Why David Crosby said Jerry Garcia “fucked” music
The late David Crosby was one of the most prominent musicians of the counterculture. This was thanks to the pioneering folk-rock he helped craft in The Byrds and his vital importance to one of the era’s defining bands, the supergroup CSNY. Present throughout the movement’s ups and downs, Crosby had an aptly oscillating personal life, which would see him lauded for his musical efforts yet gain notoriety for his antics. Despite the wildly differing opinions on him, no one can doubt that he was one of the finest musicians of his generation, meaning he was better placed than most to comment on it.
Crosby commented on many of his contemporaries in his time, with him notorious for tearing into his former bandmates, such as Neil Young. However, he was also prone to effusing about some of the greatest with whom he had the fortune to rub shoulders. One of the most prominent acts of his era was the Grateful Dead, the LSD-loving jam band led by Jerry Garcia. Some of the group even assisted Crosby in making his 1970 debut solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name, including Garcia.
When speaking on the extensive Freak Flag Flying podcast about his life in 2020, Crosby looked back on the brilliance of Jerry Garcia – who passed away in 1995 – and his profound connection to music. He said Garcia was such as “consummate musician” that he literally “fucked it”.
Crosby expressed: “The thing about Jerry, which you know, is that there was serious magic there. Garcia was like a consummate musician. He worshipped music. He ate it for breakfast. He rubbed it in his hair. He fucked it. It fucked him. He loved it with his whole entire being. He wanted the music to come out. He knew it was hiding all around him all the time. Wanted to coax it out of the walls, ‘Come out, music, come and play.’ He was a magical cat that way. He was as flawed and normal a human being as everybody else in every other way. Made all the same mistakes.”
Continuing: “Totally human guy, and I’d seen all of it. But when it came to the music, it was holy, and he was the priest. He was just marvellous that way, with an instinctive, natural bent. If he could touch a guitar, he’d play something, and it would be right. It would be just right as shit. And it would almost always be right as shit, and something you never would have thought of.”
During the conversation, Crosby also acknowledged the work of the Grateful Dead spin-off, Dead & Company: “It’s fun to see the story continue to evolve, and each time that they keep going on, you think, ‘Oh well, that was it!’ and then it’s not yet. They go for another healthy chemistry of its own, and it makes a new it. I love that!”
Listen to David Crosby talk about Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead below.
