1/20/23
Newsletter #225
The Crack of Dawn
David Crosby finally managed to die at the age of 81. For a guy who tried as hard as he could to kill himself with drugs for the past 50 years, Crosby lived a long life. Unlike his former bandmate Stephen Stills who grew up in the backwoods of Mississippi, or Neil Young who grew up in Manitoba, David Crosby grew up in Beverly Hills, California. His father, Floyd Crosby, won the third Oscar given for cinematography for the film Tabu in 1930.
David was a snotty Beverly Hills brat who may have been the most disliked man in rock & roll. His fellow members of the Byrds kicked him out of the band. Stephen Stills hated Crosby’s guts and considered it the curse of his life that he had to keep working with him over and over again throughout the years since Crosby, Stills & Nash albums sold, whereas Stills’ solo records did not.
There is a 2019 documentary called David Crosby: Remember My Name, made by Cameron Crowe (who wrote Fast Times at Ridgemont High [1982]). The entire film is a what’s known as an apologia, or a big apology. David Crosby had finally managed to alienate his last friend, Graham Nash, and I think this movie was his idea as to how to salvage his life. Apparently, Crosby just started to make the movie on his own and Cameron Crowe stepped in and took over. Graham Nash is interviewed and he’s pissed off and bitter. He says that Crosby had finally gone so far that he could never straighten things out. It’s actually a pretty good documentary.
In the 2018 documentary, Echo in the Canyon, which is also a pretty good film, David Crosby comes off very well. He seems upbeat, affable and funny, though clearly teetering on the brink of death. That he lasted for five more years is a tribute to medical science. He had five stents in his heart. Crosby had a big regret in life, which I find interesting (since I believe that regret is utterly useless) – he never wrote a hit song. Honestly, if he hadn’t mentioned it, I don’t think me or anyone else would have ever thought of it since he played on so many hits.
As these random topics intersect, I recently mentioned hanging out and snorting coke with Dewey Martin, the former drummer for Buffalo Springfield. The last person to join Buffalo Springfield, which caused the band’s immediate break up, was David Crosby. The band was about to implode anyway, and they were booked to play the famous 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.
The film, Monterey Pop (1969), is the first and best of all the rock & roll concert movies. It contains the U.S. debuts of Jimi Hendrix and the Who. Janis Joplin is at her very best, which was an extremely short period, and thank goodness it’s on film. Interestingly, I think, Ravi Shankar steals the show. Buffalo Springfield’s set is not in the movie, but it exists. David Crosby is so high that he goes into a lengthy rant about how it had to be a conspiracy to assassinate JFK because the evidence just didn’t add up. I agree with him, but it seemed like the wrong place to bring it up.
The song Wooden Ships, written by Crosby and Stills, was not a hit. It’s just a great, great, great song. And for such a scruffy, unlikable guy, who didn’t play guitar very well, David Crosby had a lovely voice.
Live long and prosper.
Peace, and long life.