David Crosby

Another hero gone.

I'm sure he could be a cantankerous old bugger but you can't fault his contribution to popular and rock music through The Byrds, CSN, CSNY, and his solo albums and projects. 

In CSN(Y) I think he was always the member I respected most - for his songs and for his wonderful voice, in turn gentle and compassionate (see "Music is Love") or full of angry defiance ("What are their names"). 

The BBC showed a short film from 1970, "Crosby and Nash in Concert", shortly after he died. Just the two of them, clearly close friends at that stage, playing acoustic guitars together, Crosby providing incredible harmonies to Nash's songs, cheeky irresistible smile behind the trademark moustache. The songs they each wrote are special, but the way they worked out the complementing vocals and guitar parts shows exquisite musicianship. It was a joy to watch again, to remember. 

I was lucky enough to see Crosby on stage 3 times: at the NEC, Birmingham, during the CS&N Allies tour (9/7/83), with Nash (Birmingham Symphony Hall, 6/10/11), and with Stills and Nash (NIA Academy Birmingham, 6/10/13). The first time it was a big arena-type affair and I remember being surprised to see the band congratulate each other after each number. Much later I read in his autobiography (Long Time Gone, 2005) that he was addicted to freebase cocaine at the time and somebody had to send supplies ahead to each city on the tour. This was before he did time and before he got clean; it must have been a fraught tour for them. 

He was very candid about his life in A J Eaton's 2019 documentary "David Crosby; Remember My Name" and came across as somebody with many health problems but at peace and happy with Jan, his wife of 35 years, but fully aware that his lifespan was now limited. In his late seventies he had a burst of creativity, making 4 studio albums in 5 years, with mostly younger musicians, and as recently as December 2022 was talking about touring again.

Crosby's death lead me to this recording of The Wall, surely the cream of the unreleased PERRO sessions recordings (and the trigger to open the floodgates). 

The solo album "If I could Only Remember My Name" (1971), which also came out of these sessions, resonated with this idealistic 20-year old would-be hippie in a way that CSN&Y did not. Even now I can play that album and like every song. Then there's "Almost cut my Hair" which must have rung a bell with many - "It was getting kind long; I coulda said it was in my way". (Anyone who's shared a bed with somebody with long hair will know the plaintive cry "Ouch! You're on my hair!")

Crosby's later work tended to be more mellow, mature I guess. As I rail impotently against the bigotry and injustice on the TV news and around us I'd like to agree with him that "angry isn't how I want to spend the time I have" ("Time I Have", 2014). 

Then I read that his death was related to a prior Covid-19 infection. Was he vaccinated? Could he have been influenced by the profiteers peddling anti-vax conspiracy crap? Or was he, perhaps, OK with dying now?