David Crosby Albums (6)
'Live'
Release Date 5/4/2000
Tracks 10
Label EMI-Capitol Special Markets
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
This album is a budget-priced, abridged version of the David Crosby live album King Biscuit Flower Hour, originally released in 1996 and drawn from a concert held in Philadelphia in 1989. The more complete album contains four tracks not included here: "In My Dreams," "Drive My Car," "Monkey and the Underdog," and "Night Time for the Generals." The remaining ten songs are evenly divided between songs Crosby wrote in the late '80s after his recovery from substance abuse ("Tracks in the Dust," "Compass," "Delta," "Lady of the Harbor," "Oh Yes I Can") and songs he wrote in the late '60s for Crosby, Stills & Nash or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ("Déjà Vu," "Almost Cut My Hair," "Guinnevere," "Wooden Ships," "Long Time Gone"). Crosby performs acoustic and solo at first and is later joined by a band. He benefits from the familiarity of the CSN/CSNY material and from the conviction with which he performs the newer songs, but it is still easy to tell why he functions better in a group context than as a leading performer, since his songs, taken at slow or medium tempos (tempos that change frequently in the course of a single song), have complicated melodies and discursive lyrics that sometimes put them in the realm of recitative more than simple pop songs. Crosby was at the height of his fame as a reformed addict in 1989, which allowed him to tour under his own name alone, but he remains better appreciated as a key part of a group such as CSN. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'King Biscuit Flower Hour'
Release Date 8/27/1996
Tracks 14
Label King Biscuit
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
This April 8, 1989, show caught David Crosby, then a recent drug felon, on the comeback trail, promoting his album Oh Yes I Can. Amazingly, the latter was only his second solo album since departing the Byrds 21 years earlier. Some of the new material is surprisingly similar to the songs on that first solo album -- bluesy, quietly spacy mood pieces, although other songs ("Monkey and the Underdog") are bitterly, vividly autobiographical and confessional. The stuff done with a full band is surprisingly aggressive, in sharp contrast to most of CSN's material. The voice isn't as sweet as it was back in the early '70s -- he has to talk his way through parts of the acoustic stuff, and when he does sing the pitch is sometimes way off -- but Crosby still gives loud, forceful (if not always memorable) accounts of songs like "Déjà Vu," "Wooden Ships," "Long Time Gone," and "Almost Cut My Hair" as well as his newer stuff, of which the most powerful song is "Delta." The acoustic set, featuring "Guinnevere" and "Compass," is probably the best part of the concert. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
'It's All Coming Back to Me Now...'
Release Date 1/1/1994
Tracks 10
Label Rhino Atlantic
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Recorded December 7, 1993, at the Whisky-a-Go-Go in Hollywood, CA, this is a David Crosby live album and a good representation of his solo concert performances. In fact, it's a little better than usual since Crosby is joined by singers Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes and his old partner Graham Nash. Crosby splits the 71-minute set just about evenly between more recent solo efforts -- including two newly written songs -- and faithful renditions of favorites from his Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young days. Inadvertently, the set list serves to confirm that the latter represents his best work, while at the same time songs like "Long Time Gone" and "Wooden Ships" have been heard so often in studio and live performances that there isn't much reason to have additional recordings of them. The album's chief virtue is in the expression of Crosby's personality, but there isn't enough of that. So, while these are often spirited performances, they don't add to our understanding of the artist the way a live album should. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
David Crosby, the reluctant solo artist, made his first solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name, with an all-star guest list, then waited 18 years to make another. For his third solo album, Thousand Roads, Crosby increased the participation of his guests and attempted to redefine himself as an artist. Where previously, whoever was playing or singing on the track, the song was a Crosby composition, on Thousand Roads Crosby acted primarily as an interpretive singer, penning only one of the 10 songs and contributing to two others. He also brought in eight people to help produce the album, as if this were a Whitney Houston project on which every song was a potential single. The result certainly was a craftsman-like set of songs written by pop professionals -- Phil Collins, Jimmy Webb, Marc Cohn, John Hiatt, Paul Brady, Stephen Bishop -- and produced by the cream of pop producers -- Don Was, Glyn Johns, Phil Ramone. The failings were, first, that Crosby's individuality was lost and, second, that, as the list suggests, his choices were more calculated than inspired. The problem with David Crosby as a solo artist was not how to make him sound more conventional, it was how to make his unconventionality work. Thousand Roads solved the wrong problem, and though Crosby's collaboration with Phil Collins, "Hero," rode halfway up the singles charts (and high into the easy listening lists) largely on Collins's fame and the lyric's winking references to Crosby's jail time, the album was Crosby's least successful in the record stores. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
After spending nearly nine months as a guest of the Texas penal system, veteran rocker David Crosby emerged from his incarceration sober and brimming with ideas that had previously been stunted due to decades of substance abuse. In many ways Oh Yes I Can (1989) -- Crosby's second solo effort during his two-decade-plus career -- is a musical rebuttal to his equally vital debut effort, If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971). Even the album's title appears to indicate his newly achieved success and freedom from the haze that so indelibly influenced the earlier compositions. Along with a cast that rivals the all-star crew featured on his first platter, Crosby is joined by the likes of James Taylor (vocals), Jackson Browne (vocals), Bonnie Raitt (guitar), Larry Carlton (guitar), David Lindley (guitar), and Michael Hedges (guitar). While pop and rock styles have changed dramatically during the 18-year disparity separating the two LPs, perhaps not surprisingly, true sonic craftsmanship hasn't. Although Crosby is known for rebellious rockers, including "Almost Cut My Hair" and "Long Time Gone," the real growth in his songwriting and arranging occurred on intricate melodies such as the wordless, jazzy, scat vocal splendor of "Flying Man" or the stunning "Distances." In fact, the latter tune instantly recalls the minor-chord changes that he and Jerry Garcia once worked up on an informal jam titled "Kids and Dogs." The reflective and introspective "Tracks in the Dust" and title composition "Oh Yes I Can" exude a catharsis-like healing that has become a leitmotif throughout Crosby's body of work. The evidence ranges from "Guinnevere" and "Traction in the Rain" to even later pieces such as "1,000 Roads." The bluesy "Drop Down Mama" as well as the pulsating struggle of "good vs. evil" on "Monkey and the Underdog" are certainly not without considerable merit, but pale when juxtaposed beside the more emotive material. ~ Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide
'If I Could Only Remember My Name'
Release Date 1/1/1971
Tracks 9
Label Atlantic
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
David Crosby's debut solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name is a one-shot wonder of dreamy but ominous California ambience. The songs range from brief snapshots of inspiration (the angelic chorale-vocal showcase on "Orleans" and the a cappella closer, "I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here") to the full-blown, rambling western epic "Cowboy Movie," and there are absolutely no false notes struck or missteps taken. No one before or since has gotten as much mileage out of a wordless vocal as Crosby does on "Tamalpais High (At About 3)" and "Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves)," and because the music is so relaxed, each song turns into its own panoramic vista. Those who don't go for trippy Aquarian sentiment, however, may be slightly put off by the obscure, cosmic storytelling of the gorgeous "Laughing" or the ambiguous (but pointed) social questioning of "What Are Their Names," but in actuality it is an incredibly focused album. Even when a song as pretty as "Traction in the Rain" shimmers with its picked guitars and autoharp, the album is coated in a distinct, persistent menace that is impossible to shake. It is a shame that Crosby would continue to descend throughout the remainder of the decade and the beginning of the next into aimless drug addiction, and that he would not issue another solo album until 18 years later. As it is, If I Could Only Remember My Name is a shambolic masterpiece, meandering but transcendentally so, full of frayed threads. Not only is it among the finest splinter albums out of the CSNY diaspora, it is one of the defining moments of hungover spirituality from the era. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide
