crosby stills nash

DAVID CROSBY: Out of the Darkness
JOHNNY ROGAN TALKS TO THE VETERAN OF THE BYRDS AND CSNY ABOUT HIS SOLO CAREER, AND HIS UNISSUED MATERIAL.
Author: Johnny Rogan
Journal: Record Collector No. 116
Date: April 1989

The last time I spoke to David Crosby, he was midway through his "ten years in a blindfold" of free-base addiction. Thankfully the blindfold has now been removed and the apparently doomed rock casualty has undergone a veritable musical rebirth. Remember the golden period of 1970/71 when Crosby happened to be everywhere? "Deja Vu" was selling millions of copies, his first solo album "If I Could Only Remember My Name" was staggering in its excellence, there were collaboration with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, and a memorable series of acoustic albums with Graham Nash. Nearly two decades on it seems that 1989/90 will offer a comparable amount of creative activity. "American Dream" is still riding high in the U.S. charts, Crosby's first solo album for 18 years, "Oh Yes I Can", has finally reached the shops, his best-selling autobiography "Long Time Gone" published next month, the Byrds seem set for a recorded reunion, and Crosby & Nash currently preparing an album, to be followed by a major tour.

Crosby is genuinely excited by his present spate of projects, and seems determined to compensate for his 'missing' decade. He recently spent four days in London, accompanied by his wife Jan Dance and manager Bill Siddons. The latter has had the nightmare task of sorting out Crosby's tangled business affairs and it is a tribute to his administrative and negotiating skills that the beleaguered singer is again financially secure.

MOTTO

'Good health, good music and good business' appears to be Crosby's motto for the next decade. Although he has never liked interviews, he remains as articulate as ever and willingly submitted himself to a conveyor belt of media interrogators in a joint promotional trip organized by A&M and Heinemann Books. The following exchange was an early morning interview which gives the lie to the belief that rock stars only emerge at night!

Record Collector: You must have been very disappointed when Capitol declined to release what would have been your second album in 1981. Is it true that you had to buy back your own contract?

David Crosby Yes. I think they were more influenced by knowing that I was a severe drug addict than by the record, which I thought was quite good. But they knew that I was in terrible shape and my reputation in the business at that time was terrible, so they were greatly influenced by that. It's not surprising.

RC: It's interesting to see how you constructed the next album. You took 'Drive My Car' and gave it a new, really powerful arrangement, whereas songs like ''Distances'' and "Flying Man" you haven't tampered with at all, and you've used the old Capitol masters.

DC: Those are the only two that I did leave. I liked them so much that I didn't want to mess with them. I listened to everything from the original. You'll notice we recut ''Melody'' too. ''Melody" was a considerable improvement I thought. But "Distances" was such a gem that I didn't want to mess with it. I loved it just as it was. 'Flying Man' was the same. I could see how I could change them. I was thrilled with what Larry Carlton played and I felt the vocals came out really well, so I left those tunes exactly as they were. It's as a very wide palette of stuff to work with over a long period of time.

RC: Presumably you take each song on its merits, or is there pressure to change material just because it's not 100% new?

DC: Some, but it didn't apply in every case.

RC: What prompted you to revive "Drop Down Mama" after all these years?

DC: Fun. It was fun. I perform that song live a lot. My compatriots in making the record said 'Why don't you do 'Drop Down Mama'. You bark the hell out of it and it's a good tune.' I said. "It s just an old folk tune, I just do it for laughs." They said. "Well you may do it for laughs but everybody else likes it for rock. It's a shuffle, it cooks along and they like the way you sing it. Put it on the record' So they browbeat me into it. I think we got it on that record because Jim Keltner played on it. He's such a fantastic drummer and he put a groove on it which was just irresistible. I was really happy with it. It's another one of those songs like "Monkey And The Underdog' where I got a live track and no overdubs. I liked it for that.

RC: The title track "Oh Yes I Can" is one of the stronger songs on the album.

DC: Yes, I'm really happy with that. It's one of the few songs that I wrote on the piano and I really love it. It's mostly autobiographical, but the first verse where it says, 'The woman, I was sure I was in Iove with/ Seems to feel that the deal is done", is absolutely NOT true. (laughs). But the rest of it is very autobiographical. The title describes how I feel about the record.

RC: The photo on the back sleeve of "Oh Yes I Can" is the same one used on the inside of your 1971 album "If I Could Only Remember My Name". Whose idea was it to re-use that shot after all these years, and why?

DC: The guy who did the cover of 'Oh Yes I Can' was Gary Burden, who also did the back cover of my first solo album and the insert: He said. ''Please let me use that shot on the back." I said. "Why". He replied "Before and after." It was his favourite picture and he wanted to put it on there.

RC: The photo seemed to fit in obliquely with some of the patriotic tracks that were on there. 'You've often been portrayed as a romantic outlaw figure, but here you are singing about how great the constitution is and your "sweet land of liberty".

DC: Some people were very puzzled by that. In our country you have to make a very sharp delineation between the policies of the elected administration, and the principles of the country, the ideals, the constitution and the bill of rights and the core thinking of the people that started this country. At least, I do! I feel strongly patriotic towards the principles of the country, whereas I disagree vehemently with a lot of the policies. I really do. I have all the way down the line: the Vietnam War, nuclear power, nuclear weapons, bill of rights. I've been very vocal about it.

RC: You're now looking at it from another side, positively, rather than pointing the finger as you did in many of the earlier songs and more recently on 'Night Time For The Generals.'

DC: Well, I've always aimed at things that have offended me deeply. I couldn't help but deal with them. There's no question that 'Lady of the Harbor' is a flag waver; it's talking about ideals. I'm an idealist. It came out of me and I thought, "This is pretty flag-waving stuff!" Then I said, "No, it's valid, I believe this shit!" So I put it on the record. I'm not ashamed of it. As a matter of fact, I think the song came out really well largely due to how prettily Bonnie Raitt sang on it.

RC: In your book you say you didn't write anything between "Delta'' and going to jail.

DC: I didn't.

RC: What about "Melody" and "Samurai"?

DC: Well, "Samurai" I'd had for a long time and "Melody" I wrote just before "Delta". Maybe it was just after. I might not be absolutely right there. 'Melody" might have been the last one, but 'Delta was the last really good one I did.

RC. You were performing "Delta" and "Distances'' at the turn of the last decade, and I remember you pulling out a Iyric sheet and reading me a new lyric from "Melody". DC: OK, then you're right. But 'Samurai" I wrote some time before. What I will say is that before I quit drugs there was a couple of years there when I didn't write anything. In fact, I'm probably being generous to myself. It might have been three years. But as soon as I was forced to quit I started writing again about six months later. I started to come out of it, you know, wake up! After that I started to write constantly.

RC. Did you ever finish a song called "Paper Glider'?

DC. Yes.

RC. The image in "Paper Glider'' was of the plane gliding down - "who knows where it lands".

DC. You know an awful lot about my material, man. As I remember I did finish that. I think I have a tape of it that I cut in Florida.

RC. What about these songs - "Planet Earth", Rock'n'Roll Orchestra", "Gothic Blues" and "Leather Winged Bat"?

CD: "Planet Earth/ Rock'n'Roll Orchestra" was stuff that I did with Jerry Garcia back in 1970. "Gothic Blues" and "Leather Winged Bat" was also finished at the same time.

['Crosby smiles and sings a couple of lines of "Leather Winged Bat", is sounds pretty good.]

RC: "King Of The Mountain" was also supposed to be on the last album, but again didn't make it.

DC: I think it's going to be on the Graham Nash/David Crosby LP that we've started

RC: You've started that already?

DC: Yes, we've cut six or seven tracks.

RC: Doesn't this enormous output put you under pressure?

DC: No. I'm able to do a lot more work than I did then and also I'm finding ways to be more prolific. I'm writing with other people as well as by myself. I've got a new song with Craig Doerge called 'Yours And Mine" that I've just finished. I've got a new one that I just wrote with Michael Hedges called ''Arrows". I've got ''King Of The Mountain" and "Samurai'' and all those will be on the new Crosby/Nash LP.

RC: It will be interesting to hear what you do with 'Samurai' . The feel of it reminds me of "Orleans" and "I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here".

DC. I wanted to save it until Nash and I could do it. We have such a rapport, man. Nobody else has ever had that rapport with me. The way "Samurai" has to be done requires almost telepathic timing because there's no beat to it. You have to breathe in hard and let go! Nash is the only one I could do that with. I think we'll do really well with "Samurai". I'm looking forward to it.

RC: How do you feel about the recent CSNY get-together on "American Dream"? DC. Well, I was very happy about 'Compass'. I thought we got a great reading of it. I'm not all that happy about the stuff we got out of Stills. I don't think we got the best that we could out of Stephen. I would have liked to have seen stronger songs from him. Remember, this is the guy who wrote "Carry On'', 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and "Helplessly Hoping". There isn't an acoustic guitar song on the album.

RC: Yes, he's writing quite good rock'n'roll numbers but he hasn't written a really good Iyric for quite some time.

DC: That's the way I feel.

RC. Even with his last solo album there was the same problem.

DC: I'm afraid you're right.

RC: Is there any chance of a CSN&Y tour.

D C: None.

RC: Is there a reason for that?

DC: Yes.

RC: Are you willing to say what it is?

DC: No

RC. Are you still butting heads with Stephen?

DC: Yes. It's more that we disagree about how we live our lives. I don't feel I need to explain that.

RC: How about your own health. Are you yet healthy enough to undertake a full, strenuous national or international tour?

DC. My health is really excellent. I've just passed three years straight. I'm diabetic now and I'm dealing with that successfully. I managed to lose about 40 pounds since I got out of jail. I figure I've got to lose another 40. I'm going to the gym and working out and feeling very healthy. I have tremendous energy. There's a kind of sling-shot effect that happens. When you spend all your time completely drugged out of your mind and sort of like a vegetable and then you wake up from it you go WHOOSHI It's like untying the feet of a bird. I feel great. Why wouldn't I? Look at all the stuff that's working out for me. The two records I've just made, the book, they're all going well, people like them. Then I've got this record that I'm already half-way through with Graham Nash that looks fantastic. If you could hear it you'd be blown away. Beyond that I've got this project in mind with Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman.

RC: You're kidding. You're recording an album?

DC: Yeah. [beaming].

RC. Presumably this came about as a result of the recent Byrds reunion concerts that took place in the States.

DC. Yes. The reason for those was that the drummer Mike Clarke fell on some hard times and fell into the hands of some people and they put him on the road as The Byrds. And that pissed me off. My contribution aside, if it doesn't have Roger McGuinn in it, then it's not the Byrds. I don't care what anybody says.

RC: I thought McGuinn owned the name.

DC: Well, we kind of let it go. Then I had this paranoid flash and I called him and Hillman and said. 'What if these guys, who have a band on the road, copyright the name and then we can't use it?" They said. "What an awful idea. Do you take special pills to come up with these bad thoughts?" I said. 'I really think they might do that. They're very unscrupulous people" and sure enough that's what they were up to so we beat them to it. The upshot was that when I got into the rehearsal studio and started playing with Roger and Christopher, I 'd forgotten how strong they were. RC: Well I hope it works out. You're involved in a lot of projects at the moment and your contributions to "American Dream" were very well received. But some of us were disappointed to see only two out of the 14 songs were Crosby compositions. Wouldn't it have been a little more democratic to have had at least one more Crosby song on there?

DC. It's just the way it happened. I offered them "Tracks in the Dust" and it didn't seem to happen. There was some resistance there from somebody but I didn't worry about it. I had two very good songs and was more concerned with the quality rather than the quantity I'm not worried about the piecing end of it.

RC: It did give the album a slightly disproportionate feel. I felt.

DC: I thought so too, but it wasn't up to me.

RC: How did you react to Neil Young's Hippie Dream"? Did that song hurt you or affect you in any way? I guess as an addict you already knew it all anyway'

DC: Mostly, you ignore all that stuff when you're addicted. You're in a state we call denial. You don't let anything in that doesn't agree with you taking your next hit. of drugs. I have a very good relationship with Neil. We had a tremendous amount of fun making that album. There's no bad flavour there for me. I understand why he did it really

RC: Do you envisage another CSNY project in the future?

DC: No.

RC: Not even a recording venture?

DC: No.

RC: Why is that? Does it go back to the reasons you hinted at regarding Stephen?

DC: The ones that I didn't say, yes!

RC: Couldn't that situation be resolved in, say, five years time, though?

DC: It could.

RC: I understand you recently collaborated with Johnny Marr of the Smiths on a song?

DC: Well we got about halfway through it.

RC: You didn't finish it? Damn! Anyway, how did that come about?

DC: He came over to my house in Los Angeles. I like him a great deal even though he swiped my songbook, the little rat! He's a really bright guy and a tremendous guitar player. I showed him one of my strange tunings on the guitar and we had a song about halfway written. If I ever get a chance to work with him again I'll probably finish it. But gee, he's good. He's such a great player. I'd really like a chance to play with him again.

RC: How did he get to you?

DC: We had a mutual friend, Gary Burden, who does my album covers. He put him in touch with me. I really like the guy.

RC: Having discussed all your other projects, there is another which I must mention - the Byrds retrospective "Never Before". What did you think of the album as a package"

DC: I thought it came out very well. It's the only one of those records that I like. There have been several, "Preflyte" and so forth, and one was worse than the next! "Never Before" was done under the auspices of Jim Dickson who originally managed the Byrds and was very sensitive to what was really going on there. He's a guy I like a lot. I came in and helped a little bit, as did Christopher and others. We tried to fix little things, improve and upgrade this and that, and overall I felt it was pretty good considering.

RC: It's nothing less than what you've always wanted, a re-evaluation of the whole 1965-7 period. Look at the second side of the album. When you hear a song like ''It Happens Each Day", which didn't make "Younger Than Yesterday", it surely adds weight to your contention that you were being held back in the group creativity?

DC: To some extent. There was a lot of material there; it was just that I wanted more room. And at the time, I wasn't being that nice a guy, I had a rapidly developing ego.

RC: But that song "It Happens Each Day", had you forgotten it existed?

DC: Yes I had I thought the cut of "Triad' turned out well too.

RC: One problem the album threw up that I'm anxious to resolve concerns the recording of "Draft Morning". Both Hillman and yourself have explained to me that the Byrds took the song after you'd left, added some new Iyrics, recorded it without your permission and put it on the album. Yet the session lists tell a different story. It seems to have been recorded two weeks before "Triad", "Tribal Gathering" and "Dolphin's Smile", so you must have still been there. How can you explain that anomaly?

DC: The list is probably not true! Actually we did cut the track before I left. They then redid the vocals and changed the lyrics, but we cut the instrumental track first. That explains it for you.

RC: "Wooden Ships" has often been described as a science fiction fantasy. It was interesting to read in your autobiography that you are something of a sci-fi aficionado.

DC: I have always loved science fiction. I'm currently greatly enamoured of William Gibson. His work is just unbelievable.

RC: You once threatened another album in the experimental tradition of "Seastones" (by Phil Lesh, Crosby and others), perhaps an entire album without words. Is that still on?

DC: I would like to do a choral work of strange vocals. You can tell from I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here" and "Critical Mass" that there is that in me. I'd like to do that. Whether I get to it or not, we'll see I was discussing it with Frank. Zappa because he's because he's very advanced and eclectic and a strange individual. I asked what he thought about it and he said he'd done a couple and that they were very difficult and took a lot of time layering. He said I could probably do it. It's helped a couple of other people do it and the results weren't as exciting as they'd hoped. But he felt I should do it too.

RC: You probably have the clout to do it now. I imagine you need a certain amount of record company licence.

DC: It's the kind of thing you'd have to do after you'd delivered them some very successful, commercial product. The way I'd have to deal with it is that it'd have to be something where I had some time to myself and got the use of somebody's private recording studio. I could see myself going up to Michael Hedges' house and doing it.

One day later, Crosby and Bill Siddons appeared at a private reception thrown by Heinemann to launch the forthcoming publication of "Long Time Gone". Dressed immaculately in a dark suit, Crosby entertained a select clientele of publishing personnel and pop journalists, liberally signing autographs and speaking to anyone who approached him. Normally hard-nosed scribes from the music weeklies were heard to remark incredulously: "Doesn't he look in great shape?" This fascination with Crosby's health will come as no surprise to those who have read his harrowing autobiography, which assiduously and often painfully recounts his descent into a living hell of drug addiction.

In a short speech introducing the book Crosby explained that he and co-author Carl Gottlieb were determined to transcend the sycophantic limitations of the normal showbiz autobiography ("Aren't I great? ... and then l discovered the Beatles") and ignore the frivolous in favour of cold truths. On that level the book certainly succeeds, and although relatively slight on the musical side of David's career, the story is riveting. From the comments of others at the reception, I was not the only one who stayed up till dawn and beyond, turning pages in amazement. The rehabilitation of David Crosby has forestalled what would have been one of the most regrettable personal tragedies in rock history.

PAGE INDEX