If you have the vinyl of "if I could only remember my name” , open the double gate fold and there to my amazement, is a photo of me. Also a photo I took of Elliot with a bag of pot on a Chicago street corner with four cops.
I miss the f..k.
Ron Stone
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I did not know David Crosby well. I spent some time with him on the Neil Young Tour of 1973, and then not much beyond the occasional hello at some event or other. I had heard all about his excesses and bad behavior, and I remember being somewhat shocked to hear one of his last three or four albums, expecting to hear some croaking ex-druggie trying to sing and instead hearing some really fine vocal work. But one of his earliest works still stands out as a classic, and that's "Everybody's Been Burned," from the Byrds album "Younger Than Yesterday." His voice is haunting, smooth, mellow, in sharp contrast what was hip at the time. It's still one of my favorites from that era, and it still sounds great. I've been listening to it today, more than a little sad, but very glad we have David's music.
Best,
John Boylan
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You captured the essence of David Crosby as far as I knew him.
I worked with him producing videos and concerts for CSN and his collaborations with Phil Collins and yes, he could be difficult, but not always, not even most times.
His music, his art, transcended his human faults. The combination of him, Stills and Nash was a unique coalescence of talent. They changed the course of rock forever, spawned many imitators, and delivered many rock classics.
Crosby's solo work has received mixed reviews but I place his first solo album (If Only I Could Remember My Name) high on my list of favorite albums.
It's sad to know there will never again be a CSN or even a CSNY, but wow! What we are left with is f..king awesome and will be rock classics forever. RIP David Crosby.
Paul Flattery
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Bob : MEXICO never knew about crosby on that . Song and track brought me back to life so many times. Stay bright , o
Andrew Loog Oldham
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Thank you Bob for writing this. It reached me deeply. Written thoughtfully, strong, and to-the-point, just like my one experience with Crosby: recording demo vocals with him in a small NYC studio in the 90's.
-Dan Gellert
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Got to interview David Crosby a few times at KFOG. Check out the intro to this where he leaves a VM apologizing for missing an earlier appointment:
www.patreon.com/posts/20490484?utm_campaign=postshare_creator Greg McQuaid
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Tom Jones & Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
youtu.be/dIDzA0YDso8 This is the craziest pairing I’ve seen in a long time, but jeez it works way better than on paper!
Best,
Michael McCarty
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I'm a mid-40s child of boomers.
My mother, who had perfect pitch and loved singing harmony with her sisters, took me aside one day, when she felt I was old enough, to tell me this important thing -- like it was a serious family secret or something:
"The most beautiful voices now belong to Mama Cass, Art Garfunkel, and David Crosby. Don't let anybody tell you any differently."
I miss her so much.
Jennifer Carney
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Recently I’ve been playing a number of David Crosby songs. Are you familiar with the live version of “Wooden Ships” with Jason Isbell? There are some great guitar breaks.
spoti.fi/3JeeyJs Nick Nichols
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Bob, All our music heroes are dying! I still remember distinctly hearing Mr. Tambourine Man for the first time and seeing The Byrds on the Mike Douglas show and Ed Sullivan. CS&N and Deja Vu were probably two of my most played albums of all time and ingrained in my brain. I’d ride around in my red VW bug with the eight tracks blasting away and singing along with the music. About ten years ago I was in Los Olivos having lunch and David was eating in the back of the restaurant. I was just too nervous to say hello and tell him how much his music has nourished me. I didn’t want to disturb him.
His music and the bands he formed are part of my DNA. I listened to ”If I could only remember my name “after I read the news of his passing.
I thought his last solo album was one of his strongest in a long time.
He will be missed.
Alan Oreman
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I spoke with him on occasion on Twitter, usually about how much we both loved Stephen Stills’ music. He could be cantankerous on Twitter but he also relentlessly promoted other artists’ music that he loved. RIP Croz.
Steven Monk
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Subject: The Byrds-Session fighting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsVs9-W0eSQ ___________________________________
Thank you so much for this tribute to David Crosby. He is one of my forever heroes.
As you point out again and again, the Croz was difficult, pulled no punches and did not suffer fools gladly. There's a saying or a notion that you should never meet your heroes only because they'll disappoint you. Thankfully, I never met Croz. The closest I came was living vicariously through a friend who knew Croz in passing and had made it onto his joke of the day e-mail list. She used to share it with me. Then a falling out occured as quickly as it all started. I felt honored for a brief moment to be on the periphery of the circle then 'poof' and it was over. I first saw David Crosby as part of CSN&Y at Wembley Stadium in 1974. I was already a big fan and despite all of the stories about the drug and ego fueled state of the band on the '74 tour, Wembley was a magical night; and a testament to Croz's uniqueness and the band's power.
And here we are today. As you so rightly say, the new solo work over the past eight years has been nothing short of remarkable. What a loss.
Andy Jones
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“Crosby was an untouchable god.”
That’s all that really needs to be said. I enjoyed reading the piece, nonetheless. Thank you.
Bill Nelson
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Hey Bob, I enjoyed hearing and seeing Crosby and Nash perform with David Gilmour on "On an Island.”
Best,
Marc Andrews
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I never know where to go when someone like David Crosby, someone who meant so much to do many people, passes. It’s moments like that that I long for 3 TV stations doing news people watched so that people could gather, listen and discuss.
There is a void there that you have filled Bob!
Thank you
Mark Burrell
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You remind us that the greats made their best music decades ago yet Crosby was one of the few that still gave you fresh goosebumps..
This track from his last album “Free” was hauntingly accurate when he says .." there's a sliver of air between the water and the ice... that's where I breathe .. where I live"....
he knew he wouldn't live much longer but he shared this notion of what it feels like to be almost done... he was a brilliant singer-songwriter till the End.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=WwF7IzH-Q60 Another rough January for our music era.
Marty Simon
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Thanks for this great ode to the one and only Croz. I just want to add that in his last decade, David's new friendship and collaborations with Snarky Puppy founder/leader Michael League was an important driving force in his late recording renaissance. League produced three of Croz' last four albums, and Crosby appeared with Snarky Puppy numerous times. One of those was at Carnegie Hall in January, 2018, a 1960's protest music concert I produced starring Snarky Puppy with guests David Crosby, Chris Thile, Laura Mvule, and Fatoumata Diawara, It was an amazing thrill and privilege to work with Croz, as brilliant soulful and snarky as there ever has been.
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-live-reviews/david-crosby-and-friends-revive-protest-classics-for-the-trump-era-at-nyc-show-205822/ And it's a fair wind
Blowin' warm out of the south over my shoulder
Guess I'll set a course and go
Danny Kapilian
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Enjoyed your honest tribute to Croz.
Crazy to think the first time CSN ever performed Suite Judy Blue Eyes live (or ever as a trio) was before the Woodstock audience. Despite their respective big band experiences prior, CSN were visibly terrified at sharing their newest musical gift with the massive seminal crowd and admitted such onstage.
Does anything like that ever happen anymore? Will popular music ever be so pure as it was then and there? Will there ever be an egotistical yet undeniably honest talent such as Croz?
Dylan Muhlberg
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Great tribute. It's a testimony to Crosby's greatness that all those lyrics you quoted are seared into my memory.
One minor comment on Suite Judy Blue Eyes.that song (and the Doors Light My Fire) that turned me on to FM stations (WBCN) because the AM stations only played the short versions of those songs.
All the best.
Lyndon Virkler
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Thanks for another great one, Bob.
Two of your lines stood out for me.... resonated in a personal way:
"Suite; Judy Blue Eyes...you heard it once....I tingle even thinking about it." Me too....to the point that I have absolute recall of the moment and circumstances when I first heard those mellifuous sounds coming from my car radio....probably in July '69. I actually recall the intersection I was traveling through at that moment...that's how powerfully I was struck. A month or so later it was my good fortune to witness the source of that magic in person...at Woodstock. Fast forward 50 years to May 2019 when I last saw David & Friends on their Sky Trails Tour. Pretty good run!
"Sure, he lost a decade or more, but so did I......" Me too. While my circumstances were not nearly as dramatic or devastating as David's, the waste of so much precious time is similar. What we (all three) seem to have in common is that we each survived what might easily have been a terminal condition, and somehow emerged with new energy and a revived commitment to leading a productive life.
Thanks for all you do.
Jim Dwyer
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I remember showing up at many of their shows with Ahmet who signed the group from David Geffen to Atlantic. Their vocals together were the best and they wrote amazing songs. I Was heard of promotion in those days and worked all there hits. And also they were all very nice guys. Very sad. Jerry Greenberg
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Nailed it. Pitch perfect.
The way he sings about his mother in "Carry Me” gets me every time.
Scott Kauffman
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The anti-hero is always more fun. Really great piece Bob. You missed CPR and how great that story was and the wonderful music they created.
Their first album ended with "Time is the Final Currency" and that sure hits home this week.
Thanks.
Jay Janszen
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From David Crosby's song "Page 43"
Life is fine
Even with the ups and downs
And you should have a sip of it
Else you'll find
It's passed you by
Marty Bender
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Everything you said.
Also worth noting: Crosby produced Joni Mitchell’s 1968 debut LP “Song to a Seagull.” Stripped down and quite different from Joni’s later quintessential albums, it has a dark mystique that brings to mind a one-woman Led Zeppelin. Of course, Page and Co were still a year away from their own debut as a heavy blues rock band. It’s hard not to imagine that the folkier side of Led Zep may have been at least partially inspired by Joni, with the help of David Crosby’s production.
Also, it may seem an odd comparison, but listen to any 70s Yes album and those vocal harmonies are clearly inspired by David with CSN & CSNY.
After losing Jeff Beck 2023 is feeling like 2016 as far as these things go (make it stop, please).
Thanks for the fine tribute Bob.
Peaceful Journey, Croz
Alex Skolnick,
Brooklyn
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Re: David Crosby and recovery
I had been sober a few years when that first CPR album came out. Always on the lookout for great recovery music, I took to it immediately.
I have no idea what Messrs. Crosby, Pevar and Raymond's intentions might have been when they made the album (so of course i projected my own meaning onto the songs, thank you very much) but I think one would be hard-pressed to find a collection of songs that explore the thoughts and feelings associated with recovery - responsibility, the power of love, the passage of time, being present for your life, etc. - any better or more honestly than the ones on the first CPR record. A brilliant and powerful work from start to finish.
Over the years I have given away dozens of copies of that album to people struggling in early sobriety. It’s like someone took all the personal stories from the back of the Big Book and set them to music.
Suffice it to say the album made quite an impression on me - so much of an impression that I decided I just had to let him know. I emailed Graham Nash, told my tale and asked him to pass it on to Mr. Crosby - if he thought it was appropriate. A couple of days later I recieved a response from David Crosby thanking me and saying that my feedback meant a great deal to him.
In the final analysis, I hope people remember that David Crosby lifted a lot of people up with his music, and that his story was an inspiration to those of us who spent time considerable time fumbling around in the darkness looking for the light.
Vince Welsh
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Good post on David Crosby. I agree and respect that he always kept pushing the envelope and creating. You did not mention the CPR days that I think produced some great music in the late 90’s and early 00’s and continued in different forms almost to now. I saw the group in the basement of a Maine ski area in 1998 or 9. I have since seen them in various forms many times. It was a great band whose live shows sounded better than their CD’s. That show on a cold March night rekindled my interest in David and and in searching out new music of all types. I owe him for that.
Ralph Nodine
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This was a nice piece. I still will never appreciate him enough but you made me reconsider. Which is nice.
Michael Becker
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Thanks for this Bob - really wonderful. He was a giant who mostly lived less out front but in the middle harmony - even his songs were those wonderful “middle” tracks - but as you say, we wouldn’t have the whole without all the parts - and he was a major (complicated) part. Glad he was there to be part of making it all happen. Major part of the soundtrack of my life. RIP
Peter van Roden
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While well-done, I feel your post overlooks the most distinguishing talent of David Crosby which can be summarized in one word: harmonics.
It’s what set him apart from his peers and added a unique contribution to his and the music of others while also inspiring many of us to uncover new creative possibilities with our voices and instruments.
Gary Goff
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I greatly enjoyed reading this, even though I disagree 100% on your review of
If I Could Only Remember My Name
It’s still to this day one of my all-time favorite records.
56 Years of Changing the way we hear harmonies forever
and a quintessential Songwriter
Long May His Spirit Fly
Morley Bartnof
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Thank you….this is the deep dive i needed this cold / grey morning in chicago. The brilliance of CSNY and David Crosby’s contributions, is not lost in any way as these songs / voices / harmonies will resonate for us all as the song goes a “long long time”.
Joe Shanahan / Metro
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Saw him live at our little theatre out here in Eastern Long Island a number of years ago. Maybe 3 or 4.
Didn’t know what to expect. Dreading the worst, I hate to say. Boy, was I wrong. He was terrific. Band was tight. But his new songs were so good. Just great. I am so glad I saw him. One of the best shows I had seen in a long time.
Jan Burden
Westhampton Beach
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This is a wonderful memorial to a complicated artist. Thank you.
One of the reasons David’s later recordings are so worthwhile, I think, were his collaborations with younger musicians who lent fresh energy to his music. From his son James Raymond and Jeff Pevar in CPR, to Michael League of Snarky Puppy, and singer-songwriters Becca Stevens and Michelle Willis—they all made important contributions to what is a beautiful body of late life work. Croz was always acknowledging them in his Twitter feeds.
Thanks again,
Chuck Mitchell
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Have you heard this version of Wooden Ships with Croz fronting Steely Dan?
youtu.be/BoebEunmPZ8 Don Bartenstein
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Memories of soaring to the magic of that first CSN LP, goosebumps, and tears this morning, Bob. You captured the Croz and effect to a tee.
Cameron Dilley
WMNF, Tampa
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Unknown to me at the time, I saw CSNY at the last concert they all played together on October 27th, 2013 for the Bridge School Benefit at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View California. They were the headliner and played the hits including my favorite as you pointed out Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. They didn’t miss a beat with the harmonies and hearing it live again after may years still brought chills down my spine. David was the foundation of those harmonies and that unique sound they all produced together will be missed.
Doug Hart
Set List from the Bridge School Benefit
Just a Song Before I Go
Human Highway
Don't Want Lies
Singer Without a Song
What Are Their Names
Déjà Vu
Long May You Run
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Teach Your Children
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Another great one, Bob. And thanks for including the true gem "I Won't Stay For Long." You're right. Some days we all wanted to be Crosby. Some days we couldn't imagine wanting to put his shoes on. From where I am standing, there are no days that the loss of David Crosby won't be a profound one.
Paige Mann
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This past year, I kept railing and railing at my friends to hear Crosby's newest album. Maybe you told us about it. Some of the best work of any of them.
Steve Schalchlin
Note: "I Won't Stay for Long":
bit.ly/3XHPHSk ___________________________________
Many thanks for your thoughts on David Crosby. I agreed with 90% of your comments , however, in my view “If I Could Only Remember My Name” is a stone-cold classic . I bought it when it was first released and have treasured it ever since. It has an atmosphere all of its own and captures the essence of West Coast music by combining the sounds of both Los Angeles and San Francisco. It’s a remarkable achievement considering the state of Crosby’s mind following the death of Christine Hinton, the love of his life.
Being English, the foremost band of my youth was The Beatles , followed by The Byrds , who I continue to revere.
I totally agree with you that Crosby never gave up . He continued to make new and exciting music right up to his death . In an astonishingly creative period between 2016 and 2021 he released no fewer than 4 superb albums of new material , “Lighthouse”, “Sky Trails” , “Here If You Listen” and “For Free” . I was lucky enough to see the “Sky Trails” tour in Manchester and he and his youthful band put on an incredible show. Not bad for a man in his late 70’s and in poor health.
I found the film “Remember My Name” extremely poignant . He accepted who he was and what he had gone through and was ready to face his end .
David Crosby we will remember your name as an outstanding musician who has provided the soundtrack to our lives , from the early 1960’s right up to the 2020’s.
Peter Cowley
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And this
open.spotify.com/track/53Mz3G03TnjabAqlD0SMOa?si=P_szL5nLTo2C7VD87xtHMg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A7hx6WRusv9B2Mtdq1Cm3Nk Kaljot
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Thanks for your beautiful and dead-on testament to a one-of-a-kind artist. David will be sorely missed but we’ll keep playing his music.
Harold Love
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What a beautiful tribute to David Crosby - you hit all the right marks and left out the sordid details that have marred so many others. As I kid, he was THE hippie icon - the face of that generation, the one I gravitated to, because he looked like the most representative member of the audience. And after decades of wallowing in drugs and mediocracy, he reconnected with his lost son, found he muse again and, as you said, brought out some of the most accomplished music of his life. Plus his voice was still in full bloom - what other artist in their senior years possessed that ability? And he went out like he came in - a guy who still looked and spoke just like his hippie audience.
Iain Taylor
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Thanks for the guided Crosby tour through your eyes! It always shines a light on stuff we may have missed…
So we get to swing back for yet another “Damn! How did I miss THAT!”
I remember sitting a few feet from the stage at Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, CO. in 2000 with another instructor, not knowing what we’d hear.
(The song school was a week before & some of us stayed on for the fest- we got to be in the fancy pants seats)
CPR took the stage… David Crosby & Jeff Pevar on guitar, David’s son James Raymond on keyboard…
Ok- convince me…
The sound started building, those notes & lyrics that have you on the edge of your seat, waiting for each next one to land. Sweet!
Next… harmonies full & weaving kicked in.. the kind that David was always known for, wrapping you & swirling you back, licking all of your bones.
It kicked up to WOW!!!
I remember a sort of acoustic musical start. Nothing I wouldn’t expect. Still loving it.
THEN BOOM!
The arrangements... were freaking brilliant! It wasn’t like any folk/acoustic flow anyone would expect.
There were 3 instruments & voices on stage… but it sounded like 3 times that.
There were slaying counterpoint kind of stops & starts & bobs & weaves. My eyeballs kept getting bigger. I literally had chills.
Anyone who knew anything about music composition knew what they were doing wasn’t a simple walk in the park.
It was folk meets jazz meets funk, meets WTF!
The other instructor & I kept shaking our heads, looking back & forth “Did you hear that??!” “Did you hear THAT!~”
Damn it was BRILLIANT!
I love that David went where the music led him through every turn.
I love that he didn’t hold back.
& damn am I glad so many of us “got” the intricacies of what they were doing…
& witnessed that night of beyond freaking AMAZINGNESS...
Annie Wenz
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Oh man. Having absorbed too many recent losses, I was driving on my way to the post office, shaken up a bit but 'holding it together,' when the DJ on Sirius Classic Vinyl started crying, unable to continue his appreciation of David Crosby. There's no crying on radio, dammit!
I have many friends who have far more to say about their experiences with Croz, professionally. My encounters with him were warm and easy. We were with him on a stunning trip to the South China Seas in 2016. After a bunch of those ‘hey, man’ nods and mutual grins on this 10-day sea voyage, which was packed with great music & practitioners, playing together in endless permutations, we were at a lunch stop at a bizarre resort hotel sorta place in extremely hot Borneo. Where we’d been looking for rare proboscis monkeys hiding by a river. (Long story, that)
In that most obscure of environments, David, who’d mostly been huddling with wife Jan, son Django and a few others on the trip, walked over to Julie and me and let us know he’d like to know about us and what we were up to. Friendly as can be, he initiated the engagement and set the stage for vibing with him on the rest of the trip. And when I saw him next, at a wonderful Tribe show in 2019, we reminisced on our previous adventure, which he’d loved.
Musically, he always played an essential, yet subtle part in every band he was in. He was the ‘middle’ guy. With the lower and upper harmony parts usually pretty obvious in any situation, he was a master at finding the middle, buzzy, unpredictable, harmonically stretching element that changed vocal harmonies from predictable to thrilling. Not the obvious parallel movement. He did it in the Byrds, CSN & sometimes Y and elsewhere. In his beautiful recent recordings with my pal Michael League & others. In his harmonies with James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and David Gilmour.
Fuzzbee Morse
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Hey Bob,
This past Wednesday, January 18 REO played the iconic San Jose Civic, and before the show my friend and longtime promoter Alex Hodges took me on a little tour of the venue’s history. We passed photos of Eric Clapton, the Kinks, the Yardbirds, but when we got to the photo of Crosby, Stills and Nash, on the stage where I would be standing that night, I couldn’t help but stop and share my love of that band, and those three legendary musicians. On the following day, Thursday January 19, I would be heartbroken by the news that David Crosby had passed away.
It would be a stretch to call David a friend, but he was my neighbor, and the interactions David and I shared were always friendly and inspirational. By the time I met him, Crosby’s wilder days were behind him, he had moved in with the love of his life Jan Dance, and his main vice was herbal tea! I was working on a song with Stephen Stills, a response to the bombing of Iraq in 1991, and my plan was to get the song recorded and on the radio as soon as possible. It seemed like a job for CSN, so I left a note in David’s mailbox.
I recognized his voice when he called back that afternoon and invited me over. David was so joyful, having rediscovered his love of music, and was into writing songs with Phil Collins via Fax machine …very high tech for the early Nineties! Jan brewed the tea, and David handed me one of his beautiful acoustic guitars. I will never forget how David Crosby sat, cross legged, eyes closed, swaying gently to the rhythm as I played my song, “Hard to Believe”. When I strummed the last chord, he was still, in a trance-like state. He felt music with every ounce of his being; he really listened. I don’t know anyone who loved music like David Crosby. Then his eyes flashed open, and his face broke out in a big grin. “I’m in”, he said, “Let me know when and where.”
The recording session was booked for later that week, and in the meantime, unbeknownst to me David had skidded out his Harley on the treacherous S-curve just up our street. My friends Richard Marx, Bill Champlin, and I were at the studio sorting through the various sections of the song, thinking about who would sing what lines, when the doorbell rang. Through the peephole I recognized the unmistakable twinkle in the eyes of the great David Crosby. But when I opened the door, my mind was blown. David stood on crutches, bruised and battered from the motorcycle accident, yet ready and willing to add his distinctive tenor to our record.
I had loved David Crosby as a singer, songwriter, musician, and artist since I was a teenager. But now, having gotten to know him personally, I also love him as a man. David led a challenging life, and obviously made his share of questionable choices …haven’t we all? But he showed his true colors during the “Hard to Believe” project. Richard Marx and I agree that that recording session was one of the most rewarding and inspirational musical experiences of our lives.
I am so sad in the wake of David’s passing. I had always held out hope that our paths would cross again, or for the elusive CSN reunion. But I will always remember that twinkle in David’s eyes and how he had my back when I needed him. REO worked up an impromptu version of “Almost Cut My Hair” for our concerts this weekend, and I channeled David as I sang the song live last night, and will do it again tonight at the Pearl in Las Vegas. It helped me to remember that David’s music will live on forever. My condolences go out to his sweet wife Jan, his children, and his band mates Stephen, Graham, and Neil… much love and sadness, kc
Kevin Cronin
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The impact of David Crosby on me as a musician is as fundamental as anything I've been exposed to, ever, full stop. Because I'm Latino and bilingual, was classically trained on symphonic and choral music, was raised on American Top 40, and came of age in the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s, my influences are broad.
I loved it all, from Vicente Fernandez to Aaron Copland to Dylan to Ray Charles to Laura Nyro to Miles Davis to Brian Eno to Nana Mouskouri and a myriad of points in between. I was in high school when The Byrds took flight, and I started college and began playing and writing in the immediate glow of the first CSN album, so it was Croz who caught my eye and ear.
Sure, Jim/Roger was the Byrds' leader, his 12-string the trademark sound, and Gene was the best writer by far, but David's wild-ass high harmonies made the Byrds the Byrds, distinguished them from everyone else, even the Beatles. High school kid that I was, I mainlined Turn Turn Turn, then flipped it over and inhaled She Don’t Care About Time, which didn’t even appear on an album until an import best-of in the 1970s. It was the set opener in the earliest Lowen & Navarro shows. The Byrds sang mostly two-part, not three part. Gene and Roger usually sang unisons (?!?), and Croz's vocals were so...magical and unique...that the harmony sounded fuller than it actually was.
Where I lived in 1967-69, we weren't hip to any inside dope or rock gossip. So I had no idea of the drama his firing from the Byrds or the implosion of Buffalo Springfield. But CSN rocked my world with the first note, just like everyone. And it was Croz who was the vocal glue in CSN, the guy who could take, essentially, a bluegrass/barber shop vocal blend and make it utterly transcendent. He made CSN CSN. Jeez, that's twice!
I hung on very note, every word, every nuance. And when If I Could Only Remember My Name came out, I was one of the ones who flat out loved it. Gobbled it and digested it. Especially Orleans, which is all-David at his best. For my young aspiring singer-dreamer's money, no better singer ever existed in pop music. Period.
I only got to work with him once, in a benefit at The Ace Hotel in July 2019, as one of the backing singers on Ohio and Long Time Gone. Bucketlist, man. And I was all ready to go the The Lobero in Santa Barbara next month, Feb 22, to see his return to the concert stage, with several of my closest friends manning the band -- Steve Postell, Chris Stills, Hutch Hutchinson. Then the clothesline shock of my phone blowing up with the news of his death. A nuclear dart to the heart.
This one hurts, cuts deep, and makes ever so clear that time is marching on. Our heroes are leaving us. And me too sometime. Time to appreciate more, listen more, acknowledge more, and to work harder than ever to do this silly job that he inspired me to do. That's how I grieve. Sh..chyeah.
Dan Navarro
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I briefly met David Crosby over 30 years ago when my friend Jeff Pevar began playing with David and Graham Nash, I believe it was backstage at Carnegie Hall. A few years later, David enlisted Jeff and his newly discovered, uber-talented son, keyboardist James Raymond, to create the band CPR. In 1998, I was able to facilitate a show at The Wheeler Opera House in Aspen Colorado with my band Little Blue opening for CPR and then joining them for some rousing encores, thus my first time onstage with one of my heroes.
Over the years, as I continued to collaborate with Jeff and James on different projects, David and I became more and more friendly. Eventually this led to some co-writing, playing on some of his records, and a few memorable shows. We always had a special rapport. Aside from a natural musical connection, David enjoyed teasing me, and I think he was equally pleased that I could give it right back to him. He had many nicknames for me; most recently he referred to me as “Pudding Head”. I once asked him if I had to be as big an a..hole as he was in order to play on his record, he told me that was something I could never achieve.
About a year and a half ago I was visiting with him when he told me he was going to retire from performing, which he did indeed announce to the world. He said his hands were too f..ked up to play adequately anymore, and a surgery to try to fix it had been unsuccessful. In kind of a throwaway comment, I told him that if he ever decided he just wanted to sing, I could play his parts. I joked that if I could play Bach … I could certainly play Crosby. I thought nothing of it, but 6 months later, I guess he started feeling antsy, and he called to ask me if I would like to learn the parts, some of which he had been playing for 50 years, and see how it felt. I went up to his house, wrote down all the tunings, and filmed his hands as he did his best to play through the repertoire. Then I dug in, between my iPhone videos and many years documented on YouTube, I studied this music as carefully as when I actually did play Bach in my conservatory days.
About 4 weeks later I met with David and James, we played through 6 or 7 songs, and he said “yep, I thought you could do it, let’s put a band together”. With James on keyboards and musical directing the project as he had brilliantly for years with David, me being David’s hands and singing the Nash parts, we added longtime Crosby, CPR and CSN drummer Stevie Distanislao, Hutch Hutchinson on bass (with Leland Sklar on call when Hutch is out with Bonnie), James Harrah alternating with Dean Parks on electric guitar, and in a brilliant move, Chris Stills singing and playing his dad Stephen Stills’ parts. As luck would have it, I had been speaking to David Asbell, who runs the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara, about helping him create an event to celebrate the theaters 150th anniversary on February 22nd. Now we had a band … and a gig!
On Wednesday, Jan 18th, after talking to Croz about among other things recording the show, I spent the day as I planned to spend almost every day in the next month, surrounded by guitars, playing and singing through the show. David had the idea of instead of ending the last encore with a raucous rocker, we should bring it down and play his intimate and beautiful ballad, “Anything At All”. After playing through it once, I texted David to tell him I thought it was the perfect, poignant way to end the night. The last 2 lines are:
I’ve got time for one more question here
Before I fall, fall
Is there anything at all
11 minutes later, as I was playing through the song again, I got a text from James that the great Croz was gone.
I have lost family members, parents and friends. There is something particularly cutting and heartbreaking about losing Croz 4 weeks before we were going to share this new project with the world, a prospect that brought everyone a lot of joy, most notably Crosby himself, who seemed practically giddy with all of it, from having the opportunity to play music again, to figuring our what kind of bus to rent.
This music is indelibly etched in my hands, heart and mind, and through that I will carry the memory of one of the most magnificent, flawed and beautiful human beings I have ever known.
My heart goes out to Jan, Django and James, the rest of his family, as well as all who loved his massive contribution to the fabric of our world.
RIP Croz, I will love you always
Steve Postell aka Pudding Head
SET LIST - Lobero theater - Feb 22, 2023
1) Naked In The Rain
2) Long Time Gone
3) Homeward Through The Haze
4) Carry Me
5) Wooden Ships
6) Delta
7) Guinevere
8) Deja Vu
9) Carry On / Questions
—————————-
Encores:
Woodstock
Almost Cut My hair
Ohio
Anything At All
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