The singer David Crosby called the best in the world: “Got to be”
If you were to put yourself in the shoes of David Crosby, someone who was known for having been a key member of one of the most influential folk rock groups, as well as having performed in a supergroup alongside three other celebrated musicians, then it’s probably fair to say that inspiration and admiration for others is going to come to you on a regular basis.
His early career as a member of The Byrds propelled him into the spotlight, and arrived at a pivotal moment in the history of music, where the amount of boundary-pushing work and stylistic reinvention taking place was at an unprecedented high. Not only would merely being present in an environment have helped shape Crosby, but being surrounded by the likes of Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark would undoubtedly have rubbed off on him.
Moving onto his post-Byrds career, his relationships with fellow supergroup members Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young weren’t always the strongest, given Crosby’s acid tongue and tendency to be outspoken, but there’s no denying that he would have had to have had some sense of admiration for their work in order to have wanted to work alongside them in the first place. The majesty of the work they produced together in spite of this only speaks for itself, and it was another point where his creativity would have been nourished by the presence of those around him.
In addition to his work with these stellar performers, he collaborated with several other high-profile artists throughout his career as well, having helped Joni Mitchell produce her debut album while the two were involved in a brief romantic relationship, and also having made appearances on records by the likes of James Taylor and Carole King in the 1970s.
Despite this impressive resumé, it’s obvious that you’re not going to just be inspired by your contemporaries, and the core influences that Crosby would have established for himself were much more likely to have come from an earlier period in his life.
The likes of the aforementioned artists would have navigated him in other directions and perhaps opened his mind to new ways of thinking, but they wouldn’t have been the real catalysts for him wanting to pursue his craft in the first place.
Crosby notably came from a family of creatives, with his father, Floyd, being an Academy Award-winning cinematographer, and his older brother, Ethan, a jazz musician who introduced him to the works of artists like John Coltrane and Miles Davis. These would have undoubtedly left their mark on Crosby in his adolescence, and while this provides plenty of avenues that he could source inspiration from environments, there was one artist who truly inspired him to take this path in life.
During a 2019 interview with Inside Hook, he revealed his love for jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, and how there wasn’t a single more influential figure in his musical development. “The first person I remember admiring was probably Ella Fitzgerald,” he proclaimed. “First record I ever bought with my own money was Ella and Duke Ellington. I remember thinking she’s got to be the best singer in the whole world. She damn near was.”
While his love for jazz would certainly have been aided by his brother introducing him to some of the greats, hearing someone like Fitzgerald, a truly special voice and an endlessly inspiring figure from outside of his family perform in this manner, would have been the most world-changing experience, and one that he would latch onto for the rest of his life.
