David Crosby

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Circa 1975 with Stephen Stills: “He swung really hard”

Doyouhaveanymemories of going on film sets with your father, cinematographer Floyd Crosby? Lyle Bartlett, via email

Yeah, I do. He’d be shooting at a little fake Western town out in the valley someplace, and I’d get to run around. It was something he was a little reticent to do, ’cos I was kinda a wild kid and he was a very serious guy. My dad was not a fun guy – he was a not a good dad, either. But he was really good at his job. What f lms did I get to see being made? High Noon. The motion picture that he shot was really quite beautiful, but it had crappy music which screwed it up for me.

Are you still miffed about McGuinn and Hillman’s rewriting of “Draft Morning”[fromTheNotoriousByrd Brothers]?CosmicAndy,Edinburgh

Lord,no!It’sallfne.Idon’treally remember[whathappened],man.Ithink Ihaditonewayandtheychangedit,that must’vebeenit.It’sancienthistoryandI don’treallydoancienthistorythatmuch. CouldIhavedonemorewithTheByrds? Yeah,sure.Buthumanlivesdonotgo onparallelpathsandwe’reallalways gettingcloserorfurtherawayfromthe peoplearoundus.Whathappenedis thatIencounteredStephenStillsandhe swungreallyhard.Hecouldplayakind ofmusicthatTheByrdscouldn’tplayand itappealedtometremendously.Iwanted that,andIreallydidn’twanttogointhe directionthatChrisandRogerwanted togoin,ofbecomingmorecountry.I’m gladtheydidgotherebecausetheykinda inventedthatcountry-rockstuf,andthey didareallygoodjob.Butitwasn’twhere Iwantedtogo.

Haveyoueverconsideredatour whereyouplayIfICouldOnly RememberMyNameinitsentirety? RogerWay,viaemail

Ihave.ButGarcia’sdead,andthatputs quiteacrimpinit.Nobodyelseplaysthe wayhedid.Andthere’snopointtryingto duplicatewhathappenedtherewithout him,’coshe’salloverit.Therewasa certain magic that happened every time he and I picked up two guitars. If you listen to the beginning of [album outtake] “Kids And Dogs”, we’re playing a game with each other where we’d count: one, two, three, play! Each time we’d play a note, and neither of us knows what note the other guy’s gonna play. So it’s really random and it can go really wrong! Or it can go really right. And if you hear us, we’re doing that game, playing with each other, and then we hit a chord that’s so good that Garcia starts laughing, and you can hear him laughing on the tape. That’s what usedtohappeneverytime.

Jerry Garcia, London, 1972: “no-one plays like he did”

IsittruethatMilesDavis kickedyououtofhishouse whenheplayedyouhis versionof"Guinnevere" andyoudidn'thearany resemblancetoyour song?MikeL,Southend

That’salittlemoreextreme thanwhatactually happened.Ididn’treallyget it,thefrsttimethatIheardit. Itwasactuallyareallygood recordthathe’dmade,and Iloveditinhindsight.But wejustdidn’thititofatfrst contact.Andit’sashame, becausehewasverykindto meandhehaddonealotof goodthingsforme–heliked mymusicorhewouldnothave recordedit,it’sthatsimple.He’salso one of the main reasons The Byrds got a contract with Columbia. When we sent our tape in, he was a hero at that point – jazz was big – and he was on Columbia. So they went to him and said, ‘Hey Miles, whadda we do with this?’ And he said, ‘Sign ’em!’ And that’s why we were on Columbia. The guys who ran the company didn’t have any clue. Miles was a prickly guy and he didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, but I love him. He was a f ne cat, and brave. And I’m totally honoured that he cut my tune.

How did you feel about selling your publishing? What is the first thing you bought with the money?

Josip Radić, Zagreb, Croatia

I was not happy about doing it, but I was glad that I could do it. It wasn’t what I would have chosen to do, but since I lost both of my income streams, I didn’t have a choice. They don’t pay you for records any more and we can’t tour because of Covid, so what do you expect us to do? They’re starting the tours back up again but now I’m too old to do it. I can’t do bus tours any more, it just beats the crap outta me. I’m turning 80. I mean, never say never… I might do a residency – a week in New York, a week in LA, that kind of thing. But

I don’t see me going on the road again. What I did with the money was pay of the house. And if you saw the smile on my wife’s face when I told her the house was paid of , you’d know why I did it!

Miles Davis, July 1967: “prickly and brave” What is the most memorable encounter you’ve ever had with another musician? Jerry McGuire, via email

One time, Stills and Hendrix and I played for a while, at Stills’ beach house. That was pretty good. But probably the best was visiting The

Beatles when they were making

Sgt Pepper. I came in and I was very high. They sat me down on a stool in the middle of the studio and rolled up two six-foot tall speakers on either side of me.

Then, laughing, they climbed the stairs back to the control room and lef me there. And then they played “A Day In The Life”… At the end of that last chord, my brains just ran out my nose onto the f oor in a puddle. I didn’t know what to do, I was just stupef ed.

Who was the inspiration for the famous David Crosby moustache? Zoran Tučkar, via email

Ah, it just grew there! I didn’t have any mentors or heroes that had moustaches that I can think of. It just happened on my lip and Ididn’twannacutit.