Lucian Truscott described him perfectly: asshole and genius. I’m sure David would have agreed with him. But there he is with his kitty, and that goes a long way to putting him on the good side of the line. There’s songs that, the first time I heard them, I had to stop what I was doing and listen. "Ring of Fire” - in the Navy, we were working away in the staff operations office with Armed Forces Radio on the intercom, and this song came on. Everybody - including the Chief of Staff who walked out of his office at that moment - just stopped what they were doing and listened. “Eleanor Rigby” - I was driving and had to pull over and stop and listen. Same with “Sounds of Silence” - I thought at first the radio was pulling in two competing stations.
I remember the CSN concert in San Diego maybe about a decade ago. After an intro set of several hits each took the stage separately to perform some of their individual songs. If memory serves David was last to step up, and the audience was getting pretty antsy by then (all old folk), and were quite chatty. The hall was noisy (this was the Civic Theater that holds nearly 3,000 and has lousy acoustics). So David steps up to a microphone stage left, then steps beyond it, opens his mouth, and the clearest angelic sound issues forth, filling that cavernous hall and totally, instantly, silencing that audience. We just sat there in absolute awe as sweet a cappella music washed over us. Never experienced anything like that before or since. And I’ve listened to Pavorati in concert. No comparison.
Any reference to "Ring of Fire" makes me chuckle. My brother-in-law's dad, if his kids were too slow in getting out of bed on Sunday morning for church, would blast it at high volume to get them moving. The Byrds - oh gosh, so much great music came out of that era. Feeling lucky here to have experienced it while it was still new!
Another soundtrack artist from my misspent youth gone…I still have my old vinyl CSN album with Suite Judy Blue Eyes and Marrakesh Express on it. Eight Miles High with the Byrds…
This is a gut punch, not unexpected like a sucker punch, but a breath taker for sure. I did not know the man, but I had friends that knew him well and they all loved him. Like all of us he had his problems, but he also had a remarkable gift that he shared with us, a gift that most of us could only dream of having. I'm sure he's playing now with Graham Parsons and the others that preceded him, I pray that his joy is never ending, he certainly gave away a lot of it with his music RIP David RIP
Croz - He was pretty much my son-in-love, Jackson Nash's', uncle, more than the Hawaiian version of uncle. Jackson has known Croz since he was born, he was devastated by his death but knew it was coming. I was so glad to be here in in Kauai to help him through this today. I met Croz backstage a few times, but the best was having dinner with him, Janny and Django in Hanalei with Jack and Melissa, our daughter. He was a lion back in 2021, so imposing and gracious. He had a wonderful and crazy life and I'm so glad I was part of that, in a very small but beautiful way. Rest in love, Croz!
The Byrds were one of the three or four groups (including Dylan as a "group" here, to save space or something) whose albums I'd buy the day they came out (if he's reading this, I can actually FEEL the breeze from Tony Soll nodding in excited agreement). it's impossible for me to see any clip of the T.A.M.I. Show without thinking very sadly of Jack Nitszsche, who planned the whole thing and played piano...his programming was a work of genius and proved to be vastly influential (The Stones said that they did what everyone thinks of as their "act" because they were following James Brown and realized they had to do SOMETHING). Jack produced my songwriting partner's second album, which that prick Clive Davis refused to release and which has existed in Great Unreleased Album Samizdat since it was finished in 1977. actually, not too different from, say, a Great Unproduced Screenplay. Jack had HIS demons, which were directly responsible for his passing so soon. I shouldn't sound so detached and journalistic about any of this...I'm typing this right now because, to quote David Crosby, I just got lucky.
and Jack had many, many horrifying David Crosby stories. as did the limo company guy CSN&Y always hired when they were playing gigs here. hang around long enough and you're gonna get to know Everybody. Crosby was a real good singer, though, the horror stories notwithstanding.
a little piece of related trivia I only found out about this past week...the word is that McGuinn picked up the notion to use the Twelve String Rickenbacker from George Harrison. GH was such an enthusiastic Byrds fan at the time, I always assumed it was the other way around. and the songs George wrote that are very obviously influenced by the Byrds (Gene Clark especially, who was the best writer in the group's earliest manifestation) are great ones (the first one that always springs to mind for me is "And Your Bird Can Sing"). jesus...so amazing how long a year could be back then.
if I'm getting any of this wrong, I await a correction.
and since I mentioned the T.A.M.I. Show, I should add that the DVD is not expensive, has a terrific commentary track and gives a lot of bang for the buck.
"sic transit gloria mundi" gets a little more true with every passing day....
Many of us are at an age that allows us (thankfully) to remember the good music that came out in those days (and the bad music, but I digress...). I am thankful to be able to listen to it almost at will with satellite radio available. I saw CSN live on a very hot night in July in Charlottesville, VA just a few years ago. And though they (and we) were all a lot older than when Crosby was part of The Byrds, they were still CSN in every way, and it transported me back to a younger age for a couple of hours. Thank you, David, for the music.
TC, when I read these comments this morning, I had no idea that David had passed. Now having read about it, it makes me sad. I'll always love his works and the man that he was.
I was so young... My brother was a freshman at St.Mary's, across the bay from San Francisco. Five years later I followed him out there. I was in Berkeley in 1970, and as a midwestern Catholic school educated white girl, well,
it sure wasn't Kansas! My brother lived with a bunch of people in a huge house in the Mission District, and his friends and he always let me tag along to the concerts and clubs on the weekends. It was baptism by fire.
I never felt like I was part of that world, only peering in from outside. It was a strange time for me, I felt like things were changing so quickly, but I couldn't understand... I felt exhilarated and overwhelmed at the same time. I felt like I needed an answer, but I couldn't figure out what the question was.
LONG TIME GONE (2005 Remaster)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS3l_TwPNRY
Crosby, Stills & Nash
℗ 1969 Atlantic Recording Corporation
Engineer: Bill Halverson
Drums: Dallas Taylor
Guitar, Vocals: David Crosby
Rhythm Guitar: David Crosby
Producer: David Crosby
Producer: Graham nash
Vocals: Graham nash
Unknown: Rob Grenell
Band Member, Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion, Vocals: Stephen Stills
Bass Guitar: Stephen Stills
Producer: Stephen Stills
Writer: David Crosby
Southern Cross was my favorite. I miss music the most in my deafness. So crank it up and play
it for me. 😁
I remember the CSN concert in San Diego maybe about a decade ago. After an intro set of several hits each took the stage separately to perform some of their individual songs. If memory serves David was last to step up, and the audience was getting pretty antsy by then (all old folk), and were quite chatty. The hall was noisy (this was the Civic Theater that holds nearly 3,000 and has lousy acoustics). So David steps up to a microphone stage left, then steps beyond it, opens his mouth, and the clearest angelic sound issues forth, filling that cavernous hall and totally, instantly, silencing that audience. We just sat there in absolute awe as sweet a cappella music washed over us. Never experienced anything like that before or since. And I’ve listened to Pavorati in concert. No comparison.
David’s death is hitting hard.
Any reference to "Ring of Fire" makes me chuckle. My brother-in-law's dad, if his kids were too slow in getting out of bed on Sunday morning for church, would blast it at high volume to get them moving. The Byrds - oh gosh, so much great music came out of that era. Feeling lucky here to have experienced it while it was still new!
Another soundtrack artist from my misspent youth gone…I still have my old vinyl CSN album with Suite Judy Blue Eyes and Marrakesh Express on it. Eight Miles High with the Byrds…
This is a gut punch, not unexpected like a sucker punch, but a breath taker for sure. I did not know the man, but I had friends that knew him well and they all loved him. Like all of us he had his problems, but he also had a remarkable gift that he shared with us, a gift that most of us could only dream of having. I'm sure he's playing now with Graham Parsons and the others that preceded him, I pray that his joy is never ending, he certainly gave away a lot of it with his music RIP David RIP
Croz - He was pretty much my son-in-love, Jackson Nash's', uncle, more than the Hawaiian version of uncle. Jackson has known Croz since he was born, he was devastated by his death but knew it was coming. I was so glad to be here in in Kauai to help him through this today. I met Croz backstage a few times, but the best was having dinner with him, Janny and Django in Hanalei with Jack and Melissa, our daughter. He was a lion back in 2021, so imposing and gracious. He had a wonderful and crazy life and I'm so glad I was part of that, in a very small but beautiful way. Rest in love, Croz!
The Byrds were one of the three or four groups (including Dylan as a "group" here, to save space or something) whose albums I'd buy the day they came out (if he's reading this, I can actually FEEL the breeze from Tony Soll nodding in excited agreement). it's impossible for me to see any clip of the T.A.M.I. Show without thinking very sadly of Jack Nitszsche, who planned the whole thing and played piano...his programming was a work of genius and proved to be vastly influential (The Stones said that they did what everyone thinks of as their "act" because they were following James Brown and realized they had to do SOMETHING). Jack produced my songwriting partner's second album, which that prick Clive Davis refused to release and which has existed in Great Unreleased Album Samizdat since it was finished in 1977. actually, not too different from, say, a Great Unproduced Screenplay. Jack had HIS demons, which were directly responsible for his passing so soon. I shouldn't sound so detached and journalistic about any of this...I'm typing this right now because, to quote David Crosby, I just got lucky.
and Jack had many, many horrifying David Crosby stories. as did the limo company guy CSN&Y always hired when they were playing gigs here. hang around long enough and you're gonna get to know Everybody. Crosby was a real good singer, though, the horror stories notwithstanding.
a little piece of related trivia I only found out about this past week...the word is that McGuinn picked up the notion to use the Twelve String Rickenbacker from George Harrison. GH was such an enthusiastic Byrds fan at the time, I always assumed it was the other way around. and the songs George wrote that are very obviously influenced by the Byrds (Gene Clark especially, who was the best writer in the group's earliest manifestation) are great ones (the first one that always springs to mind for me is "And Your Bird Can Sing"). jesus...so amazing how long a year could be back then.
if I'm getting any of this wrong, I await a correction.
and since I mentioned the T.A.M.I. Show, I should add that the DVD is not expensive, has a terrific commentary track and gives a lot of bang for the buck.
"sic transit gloria mundi" gets a little more true with every passing day....
Great music! Thanks for the link! Brings back so many memories.
For some reason, Back Pages comes to mind. Dylan's words but the Byrds version is by far the best recording.
Many of us are at an age that allows us (thankfully) to remember the good music that came out in those days (and the bad music, but I digress...). I am thankful to be able to listen to it almost at will with satellite radio available. I saw CSN live on a very hot night in July in Charlottesville, VA just a few years ago. And though they (and we) were all a lot older than when Crosby was part of The Byrds, they were still CSN in every way, and it transported me back to a younger age for a couple of hours. Thank you, David, for the music.
such a loss of great talent... It's hard to acknowledge the soundtrack of my youth is passing away, on e great artist at a time...
That's exactly what I did. I guess we were all young like that once and looked quite different from the way we look now.
TC, when I read these comments this morning, I had no idea that David had passed. Now having read about it, it makes me sad. I'll always love his works and the man that he was.
That video was great TC. I hardly recognized David.
I was so young... My brother was a freshman at St.Mary's, across the bay from San Francisco. Five years later I followed him out there. I was in Berkeley in 1970, and as a midwestern Catholic school educated white girl, well,
it sure wasn't Kansas! My brother lived with a bunch of people in a huge house in the Mission District, and his friends and he always let me tag along to the concerts and clubs on the weekends. It was baptism by fire.
I never felt like I was part of that world, only peering in from outside. It was a strange time for me, I felt like things were changing so quickly, but I couldn't understand... I felt exhilarated and overwhelmed at the same time. I felt like I needed an answer, but I couldn't figure out what the question was.