David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971)

David Crosby is an American singer-songwriter, best known for being a founding member of both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.

David Crosby was a member of the pioneering folk-rock group The Byrds, appearing on their first five albums between 1965 and 1968. He started out as rhythm guitarist and harmony singer, but from their third album onwards he began to contribute and sing lead on his own songs, demonstrating a distinctive style and penchant for weird, abstract forms of folk-rock. His increasing artistic presence in the group led to various personality clashes, and he left during the making of The Notorious Byrd Brothers. He then went on to form Crosby, Stills & Nash with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, and they released their debut album to universal acclaim. They were then joined by Neil Young, and 1970's Deja Vu proved to be an even bigger success. After the massive success of Deja Vu, all four members were given the opportunity to release solo albums.
Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name proved to be a perfect coming together of the sound he had been pursuing throughout his time with The Byrds and CSN. His songs always stood out for their strange, dream-like qualities, and now it was time for a whole album of them. Backing Crosby was an amalgamation of various hip west-coast rock bands and singer-songwriters (most notably members of The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane). Most of the instrumental backing came from various combinations of Jerry Garcia (guitar/pedal steel), Jorma Kaukonen (guitar), Neil Young (guitar) Phil Lesh (bass), Jack Casady (bass) Bill Kreutzmann (drums) and Mickey Hart (drums). Vocal support mostly came from Graham Nash, but there were also appearances from Joni Mitchell, Grace Slick, Paul Kantner and David Freiburg. Keyboard player Gregg Rolie and drummer Michael Shrieve (of Santana) also appeared on one song.
Crosby's greatest strength had always been his amazing voice, and the focus of If I Could Only Remember My Name was firmly on the vocals. He made use of overdubbing to harmonize with himself, and it reached its pinnacle on the final track, "I'd Swear There Was Somebody There", where a mass choir of David Crosbys sang a cappella. Many of the songs had no lyrics, and he mades use of his voice as an instrument, often in harmony with musical partner Graham Nash. And behind the stunning vocals were some seriously good instrumental backing - it's not often you hear Jerry Garcia and Neil Young trading guitar licks, or Garcia and Jorma Kaukonen jamming over an integrated Airplane / Santana rhythm section.
The result was a fantastic album of transcendental music, something which had a sound all of its own, almost spiritual. The fact that it was recorded seemingly just as some jamming between a loose group of musician friends makes it even more extraordinary. Still today it is this one record which defines everything about David Crosby's music (indeed he has had a seriously sporadic recording career and arguably has never come close to bettering this forty years later). Though it had nothing on it which could have been a commercially successful single, the album itself reached #12 on the charts.

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