The popular interpretation of David Crosby - bringer of drugged out, hyper-political, mustachioed lunacy - is really a shame. In 1970, He and Graham Nash sat down and let the BBC film a short 5 song set for television. Behind all of the craziness of a 1970-vintage David Crosby was that staggering talent, and the unrealized secret that his songs (his hit songs, at that) were actually completely, completely insane. Crosby’s jams were progressive and epic and meditative and messy and thoughtful and bewildering all at the same time. Now, that said, let’s consider the CSN&Y Billboard Albums Chart early 70’s juggernaut:
- 1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Déjà Vu - #1
- 1970 David Crosby - If I could Only Remember My Name - #12
- 1970 Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills - #3
- 1970 Neil Young - After The Gold Rush - #8
- 1971 Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills 2 - #8
- 1971 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 4 Way Street - #1
- 1971 Graham Nash - Songs For Beginners - #15
- 1972 Manassas - Manassas - #4
- 1972 Neil Young - Harvest - #1
- 1972 Graham Nash/David Crosby - Graham Nash/David Crosby - #4
Four dudes responsible for TEN top 20 albums in 3 years. Insane!
Anyway, back to Crosby. I’ve loved his first solo record, If I Could Only Remember My Name, ever since my friends Josh and Brandon introduced it to me when I lived in East Lansing in 2001. If pressed for a favorite song on the album, I think I would go with “Laughing.” The backing band on that little song? Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Joni Mitchell for one vocal line. You can read all about the recording of the song here, while you listen to it here.
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Now I’ll post my two favorite BBC clips.
The first one is actually my favorite Graham Nash song, but Crosby makes this performance great by just waltzing on camera to sing harmony.
Second one is the song “Lee Shore.” Usually I forget how strong of a singer Crosby is until I watch him sing live. So great.
I’ll leave you with some Crosby Insanity to negate all off the fluffy and nice things I said about him in this post.
In conclusion, Animal Collective got nothin’ on Crosby.
