The legend of David Crosby has long been a source of fascination to me. Over the years, I've spent a few afternoons researching David Crosby to try to figure out at what point exactly this man became such a rock and roll icon.
I mean, I do get that he was part of two of the biggest pop groups in history--The Byrds, and Crosby, Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young). But he was hardly the driving force behind either group. When you think of The Byrds' characteristic sound, you're thinking about Roger McGuinn, right? And think of classic a CSNY hit. It's not one of David Crosby's songs you're thinking of, right?
Plus, neither The Byrds nor CNSY were particularly associated with hard rock. The Byrds were folk rock. And as for CSNY... okay they had a few rocking songs, but they also had a lot of songs that would play on soft rock stations. I used to hear at lot of CSNY while getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist back in the 80s and 90s.
[Sidenote: Do soft rock radio stations still exist, or was that just an 80s and 90s thing? I don't know, I've been - living - abroad for the past 20 years. But I feel like I haven't heard anyone say the word "soft rock" for a couple decades. Anyway...]
But in the 90s, when I started first becoming aware of the pop culture world, David Crosby was frequently referenced, and often parodied, as someone who embodied the rock and roll lifestyle. Back then he was referenced on Wayne's World, SNL, The Simpsons, etc.
So, every now and then, I would get curious, and spend some time on Wikipedia trying to figure out: At what point exactly did David Crosby become such an icon?
Looking back on it now, I think the answer is actually surprisingly simple. David Crosby was in the news a lot in the 1980s for his drug related problems. So, in the 90s, he was the go-to punch line for comedians who wanted to reference the excesses of rock stars. I was too young in the 1980s to be following pop culture trends. I started absorbing popular culture in the 1990s, so I was just old enough to absorb all the jokes about David Crosby, without really understanding the context.
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As for my own history with David Crosby, I was a huge Byrds fan at one stage in my life (from about 17-22.)
The Byrds are, at least in my opinion, an acquired taste. Their melodies don't really catch you the first time you hear them. But if you listen to their albums a few times, they'll start to grab you.
I started out intrigued by the look of The Byrds (Roger Mcguinn in the iconic granny glasses, etc), which I got glimpses of from some of the rock and roll documentaries that were on TV in the 1990s. And the distinctive twangy sound of The Byrds also intrigued me. So I first got their greatest hits album, and then, once I had absorbed that, moved on to their other albums.
I only bought the first 4 albums of The Byrds: Mr. Tambourine Man, Turn! Turn! Turn!, Fifth Dimension, Younger Than Yesterday--i.e. the 4 albums that David Crosby was a part of.
The reason being is that I was overly influenced by the notes on the CD jacket that claimed that these 4 albums were the true Byrds sound, and that after David Crosby left, it just wasn't the same band anymore. (These were the 1996 CD re-releases--the ones with the remastered sound and all the bonus tracks.)
In the years since then, I've come to realize that I probably missed out by not following The Byrds on through their later albums (there were actually some good songs by the later Byrds) but unfortunately, I'm easily influenced, and at the time I just took the advice of the notes on the CD jacket.
I think I got those albums when I was 17, and played them a lot over the years from 17 to 22.
As I mentioned above, David Crosby was hardly the driving creative force behind The Byrds. Most of their signature songs were by the other members of the band. But there were a few David Crosby songs on those albums, and of those David Crosby songs, the ones that I really loved at the time were:
It is with some embarrassment that I add that when I was 17 and 18, I thought these songs were much better than they actually were. I thought at the time there was a lot of deep meaning to these songs. I listen to them now, and am struck by how shallow and banal they actual are in comparison to the deep meaning I once ascribed to them.
For example, I once thought Why was a really deep song about teenage rebellion. I listen to it now, and I realize it's an incredibly banal song about teenage rebellion. I also used to, at one point, imagine Renaissance Fair was a critique of capitalism. Etc.
(This is, unfortunately, very typical of 19 year old me. I thought I was so deep, and didn't realize how shallow I actually was.)
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In addition to The Byrds, another band I was huge into at this time was Jefferson Airplane. (As I've written about on this blog before HERE and HERE), and David Crosby was really tight with Jefferson Airplane back in the day. He gave them the song Triad . And the song Wooden Ships was co-composed by David Crosby and Jefferson Airplane members.
And David Crosby even sang with Jefferson Airplane on the Woodstock episode of the Dick Cavett show:
(This episode was re-run on VH1 during the 1990s, which is where I saw it.)
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As I mentioned above, most of the iconic CSNY songs are by one of the other members. But a few years ago, when I was going on one of my aforementioned David Crosby research rabbit holes on Wikipedia, I came across one of the signature David Crosby CSNY songs: I Almost Cut My Hair:
...which I had never heard of until a couple years ago, but immediately fell in love with it once I heard it.
For one thing, it's a genuinely soulful blues number played earnestly.
The lyrics are incredibly silly. It's self-parody territory really. And I do imagine David Crosby wrote it somewhat tongue-in-cheek. But then they play it so earnestly that it's hard to know what to make of it.
I mean, this whole song about just thinking about cutting your hair, and then making it into a whole dramatic number like this? How can you not love a song like that?
At that time, a couple years ago, my hair was getting a bit long, and my wife kept telling me I was overdue for a haircut, so I used to play this song a lot in our apartment.
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