin' a normal one at Monterey...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5xRqCqJOAU

i have a lot of love for CSN and CSNY … Mr Veg and i bonded early over “Almost Cut my Hair” when we first met. there’s something magical about their music for me that temporarily overrides anything i dislike about them irl. (i have a similar relationship w Eagles but to a far lesser, less magical extent)

seeing CSNY live in 2013 at Bridge Benefit was a pretty overwhelming experience, just one of those cool hippie-sounding “nothing better than live music shared w a large crowd” moments where it felt so nice to be alive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRsuKdC5nXw

RIP Cros

For such a volatile character he made such delicate crisp airy music, I almost want to say he is a little under appreciated (in the mainstream or whatever) for his unique songwriting and vocal style, as opposed to just being a hippie icon

Some excellent Crosby bits in Harvest Time. He seems really focused as he works out backing harmonies with Young and Stills.

RIP. Lifetime pass for his guitar work on NY’s “Revolution Blues.”

I had a bit of weird relationship with this guy. Growing up I always associated him with the absolute worst of boomer-era folk rock, just the epitome of what I hated in music from that era...

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0)

Same here. He was literally a punchline when I first became aware of him. I couldn't name a single song he did for many years, so much that The Simpsons joke didn't land when I first saw it - for different reasons, I had the same response as Barney.

Then I discovered the Beatles and they led me to the Byrds box set (and until then I only knew one of their records, "Turn! Turn! Turn!," again through The Simpsons) and it was a genuine surprise to see David Crosby in that band. Completely changed my view of him, and for the Byrds alone, I'll always be a fan.

I'm still not completely sold on his post-Byrds work, but he definitely had moments, and "Long Time Gone" is probably my favorite among them.

I saw him live once, at a free show at Lincoln Center in 2019. I had low expectations, and he exceeded them all - excellent band, excellent performances, voice in top form, and nearly every song landed. (The only disappointment I recall was a new turgid arrangement for "Eight Miles High," which otherwise is my favorite Byrds single.) The highlight was when we all got up to the front of the stage and sung along with an especially angry "Ohio" that was aimed at the Trump administration.

RIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sM1cbhrQhI