David Crosby: Remember My Name (2019)

David Crosby: Self

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Quotes 

• David Crosby : [driving past Whisky a Go Go]  I went in there to watch the Doors and that's probably were my dislike of Morrison started. He pulled my shades off and said, "You can't hide in behind those shades." And I, of course, was high on LSD. So, I teleported to the other side of the room.

  [laughs] 

  David Crosby : And I've never forgiven him for that.

• David Crosby : My big fuck up is getting mad. You didn't ask me, but, I'll volunteer it. Biggest mistake I make: getting mad. Once the adrenaline hits my system, it's just like instant asshole.

• David Crosby : [about Jim Morrison]  Morrison, what a dork!

• David Crosby : Me? Music. No Music? No. Not interested. It's the only thing I can contribute, man. It's the only place I can help. It's the only place I can make it better. It's the only thing I got to offer, really.

• David Crosby : People ask me if I got regrets. Yeah, I got a huge regret about the time I wasted being smashed. I'm afraid. I'm afraid of dying. And I'm close. I don't like it. I'd like to have more time - a lot more time.

• David Crosby : I'm under some pressure, yeah. You got to understand, I'm the guy in Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, that's never had a hit.

• David Crosby : At this point in my life, every minute that you get is precious. Time is the final currency. And, so, how do you spend it?

• David Crosby : [about John Coltrane]  Playing at the most intense level you can ever imagine in your life. He never stopped soloing. He's *still* soloing and he's up where it is really hitting the thousand mark, you know. He's like - burning! I never heard anybody be more intense with music than that, in my life, in that little bathroom, little tile bathroom. Whoa!

• David Crosby : My mom was a humanist and felt that, you know, equality between human beings was like where it was at. My mom got a Josh White record. It was one of the first records I ever remember really knowing. And there was a song on there called "Strange Fruit." And I didn't understand it, so, I went to my mom and said, "Mom, I don't understand, what's the strange fruit that he's talking about?" And my mom started crying. I didn't have no concept that anybody could hang another human being because they didn't like what color they were. My mom was really good at loving.

• David Crosby : [about The Byrds]  We were one of the first electric bands. I loved it. You could get the attention of girls, which, of course, is why all of us started playing music in the first place.

• David Crosby : It's necessarily always a positive thing when you win early and win young. I was tremendously lucky and I don't think I realized how lucky I was.

• David Crosby : My brother was musician also. He was the one who gave me my first guitar. He turned me onto 50s jazz. That's where I went right down the rabbit hole.

• David Crosby : I was a class clown. Disciplinary problem. Got in trouble all the time. I was thrown out of, I think, just about every school I was ever in. I wanted attention. Constantly wanting to get attention. I'm sort of always seeking approval, you know. "Scratch me behind the ear. Tell me I'm cool."

• David Crosby : I remember when I looked up and when I saw Bob Dylan for the first time. How entranced everybody was with him. His words were so good. His songs were so good. I remember being jealous.

• David Crosby : I started being a counter-culture, rebellious person, right about the time I started growing my hair out. We were starting to be hippies.

• David Crosby : Dylan came and we played "Tamborine Man" for him. And you could hear the gears working in his head. And he went straight out and got an electric band. Right away.

• David Crosby : Sailing. Sailing out in the Pacific or sailing in the Caribbean. Waking up. Feeling the motion. She's loping along, waves coming up, slowly picking us up, giving us a shove. She's doing this big slow dance, you know. And she's graceful. Everything sensory, visual, auditory, every kind of information. Louder. Cleaner. Brighter. And, you know, it's beautiful. When we're here on the shore, there's so much data impinging on our senses, all the time, that we filter it down. When you go out there, lots of space and very little information. And it's a really delicious feeling. It's a truly magical part of my life. And, of course, I wrote a lot of great music there. I wrote "Lee Shore" there. I wrote "Page 43" there. I wrote "Wooden Ships" there. The ocean's totally real - the opposite of Hollywood.

• David Crosby : [about Joni Mitchell]  I love her and she's the best singer-songwriter of all of us. No question. Hands down.

• David Crosby : I don't think I was a good lover. I don't think I a good person to - companion. I think I was selfish and - eh - and wacko. And I got more wacko as time went on.

• David Crosby : [about Joni Mitchell]  When I first met Joni down in Florida, she was singing, you know, at a coffee house. And I was pretty much stung by her. You know, I fell for her, which was similar to falling into a cement mixer.

• David Crosby : What you do to yourself is what you do to yourself. You can be proud of it or disgusted by it. But, it's not really a moral thing. What you do to other human beings, that counts.

• David Crosby : [about Mama Cass]  She had good weed. I had good weed. We knew what was important in life. Very, very, very bright. Lonely. Fat girl. Wishing she could be loved. She was loved; but, not the way she wanted to be.

• David Crosby : [about Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young]  Synthesis is when you take widely separated things and put them together. Create something new. That's what happened.

• David Crosby : Artists are fascinating. Joni, Cass, Janis. I got a dozen of them. They were all damaged and they were all brilliant and they were all lonely and they were all fantastic.

• David Crosby : Everybody always asks me about Woodstock. Because, it's grown hugely and the further away from it we get, the bigger it gets. It was about spirit. It was about humans being nice to each other.

• David Crosby : One night, we were all having a big dinner, there was 20 of us there, and she comes stomping in with her guitar and sits down and says, "I got a new song." And we all went, "Oh, fantastic a new Joni song. Unbelievable. This is so great. Sing it for us. Sing it for it." And it was obviously her: Fuck You and Goodbye to me. And then she finished the song and looked at me. This intense angry expression on her face. Then, she sang it again. There's no one like Joni Mitchell. I think probably the best guy for her and the best guy with her was probably Graham. And I was glad that they were together.

• David Crosby : [about "Ohio"]  It made me feel good that I was actually able to stand up for what I believed. I think that's probably the best job of being troubadours or being town criers that we ever did. Well, it lit the whole country on fire. There were protest on every campus in America.

• David Crosby : Belief is good. It didn't work out - yet. But, we're trying.

• David Crosby : Did you ever have a person you loved get killed? Well, afterwards, you know, you can't go back in and fix the stuff. You can't make up for any mistake. Frozen in time.

• David Crosby : [singing]  This life is fine, Even, even with these ups and downs, And you should have a sip of it, Else you're gonna find, The it's passed you by.

• David Crosby : Jerry Garcia. He'd just show up, "Hey!" "What?" "What are you doing?" If he and I had two guitars and we would sit in the same room, we were happening. He just wanted it to happen. He wanted to coax it into happening. Any kind of way. If he would make it down on the floor and lick the notes off the floor, he'd do it. He'd do whatever. He knew it was waiting to happen - right around the edges of the picture. And he wanted to invite those notes out. "Come on. Come on little notes. Come on out. Come on out." And he was the most - pure music guy.

• David Crosby : At a certain point there the drugs became more important than anybody or anything - including music.

• David Crosby : Addiction takes you over like fire takes over a burning building. And I went completely off the rail. It's a weird kind of spiral, man. You are mad at yourself for being a dick, so, you do more drugs which makes you more of a dick which makes you more mad at yourself.

• David Crosby : We really did like each other when we started playing. We were thrilled by each others songs. Bands get together and you're in love with each other and its all wonderful and its exciting - but, forty years later - heh - it devolves into just turn on the smoke machine and play your hits.

• David Crosby : I think CSNY is a completely different band than CSN. Completely different. And should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its own, by the way. I should be in there a third time - just to make Clapton jealous.

• David Crosby : A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, gave me a shot of heroin. And, eh, umm, it feels great. The first one. It feels really wonderful. That's why it's so deadly. All the sudden, nothing hurts. You feel - exulted and wonderful. Only the first time. After that, you're just trying to catch it. You're just trying to go back there. And you never get back there. Ever.

• David Crosby : At least I - have enough guts to be honest. Right now.

  Cameron Crowe : That's what this is.

  David Crosby : Maybe. Maybe I've conned you into it. Maybe this was all a clever plan.

  [sly smile] 

• David Crosby : I still have friends. But, all the main guys that I made music with won't even talk to me. All of 'em. All of 'em!

• David Crosby : Oh, that tree's pretty. That's the first thing I fell in love with here is the trees. All these trees. They're wonderful. I see the rest of the world, the rest of what's going on; but, I don't really focus on it.

• David Crosby : I want to be a guy who is loving. So, yeah, that's what I'm striving for. That's what I want to be. That's who I am - who I want to be.