Product Details

Singer-songwriter David Crosbys solo debut, IF I COULD ONLY REMEMBER MY NAME, was dismissed by critics when it came out in 1971. Over the years, however, appreciation has grown for the albums adventurous aesthetic, stacked harmonies and haunting lyrics about loss and confusion. Billed as Crosbys solo debut, the album was anything but a one-man project. Instead, it was one of his most collaborative efforts, featuring an all-star cast of players that included members of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Santana, along with Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and others.

IF I COULD ONLY REMEMBER MY NAME turned 50 earlier this year and we’re celebrating with a newly remastered version

of the original album on 180-gram vinyl. Mastered by Chris Bellman from the original masters.

When Crosby started recording the album in 1970, he was grieving the death of his longtime girlfriend Christine Hinton, who was killed in a car accident a year earlier. At the time, Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco became a refuge for Crosby, who remembers Jerry Garcia showing up nearly every night. Thered be that grin, and then that look in the eyes, and this fascination with the music, Crosby recalls. Easy, not forced, graceful, fun, ever-present. It was a kindness, Im pretty sure. Jerry never said that, never even implied it. Just, Hey, I heard you were doing something. What are you doing? Lets do something.

What they made was music that would be embraced by later generations of singer-songwriters and cited as an early example of the freak folk genre. On the original, the nine songs explore a wide range of moods and textures. Crosbys swagger and Garcias stinging solos give Cowboy Movie its intensity, while Song With No Words (Trees With No Leaves) gently stretches out to a place between choral folk and modal jazz. For Orleans, Crosby transformed the French childrens song using the studio and its echo chamber to record a choir of his vocal harmonies.