The first of an extensive series of
archival interviews, this 1993 conversation with David Crosby marked the beginning
of a dialogue that has continued for nearly 30 years … read and enjoy!
There are few current artists with
David Crosby’s combined history and track record. In 1964, Crosby co-founded
The Byrds, pioneering what became “folk-rock.” The Byrds blended the
intelligence of folk lyrics with the innovative musical trails being blazed by
rock musicians, led by The Beatles, who dubbed Crosby and Co. their “favorite
American group.”
Unlike most of his early ‘60s peers,
who allowed a preconceived public image to represent them, Crosby always broke
down artificial barriers, being as real as possible, and reflecting that
attitude in his songs. This highly individual stance ultimately resulted in his
ouster from The Byrds’ nest in 1967, a blessing in disguise if there ever was
one.
Crosby soon cultivated new musical
friendships and alliances, including Joni Mitchell, John Sebastian, and most
importantly, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. Crosby had actually been a
temporary member of Stills’ Buffalo Springfield at the Monterey Pop Festival in
’67, filling in for an absent Neil Young, after performing with The Byrds.
After the Springfield’s demise, Crosby and Stills began working together as a
duo, committing a few songs to tape, and plotting out a future, when the “big
event” took place. Although the actual location differs depending on the
source, on one fine day in 1968, Crosby, Stills, and Nash locked voices for the
first time.
Crosby and Stills were sitting around
with friends, Graham Nash, then of the Hollies, among them. Nash listened
attentively as Crosby and Stills ran through each other’s songs. After
requesting three successive renditions of Stills’ “You Don’t Have to Cry,” Nash
added his high harmony into the mix … and there was no looking back.
Crosby, Stills,
and Nash, the band’s 1969 debut, showcased
three exceptionally talented singer/songwriters whose otherworldly vocal blend
took the country by storm; songs like “Marrakesh Express,” “Suite: Judy Blue
Eyes,” and “Long Time Gone” proved that this trio was a formidable one that
would set new standards in popular music. Almost a quarter century later, a CSN
concert is still a celebratory event. A certain timeless magic transforms the
sights and sounds into something way beyond the ordinary.
Like many other groups, CSN has had
its share of problems of the years, the most serious of them being Crosby’s
increasing addiction to freebase cocaine and heroin, beginning in the late
‘70s. That habit eventually landed him in a Texas jail cell in 1985. It was a distressing
and disheartening experience for the group’s fans, who had always looked upon
them as ‘60s survivors.
As one of those fans, I am happy to
report that Crosby’s problem is a thing of the past. He is 100% back in the
land of the living; healthy, sane, and sober, and has a great new album, Thousand
Roads. Enlisting the help of his friends including Graham Nash, Phil
Collins, Jackson Browne, John Hiatt, Joni Mitchell, and Marc Cohn, Crosby’s
third solo effort is easily his strongest, firmly reestablishing his reputation
as a master singer/songwriter and peerless interpreter.
I spoke with Crosby just prior to the
album’s release. Our conversation covered almost every aspect of a career that
has spanned almost thirty years.
Roy Abrams: With your new album, you’ve come full circle
in a way. With The Byrds, you focused a lot of attention on interpreting other
artists’ material, most notably Bob Dylan’s. With CSN, CSNY, and your solo
career, the emphasis was on self-penned songs. Now, with Thousand Roads,
there are seven magnificent examples of the art of interpretation. You’ve
really made the songs your own. What was your criteria for choosing those
particular songs?
David Crosby: I have to give credit to Bonnie Raitt. I
listened to Nick of Time and I thought, God, this is one of the best albums
I’ve heard in ten years. And I said, well, Bonnie didn’t write all that stuff,
she just made it hers. I thought, I can do that. I can’t sing like Bonnie, but
nobody else can either! [Laughs] I only maybe write three or four songs in a
year that I really, really like, so this took a lot of pressure off me. It also
gave me a much wider palette of colors to work from. The selection process was
the simplest possible criteria you could ask for. The only thing that matters
to me about a song is, does it make you feel it. I don’t care who wrote
it, I don’t care where it came from. I care (about): does it make you feel
anything? And that was my whole yardstick. I was very lucky. There were some
things that happened that were just really unusual; you know, writing a song
with Joni (Mitchell), which doesn’t happen. I don’t think anybody’s ever
written a song with her. Having Jimmy Webb give me a song like “Too Young to
Die,” which is such a stunner──or discovering “Natalie” in the middle of a
bunch of songs of Stephen Bishop’s. I was lucky.
RA: How would you compare writing
alone with collaborations?
DC: I like ‘em both. I don’t try to
legislate it; I just do what comes. But I find that working with other people
very often sparks me into going to places that I would not have gone, and I
love that! It inevitably makes it better, widens the scope.
RA: Are there performing plans for
this album?
DC: Yeah, if the record (goes) well,
I’ll definitely try. There are some people I’d love to work with; I’d love to
put together a band and go out and play. I’m definitely gonna do some stuff
this summer with Graham ‘cause we worked CSN all last summer. We’ve been trying
to change it up, keep it fresh, so he and I are gonna go out and do a couple of
things this summer; us and a couple of other singer/songwriters in a package,
and I think we’re gonna do a couple of dates with symphony orchestras which
ought to be fascinating
RA: Are there any moments that
especially stand out during the album sessions?
DC: Yeah, several. Recording “Hero”
with Phil Collins at the Genesis studio──Fischer Lane Farm in England. The
sessions that I did with Glyn Johns at his place in Surrey were amazing. I had
never worked with Andy Fairweather-Low before, or Wix, the keyboard player from
McCartney’s band. I had known (former Eagles guitarist) Bernie Leadon but I
hadn’t played with him before. Those were amazing sessions, man. Glyn Johns is
astounding. The session when we cut “Too Young to Die’ with Don Was was just a
stunner. “Helpless Heart” with Jeff Porcaro playing was a great (session). The
session that we did “Old Soldier” at Jackson Browne’s studio──John Leventhal,
Lee Sklar, and Marc Cohn playing piano, Nash doing a harmonica solo. Man, it
was so good! It as just so easy, it was like [snaps his fingers]──things just
falling exactly where they should. There was a lot of that on this record. This
record was not a struggle to do. There was some trepidation about it, using so
many different players, producers, locations, kinds of songs. But it really
jelled remarkably easily. I don’t know──somebody up there smiled.
RA: Do you think that CSNY might at
some point say, “Let’s do it again”?
DC: With Neil, you mean? Yeah, it’s
possible. I just did a rally in Portland with Neil. He and I are really good
friends and I love working with the guy. But you have to understand, he really
doesn’t need us. He is self-contained, by himself, as powerful a musical
experience as you need. He’ll take you on a full, complete trip. Just Neil.
Whether it could happen or not … you know, it’s a really complex chemistry. The
four of us is really just a little too much to fit in one package, and
sometimes that’s a very good thing, ‘cause it makes kind of a compressed,
explosive mixture. Other times, it really doesn’t work. It’s really hard to know
when is the time to pull that one off or not. I have absolutely tremendous
respect for (Neil), and for his artistic integrity and for his courage and for
his skill, his art. I think he’s a fantastic guy and I would work with him
anytime.
RA: At the Dylan Tribute at the Garden
last year, Neil came out right after Sinead O’Connor got booed off stage and
managed to turn a really strange atmosphere back into a party.
DC: I think they were wrong to get on
her case like that, but I think she was wrong in how she made her point. I
don’t know her, but I think she’s a very sincere person, but not tremendously
skilled at getting her point across. Frankly, if I was an Irish woman, I’d be
really pissed at the Catholic Church myself. Wanna know the truth? That’s the
truth. I totally disagree (with the Church). I think it’s complete reproductive
irresponsibility. That’s my own personal opinion. You know, I do benefits for
Voters for Choice, so you know which side of that question I’m on. I’m sorry
that there were people there that felt that they had to take her down for it.
But Neil has such power as a performer.
RA: I wanted to thank you for
introducing Michael Hedges during last year’s tour. How’d you hook up with him?
DC: You know, it’s a funny story. I
ran into him several years back in the parking lot of a market in Mill Valley.
He knew who I was and came up to me and said, “Hi, my name is Michael Hedges,
and I play guitar, too.” I said, really? and he said “Yeah.” I said, what kind
of stuff” and he said, “Here, I’ll show you.” And he played something like
“Aerial Boundaries” and I went WHAT?!?!?!? Who are you?? Come up to my house!
Play me some more of that stuff. I was still stoned then, you know, so I didn’t
really pursue the friendship because I was mostly into getting loaded. Later
on, I heard a couple of songs off his Watching My Life Go By album. He
just knocked my brain out. I think the guy’s incredibly talented. Him and Marc
Cohn and Shawn Colvin and Paul Brady are my four favorite up-and-comers.
RA: Who’s out there that you would
eventually like to work with?
DC: Bruce (Hornsby). All the musicians
you talk to will say Hornsby right away, ‘cause he’s an absolutely brilliant
musician. Who else … Paul Brady. He’s probably one of the best
singer/songwriters in the world, and he’s completely underrated. He wrote “Luck
of the Draw” (a popular track from Bonnie Raitt’s breakthrough album). Shawn
Colvin … I think Shawn is one of the two or three best woman singer/songwriters
in the world. I’ve worked with Michael (Hedges) some already but I would like
very much to work with him more. He and I wrote that song “Arrows” on the last
CSN album, and that was a great experience. I think he’s a major talent.
RA: Performing a very personal song
can be like walking a tightrope. With songs like “Carry Me” and “Guinevere,” do
you ever have a problem making it through the performance?
DC: I can make it through the
performance, but I’ve wound up in tears (afterward) But that’s good. You write
from things that really make you feel something and you’re into the real stuff.
I really think that’s’ the central thing about songwriting: to write about
stuff that really makes you feel something. Sometimes it’s dangerous because
you re-live the experience. But that’s okay; it’s healthy.
RA: In terms of your own songwriting,
are you still into the various open tunings and stuff?
DC: Yeah! Most guitar players start by
tuning the low pitch E string down to a D, so you can play in a D tuning. After
you realize that you change it, then you start changing all of ‘em, (and you
get) all kinds of weird patterns. When I ran into Joni, she was so advanced in
it──before she ever made her first album, the one that I produced. I think
she’s still probably one of the most advanced of all. Her and Hedges, I think,
are probably the two farthest-out people in tunings that I know about. Nash
does some amazing ones. Stills does some amazing ones.
RA: When you were growing up, your
brother got you into jazz and your mother turned you on to a lot of classical
music.
DC: Yeah, that’s true.
RA: To what degree did the music
influence your harmony singing? Or was harmony just ingrained in your DNA?
DC: I think that stuff really had a
strong influence on me. Not to say that the Everly Brothers didn’t, and some
other very strange influences, too, like the first of the Bulgarian Folk Choir
albums that came out in the ‘60s sometime. It just nailed me, you know. They
were doing stuff that no one else had even dreamt of. But I’ve always been
fascinated with harmony singing. Some of the earliest records I remember were
people like the Weavers. I sang in choirs, too. I lucked into a very wide set
of influences.
RA: How much of an impact did The
Beatles have on you when you were first starting out? What was it like hanging
out with them?
DC: The impact was sort of like a
sledgehammer in the forehead! [Laughs] I hung out with them a fair amount over
several different periods of time, the best being in England at the time they
were making Sgt. Pepper. John was a good guy. I really regret him going.
I have a long list of people that I really regret losing.
RA: You’ve worked with Dylan in the
past. What’s it like?
DC: Ah, he’s a fun guy. He’s a great
guy. [Long pause] I’m very comfortable with him ‘cause I’ve known him for a
long time. On another level, I’m in awe of him as a writer, but as a human
being, I’m not I can sit with him, comfortably talk to him and relate to him as
a person, so he and I have a great time. Most people, when they get around him,
they’re kind of like [makes shell-shocked face], and he plays with them. If
they have a distorted viewpoint of him like that, then he’ll play with them.
RA: You and Chris Hillman worked with
Roger McGuinn on The Byrds’ boxed set and recorded four new Byrds tracks in the
process. Do you think you’ll be doing any more work with McGuinn at some point
in the future?
DC: I want to, but I don’t think he
does. I’ve asked him several times, ‘cause I would really like to be doing some
Byrds stuff along with all the other things that I’m doing. He doesn’t want to
do it; I don’t know why. Chris and I──and I don’t mean to say it in a snotty
way──who have more active careers than he does, are both willing to set them
aside and take the time to do it. But he doesn’t want to do it. You have to ask
him why. I would love to do it. I think the guy’s a genius and I would love to
work with him. I think that the chemistry is still there as proven by the things
that we did [in the boxed set].
RA: If you were to put together your
own “magic band”──past or present influences──which names would come to mind?
DC: With me in it or not?
RA: With you in it──why not?
DC: Magic band? [Long pause] Me, Phil,
Hornsby, Clapton, and Lee Sklar. Phil’s just an astounding drummer. Now,
everybody sees him as a singer and forgets that he’s one of the best drummers
there is.
RA: Even though you included several
previously unreleased gems in the CSN boxed set, I know there has to be a lot
more material floating around.
DC: There is──
RA: Are there any plans in the future
to sift through and put out “Little Blind Fish” (the only song all four members
of CSNY share songwriter’s credit)?
DC: [Laughs] A lot of people would
like us to do an archival series, a sort of vault album. Stuff that is really
for people who are pretty way deep into it. Those (songs) have a limited
market; we’re considering it. There is some fascinating stuff, some very, very
interesting stuff. We have an entire album’s worth of demos of the first time
anybody put down anything about a song. The first time Graham played “Teach
Your Children,” or when I was playing “Wooden Ships” before we ever had the
words. Interesting glimpses, you know? But they have a very limited appeal.
There’s not many people who care about them. Those who do care about ‘em care a
lot. We’re looking for a way (to release the material).
RA: Are there any outtakes from the
Crosby/Nash Wind on the Water period?
DC: You know, it’s funny you should
bring that up. I was listening to that record not long ago and it hit me again
that I just have got to do another one of them. That was some of the best work
I’ve ever done in my life and I was talking with Graham about it and I think
we’re gonna do another Crosby/Nash album. We’ve been working as Crosby, Stills,
and Nash for the last couple of years, so I think we’re gonna do it Man, every
time I listen to that record, it still just rings my bell.
RA: When you first started out in this
business, did you ever consider the possibility that you’d still be doing this,
let alone achieve this level of success?
DC: Nah.
RA: How do you feel, looking back?
DC: I feel like I’m very lucky to
still be here. I’m sorry that I wasted as much time as I did being stoned,
because I could have done a lot more, but I’m very, very happy with where I am
now and who I am now and how my life is going now. I’ve paid a lot of dues to
get here but it is a great place to be. I’m pretty comfortable with what it is
I do and how it is I do it. I think I’m a very lucky man.
© 2021 Roy Abrams
Originally published in The
Island-Ear, Issue 369, June 7-20, 1993
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