RIP David Crosby

[I Should Coco]

Crosby in the past 20 years always seemed like the guy who would speak straight up about the 1960s and its SoCal rock scene, including his comments for “Echo in the Canyon.”

Much less sentimental BS from Crosby than other 1960s era musicians. Maybe that’s what surviving untold drug addictions and a liver transplant will do to you.

Of course, that bluntness burned some bridges with his old colleagues in recent years, especially Graham Nash and Neil Young.

As a fan, I always enjoyed the Stills and Young contributions to CSNY more, but Crosby and Nash made those songs great with their voices.

RIP to an American original.

 

[Neutral Corner]

If you go back to that first CSN album, Crosby did nothing but sing, might have played a little guitar on his own songs. Ditto Graham Nash, vocals, a little guitar and piano on his songs. Dallas Taylor played the drums. All the other instrumentation was played by Steven Stills. Kinda blew my mind when I found out that basically Stills was producer and the band on that album. Bass, acoustic and electric guitars, organ, piano, percussion, vocals, that was Stills.

I really loved Graham Nash's second solo album, Wild Tales, 1974. It had a number of songs on it he had written for the band, but they were on an extended estrangement and eventually he got pissed off and just recorded them himself. I caught them on the CSN tour in '77 and they did several of them in their set. I had given up on ever hearing the band play them, so I was really jazzed. Good album if you need something to listen to.

 

[Slacker]

That story is in his memoir, which is about as blunt and unsparing as any I've ever read, especially with regard to how far down the rathole his meth and freebase cocaine habit pulled him.

IIRC he sold his car for drug money, the guy he sold it to died before putting the paperwork through, and Crosby went and essentially stole it back.

If you ever read that book, there's a picture of Croz at rock bottom of his drug habit. A Google images search didn't pull it up. He looked like the after pictures of meth heads you see now - gaunt, hollow eyed, lank greasy hair, pretty much like a bum who ambled out of an alley. The proverbial thousand words sort of picture. /shudder He really looked bad.

I haven't read the Crosby book, and I probably won't after reading the drug memoirs of Three Dog Night singer Chuck Negron about 20 years ago. One downspiral followed by a worse downspiral, over and over, and Negron bombed out of more than 30 rehab programs before finally getting clean, if I recall.

Worst downer of a book I ever read. How he didn't die on at least a dozen occasions is a mystery miracle.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Best concert I ever saw was CSNY, the Band and Jesse Colin Young at Varsity Stadium in Toronto in 1974

That was a great tour. In Buffalo they had Santana instead of The Band.

David Crosby was engaged to a woman named Nancy Ross. Gram Parsons showed up, stole Nancy Ross away, and they had Polly Parsons together.

Parsons' song "$1,000 wedding" is supposed to be about the wedding Crosby never had.

 

[UNCGrad]

Honestly, a deadpool HOFer for the last 30 years. He's not Keith Richards, but he's in the same room.

And one hell of a singer - goodness. His own projects or contributing - shoot, he sang back-up on Hold My Hand by Hootie and the Blowfish.

I admit, I like Cracked Rear View and "Hold My Hand" (sorry, I was in college in the mid-90s), but ever since 1994, I have ALWAYS heard Crosby saving the harmony on that song. He's perfect on it.

 

[Neutral Corner]

I haven't read the Crosby book, and I probably won't after reading the drug memoirs of Three Dog Night singer Chuck Negron about 20 years ago. One downspiral followed by a worse downspiral, over and over, and Negron bombed out of more than 30 rehab programs before finally getting clean, if I recall.

Worst downer of a book I ever read. How he didn't die on at least a dozen occasions is a mystery miracle.

Well, this one covers a lot of ground other than the addiction/prison/rehab. The sections on that were really harrowing and unsparing of himself, his choices, and his behavior, though.

 

[Slacker]

Well, this one covers a lot of ground other than the addiction/prison/rehab. The sections on that were really harrowing and unsparing of himself, his choices, and his behavior, though.

Yeah, so did the Negron book, but the underlying theme all the way through was how great he had it made to be in Three Dog Night, even with the usual ups and downs, but he just kept on feeding his insane appetite for heroin above all else.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Yeah. Does not sound like a fun read. And by all accounts Crosby could be an abrasive **** at times. Graham Nash said some gracious things about him today, but in recent years he had made very plain that he'd had enough of David Crosby and that he didn't much care to ever speak to him again.

 

[DanOregon]

When I think of CSN, I think of this....RIP.

 

[DanOregon]

And this - can't believe it took to page 3....

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

Yeah. Does not sound like a fun read. And by all accounts Crosby could be an abrasive **** at times. Graham Nash said some gracious things about him today, but in recent years he had made very plain that he'd had enough of David Crosby and that he didn't much care to ever speak to him again.

One of the obits I heard on NPR, Crosby admitted that himself, saying people he’s worked with in the past wouldn’t work with him again. I’m
Not sure when the interview was done, but it sounded like the last few years.

 

[Tighthead]

Not great video, but his last live performance was “Ohio” with Isbell and the 400 Unit (including Amanda Shires) and Shawn Colvin. Kind of funny that he went out on a song written by Neil Young as they had fallen out.

Not sure if Neil has made a statement yet.

 

[Huggy]

Further reading from a few years ago for those interested:

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock's Greatest Supergroup by David Browne (whose Grateful Dead book, So Many Roads, is excellent): Featured new quotes from Crosby and Nash (Stephen Stills is apparently writing his own book while Neil Young is, well, Neil Young) and many others who were around the group in its various incarnations. Dives really deep on their endless dysfunction, disastrous tours, relationships and various solo efforts, Crosby's drug issues, health problems and incarceration and their seemingly constant need to have Young agree to another reunion tour so they can make a few bucks. At the end of it you are just tired of all four of them.

 

[Scout]

RIP

Greatest Simpsons cameo ever.

Possibly greatest TV or movie cameo ever.

 

[CD Boogie]

Saw CSN in 1990 and had the concert T-shirt for years. Absolutely loved their music. He was a cantankerous mofo and really laid wood to people, so much that the Telegraph compiled some of his greatest "hits."

‘The Rolling Stones are on a grotesque ego trip’: David Crosby’s finest insults

It's amazing he made it to 81 years old.

RIP.

 

[Neutral Corner]

The benefits of a replacement liver. He put out four or five albums over the last ten years that I have heard were pretty good. I need to give them a listen.

He had a son early that he gave up for adoption. He later reached out and brought him into his family and they played together on his later work.

 

[Octave]

 

[micropolitan guy]

My favorite CS&N song, reminds me of a long-ago fall weekend at Denison.

 

[Azrael]

Heavenly talent in a ruined and ruinous man.

To have heard that music in real time - starting in '65 with the Byrds - is more a part of my upbringing than anything I ever learned in school.

Hard to overstate what those voices meant to us the first time we heard them all those years ago.

Saw him once in the Laurel Canyon grocery. Didn't know what to say or how to thank him.

Rest now.

 

[Tighthead]

One of my favourites from when I was first listening to radio on my own. Holds up well, especially looking back on breakdowns of relationships.