David Crosby - 'If I Could Only Remember My Name'

 

David Crosby (or "Croz" to his friends and fans), who passed away in 2023 was seen as one of the most recognizable 60s rock survivors, a lifelong and steadfast believer in the ideals of the hippy movement (not unlike yours truly).  He was a singer, songwriter and guitarist who helped create two of the most influential and beloved American bands of the classic-rock era of the 1960s and ’70s – the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.  He was inducted twice into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, as both a founding member of the Byrds and a founder of Crosby, Stills & Nash.

'If I Could Only Remember My Name' lives up to its title, offering up a gorgeous, hazy wash of blissed-out dreamy psychedelia. 

"I thought I met a man who said he knew a man who knew what was going on"

We’re so thick in Oaxacan Highland Gold smoke and psychedelics here that a Californian sunset is blending into a William Turner painting.  Not that's a bad thing.

This is David's first solo album, and an early outing of the so-called 'Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra' which was a mix of members from Jefferson Airplane, CSNY, and the Grateful Dead, and appeared on one another's records in the early 70s, most notably here and on Paul Kantner's 'Blows Against the Empire'. 

So just what is 'If I Could Only Remember My Name'?  Mellow, spaced-out spaghetti western?  Layered vocal pieces as a sort of psy-capella, equally paranoid and whimsical?  Or is it just a cowboy hippie lost on a two-chord-guitar drone with golden long-lost harmonies with some help from his friends: Graham Nash & Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Garcia, most of Jefferson Airplane, acoustic and electric guitar lines tingling in and out, voices washing up on the shore before disappearing?  Whatever it may be, it is beautiful and opaque, it is condensed psychedelic folk with an absolutely unique sound that wouldn’t be replicated by Croz or for that matter, anyone else.

David was the right person to helm such a star-studded cast of contributors, as he doesn't try to impose the conceptual order of a Paul Kantner led project, instead allowing the whole thing to float into an acid-soaked daze. 

David Crosby – vocals, guitars
Graham Nash – guitar, vocals
Jerry Garcia – electric guitar
Neil Young – guitars, vocals
Jorma Kaukonen – electric guitar
Laura Allan – autoharp, vocal
Gregg Rolie – piano
Phil Lesh – bass
Jack Casady – bass
Bill Kreutzmann – drums
Michael Shrieve – drums
Mickey Hart – drums
Joni Mitchell – vocals
David Freiberg – vocals
Paul Kantner – vocals
Grace Slick – vocals

Today's free load is a vinyl rip from my pristine copy of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's 2022 release, a two 12 inch 45rpm set, and was limited to 4,000 copies.  You haven't heard 'If I Could Only Remember My Name', until you've heard this version.

For the freeload, tell us about something that was important (or semi-important), that you completely forgot about.