David Crosby

The Byrds

David Crosby was born in Los Angeles on August 14, 1941, the second son of the cinematographer Floyd Crosby. His older brother Ethan, a musician, inspired his early love of jazz, particularly John Coltrane and Miles Davis. After a spell in the folk scene, including time performing with Terry Callier, he met Jim McGuinn, later known as Roger McGuinn, and Gene Clark. Crosby joined them, the drummer Michael Clarke was added, and late in 1964 Chris Hillman came in on bass. As the Byrds they took Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man to number one in the United States and the United Kingdom in 1965. McGuinn originated the 12-string guitar sound, while Crosby supplied the soaring harmonies and unusual phrasing.

After Clark left in 1966, Crosby became a prolific songwriter. He is one of the credited writers of Eight Miles High, the single from Fifth Dimension, and on Younger Than Yesterday (1967) he contributed Renaissance Fair, Everybody's Been Burned and Mind Gardens. Tension grew after the Monterey Pop festival in June 1967, where his on-stage political remarks outraged McGuinn. McGuinn and Hillman dismissed him in October, after he refused to countenance recording Goffin and King's Goin' Back.

Crosby, Stills and Nash

Around the time he left the Byrds, Crosby met Stephen Stills at Laurel Canyon through Cass Elliot, and Graham Nash left the Hollies to join them. Their appearance at Woodstock in August 1969 was only their second live performance. Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969) reached number 6 on the Billboard chart and produced two Top 40 singles. Crosby's contributions included Guinnevere, Long Time Gone, and Wooden Ships, which he wrote with Paul Kantner and Stills. With Neil Young in the line-up, Déjà Vu (1970) went to number one on the Billboard 200, and Crosby supplied Almost Cut My Hair and the title track. The group won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist of 1969.

A solo debut among friends

In 1971 Crosby released If I Could Only Remember My Name on Atlantic, one of four solo albums that followed Déjà Vu. Christine Hinton, his girlfriend, was killed in a car accident in September 1969. Crosby spent large amounts of time in the studio, where he said he felt safe. He made the record at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco, and friends kept turning up: Nash, Young, Joni Mitchell and members of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Santana, with Jerry Garcia most often. Crosby said tape ran through the night, the multitrack started when something happened, and he then layered harmonies on top.

Lester Bangs wrote in Rolling Stone that the playing was "sloppy as hell", and Robert Christgau gave it a D minus. It still peaked at number 12 and went gold. Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky later described the music as "foggy, only loosely coherent, dissolving in real time." The album has been labelled a progenitor of freak folk. Colin Larkin placed it at number 156 in his All Time Top 1000 Albums in 2000, and in 2010 the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano listed it second, behind the Beatles' Revolver. Crosby discussed its making on BBC Radio 4's Mastertapes in November 2013.

Crosby and Nash, and the late years

Crosby also worked as half of Crosby & Nash, who toured acoustically in the autumn of 1971. Their album Graham Nash David Crosby (1972) reached number 4 on the Billboard 200. In 1973 he reunited with the original Byrds for the album Byrds, which he produced. CSN reformed in 1977 and kept recording and touring for decades, and in 1996 he formed CPR with the guitarist Jeff Pevar and his son James Raymond.

Croz (2014) was his first solo album in 20 years, followed by Lighthouse (2016), Sky Trails (2017), Here If You Listen (2018) and For Free (2021). His last release was the live album Live at the Capitol Theatre, in October 2022. The documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name, produced by Cameron Crowe, premiered at Sundance in 2019. Crosby died on January 18, 2023, at the age of 81. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, once for the Byrds and once for CSN.