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David Crosby

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David Crosby

David Van Cortland Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for being a founding member of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY). Crosby is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work in the Byrds and CSN.

Biography

Early years

David Crosby was born in Los Angeles, California. His parents were Aliph Van Cortland Whitehead and Floyd Crosby, an Academy Award winning cinematographer. He attended Crane Country Day School in Montecito, California, for elementary school and Jr. High. He received his high school education at the Cate School, Carpinteria, CA. In 1960, when Crosby was 19, his parents divorced.

Originally, he was a drama student, but he dropped out of drama school to pursue a career in music. He moved toward the same Greenwich Village scene (as a member of the Les Baxter Balladeers) Bob Dylan participated in, and even shared a mentor of Dylan's in a local scene favorite Fred Neil. With the help of producer Jim Dickson, Crosby cut his first solo session in 1963.

The Byrds

Main article: The Byrds

Early in 1964, Crosby started performing in clubs with Roger McGuinn (then known as Jim) and Gene Clark under the name the Jet Set. They soon changed the name to the Byrds, and were joined by bassist Chris Hillman and drummer Michael Clarke (whom Crosby allegedly discovered playing bongos on the beach). They somehow managed to obtain a demo recording of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man", and recorded a cover version of the song featuring McGuinn's twelve string guitar and Crosby's and Clark's vocal harmonizing. The song was a massive hit, and went to #1 on the charts.

In The Byrds, while Roger McGuinn was responsible for the trademark 12 string guitar sound (which he in turn took from George Harrison on "A Hard Day's Night" and the Beatles for Sale album), Crosby was responsible for the soaring harmonies and often unusual phrasing on their songs.

In 1966, Gene Clark, who then was the band's primary songwriter, left the group due to stress. This put all the group's songwriting responsibilities in the hands of Crosby and McGuinn. Crosby took the opportunity to hone his craft, and soon blossomed into a prolific and talented songwriter. His early Byrds efforts included the classic 1966 hit "Eight Miles High", which he co-write with McGuinn and Clark, and its flip side, the punkish "Why", which showed Crosby at his hard-edge best.

The song "Hey Joe" is widely credited as being popularized by David Crosby after he picked it up from Dino Valente. He taught the song to Bryan MacLean and Arthur Lee of Love, who then taught it to members of The Leaves. Since he felt responsible for having popularized the song, Crosby convinced the other members of the Byrds to cover it on Fifth Dimension.

By Younger Than Yesterday, the Byrds' album of 1967, Crosby was starting to find his trademark style – a unique combination of solo vocals augmenting a touch of Nina Simone and his unique "angelic" harmony arrangement of a jazzy, Beach Boys type and music that veered from Joni Mitchell-esque guitar tunings to full-on rock.

Friction existed between Crosby and his fellows in the Byrds, which came to a head specifically in 1967 over two issues: his substitution, at the invitation of Stills, for an absent Neil Young during Buffalo Springfield’s set at the famous Monterey Pop Festival in June; and the Byrds’ rejection of Crosby’s controversial “Triad” composition as either a single, or as an album cut on the Notorious Byrd Brothers album in August. It widely was reported that his fellow Byrds were offended by the topic (a menage a trois). In reality, insofar as the Byrds did record it, they simply did not like the song and left it off of the Notorious Byrd Brothers in favor of stronger Crosby compositions ("Draft Morning", "Tribal Gathering", "Dolphin's Smile") that did appear on the album (Note: Triad was recorded by Jefferson Airplane and released on their album Crown of Creation in 1968. Decades later, the Byrds' version of Triad surfaced on the 1988 Never Before release and is now available on the CD re-release of The Notorious Byrd Brothers.) This angered Crosby so much that he began to frequently skip sessions. As a result, Crosby was dismissed from the Byrds in the fall of 1967.[1]

Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young)

Main article: Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young)

Around the time of Crosby's firing, he met a recently unemployed Stephen Stills at a party, and the two started meeting informally together and jamming. They were soon joined by Graham Nash, who left his commercially successful group the Hollies to play with Crosby and Stills.

Their first album, Crosby, Stills & Nash of 1969 was an immediate hit, spawning two Top 40 hit singles and receiving key airplay on the new FM radio format, in its early days populated by unfettered disc jockeys prone to playing entire albums at once.

While in CSN, he wrote many important songs. These include "Guinnevere", "Almost Cut My Hair," "Long Time Gone", and "Delta". He also co-wrote "Wooden Ships" with Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane and Stephen Stills.

In 1969, the group was joined by Neil Young, and with him they recorded the album Déjà Vu, which went to number 1 on the charts. That same year, Crosby's longtime girlfriend Christine Hinton was killed in a car accident only days after Hinton, Crosby, and fellow girlfriend Debbie Donovan moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area. Crosby was devastated, and he began abusing drugs much more severely than he had before. Nevertheless, he still managed to contribute "Almost Cut My Hair" and the title track "Déjà Vu". After the release of the double live album Four Way Street, the group went on a temporary hiatus to focus on their respective solo careers.

The group reunited in 1973 to embark on a reunion tour. It was also around this time that they began recording a new album, entitled Human Highway. The recording, which took place at Neil Young's ranch, was very unpleasant, and marked by constant bickering. The bickering eventually became too much, and the album was cancelled. Yet they once again re-united the following year to go on a stadium tour. The tour was also full of constant bickering, though they managed to finish it without interruption. Another attempt at a new album was made, but it was cancelled early on, and only a greatest hits compilation entitled So Far was released.

Solo career

In 1971 he released his first solo album If I Could Only Remember My Name, featuring contributions by Nash, Young, Joni Mitchell, along with members of Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, and Santana. Panned on release by Rolling Stone, it has received more critical respect with the passage of time and is still in print.

Crosby and Graham Nash have also released several albums as duo known unsurprisingly as Crosby & Nash.

Some other popular songs Crosby wrote in the 1970's include "Where Will I Be?", "Carry Me", "Bittersweet", "Time After Time", "Foolish Man", and "In My Dreams".

Renewing his ties to the San Francisco milieu that had abetted so well on his solo album, Crosby participated in electronica composer Ned Lagin’s proto-ambient project Seastones, along with members of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Starship.[2]. He also sang back up vocals on "Highway song" from the Hot Tuna album "Burgers".

Acting career

During the early 1990s, he appeared as a guest star in several episodes of The John Larroquette Show, where he played the part of John Hemingway's AA sponsor. He appeared on an episode of Roseanne. He also appeared as a pirate in the 1991 film Hook and as a bartender in the 1992 feature film, Thunderheart.

Crosby has also voiced himself on two episodes of The Simpsons, "Marge in Chains" and "Homer's Barbershop Quartet".

In 1985, after years of advanced freebase cocaine and heroin addiction, he served a year in jail in Texas after having been convicted for a drug-related offense a few years earlier. He was set free after a higher court overturned his conviction on appeal. Later, he was the recipient of a highly publicized liver transplant.

On March 6, 2004 he was arrested for drug possession and weapons offenses in New York City, having left behind a piece of luggage when checking out of a hotel. A hotel employee searched the bag to try to find some identification and found a quantity of marijuana, a 45-caliber handgun, and a hunting knife. Crosby was arrested when he went back to the hotel to pick up his property. He was charged with illegal possession of a hunting knife, illegal possession of a handgun and ammunition, and possession of marijuana.

Trivia

  • While he is still in CSN, Crosby also now leads his own band CPR with guitarist Jeff Pevar and keyboardist James Raymond.
  • Keyboardist member of CPR, James Raymond is Crosby's son, who was given up for adoption at birth and reunited with his father after he had become a professional musician himself.
  • In Italy, a band called Déjà Vu performs only Crosby's songs.

Discography

Please also see discographies for The Byrds, Crosby & Nash, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

With CPR (Crosby, Pevar & Raymond)

References

  • Zimmer, Dave and Diltz, Henry (1984). Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Authorized Biography (First edition). St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-17660-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Crosby, David (2005). Long Time Gone: The Autobiography of David Crosby. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81406-4.

Note

  1. ^ Zimmer and Diltz, p. 54
  2. ^ Zimmer and Diltz, p. 179
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