The rock vocalist David Crosby called “beyond belief”
The late David Crosby might have earned notoriety for his outspoken nature and established a somewhat comical character in his later years, but the moustachioed Californian knew what he was talking about when it came to music. After all, his efforts were of such gravity that they helped to change the cultural zeitgeist, with him also witnessing first-hand the genius of an array of other significant creatives.
Although Crosby is regularly cast as one of the more difficult musicians of his era, he was also one of the most well-informed. He might have been kicked out of The Byrds for his challenging nature and increasingly hedonistic proclivities and made an enemy out of his old friend and bandmate Neil Young towards the end of his life, but when Crosby wasn’t creating personal schisms, he would often comment with insight on the music that he loved.
While the joint-huffing keyboard warrior loved an array of different sonics, the era he was particularly well-versed in was the counterculture. After all, this heady period was the one in which he rose as a great, and after being dismissed from The Byrds, he cemented his status with the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on their 1970 debut, Déjà Vu.
In an affront to the typical definition that defines him as a spiky and quite bitter figure, there were many moments in which he celebrated his favourite peers from the 1960s. One person he had a particular amount of respect for was Grace Slick, the vocalist of psychedelic heroes Jefferson Airplane, who was not only one of the definitive female powerhouses of the decades but whose obsession with Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland put a dark spin on psychedelia and rock music moving forward.
A masterful singer and songwriter, Slick and peer Janis Joplin opened the gates for everyone from Stevie Nicks to Björk. In a world where men ruled the roost in every section of society, she railed against tradition and proved to be a leading light of her generation.
Slick once explained her outlook and how her attitude came to pave the way for a life in music mirroring her ultimate, Alice: “I identified with Alice [in Wonderland]. I went from the planned, bland ’50s, to the world of being in a rock band without looking back. It was my Alice moment, heading down the hole.”
Crosby was so astounded by the otherworldy vocals of Slick that he once called her talent “beyond belief”. Crosby told Jefferson Airplane biographer Jeff Tamarkin in Got a Revolution: “Slick reigned with Janis Joplin as queens of rock at that time”.
He added: “The force of both her voice and her personality made her a ceiling-shattering feminist counterculture icon and an inspirational model for many to follow. When [Jefferson Airplane] got Grace in the band, that was just beyond belief. She was stunning.”
Twisting into the mix a subtle hint of his combative nature, Crosby maintained that Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks, someone long thought to be the heir to the Jefferson Airplane frontwoman, could never match Slick’s onstage power. “She had a power and intensity onstage that Stevie Nicks should only ever dream she could get,” he commented.
Listen to Jefferson Airplane’s ‘White Rabbit’ below.
