R.I.P.
https://variety.com/2023/music/news/david-crosby-dead-dies-byrds-crosby-stills-nash-1235495467/
Well, this year certainly got off to a good start...
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MovieChat Forums > David Crosby Discussion > R.I.P.
rip.
shareA talented musician for sure and I love his music...but it sounded like he was a real jerk, unfortunately. He burned a lot of bridges with people close to him over the years. Having said that...RIP and thank you for the music.
shareI followed him on Twitter. He tried hard to make amends for the mistakes he made in life. Addiction is an awful disease.
shareYes, you make a good point...at least he did acknowledge his shortcomings and faults. Music-wise, it is another huge loss...I love his music. RIP.
shareJust curious...aside from the drug abuse, what other amends did he see himself needing to make after being released from prison, say? No doubt he was an ass to many people once close to him, but that's pretty common. Did he do anything beyond living a hedonistic rock star life?
shareJust from what I've read and heard, it was mostly the way that he treated people close to him. It sounds like he finally realized that he wasn't the nicest person and tried to make amends.
Since his death, I've seen tributes to him from Jorma Kaukonen, Stephen Stills, David Gilmour, et.al. Stills (who he feuded with in the past) stated he was on good terms with Crosby at the time of Crosby's death...there was no negativity toward Crosby in any of their tributes, so it does seem like it had an effect after all.
I've been a fan of The Byrds since I was a kid, and I always found Crosby's departure from them something of a curiosity. It seemed mainly a creative battle between him and McGuinn, but there were definitely personality issues. You can wean some of this from clips of The Byrds's great performance at the Monterey Pop festival (a forerunner of Woodstock). Crosby hijacks the mic at one point and goes on a political rant (partly about JFK), much to the displeasure of the rest of the band who wanted to get back to the music. In his early days, Crosby did seem rather smarmy and arrogant, and a camera mugger in a cringe cutesy manner. In the 70s, Neil Young (whose personality I'm no fan of but love his early work) clearly had a problem with him, which he references obliquely in the great song "Thrasher" from "Rust Never Sleeps" (my favorite work of his). After Crosby had his meltdown in the 80s, he seemed transformed into a genuinely nice guy who wanted to share his experiences for the betterment of anyone willing to listen. As I mentioned on a separate thread, anyone who likes his brand of music should give a spin to his first solo album "If Only I Could Remember My Name." It didn't stand out prominently in its time, but it's very well done with a lush production.
shareI always liked a song Crosby did (I think it's technically with Stills and Nash, but it's really just Crosby solo) called "He Played Real Good For Free." I had an old CSN cassette tape that had a live performance of that song.
I never really listened to him solo...it was always either with The Byrds and CSN (and sometimes Y). Yes, it sounded like his feuding with McGuinn is what got him kicked out of The Byrds. I love a lot of Neil Young's music (The music I love from him, I really love...like "Needle And The Damage Done"...but some of his music, I don't like...like "Southern Man," for example) but find his personality very similar to Crosby's (he seems to have a rather high opinion of himself). I agree that "Thrasher" is a great song.
I do agree with stickman38's posts about Crosby tweeting "Meh" in regard to Eddie Van Halen's death was way, way out of line. Stuff like that just reinforced how opinionated and jerky his behavior could be. It's too bad, because Crosby really was a talented musician. But, then again, so many of our well-known and/or talented musicians have issues as well.
I also remember another derogatory comment of Crosby's toward The Eagles (toward which I have a low tolerance, like Jeff Lebowski). In the 2013 Eagles documentary, he comments that he found The Eagles to be an extremely boring live band because they stuck so closely to the studio recordings. I think this is somewhat unfair especially in their Joe Walsh days, but I don't disagree. On the other hand, I'm not one of their peers and the way Crosby expressed it wasn't as polite as it easily could've been.
shareHa! I am a big fan of The Eagles, huge egos and all! 😃 I've never been a big concert-goer, but I always liked it when the artist stuck to the original version of the song (with a little leeway here and there).
Could Crosby have been jealous of The Eagles because they had vocals/harmonies that were better than even CSN(Y)? I'm just speculating there...but Crosby seemed petty enough to be that way.
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He lived a long, hard life. R.I.P
share"meh"
Honestly, I do think Eddie Van Halen was a much better guitar player.
Crosby was not known for his guitar playing.
shareWhich makes it even more bizarre that he would tweet out "meh" as his reply to Eddie dying. Especially when you consider how big Eddie was to the music scene. He was like a guitar legend long before he even died. If anything, it seems like one musician could appreciate another.
But maybe not...
I know the guy just died, but Crosby also was not known for being a nice guy.
I didn't know about the dis of EVH.
Crosby took a lot of heat for doing that but apparently he didn't care for the late 70s and 80s rock scene. Which might explain it... but still, you would think he could at least say something like "yeah, I didn't like their music but EVH was a top guitar player" or something to this effect.
Instead, it was just 'meh'... I was quite pissed when he did that. EVH influenced more people to play guitar (myself included) than just about anyone in music history. VH's debut album completely changed the rock scene overnight. There's an interesting article on how EVH changed music in Rolling Stone Mag. Here's the article...
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/eddie-van-halen-guitar-tribute-777320/
I never cared for that style of playing, TBH.
sharefair enough... of course Eddie did a lot of acoustic work too that was quite good. Either way, he could've played circles around Crosby.
shareEddie Van Halen was one of the main reasons I picked up a guitar and started playing 40 years ago. A lot of people were like me...even if you weren't necessarily a fan of his guitar playing, his impact and influence when it came to guitar (and I'd say music in general) is undeniable. He was an amazing guitarist for sure.
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No question. I never, ever, thought of Crosby as being a musician. He was a personality of the era, and a bland one, at that. I always called the band Crassly. Swill, Cash and Cum.
shareI know Drew Barrymore will take his demise hard, she lived with his family as a teen I believe.
shareRIP
shareSad news.
RIP