Joni Mitchell’s first impression of David Crosby: “He was paranoid about his hair”
Though he initially rose to prominence in the mid-1960s with The Byrds, the late singer-songwriter David Crosby embarked on a richly layered career marked by fruitful partnerships. As the 1970s approached, Crosby found himself immersed in the singer-songwriter movement, collaborating with esteemed luminaries such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, who catapulted The Byrds to fame by allowing them to cover ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’.
Despite having his irons in several fires through the decades, Crosby’s long-standing collaboration with Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and, intermittently, Neil Young sealed his enduring legacy. Together, these musicians formed the iconic supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. With Young’s intermittent participation due to his successful solo career, the band adapted, leading to a name change to Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Although Young joined the band for sporadic tours and limited studio sessions, he was deeply involved in the salient 1970 masterpiece Déjà Vu. A true tour de force of the folk-rock movement, the album features memorable tracks written by all four members and a cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock’.
At this early juncture in the supergroup’s history, Mitchell significantly impacted the band’s creativity. She can be heard singing with her then-boyfriend Graham Nash in several demos, including one of ‘Our House’. Nash would, in turn, inspire Mitchell’s songwriting for her 1971 masterpiece, Blue, but as ‘River’ reflected, this was a sadder moment, marked by the relationship’s conclusion.
Although she entered her most stable relationship with Nash, Mitchell’s involvement with CSNY actually began with Crosby. The pair first met in 1967, just after Crosby departed The Byrds. At the time, Mitchell was a pre-fame hopeful searching for a record deal. Crosby saw her for the first time during a performance at a club in Coconut Groove, Florida and was at once in love with and entranced by her talent.
The pair duly entered into a brief yet volatile love affair that Crosby later likened to “falling into a cement mixer.” He added, “She is a turbulent woman and very, very crazy.” Despite the relationship’s swift demise, the pair remained close friends for the rest of Crosby’s life. Crucially, he helped Mitchell navigate the early rungs of her career and even agreed to produce her debut album, Song to a Seagull.
In a 1979 interview with Rolling Stone, Mitchell reflected on her early friendship with Crosby. She remembered the first time she met him after her gig in Florida. “He was tanned. He was straight. He was clearing out his boat, and it was going to be the beginning of a new life for him,” she remembered fondly. “He was paranoid about his hair, I remember. Having long hair in a short-hair society.” This analysis checks out considering Crosby’s imminent songwriting hit ‘Almost Cut My Hair’.
Continuing, Mitchell recalled Crosby’s infectious sense of humour but warned that it could change on a sixpence. “Crosby has enthusiasm like no one else,” she said. “He can make you feel like a million bucks, or he can bring you down with the same force.”
Mitchell later expressed her gratitude for Crosby’s hand in producing her debut album. “He did me an incredible service, which I will never forget,” she said. “He used his success and name to make sure my songs weren’t tampered with to suit the folk-rock trend.”
In addition to his production skills, Crosby inspired Mitchell with his low-maintenance, free-living hippie outlook. “Crosby was from his scrub-faced California culture, so one of his first projects in our relationship was to encourage me to let go of all this elaborate war paint,” she concluded. “It was a great liberation to get up in the morning and wash your face and not have to do anything else.”
In the closing years of Crosby’s life, he frequently sang Mitchell’s praises, humbly pinching his arm to recall that he was ever involved in her career. “She is the best songwriter alive, easily as good as Bob [Dylan] and ten times the better musician,” he told The Times in 2018. “When she was my old lady, I’d write something and go, ‘Listen to this!’ She’d say, ‘That’s lovely, Dave,’ and play me three new songs of hers that were far, far better than mine.”
During her early solo career, Joni Mitchell wrote several songs inspired by David Crosby. Among them was ‘The Dawntreader’, which appeared on Song to a Seagull.
