If I Could Only Remember My Name

The album followed Déjà Vu and was one of four solo records by the members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Sessions took place at the recently opened Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco, with Stephen Barncard engineering and Crosby producing. Crosby spent large amounts of time in the studio, where he said he felt safe. Friends came to play with him: Graham Nash, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and musicians from the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Santana. Paul Kantner gave the loose group the informal name the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra, although Crosby noted that it was Kantner's invention rather than a collective project.

Crosby said that he would sit down with whoever turned up, most often Jerry Garcia, and start playing a song. Two-track tape ran all night, the multitrack started rolling when something happened, and he then layered harmonies on top. In 2021 he said the harmony stacks were just him, and that only a couple of songs have anyone else singing. Only five songs have actual lyrics. Orleans is a traditional French song arranged by Crosby, and the last two tracks are Crosby alone. Barncard said that the length was limited by the LP sides, which were pushing the reasonable limit of 20 minutes each, and that he and Crosby made the editing decisions.

Atlantic released it on February 22, 1971. It peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and was certified gold by the RIAA. Music Is Love, written with Nash and Young, was a minor hit that reached number 95 on the Hot 100. Reviews were poor. Lester Bangs said in Rolling Stone that the playing was "sloppy as hell", Robert Christgau gave it a D minus, and Crosby later said that critics were looking for a record full of big, flashy lead guitar and blues licks.

Later writers praised its austere mood, eclectic improvisation and harmony singing. The Head Heritage review of the 2006 reissue compared it with Nick Drake and with the acoustic material on Pink Floyd's Meddle. Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky wrote that the music feels the way a dream sounds when you try to retell it in the morning. The 2006 reissue added the previously unreleased Kids and Dogs, and a 50th anniversary edition on October 15, 2021 added demos and outtakes, with liner notes by Steve Silberman.