David Crosby live with Venice

 

artist: David Crosby with Venice

album: Jammin in the Canyon

year: 2004

David Crosby has moved on.

I know my blog is known for African and Reggae music but before all that, back in the 60s, I was a West Coast Hippie.  The albums "Crosby, Stills and Nash" and Neil Young's "After the Goldrush" pretty much summed up everything as far as I was concerned.

David Crosby had been beset with health issues in recent years but let's face it, it was a miracle that he made it past the 1960s.  Starting with the legendary Byrds and then CSNY, David Crosby was definitely a product of the sex, drugs and rock and roll 60s, and by all accounts he led the life fully.

David Crosby was a difficult man to live with.  It is not by chance that the bands he was associated with were as famous for their battles as for their music.  David Crosby was a larger-than-life character with a huge ego, but we cannot deny the fact that he was part of some of the best music to come out of a decade that was famous for its music.  Damn, we'll miss you David.

I found this CD at a thrift shop in the San Fernando Valley in 2016.  You never know what you'll find when you go hunting.  It was a homemade CD in a plain CD case with a handwritten cover: "David Crosby live with Venice."  I bought the CD for about two bucks and it's great.  It sounds like a soundboard recording.  It features David Crosby singing with the Los Angeles based band "Venice."  In the intro they mention that the show is part of "Jammin in the Canyon." Checking the internet, Jammin in the Canyon is a benefit show put on by Pacific Palisades High School and this performance was in 2004.  

I only put the David Crosby section on the video but if you want to hear the whole show get it HERE.

My favorite David Crosby story revolves around his relationship with the then unknown Joni Mitchell.

In 1967, after Crosby had been kicked out of the Byrds, he bought a sailboat and spent some time sailing around the Florida Keys.  One day after Crosby had anchored his boat he went into town and in his own words, "I walked into a coffee house in Coconut Grove, and she [Joni Mitchell] was standing there singing those songs and I just was Godsmacked."

David and Joni rapidly became involved, and she moved in with him on his sailboat.  The stories I've read tell of David and Joni sailing around the Caribbean on his sailboat singing songs together.  I wish we had those songs recorded.  

After a while Crosby decided that it was time for him to rejoin the real world, so he sold the boat and traveled back to California, with Joni.  He rented a place in Laurel Canyon and one night he threw a party for all of his record industry friends.  Into the party he said to everyone, "I have someone who I want you all to meet" and out came Joni Mitchell with her guitar. 

"This is Joni," Crosby said and Joni Mitchell proceeded to play her songs for everyone, for all the record executives, and all the artist, and all the hipsters hanging out, and by all accounts everyone was Godsmacked.

Crosby went on to arrange and produce Joni Mitchell's first album.  And the rest is musical history.

David Crosby and Joni Mitchell

Take care David.  Don't give God a hard time.

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