Legendary musician David Crosby, a founding member of two iconic bands — Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) — has died at the age of 81 after a “long illness”.
Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Graham Nash and David Crosby pose for a photo at the Pierre Hotel in New York in October 1999
The Byrds (left to right): Chris Hillman, David Crosby, Mike Clark, Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark in 1965
The witty and ever-opinionated Crosby was at the heart of the cultural revolution of the ’60s and ’70s. He was part of the original lineup of the Byrds and appeared on their first five albums, including the 1965 hit cover of Bob Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man.
Folk-rock band CSNY became the template for future supergroups with each of the musicians proving their chops. The quartet made some of the most memorable music of the time, sharing harmonies, stages as well as lovers. Their 1970 album, Deja Vu, delivered classics like Carry On, Teach Your Children, Almost Cut My Hair, the Joni Mitchellpenned Woodstock and Our House.
(Left to right): John Sebastian, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell and David Crosby perform at the 1969 Big Sur folk festival in California
Next, Crosby released his memorable 1971 debut solo album If I Could Only Remember My Name with some help from Nash, Young, Mitchell, the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart, and future Journey keyboardist/ vocalist Gregg Rollie.
Speaking of Joni Mitchell, Crosby discovered the singer playing in a Florida club in 1967, helping her get a record deal and producing her first album, Song to a Seagull. Their romantic relationship was short-lived but a dramatic one. Shortly after the pair attended a party held at the house of Monkees member Peter Tork, Mitchell gathered guests and premiered her song That Song About The Midway.
“She came in and she was kind of different. She’s like, ‘I’ve got a new song,’ and we were all there, and we all said, ‘Oh, fantastic, a new Joni song!’ And she starts to sing it, and it’s plainly a goodbye to me. And then she sang it again in case I didn’t get it the first time — unbelievable! Everybody in the room was going, ‘Oh.’ Everybody. … It’s hysterically funny,” Crosby later told Howard Stern on SiriusXM. After the relationship ended, Mitchell paired with another member of CSNY — Graham Nash. Crosby has described Mitchell as “the best singer-songwriter... I don’t think anybody comes close”.
A large part of the 1970s and ’80s was spent by the musician dealing with addictions and weapons charges, which resulted in a jail sentence in Texas. His image as a stoner and a hedonist is said to have been the model for the free spirit played by Dennis Hopper in the 1969 movie Easy Rider.
“You don’t sit down and say, ‘Gee, I think I’ll become a junkie. When I started out doing drugs, it was marijuana and psychedelics, and it was fun. It was the ’60s, and we thought we were expanding our consciousnesses,” he told People magazine in 1990.
THE BYRDS AND THEN CSNY
Born David Van Cortland Crosby, on August 14, 1941, in Los Angeles, his father, Floyd Crosby, was an Academy Award-winning cinematographer whose credits included the classic western High Noon.
He studied drama at Santa Barbara City College, but he dropped out before graduating to pursue a music career. At age 16 he received his first guitar from his older brother, Ethan, and started out like any other folk musician in the early 1960s. On the one hand, he was inspired by what his brother listened to — Chet Baker and Dave Brubeck, while on the other the music of the Everly Brothers inspired him, especially their harmonies. Ultimately, he landed in New York, at the heart of the 1960s folk movement in Greenwich Village. In 1963, he cut his first demos, produced by Jim Dickson, who would later manage the Byrds.
After playing with the folk group Les Baxter’s Balladeers, he met Jim McGuinn (who later changed his name to Roger) and Gene Clark while they were performing as a duo at the Troubadour. They became a trio named Jet Set. Dickson was brought in to manage the group. Soon, the band added a drummer — Michael Clarke — while Crosby took up the electric guitar.
Dickson brought an acetate of a new Bob Dylan song, Mr. Tambourine Man, and the band cut a demo with the help of Chris Hillman on bass, landing a contract with Columbia Records. Jet Set became the Byrds.
One Byrds album that needs a mention is Younger Than Yesterday, which captured a new style — contrasting a dreamy melody with dazed lyrics.
Moving on came the trio Crosby, Stills & Nash. Their self-titled debut album was released in May 1969 and it earned them a Grammy as Best New Artiste. The album featured the elegiac Long Time Gone, which he wrote after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. That year, his girlfriend, Christine Hinton, was killed in a car accident and he dived into a world of drugs. The group’s next album, Deja Vu, saw the arrival of Neil Young and thus CSNY.
LATER YEARS
In 1983, Crosby was convicted of possession of cocaine and a loaded pistol. He served five months of his five-year sentence before being released on parole. The years rolled by and in 1994, he underwent liver transplant, and in early 2000 was revealed to be the sperm donor of Melissa Etheridge’s two children with partner Julie Cypher.
In the 1990s, musician James Raymond’s adoptive father suggested he found out about his natural parents. In 1994 he made contact with his mother, who had moved to Australia, and, according to The Los Angeles Times, he found that his father was indeed the David Crosby. After Crosby underwent liver transplant, James thought it was time to meet his father. Crosby got to know about Raymond when he was 30 and the pair eventually released albums.
In 2014, Crosby released his first solo album in 21 years, Croz, which debuted in the Billboard Top 40. His most recent album, For Free, came in 2021.
In his memoir, he summed up his career on an appreciative note: “I was tremendously lucky, surviving injury, illness and stupidity. As for the music, I was blessed early and often, from the Byrds to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, singing with Graham, meeting my son and creating CPR (and experiencing) the wonderful, exploratory forward motion of new music.”
REMEMBERING CROSBY
David was an unbelievable talent — such a great singer and songwriter. And a wonderful person — Brian Wilson
I am grieving the loss of my friend and Bailey’s biological father, David. He gave me the gift of family. I will forever be grateful to him, Django, and Jan. His music and legacy will inspire many generations to come. A true treasure — Melissa Etheridge
David was fearless in life and in music. He leaves behind a tremendous void as far as sheer personality and talent in this world. He spoke his mind, his heart, and his passion through his beautiful music and leaves an incredible legacy — Graham Nash
He was without question a giant of a musician, and his harmonic sensibilities were nothing short of genius. The glue that held us together as our vocals soared, like Icarus, towards the sun — Stephen Stills