David Crosby: Remember
My Name
Director:
E.J. Eaton
Year:
2019
Rating: 7.5
The unanswered question that runs through this
documentary is how is David Crosby still alive. Why are you here? Crosby
has no answer but looks back at all the musicians he knew and how many are
long gone. And he is still here. Through numerous heart attacks, consuming
more drugs than a pharmacy - all of them - cocaine, heroin, uppers, downers,
LSD and pot. And a lengthy prison term. He lost everything. Dead broke at
points in his life. Without friends at other times. This is a sad, intimate
somewhat depressing examination of his life with Crosby leading the way.
He looks back at his life, all his mistakes, all the people he hurt, all
the relationships he ruined, the lost years when he lost the music - but
also reminisces about the music he made with the Byrds and Nash, Stills and
Young. He visits some of those places from another era - the clubs they played
and the house where he first met and played music with Nash and Stills -
listened to Helpless from Neil Young - fell in love with Joni Mitchell. But
it all went to hell and he blames only himself. He was an asshole. To everyone.
Got famous too quickly. Got into drugs. It all left him. But he survived.
And in fact has been more productive these past few years with his solo work
and it is good. Not great. No hits. No Almost Cut my Hair. Wooden Ships or
Guinnevere. Very mellow music, primarily acoustic. What is amazing is how
his voice has held up. He can see 80 on the horizon and his face is crossed
with every bad decision he has made. But the voice is still there. He seems
basically content though still regretting so much in his past - all the shit
he gave people. Crosby, Nash, Stills and Young were the Super Group of the
late 60's early 70s. Never very stable - they all had their drug periods
- but in various forms they continued to release music for years - the albums
from Crosby and Nash are harmonic gifts. And the group would get together
every few years to make an album - never easy - lots of fighting - Young
would bail time after time - Crosby on drugs. None of it was as good as those
first two albums but they were still CSNY. Young is still putting out music
- some of it very good, Nash whose first two solo albums are among my favorites
last put out an album in 2016. Stills voice is pretty much shot but he has
put out music as well in the last few years - one a collaboration with his
former lover, Judy Collins. Worth checking that out. And he has had a few
concerts in a reunion of Buffalo Springfield. But the chances of them all
getting together are small because as Crosby says "they all hate me". A theme
in his life. The Byrds kicked him out because he was such an asshole. His
cross to bear but the film is in essence part of a 12-step process - ask
forgiveness, admit your mistakes. They were there for him through his drug
years and Crosby doesn't say why they hate him if they stuck together this
long - so maybe - there is forgiveness in all of us. But one comes away from
this fine reflective documentary suspecting that Crosby still has a lot of
the asshole in him just mellowed by age.
