If I Could Only Remember My Name

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David Crosby
David Crosby cover
Studio album by David Crosby
Released February 22, 1971
Recorded 1970-1971
Genre Rock
Length 37:04
Label Atlantic
Producer David Crosby
Professional reviews
David Crosby chronology
If I Could Only Remember My Name
(1971)		 Oh Yes I Can
(1989)

If I Could Only Remember My Name is David Crosby's first solo album, and one of four high-profile albums released by each partner of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping Déjà Vu album of 1970. It has been in print continuously since its initial release.

A large grouping of big-name rock stars circa 1970 appear on the record, including members of Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Santana. This San Francisco rock all star ensemble has been called "The Great Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra", and famously collaborated on one other classic gem of the era, Paul Kantner's post Jefferson Airplane epic "Blows Against The Empire." IICORMN also features the only recorded appearance of David Crosby's equally talented but reclusive brother, Ethan Crosby. Three of the nine tracks feature vocals without any lyric, and the lyrics of a fourth, "Orléans," consist entirely of a roll call of famous French cathedrals. The song "Cowboy Movie" is Crosby's lengthy shaggy dog story regarding the personalities of CSNY, and another track, "Laughing," received an airing by Crosby accompanied only with his guitar on CSNY's 1970 tour. A live recording of "Laughing" would be added to the 1992 reissue of the document of that tour, Four Way Street.

Aside from "Cowboy Movie," an ambience of ethereal abstraction permeates the record, very much a continuance of qualities exhibited on previous Crosby work both with The Byrds and CSN, such as "Everybody Has Been Burned" from Younger Than Yesterday or "Guinnevere" from the CSN debut. The lyrics parlay concerns typical to the era, "What Are Their Names" the notion of a ruling, invisible elite in America, and "Laughing" the elusiveness of enlightenment and the inherent wisdom of the child. Of the quartet, Crosby along with Nash echoed the Woodstock Nation ethos most strongly in their work. After this record, Crosby would wait eighteen years before releasing his next solo album.

The album peaked at #12 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, and "Music Is Love," released as a single, peaked at #95 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was released for compact disc on October 25, 1990, having been digitally remastered from the original master tapes, using the equipment and techniques of the day, by original engineer Stephen Barncard. A double-disc reissue appeared on November 6, 2006, with an audio disc remastered in HDCD, including a bonus track "Kids and Dogs," and a second DVD Audio disc of the original album, with bonus track, remixed for 5.1 digital Surround Sound. Despite having been critically panned the year of its release (such as Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau's notorious review showing a "D-" [1]), the album has undergone a revival of interest among fans of underground rock and folk such as Devendra Banhart and groups associated with The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Attention garnered by the most recent reissue and remaster places the album in the same influential company as the more baroque works of Nick Drake and Fairport Convention.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Music Is Love" (Crosby/Nash/Young) – 3:16
  2. "Cowboy Movie" (Crosby) – 8:02
  3. "Tamalpais High (At About 3)" (Crosby) – 3:29
  4. "Laughing" (Crosby) – 5:20
  5. "What Are Their Names" (Crosby/Garcia/Lesh/Shrieve/Young) – 4:09
  6. "Traction in the Rain" (Crosby) – 3:40
  7. "Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves)" (Crosby) – 5:53
  8. "Orleans" (traditional) – 1:56
  9. "I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here" (Crosby) – 1:19

[edit] Bonus Track 2006 Reissue

  1. "Kids and Dogs" (Crosby) – 7:01

[edit] Personnel

Music Is Love

Cowboy Movie

Tamalpais High (At About 3)

Laughing

What Are Their Names

Traction in the Rain

Song with No Words

Orleans

I'd Swear There's Somebody Here

[edit] Production

  • Stephen Barncard, engineer, digital remastering producer
  • Ellen Burke, assistant engineer
  • Gary Burden, art direction
  • Henry Diltz, photography
  • Elliot Roberts & Ronald Stone, management
  • David Geffen, direction
  • Bill Dooley, digital mastering engineer

[edit] External links

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David Crosby
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If I Could Only Remember My Name | Oh Yes I Can | Thousand Roads | CPR (with CPR) | Just Like Gravity (with CPR)
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