Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
David Crosbys career in music should have ended in 1967.
That was the day the other members of the Byrds came over to kick him out of the band.
(with lyrics by God).
Crosby undermined his fellow members, fostered dissatisfaction for his own advantage, and was a compulsive manipulator.
Beyond that, he wasnt really a guitarist and didnt write songs.
But Crosby didnt go away.
Their second public performance was at an intimate venue known as Woodstock.
Crosby,whose death was announced this week, spent the next 50-plus years as a household name.
He warred, split, and reuned with his bandmates.
Murnaus silent filmTabu: A Story of the South Seas.
Crosby started out as a folkie a lecherous teddy bear with a playful brain, as Hoskyns describes him.
It was a key moment in rock history.
There were fractious internal relationships and disputes about the bands musical direction.
Aside from McGuinn, all were rudimentary players.
both went to No.
But the group kept fighting; at one point, Clarke slugged Crosby.
(McGuinn kept it going with evolving backing members for another half-decade.)
Crosby lent his name as the ostensible producer of her first album,Song to a Seagull.
They dated for a while, too.
Stephen Stills was on the outs from Buffalo Springfield, the band hed been in with Neil Young.
He and Crosby became friends and worked on songs together.
It shouldnt have worked.
Stills was an army brat and far from a hippie radical; he was driven and a perfectionist.
Nash had a fluty voice; already a star, he didnt have to prove anything to anyone.
Then things began to happen very quickly.
In the documentaryWoodstock, the trio runs through Stillss Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.
This is our second gig!
Crosby chortles to the crowd.
(Young joined the band for a second, electric set that night at Woodstock.
The quartet would also play at Altamont, just before the Rolling Stones went on.)
Shortly after, Geffen constructed the first rock megatour, with CSN as the headliners.
But again, internal divisions never let the band cohere.
A third studio album, sans Young, would take seven years to come out.
The several albums he recorded with Nash are more listenable.
Once in a while, CSN would bury their differences and tour again.
Crosbys personality and shiftiness mark the memories of the time.
He had a natural charisma, an infectious enthusiasm, and a sense of humor.
He didnt treat women well, either.
David was charming around chicks, a scenester is quoted in Hoskynss book.
But there was a revolving door with him one girl in, one girl out.
And if a girl got pregnant, he was mean to her and dumped her.
His drug use quickly began to hurt both his career and the bands.
(Producer Dickson managed to salvage the appearance, Hillman writes.)
(One arrest came after he left a bunch of drugs and a gun in a hotel room.)
He spent five months in a Texas prison, though he managed to avoid severe punishments in future arrests.
There are few household-name stars whose image is so at odds with his real-life behavior.
In 2000, a CSN reunion tour carriedthen-breathtaking ticket prices of $200.
But the proceeds, like all of Crosbys money, went for drugs.
In the best of his work, you’re able to hear the idealism of the time.
