Godspeed, David Crosby

The singer-songwriter, who died a couple weeks ago, holds a special place in the evolution of my music appreciation.

Welcome to another installment of Life Its Ownself. Warning: This post may require you to listen to some really good music. If you enjoy reading it, please let me know by 1) hitting the Like button at the bottom, 2) subscribing to this newsletter, and 3) recommending it to others. Also, feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Monday, January 30, 2023

         There’s a funny scene in Cameron Crowe’s wonderful Almost Famous. The band in the movie, which is set in 1973, is deciding whether to upgrade to new management. Their prospective hire, played by Jimmy Fallon, wants them to make more money while they can, and compares them to the “big boys” of rock. “If you think Mick Jagger will still be out there, trying to be a rock star at age 50, you’re sadly, sadly mistaken.” He does a little Jagger-esque shimmy-shake for emphasis.

         Mick Jagger, who will turn 80 this July, is still out there, still shimmy-shaking and still headlining concert tours. And so, until last week, was David Crosby, who died on January 18 at age 81. As he once admitted, he never was a shimmy-shaker, and less so in his later years. He also was plagued by demons that haunted his life, shattered his creativity, and even landed him in a Texas jail. Those demons cost him at least a decade of his musical career, and probably more.

         Nevertheless, his music was an important part of my life beginning in my late teens. I am by no means a music critic, but I want to share some thoughts about him and his body of work.

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         He is justly celebrated as a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, two of the iconic bands of the folk rock era. He contributed songs, vocals and musicianship to both bands, and helped make exquisite multi-part harmonies part of each band’s brand.

         But it was his songwriting that, for me at least, was most creative, meaningful and lasting. His best songs have a dreamy, even trippy quality about them, and he refused to be bound by the songwriting conventions of much of the era’s folk rock.

  

         “Guinnevere,” from the first Crosby, Stills & Nash album in early 1969, is a gorgeous and ethereal ballad that evokes long-ago love and loss:

Guinnevere had green eyes
Like yours, milady, like yours
She'd walk down through the garden
In the morning after it rained

Peacocks wandered aimlessly
Underneath an orange tree
Why can't she see me?

Guinnevere drew pentagrams
Like yours, milady, like yours
Late at night when she thought
That no one was watching at all
On the wall

She shall be free

As she turns her gaze
Down the slope to the harbor where I lay
Anchored for the day

Guinnevere had golden hair
Like yours, milady, like yours
Streaming out when we'd ride
Through the warm wind down by the bay
Yesterday

Seagulls circle endlessly, I sing in silent harmony
We shall be free

         Crosby, Stills and Nash became the first American supergroup, especially after the addition of Neil Young in late summer 1969. Inspired by his love of sailing, Crosby penned “The Lee Shore,” which was included on the band’s Four-Way Street live double album. The song, sung with bandmate Graham Nash, combined lovely visuals and narrative with exquisite harmonies.

Wheel gull spin and glide ... you've got no place to hide
'Cause you don't need one

All along the lee shore shells lie scattered in the sand
Winking up like shining eyes at me, from the sea
Here is one like sunrise older than you know
It's still lying there where some careless wave
Forgot it long ago

When I awoke this morning
Dove beneath my floating home
Down below her graceful side
In the turning tide
To watch the sea fish roam

And there I heard a story
From the sailors of the Sandra Marie
There's another island a day's run away from here
It's empty and free

From here to Venezuela nothing more to see
Than a hundred thousand islands
Flung like jewels upon the sea
For you and me

Sunset smells of dinner
Women are calling at me to end my tales
But perhaps I'll see you the next quiet place
I furl my sails

         In 1971, he released his first solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name. For the album, Crosby assembled a all-star cast of San Francisco music, with members of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Santana and Quicksilver Messenger Service, as well as his CSN&Y companions and folk luminaries such as Joni Mitchell. (The same amalgamation, christened the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra, or PERRO, created the Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship concept album Blows Against the Empire.) The whole album has a very laid-back, mellow feel to it. Three of the nine tracks have no lyrics to them, like the meditative “Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves).”

         I recommend If I Could Only Remember My Name to anyone who wants to immerse themselves in early 70s San Francisco psychedelic folk music. It is unlike anything else you’ll listen to.

         My tribute to David Crosby and his music could not be complete without mentioning a song from the aforementioned Blows Against the Empire. My friends, and Alert Readers, know that I have always been fascinated by the stars and by space travel. As often as I can, I like to sit outside under a cloudless night sky unhindered by light pollution (one more reason I love the Trans-Pecos) and watch the heavens do their majestic dance above me. The only thing I like more is sharing that experience, and my limited knowledge of astronomy and the constellations, with friends. That spirit is perfectly captured in “Have You Seen The Stars Tonight,” written with Paul Kantner.

Have you seen the stars tonight?
Would you like to go up on A-deck and look at them with me?
Have you seen the stars tonight?
Would you like to go up for a stroll and keep me company?

Did you know we could go
We are free
Any place you can think of 
We can be

Have you seen the stars tonight?
Have you looked at all of the galaxy of stars?

        

         When I go stargazing in the future, I will think of him, up on the A Deck and looking out over the magnificent universe he imagined, celebrated and shared with us in the best of his music.

         Godspeed, David Crosby.