David Crosby (1941-2023)
By Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 1/20/23 – David Crosby has passed at the age of 81. Music insiders were neither shocked nor surprised. However, all were amazed he kept himself alive and productive as long as he did. His body absorbed a lot of abuse during the 60’s 70’s and 80’s; mostly self-imposed. The man himself was amazed that he still stood when so many of his friends and colleagues (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin et al..) had long succumbed to the same demons he fought off until January 18, 2023.
However, Crosby’s enduring legacy will be his music and his influence. He founded two seminal bands from the 1960’s. He joined forces with guitarist Roger McGuinn to form The Byrds; a folk-rock powerhouse that prettified Bob Dylan’s genius and delivered it to the masses via Mr. Tambourine Man. Crosby’s songwriting, wild ideas and crystalline harmonies were a vital element to The Byrds sound. He stuck it out for five Byrds albums before he was dismissed by the band for joining The Buffalo Springfield for their gig at The Monterrey Festival in 1967. The Byrds would survive Crosby’s departure. However, they never again shook the earth as they did when Crosby was a member.
For Crosby, revenge was a dish best served on a platinum platter. In short order he formed Crosby, Stills and Nash and the band’s eponymous debut went stratospheric. The Beatles were splitting up and CSN filled the void as the biggest band on the planet in the year 1969. As with The Byrds, CSN’s calling cards were gorgeous three-part harmonies paired with sophisticated Folk-Rock gems that were radio friendly, yet rewarded repeated listening. Crosby’s signature middle part harmonies were the secret sauce that helped catapult the band to superstardom. CSN’s debut album not only ruled the charts and airwaves, but the album cover epitomized the stoned, hippie Zeitgeist of the late 60’s. Their monumental performance at Woodstock further burnished their iconography for the ages.
Neil Young would join the cool kids party and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young would crank out a septuple platinum follow-up album Déjà vu. Nothing could stop them it seemed, except exploding egos and Crosby’s precipitous decline into hard drugs, guns and madness.
The time marker for Crosby’s decline was the death of his love Christine Hinton in a 1969 car crash. Crosby was on top of the world, but many close to Crosby claim that after identifying her body, he was never the same.
However, his Irish constitution held up well enough for him to record his first solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name. He was grieving, wacked out and in the zone on this filler-free brace of head tunes. The album stands as his masterpiece and also boasts one of the most creative and poignant record covers of all time.
He closed the circle with his Byrd mates by producing their 1973 reunion album. Late in the decade, CSN would thumb their nose at Punk Rock’s scorched earth reign with their 1977 quadruple platinum album CSN. The band struck paydirt again in 1982 with the album Daylight Again.
Crosby’s defining moment came in 1985 when he served a 9 month stretch in Texas State Prison on drug charges. Poor circumstance begat good fortune as he emerged from prison clean and stayed that way, except for a lingering fondness for cannabis that he claimed aided him medicinally in dealing with his multiplying physical maladies.
Crosby would gain admittance to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a member of CSN and as a member of The Byrds. Between musical adventures, Crosby would stay gainfully employed as an actor on network TV (Rosanne, Ellen, The John Larroquette Show, The Simpsons) and in smaller rolls in feature films (Hook, Backdraft, Thunderheart). He would also maintain a healthy tabloid profile as the sperm donor father of Melissa Etheridge’s twins.
He would undergo a successful liver transplant, paid for by Phil Collins, in 1994. However, his heart was in perilous condition and would require several stents to keep it functioning until his death at age 81.
Crosby’s life was both a triumph over adversity and cautionary tale. Crosby was a living breathing representation of a 60’s decade that promised everything, but ultimately delivered only ephemeral pleasures and the best popular music ever produced by humankind. A large swath of that music bore David Crosby’s stamp.
RIP