>>>He was even moved enough by the sound of this instrument to learn how to play it himself. (kk)
OK, so maybe he needs a little more practice …
Here are a few other great rock tunes that immediately come to mind, prominently featuring the flute:
UNDUN by THE GUESS WHO; MOONDANCE by VAN MORRISON; GOING UP THE COUNTRY by CANNED HEAT; STRANGE WAY and YOU ARE THE WOMAN by FIREFALL; SPILL THE WINE by ERIC BURDON AND WAR; YOU’VE GOT TO HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY – The Beatles; DOWN UNDER by MEN AT WORK and THERE IS A MOUNTAIN by DONOVAN … not to mention JETHRO TULL hits like LIVING IN THE PAST and BUNGLE IN THE JUNGLE.
It's an unexpected “bonus” since it doesn’t come up that often …
But lends a different perspective to the spirit of rock and roll … as an art form. (kk)
One by one, statements from each of David Crosby’s CSNY cohorts came to light after being informed of his death. (At various times … and some might say MOST of the time … he fought with each and every one of them … but none would deny the impact he had on them … or the magic he brought to the musical table.) Conspicuously missing is a comment from Roger McGuinn, Crosby’s partner in The Byrds. (kk)
It is with a deep and profound sadness that I learned that my friend David Crosby has passed. I know people tend to focus on how volatile our relationship has been at times, but what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years. 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. These are the things that matter most. My heart is truly with his wife, Jan, his son, Django, and all of the people he has touched in this world. Grateful to have sung with him, played with him, butted heads with him, and for going through so much together. David was as complicated as the intricate melodies he crafted. You can hear bits of a very deep soul echoing through his playing and the lyrics he composed. It’s his beautiful music that will live forever in all of our hearts. I’m just lucky to have known him.
--Graham Nash
I read a quote about composer Gustave Mahler’s performance of Mahler’s 9th Symphony by the San Francisco Orchestra from music critic Mark Swed that stopped me for a moment:
‘Death has, on placid cat’s paws, entered the room.’
I shoulda known something was up.
David and I butted heads a lot over time, but they were mostly glancing blows, yet still left us numb skulls …
I was happy to be at peace with him.
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.
I am deeply saddened at his passing and shall miss him beyond measure.
--Stephen Stills
David is gone, but his music lives on. The soul of CSNY, David’s voice and energy were at the heart of our band. His great songs stood for what we believed in and it was always fun and exciting when we got to play together. “Almost Cut My Hair,” “Deja vu,” and so many other great songs he wrote were wonderful to jam on and Stills and I had a blast as he kept us going on and on. His singing with Graham was so memorable, their duo spot a highlight of so many of our shows. We had so many great times, especially in the early years. Crosby was a very supportive friend in my early life, as we bit off big pieces of our experience together. David was the catalyst of many things. My heart goes out to Jan and Django, his wife and son. Lots of love to you. Thanks, David, for your spirit and songs, Love you, man. I remember the best times!
--Neil Young
In David Crosby’s own words …
I know I’m at the end of my life. I’m 80. So, you wind up looking at it, and you don’t know whether you got two weeks or 10 years. You really don’t. But you do know that what you do with the time is what counts.
That’s where the rubber meets the road. How do you spend that time? You spend it waiting to die? No. You spend it making the most art you possibly can, because that’s your gig and that’s the one contribution you can make to the world. And the world fucking needs it. It’s a grim fucking place.
It needs a lift, and music is a lifting force, man. It makes things better. So whatever time I’ve got, I want to spend it making things better. I want to spend it making good art that will outlast me.
--David Crosby
As we all grow older, those are some pretty good words to live by. (kk)
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were not your typical “pop bands” performing on all the hit television shows at the time …
But incredibly, two months after their stunning appearance at Woodstock, they DID show up as the musical guests on ABC’s “This Is Tom Jones” TV Show.
Jones performs the lead vocal on this one …
But check it out … he’s got one hell of a back-up band!!! (kk)
Harvey Kubernik interviewed David Crosby last year …
Here is an excerpt from that interview, sent in by Harvey himself …
Q: You always had a relationship with jazz. You saw John Coltrane play live and spent a lot of time at Dick Bock’s World Pacific studio. Bock issued many legendary jazz albums and titles from Ravi Shankar.
A: I was a young folkie musician. My brother played a lot of fifties jazz. I got turned on to jazz long before I got turned on to pop or rock ‘n’ roll. They played me Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, all of those guys in the late fifties. And more obscure stuff like Cal Tjader. J.J. Johnson. All jazz.
I get to a point where my head starts to open up a bit and I started playing guitar and getting more interesting on it. I’m starting to listen to pop music and I realized those chords that I really liked they were a little further along. And I started hearing some people using chords like that. And I wanted to go that direction.
Later the minute that I heard Steely Dan I felt that was somebody else out there that hears the same shit that I do. The minute what I heard what Walter and Donald did, I was like their brother. I wanted to move next door and pitch a pup tent on their lawn, because that was very jazzy. Very strongly jazz influenced. And much more intense and sophisticated than the pop music I had grown up with.
When we started the Byrds, man, there were other people around town. Paul Revere & the Raiders. We’re tallkin’ primitive shit, guys dancing on their amps in uniforms. I mean, come on. (Laughs). This is a different world. And I hear Steely Dan. Man, do I wish I was in that band. And other bands came along as well as Michael Hedges. Another one. Strongly jazz influenced but strongly classically influenced, too.
And I gotta say that is really where it came from to me. I listened to a ton of classical music from my parents and folk music from my parents and jazz music from my brother. My parents played classical music every Sunday of my life. And that’s what did it. I knew those chords were out there and I was lookin’ for ‘em. The Weavers and folk singers who could really do it and really had something to say. Those people taught us a whole lot.
Q: In the recent Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Déjà Vu reissue, your recordings of “Laughing” and “Triad” are in the Déjà Vu package. But origins of these tunes go back, including your encounter with the Beatles.
A: “Laughing.” The Byrds went over to England in 1965. And, of course, our heroes were the Beatles. And they came to hear us and were really nice to us. They were friendly and very real and not at all star people. None of that. They drove us home from gigs and came to gigs more than once and had us over to houses for dinner and to parties. They were really nice cats.
I was very taken with George. I liked him a lot. Always did, right from the start. Very sincere. Very friendly and trying hard to be a decent human being. And that appeals to me no end. I became friends with George. So, I had just been turned on to Ravi Shankar by a friend in the States. And I had an album by Ravi in my suitcase. I gave it to George.
Now that had repercussions. George told me later that I turned him onto Indian music. I have trouble believing that. I think there were other people who helped do that. But that’s what he told me. God bless me. George liked Indian music, got interested in it and wound up going to India. When he was in India he met a guru, a teacher that he liked.
Later we were talking and he told me about this guy and he told me about this guy and said he found somebody who might know some of the answers. George was smitten. Well, I’m a very skeptical person about that, always have been. The minute someone tells me they have God’s phone number and address, I kind of back off. I don’t believe in that. I wanted to say to George, ‘Oh man, come on, take it with a grain of salt. The guy may know something but don’t bet your whole month’s rent.’ I couldn’t do it. It was George … And I just couldn’t give him that kind of advice. And I said, ‘I’ve thought that I knew what the answer was and the truth is the closest I came to it was laughing in the sun.’ And that was a song I wrote to George.
Q: There is “Triad,” a 1967 composition about a threesome and sexual freedom. Decades ago, it was presented to the Byrds for potential inclusion on their LP The Notorious Byrd Brothers, recorded and rejected, later surfacing in 1971 on CSN&Y’s 4 Way Street. In 2006, the Byrds’ recording of “Triad” appeared on the Columbia/Legacy label’s There Is A Season box set.
A: The reason the French call it manage a trois is they’ve been doing it for a long time. It’s not controversial. I think there are people who are very strait-laced, some of it for religious reasons and some of them because they are squares. And for them the idea of three people making love at the same time is not only strange but outrageous, terrible and offensive. I don’t feel that way. Those things are very deeply seeded, people’s reactions to sex and religions.
Q: I wanted to ask about the impact of Neil Young joining CSN&Y for Déjà Vu.
A: The greatest strength we had was as songwriters. That was our main number one strength. And the trick that we had was that we had several. Now most bands had one. Some had two. What that gets you is that if you are painting a picture and you have a number of colors on your palate, if you are working with somebody else, they have different colors on their palate. If they have six and they have nine, all of a sudden you have sixteen colors. It’s a better painting.
Now, when you are making albums, the problem of having one writer is that he or she tends to write very similarly song to song. With the four of us we had four drastically different writing styles, four ways of conceiving a song. They were very different.
Now I will go out on a limb and say Stills was the best of us. I think he was, without question, the best songwriter, the best singer and the best guitar player. All three. But I think all four of us had real skill as songwriters and our stuff was very different than each other. I think that’s one of the main reasons that it made it.
Q: When did you know or feel Neil Young could work in the existing CS&N trio format?
A: I’ll tell you exactly. I was sittin’ in Joni’s driveway on Lookout Mountain Drive in Laurel Canyon. And Neil drove by and he saw me out there, turned around at the next stop and came back down and pulled in. Gets out of his car and pulls out a guitar.
Now this is when we are considering asking him to be in the group. And he knows that. He knows that Nash is against it. And he knows I’m kind of on the fence, and he knows Stills is for it. That kind of makes me the decider. I didn’t say anything. That’s how it was, right? Neil sat down on the trunk of the car with me, the two of us, him with the guitar, and he sang ‘Helpless,’ ‘Country Girl’ and a few other things. And I said ‘I wanna work with this guy. This is too good.’ It was about the writing. It was all about those songs.
He’s not as good as a guitar player as Stills. To this day, he’s not as good as a guitar player as Stills. He’s very, very good. Stills is very much better. We didn’t need him for that. We did need a guitar player when Stills was playing keyboard. And that was a big factor in what Stills said to us about bringing Neil in. But, for me, it was only about those songs. They were excellent. Excellent. And they were completely different from us and I knew what would happen when we add those Crosby, Stills, Nash vocal sound to a song like that. I knew what ‘Helpless’ would sound like. And I knew what we could do. It was irresistible. Of course, I wanted to work with him.
Timmy C sent us this Variety article regarding David Crosby’s death …
Croz had made a few comments recently that make it sound like he knew he might not have that much time left in this world (kk)
David Crosby, Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash Co-Founder, Dies at 81
Getty Images (from Variety)
Singer-songwriter-guitarist David Crosby, a founding member of two popular and enormously influential ’60s rock units, the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash (later Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), has died. He was 81 years old.
His wife released a statement to Variety, writing, “It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away. He was lovingly surrounded by his wife and soulmate Jan and son Django. Although he is no longer here with us, his humanity and kind soul will continue to guide and inspire us. His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music. Peace, love, and harmony to all who knew David and those he touched. We will miss him dearly. At this time, we respectfully and kindly ask for privacy as we grieve and try to deal with our profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers.”
The death came as a surprise to those who followed his very active Twitter account, which he’d kept tweeting on as recently as Wednesday.
Eight months ago, Crosby made headlines when he said he was done performing live, declaring, “I’m too old to do it anymore. I don’t have the stamina; I don’t have the strength.” But he said he was recording as busily as possible: “I’ve been making records at a startling rate. … Now I’m 80 years old so I’m gonna die fairly soon. That’s how that works. And so I’m trying really hard to crank out as much music as I possibly can, as long as it’s really good … I have another one already in the can waiting.” Crosby subsequently backtracked about doing concerts, saying recently that he’d changed his mind and expected to be out playing live again.
Crosby reentered the public consciousness in a big way in 2018 with a theatrical documentary, “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” narrated and produced by Cameron Crowe. Crosby spoke about his own mortality in the film, and Crowe remarked on that in an interview with Variety, saying the singer was thinking about “telling the truth in my last huge interview that I’ll probably ever do.”
”In the second question of the first interview we did with Crosby, he came right out with ‘Time is the final currency. What do you do with the time you have left?’ What’s great is, he’s got more energy than all of us. He’s gonna outlive us all. He’s batting his eyes like he’s on his deathbed. He ain’t on his deathbed at all! Maybe it all is a con job, like he says at the end. You don’t know.”
With bandmates Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke, Crosby set down the template for ’60s L.A. folk-rock in the Byrds during his stormy 1964-67 tenure in the group.
Bonding with Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield and Graham Nash of the Hollies amid the glitter of L.A.’s late-’60s Laurel Canyon scene, Crosby launched CS&N, whose multi-platinum 1968 debut inaugurated rock’s supergroup era.
The addition of another volatile member, Stills’ erstwhile Buffalo Springfield colleague Neil Young, added to the act’s commercial luster. However, a constant clash of egos within Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, fueled by the rock excesses of the era, toppled the act during the ’70s, though its members would regroup sporadically over the years as a recording and touring unit. Crosby’s most stable association was with Nash: The duo recorded and toured regularly into the new millennium.
While never the principal songwriter in either the Byrds or CSN&Y, Crosby was an integral part of the densely layered harmony front line that launched both those acts’ multiple chart hits.
The hedonistic personification of the ’60s sex-drugs-and-rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, he grappled with addiction for many years. His sensational 1982 arrest in Texas on drug and weapons charges led to a five-month prison stay in 1986. Wracked by years of cocaine and alcohol abuse, he underwent liver transplant surgery in 1994.
Though he never returned to the popular eminence of his early years, Crosby recorded and toured profitably into the 2000s.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a member of the Byrds (1991) and Crosby, Stills & Nash (1997).
Crosby was a child of Hollywood privilege. He was the son of cinematographer Floyd Crosby, who won an Oscar for his work on F.W. Murnau’s 1931 feature “Tabu.” Raised in L.A. and Santa Barbara, he was an indifferent student who gravitated to acting and music at an early age.
Dropping out of Santa Barbara City College to pursue a career in music, he became involved in the commercial folk music scene via brief membership in Les Baxter’s Balladeers, a Limeliters-styled unit organized by the well-known composer-arranger.
He began working the L.A. folk clubs as a solo act; at a set at the Troubadour, his crisp tenor voice attracted the attention of Jim Dickson, the house engineer at Richard Bock’s L.A. label World Pacific Records. Dickson began demoing Crosby as a solo artist, but those sessions ultimately culminated in the formation of a band.
L.A.’s nascent singer-songwriter scene was then coalescing around the Folk Den, the front room at the Santa Monica Boulevard club the Troubadour. One evening in 1964, the headstrong Crosby inserted himself into a jam session involving two well-traveled young folksingers. McGuinn (then known by his birth name, Jim; he soon changed his name to Roger after joining the spiritual movement Subud) had previously worked with the urban folk outfits the Limeliters and the Chad Mitchell Trio, and had met Crosby during a Santa Barbara tour stop by the former act. Clark had been a member of another clean-cut folk act, the New Christy Minstrels.
Though McGuinn was wary of Crosby’s outsized, opinionated personality, he was under the sway of the Beatles and envisioned the formation of a new group; Crosby’s access to free studio time at World Pacific led to first sessions by McGuinn, Crosby and Clark under the collective handle the Jet Set.
Under the name the Beefeaters, the trio issued a flop single on Elektra Records, but soon reformulated themselves as a full-blown rock quintet that reflected the influence of the Beatles’ ’64 debut feature “A Hard Day’s Night.” The lineup was filled out with the addition of neophyte bassist Chris Hillmen, formerly mandolinist with the bluegrass-oriented World Pacific group the Hillmen, and the unskilled but photogenic drummer Michael Clarke.
Rechristened the Byrds in obvious emulation of the Fab Four, the act was signed to Columbia Records in late 1964 on the basis of promotional efforts by Dickson, who was now managing the band. Momentously, the well-connected Dickson urged his act to cover a new song penned by one of his friends, folk star Bob Dylan.
Issued as the Byrds’ first single, the harmony-laden version of Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” leaped to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart in early 1965; the eponymous debut album reached No. 6. By that time, the group was the reigning attraction on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, thanks to a high-profile residency at Ciro’s. For the next two years, Crosby’s group would reign as American pop’s answer to the Beatles, and influence a host of like-styled folk-rock acts. All of their Columbia albums during that period reached the U.S. top 25.
Though Crosby’s pure, soaring voice was a key component of the unit’s sound, he took a back seat as a writer to bandmates McGuinn and Clark, who were responsible for the group’s hit originals. The Crosby-penned singles “Lady Friend” and “Why” failed to catch fire. The departure of the emotionally unsettled Clark from the group in 1966 only served to exacerbate tensions between McGuinn and Crosby.
Strife within the Byrds came to a head in 1967. That June, the band appeared at the historic Monterey Pop Festival in Northern California; the politically outspoken Crosby infuriated McGuinn with some of his onstage remarks, and further enraged his bandmate by sitting in with Buffalo Springfield for most of their set. In a move that could be considered payback, McGuinn vetoed the release of a new Crosby composition, “Triad,” about a sexual ménage a trois; the song would ultimately find a home on “Crown of Creation,” a 1968 album by Crosby’s San Francisco friends Jefferson Airplane.
Finally, in October 1967, McGuinn and Hillman drove their Porsches to Crosby’s Beverly Glen house and fired him from the Byrds.
Amid the then-burgeoning musical colony in L.A.’s idyllic Laurel Canyon, the newly cashiered Crosby began jamming with his friend Stephen Stills, whose L.A.-based band Buffalo Springfield had recently imploded amid internecine strife, and Graham Nash, who had met the other two during a 1966 U.S. tour by his Manchester, England-bred group the Hollies. After a deal brokered by David Geffen freed the three musicians from their outstanding contractual obligations, Crosby, Stills & Nash was signed to Atlantic Records.
The group’s self-titled album was released in May 1969; it sported three notable Crosby compositions – the ballad “Guinnevere” (a love song inspired by his girlfriend Christine Hinton and his ex-paramour Joni Mitchell, who had subsequently entered a relationship with Nash), the apocalyptic “Wooden Ships” (co-written with Stills and Paul Kantner, and covered the same year by Kantner’s group Jefferson Airplane) and the stormy “Long Time Gone.”
The harmonious album vaulted to No. 6 on the U.S. chart, and was ultimately certified for sales of 4 million copies. In August 1969, already ubiquitous on the American airwaves, the group made its second concert appearance – with new member Neil Young in tow – before half a million people at the Woodstock music festival in Bethel, N.Y.
Young’s addition to the lineup, now billed as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, ramped up the group’s already formidable commercial clout. The superstar quartet’s 1970 album “Déjà Vu” rocketed to No. 1 and ultimately sold 7 million copies; 1971’s “4-Way Street,” a two-LP live set drawn from their subsequent U.S. tour, also claimed the top slot and went quadruple-platinum.
However, Crosby’s personal problems escalated at the height of CSN&Y’s popularity. Already an enthusiastic consumer of cocaine, he turned to heroin after Hinton was killed in a 1970 car accident. Though by no means a stranger to drug use himself, Young was appalled by Crosby’s behavior and the constant tension and disorder within the group, and withdrew to focus on his solo career, though he would return to tour with the other members in 1974.
Despite his eroding condition, Crosby released a 1971 solo debut, “If I Could Only Remember My Name,” which peaked at No. 12 in 1971; he received all-star backing from Nash, Young, Joni Mitchell and members of Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Santana.
In 1972, a reunion of the original Byrds lineup of Crosby, McGuinn, Clark, Hillman and Clarke was engineered by David Geffen for his Asylum label, and McGuinn, who had led the act following Crosby’s exit, disbanded the then-current edition of the group. However, while the 1973 release “Byrds” managed to reach No. 20 on the U.S. album chart, the set was largely dismissed critics, and the members went their separate ways. No other new material was ever released under the Byrds’ name.
Graham Nash was Crosby’s reliable partner and stabilizing collaborator through the ’70s: Together they issued the duo recordings “Graham Nash/David Crosby” (No. 4, 1972), “Wind on the Water” (No. 6, 1975) and “Whistling Down the Wire” (No. 26, 1976). However, the pair were odd men out in what began as a 1976 CSN&Y studio reunion: Their vocals were stripped from the project, which was issued as “Long May You Run,” billed to the Stills-Young Band, in 1976.
Nonetheless, CS&N managed to bury the hatchet long enough to record “CSN” (No. 2, 1977) and “Daylight Again” (No. 4, 1982). But Crosby’s personal life unraveled very publicly the year the second album was released.
In April 1982, he was arrested in a Dallas nightclub and charged with possessing a .45-caliber handgun and a pipe he used to freebase cocaine. Convicted in 1983, he finally served five months of a five-year sentence in 1986 – the year after another bust for drunk driving in Northern California. He later credited the Texas conviction for ending his addiction to cocaine. (His run-ins with the law continued in later years. He was convicted and fined for marijuana and firearms possession in 2004. In 2015, he hit a jogger with his car in Santa Ynez, Calif., but was not charged in the incident.)
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunited for a performance at Farm Aid in 1985. In 1986, they appeared for the first of seven times as headliners at the Bridge School Concert, a benefit event organized by Neil Young and his then-wife Pegi for a Northern California school serving disabled children.
Crosby maintained his solo career with the albums “Oh Yes I Can” (No. 104, 1989) and “Thousand Roads” (No. 133, 1993). His most unusual collaborative effort, the drolly named CPR, was founded in 1996, after he reunited with his son, pianist James Raymond, who had been born in 1962 and given up for adoption by his mother after a brief relationship with Crosby. The band, which also included guitarist Jeff Pevar, released four independent albums from 1998-2001. Crosby and Nash cut a self-titled duo release in 2004, reaching No. 142.
Crosby returned to acting during the ’90s with appearances on “The John Larroquette Show” (as the star’s Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor) and “Roseanne” and in the films “Hook” and “Thunderheart.” He also voiced two cartoon cameos on “The Simpsons.”
With Carl Gottlieb, he authored two memoirs, “Long Time Gone” (1988) and “Since Then: How I Survived Everything and Lived to Tell About It” (2007). In 2000 he published “Stand and Be Counted,” a history of activism in music, with David Bender.
His last album to be released during his lifetime, “For Free,” named after the Joni Mitchell song he covered, came out in July 2021. Crosby kept busy in the studio, releasing six studio albums in the last decade. He also put out live albums, including one, “David Crosby & The Lighthouse Band Live at the Capitol Theatre,” that came out just over a month ago.
Crosby is survived by his wife Jan Dance, their son Django, son James Raymond, and two daughters, Erika and Donovan, from previous relationships.
In 2000, it was revealed by singer Melissa Etheridge that Crosby was the biological father of two children born to Etheridge’s then-partner Julie Cypher via artificial insemination. One of those biological children with Etheridge and Cypher, Beckett Cypher, died at age 21 of drug addiction in 2020. “I didn’t get to raise that kid… but he was here many times,” Crosby said following the death. “I loved him and he loved me and he was family to me.”
Crosby’s last interview with Variety was a tearful, touching testimonial to Jerry Garcia, on the 25th anniversary of the Grateful Dead guitarist’s death, published in August 2020. “Of all of the people that I can think of that I’ve really loved as musicians — and then there are some stunners in there that I miss; I miss (Jimi) Hendrix, I miss Janis (Joplin), I miss my friend Cass (Elliott), I miss a lot of people that I lost — yeah, I probably miss him the most,” Crosby said. “If I had had to pick somebody to represent musicians to the world and to the universe, I would have picked him. He cared about the right things. … He did not play music for money. You can start your list of things about Jerry Garcia with that: he wasn’t there for the money. He didn’t give a shit. He was there chasing the notes. He wanted the music — really, really badly. He would go to great lengths; he would suffer indignities [laughs] to get to the point where he could make some music.”
Crosby spoke of how Garcia drew him back into music when his girlfriend had tragically died. “I do think that Garcia deliberately did me a kindness. I think he knew that I was in terrible shape, and he knew that that the music was the one thing that was working, and he came in and just maxed that right out. … Just say that I love him, man. I loved him and I will always love him in my heart. He was a wonderful man.”
Crowe shared his five favorite underrated David Crosby tracks with Variety when their documentary came out in 2019. In a separate article, Crowe talked about working with producer Greg Mariotti on the picture. “’Years from now,’ Greg would say, ‘aren’t you going to be really happy that you did this while Crosby was alive and wanted to do this project and was ready to talk?’ So we went all in, and it became a thing you always try and get into a feature, which is that it transcended your original purpose and became an emotional thing.”
A good story is always worth retelling …
And the story behind the cover of the very first Crosby, Stills and Nash album is a good story.
https://bestclassicbands.com/crosby-stills-nash-album-cover-henry-diltz-5-27-200/
In Memoriam … (from The Second Disc):
https://theseconddisc.com/2023/01/20/in-memoriam-david-crosby-1941-2023/
One of Rock and Roll’s early pioneer disc jockeys passed away last week …
Jerry Blavat … The Geator With The Heater … became popular across the country as he appeared on several television programs in the 1960’s. Sad news indeed to lose another one of the greats …
To honor the memory of Charlie Gracie and Jerry Blavat passing, we are posting Wages of Spin online for the first time.
Wages of Spin has been exhibited on PBS affiliates over 2,000 times and is in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Archives and received extensive National and International media attention.
Charlie was the catalyst for and one of the driving forces behind the film.
Jerry narrated the first act and was a big part of the production.
Shawn Swords
This is an excellent film exposing the early days of radio payola. If you haven’t already seen it, allow yourself an hour to do so. (kk)
To make matters worse (or is it perhaps somehow fitting???), Blavat died on National Disc Jockey Day.
Clark Besch sent us this mammoth piece on early Female Disc Jockey … who lit up the radio as well as the television screen, movies and entertainment stages as far away as Viet Nam!
Check it out …
Believe it or not, "they" made today a day for DJs! A buddy just informed me.
https://nationaltoday.com/national-dj-day/
SO, here's one DJ seldom heard, but here's a DJ that was really quite famous some 50+ years ago.
SHE was a boat show girl, baton twirler, Miss Florida, model, Hugh O'Brian's girlfriend, moved from NY to LA in 1963 and got acting job on a TV show, was deemed the next Marilyn Monroe, and then went into movies. All of that BEFORE she became a popular DJ--IN VIETNAM!!
Today, she's 81 years old, but she was a member of Bob Hope's Shows over there and was heard by over 300 radio stations!!
She broadcast her show from Saigon for US troops.
She was in helicopters that got shot down over there and just last year was awarded the Heroes Honor Lifetime Award.
You can read more about CHRIS NOEL's amazing story here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Noel
And she played some DAMN GOOD songs on her show over there, too.
Hear the montage from my many Armed Forces Radio Records.
Altho she is another Dave Dee, DBM&T critic (haha), some fab music and MY FAVES are sprinkled in everywhere!
HAPPY DJ DAY, CHRIS!
Here's an hour of fun stuff from 67/8 era of Chris' show for AFRTS! 48 MB size file.
Some of her movies:
Who wouldn't want to go see her over there? Haha
Chris at the mic!
2023 marks the 50th Anniversary of the release of Pink Floyd’s landmark album, “Dark Side Of The Moon” and, as expected, a new deluxe release is in the offering.
However, Second Disc tells us it may not be up to the standard of UME’s previous compilation, released to commemorate the album in 2011 …
Another anniversary release would be Ten Years After’s “A Space In Time.”
Released in 1971, they’re a couple of years late in honoring the LP’s 50th Anniversary. (Wait, wouldn’t that be 50 years after 10 years after???)
“I’d Love To Change The World” made my list of Top 40 favorites from 1971 … and I’m pretty fond of “Baby, Won’t You Let Me Rock And Roll You,” too. (kk)
More details here:
Ten Years After “A Space In Time” New 50th Anniversary Remix Available on 2CD and 2LP Half-Speed Master 180g Vinyl (Release Date: March 17, 2023)
British classic rock legends Ten Years After’s “A Space In Time” new 50th Anniversary Remix will be available on 2CD and 2LP Half-Speed Master 180g Vinyl on March 17, 2023!
“A Space In Time” is Ten Years After’s sixth, and best selling album, and was originally released in August 1971. Featuring their most well-known track “I’d Love To Change The World,” which regularly features in movies and TV shows, saw the band taking a more melodic direction from previous releases and showcased the band at their peak.
This new (delayed) 50th Anniversary edition of the album features a brand new mix by the original producer/engineer, Chris Kimsey (Rolling Stones/Emerson Lake & Palmer/Marillion), using the original 2” multitrack tapes. He has used modern day plug-ins that perfectly emulate and expand upon the original recording. The results are stunning.
The second disc in this set features the original 1971 mix of the album. Both have been mastered and cut at half-speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios.
This new edition of the album is presented on 180gm black heavyweight vinyl in a gatefold sleeve, and features new sleeve notes by Chris Kimsey, and band members, Ric Lee, Chick Churchill and Leo Lyons. There will also be an indie exclusive clear vinyl variant just for North America.
The release is also available in Stereo & Atmos digitally and as a limited edition Blu-ray through SuperDeluxeEdition.com
2CD 50th Anniversary Remix
Disc One (Chris Kimsey 2022
Mix)
1. One Of These Days
2. Here They Come
3. I’d Love To Change The World
4. Over The Hill
5. Baby Won’t You Let Me Rock ‘N’ Roll You
6. Once There Was A Time
7. Let The Sky Fall
8. Hard Monkeys
9. I’ve Been There Too
10. Uncle Jam
Disc Two (Original Mix)
1. One Of These Days
2. Here They Come
3. I’d Love To Change The World
4. Over The Hill
5. Baby Won’t You Let Me Rock ‘N’ Roll You
6. Once There Was A Time
7. Let The Sky Fall
8. Hard Monkeys
9. I’ve Been There Too
10. Uncle Jam
2LP 50th Anniversary Half-Speed Master 180g Heavyweight black vinyl
Side One (Chris Kimsey 2022
Mix)
1. One Of These Days
2. Here They Come
3. I’d Love To Change The World
4. Over The Hill
5. Baby Won’t You Let Me Rock ‘N’ Roll You
Side Two (Chris Kimsey 2022
Mix)
1. Once There Was A Time
2. Let The Sky Fall
3. Hard Monkeys
4. I’ve Been There Too
5. Uncle Jam
Side Three (Original Mix)
1. One Of These Days
2. Here They Come
3. I’d Love To Change The World
4. Over The Hill
5. Baby Won’t You Let Me Rock ‘N’ Roll You
Side Four (Original Mix)
1. Once There Was A Time
2. Let The Sky Fall
3. Hard Monkeys
4. I’ve Been There Too
5. Uncle Jam
To pre-order: https://tya.lnk.to/SpaceInTime
And, speaking of new releases from old, familiar friends, here’s something interesting …
Lobo and Paul Overstreet Join Forces with Billy Aerts to Record New Versions of Each Other's Iconic Hits
LOBO TEAMS UP WITH PAUL OVERSTREET AND BILLY AERTS FOR AN UPDATE OF HIS ICONIC SONG, “ME AND YOU AND A DOG NAMED BOO,” AVAILABLE JANUARY 20, 2023
LOBO RETURNS THE FAVOR BY APPEARING WITH AERTS AND OVERSTREET ON A NEW VERSION OF OVERSTREET’S MASSIVE HIT, “WHEN YOU SAY NOTHING AT ALL,” AVAILABLE JUST ONE WEEK LATER ON JANUARY 27, 2023
Lobo, Paul Overstreet and Billy Aerts have joined forces to record new versions of their most iconic hits. Their remix of “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo” will be released on January 20, 2023 via Time Life, the song that brought Lobo his first Top 5 hit in 1971. “When You Say Nothing at All” (co-written by Overstreet with Don Schlitz) will be released to all digital platforms a week later, on January 27, 2023. The multi-format smash had previously been recorded by Keith Whitley, Alison Krauss (who both took it to #1 on the Country Singles Chart), France Black (top 10 on the Irish music charts) and Ronan Keating (bringing him several #1s around the globe).
"Billy had this great idea about getting the three of us together to do some of our old tunes,” says Lobo. “He’s worked with each of us separately for many, many years and knows our music inside and out so he thought this would be an interesting way to revisit them. I’ve always admired Paul’s artistry as both a songwriter and a singer and have really enjoyed what our trio has done with the songs.” “‘When You Say Nothing at All’ has been recorded by some 50 artists or more, and this version is just so near and dear to my heart,” adds Overstreet. “To be able to make it with such talented friends brings something so special to it.” “As a songwriter, I really can’t say enough about how incredible it was to work with these two songwriting icons on these tracks,” says Aerts. “This collaboration was just the beginning of a truly special trio.”
Lobo’s dreamy love songs dominated the Adult Contemporary charts for decades with 12 Top 20 AC hits and four AC #1s and have remained popular around the world ever since with Lobo logging over a million monthly listeners on Spotify alone. In October 2021, Lobo released four digital albums via Time Life and has since released a pair of Christmas songs and a live album. New and rare content is available on his official YouTube channel.
Paul Overstreet has won two GRAMMY® awards, Song of the Year awards at both the CMAs and the ACMs and has written or co-written 27 Top 10 country music songs. He was named BMI Songwriter of the Year for a record-breaking five years in a row. He’s written #1 songs for Randy Travis, Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Keith Whitley, Allison Krauss, Tanya Tucker, Ronnie Milsap and George Jones and has hit the Top 10 eight times with his own solo recordings. In April, 2022, Overstreet reissued nine albums via Time Life, marking the very first time most of these songs were available on all digital platforms. Fans can hear selections on Paul’s official YouTube channel HERE.
Billy Aerts is a songwriter and producer, whose hits include Reba McEntire’s “You Never Gave Up on Me” and songs recorded by Miley Cyrus, Joe Cocker, Kenny Chesney and more. Aerts has written with and produced albums for Lobo and Overstreet for decades and has been nominated for multiple Dove Awards.
Listen to “You and Me and a Dog Named Boo” HERE.
The new recordings of “You and Me and a Dog Named Boo” and “When You Say Nothing at All” will be available on the following Spotify Channels as well as all major streaming platforms:
A copyright infringement that really may be a load of crap???
(But SPARKLY Crap!!!)
You decide! (kk)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLYIn25oJaA
And from "Poop" to "Pop" ...
The other day, I mentioned in Forgotten Hits that I had a friend tell me after hearing that "Popcorn" song that "It's now stuck in my mind as an earworm! Much like a popcorn husk gets stuck in your teeth!"
I see that he wasn't alone!
Hi there FH Readers,
Actually Hot Butter's 1972 version of the moog instrumental Popcorn is not the original version. The song was recorded three years earlier in 1969 by Gershon Kingsley, but of course it never charted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp9ki2jPWdg
Also, another song that never charted, was a very early record by the Supremes called Buttered Popcorn from 1961. Florence Ballard does lead vocals, and Diana Ross is singing the highest soprano harmony part which definitely sounds a bit odd. I checked the ARSA Radio Station survey website, and there were no chart entries for that song. It might have been played though on WJBK in Detroit, and the RNB station WJLB.
It's not a great song, but naturally the original single is a pretty pricey collector's item. My former girlfriend Deb in Columbus, Ohio, told me that the song was played on both WCOL and WTVN in Columbus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLfwo8luyZk
There was another song that didn't chart which mentions popcorn called Popcorn, Peanuts, Crackerjacks & Candy Kisses by B G Kay, again from 1961.
I know that this is the kind of information that many of you FH readers come to this page to read about every day. As I've always said, the more you learn about those obscure records that are out there, the more you realize just how little you really know. Learning about music is a truly endless process that's for sure!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqKLppSEfdc
Sam Ward
