Cameron Crowe’s favourite David Crosby songs
As the director and inspiration behind the film Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe will always be a respected name in music. Starting his career as a Rolling Stone writer who toured with some of the biggest bands on the planet, Crowe has enjoyed unrivalled access to legends of the industry. One of those legends is none other than David Crosby, The Byrds founder and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young pillar.
Crowe, as any music fan, was obviously aware of Crosby. As Rolling Stones’ youngest and busiest writer, he wrote a lot about the supergroup of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in all their lineups and phases. In 1977, he reported the magnum opus on the band’s reunion, joining the group in the studio as they attempted to move past their fallings out.
So when it came to making a documentary about Crosby’s career, the writer and director was an obvious choice. David Crosby: Remember My Name is a glorious reflection on the musician’s career, told through the obviously admiring lens of Crowe as its producer.
As a fan, friend and now peer to the musician, Crowe has big opinions on Crosby’s career. But a handful of songs stand out as special. Immediately, ‘Music Is Love’ comes to mind. Deeming the track underrated, the writer says the track is his favourite from the artist.
“Totally number one is ‘Music Is Love’ from [Crosby’s 1971 solo debut] ‘If I Could Only Remember My Name’,” he says, adding: “It was a riff that he had that got built into a song by (Graham) Nash and Neil Young. I think Neil took a rough practice track, and Crosby said, ‘You can’t take it, this song is not finished yet.’”
As Crowe remembers, Young took control of the track, “He comes back, I believe the next day, with a finished, re-edited version of ‘Music is Love’ that’s just perfection.”
Crosby has been ever-present in Crowe’s career, regularly using tracks in his film soundtracks. ‘Kids and Dogs’ is one of them as Crowe says, “We used it in the ‘Aloha’ movie,” adding simply, “It’s so Crosby.”
Next up, he dives deeper into the archives for a Byrds track. “‘Lady Friend’ is an early Byrds song that is kind of the genesis or beginning of … It’s kind of toward the end of Act 1 Crosby,” he says. “He’s in his ‘Triad’ kind of ‘I’m stretching the boundaries of the Byrds’ mode,” Crowe continues, praising Crosby’s innovation.
There is one Byrds track, however, that Crowe deems “vital”. The 1966 song ‘Why’ is an essential listen for him, as the director explains: “It just feels modern in a cool way”. Another deep cut is one of the earliest Crosby and Nash duets. Describing it as “just a wonderful little deep track,” ‘The Wall Song is a personal highlight.
But Crowe’s all-time favourite Crosby track comes with a Beatles connection. He said: “’Laughing’ is about the Maharishi, I find out while doing the research for this. I guess (George) Harrison comes back from the Maharishi time that the Beatles had together and tells Crosby that the Beatles had all this stuff going on, and that Lennon had this feeling about the Maharishi, and people were doubting him”.
A perfectly cynical take on counterculture’s obsession with spirituality, Crowe says of the song, “It’s revelatory and takes you to almost a religious place, but the interesting thing about it is that it’s about false religion, I think. But it’s just a beautiful track.”
Cameron Crowe’s favourite David Crosby songs:
- ‘Music Is Love’
- ‘Kids and Dogs’
- ‘Lady Friend’
- ‘Why’
- ‘The Wall Song’
- ‘Laughing’
