The ByrdWatcher Interview: David Crosby Part 2

BYRDWATCHER: A Field Guide to the Byrds of Los Angeles

THE BYRDWATCHER INTERVIEW:
DAVID CROSBY -- PART TWO

Back to Part One.

The Everly Brothers

BW: I'd like to ask about some of your early musical influences. I know that you grew up in a household where there was a lot of jazz around.

DC: Jazz, yeah, from my brother, classical music from my mother. More classical music than anything. Tons of classical music, from my earliest memories, classical music playing clear back to when we were playing albums called 78's. We were one of the first people who had a 33 speed player, one record player. It was just a box with a spindle, one switch, and 10 inch LPs. Those were the Weavers, Odetta, Josh White and a South African couple called Mirai and Miranda. And I loved the folk music. Folk music got me immediately from the get-go. And so folk music, classical and jazz, all three really strongly influenced me. I never really got influenced by pop music until I heard the Everlys.

BW: You've mentioned them many times.

DC: Well, how could you not?

BW: Did they influence your harmonic ideas?

DC: No question.

BW: You finally got a chance to perform with them in 1972, I think. On their album The Stories We Could Tell. You're credited on it; I didn't know if you really sang.

DC: I don't know. I know Nash did quite a bit of stuff with them. An astounding experience that most people will never have is to sit down with an album of the Everly Brothers' greatest hits and listen to Nash put the third part on it, all the way through everything.

BW: I think the Everlys obviously influence, you, McGuinn, Hillman, Gram Parsons, Clarence White -- almost everybody who ever had anything to do with the Byrds.

DC: Oh yeah, no question. All of those guys are good musicians, man, and you can't be a good musician and not listen to the Everlys, it's just impossible.

BW: And it's great now, all their old stuff is pretty much in print now.

DC: Yeah.

Pete Seeger

BW: Were you listening to some of the vocal groups, the ones that Brian Wilson was listening to, like the Brothers Four and that kind of thing?

DC: Sure, the Kingston Trio, the Brothers Four, the Hi-Los -- you know, stuff like that. But truthfully, I was probably more influenced by simple stuff, you know, the Weavers, things like that. And just singing folk music. You know, I used to sing folk music at my house. We had The Fireside Book of Folk Songs. My brother played guitar, my dad played mandolin, my mom sang in a choir and we would sing. My mom thought that was cool, and she would get us to do it.

BW: Well, was it exciting to interview Pete Seeger for your new book then?

DC: Fascinating. Sat down on a bench, with this beautiful light coming down the window, pulled out that banjo that says "This machine kills fascists," or fascism, or whatever it says. We sat there, and it was Pete, you know, there he was. (Adopts Pete Seeger's New England accent) "I remember Woody and I were talking about the farmers..." (Sighs.) God damn. He is truly one of the greatest men in the country. And a completely inspiring human being. His concern for other human beings has never faltered. His dedication to his principles and his values have never faltered. He is a giant.

BW: It is kind of comforting to see that as recently as when he received the Presidential Medal of Honor, his history was controversial enough to cause a mini-flap with the right wing pundits. That's good, that's a good sign, I think.

DC: Yeah. I hope... I would be honored if I caused a flap too.

BW: And I noticed when they honored him, they did "This Land is Your Land," which would have been the perfect closer, and then it was somebody's idea to come out and have the obligatory patriotic number. I don't remember if it was the National Anthem or "God Bless America" or something, but they came out and did a coda of unquestionably patriotic music.

DC: (Cracks up.) Just to make sure that damn commie didn't leave any imprint!

BW: Exactly, exactly.

DC: Yeah, he's a wonderful old man. I'm doing a couple of benefits with him.

BW: Are you?

DC: In August, I'm gonna come back and do a couple of his Hudson River things with him. Just a little guitar, folky stuff.

BW: Did you know him before? Or is this the first time you really talked?

DC: The first time we really talked. He wrote us a letter after we did "Turn, Turn, Turn." McGuinn's got it. It says, (Adopts Pete voice again...) "You know, they used to do everything but burn crosses on my lawn for being a communist. Now they come around and ask for my autograph, and I just can't tell you how much good you've done me in this town, I really appreciate that. People like me again and I just really do appreciate that. You boys are wonderful boys..." (Gives up the impersonation, laughing.) It's a wonderful letter. He was just knocked out, you know.

BW: That must have been so exciting because you were all in your early twenties, some even younger than that maybe at that time, and big fans of him.

DC: Yeah.

Les Baxter

BW: Does it amuse you to see a Les Baxter revival going on?

DC: No. There is no such thing. Don't tell me that.

BW: It's true.

DC: A hideous thought!

BW: Because of the "exotica" revival -- it's a subset of the lounge craze that we're in the middle of.

DC: (In mock horror...) No, no, please, God, don't, no, please...

BW: All his old LPs, they've all been reissued on CD.

DC: No, please no.

BW: They're all back in print now.

DC: No.

BW: Everything he ever did.

DC: Certainly not anything with me on it.

BW: "The Bells of the City."

DC: Please no.

BW: So you don't expect to see a reissue of Les Baxter's Balladeers, then?

DC: Oh stop. (Laughing.) I'll find your high school year book. I swear to God. No. No, please. Awful thought.

Terry Callier and Travis Edmundson

BW: Someone else who's having a bit of a revival is Terry Callier. Did I read that you knew Terry Callier early on?

DC: Terry and I were pals. Yeah, Terry and I sang together.

BW: He's having a career resurgence right now, at least in England.

DC: Really? In Chicago or in England?

BW: I think it's in England.

DC: Yeah, Terry came to New York from Chicago and he and I lived together and sang together for a while, with great pleasure. Very talented guy. Great singer. Jesus, could he sing.

BW: I think he has a new album.

DC: Yeah? [Yeah, a new one called Time Peace (Talkin' Loud, 1997), and a new anthology called Essential: The Very Best of Terry Callier (Universal, 1998).]

BW: You also talk in your book a lot about Bud and Travis.

DC: Yeah, well Travis Edmundson was a huge influence on me. I never really liked Bud Dashiel that much, he was kind of a stiff guy. But Travis was a tremendously talented guy and I learned a great deal from him.

The Bulgarian National Folk Choir

BW: One other musical influence that I wanted to ask you about: I saw a little snippet from some '60's fan magazine where you are talking about listening to one of those Nonesuch Explorer albums of Bulgarian singers...

DC: Yeah, yeah...

BW: ...Twenty years before those Mysteres Voix de Bulgares albums were made.

DC: Yeah, yeah. That's essentially the same group. It's the Bulgarian National Folk Choir. But the first recording of it, which was on Nonesuch, and was in the '60s, is probably one of the greatest records of all time. Those women sing rings around everybody in the world. They make the Beach Boys sound loose. They did things that no one else has ever done. Repeatedly. And they were a huge influence on Nash and myself both. We listened to that album probably a couple of hundred times. Maybe 400 times or more. I listened to that album as many times as I've listened to Aja, okay?

BW: Would this have been in '65, '66?

DC: Starting there and going on for many years.

BW: Because I think I can hear those odd seconds and ninths and peculiar harmonic ideas reflected in some of those Crosby, Stills and Nash albums.

DC: There is no question they influenced me, strongly. I thought that was the best part singing I have ever heard in my life.

BW: Did you ever hear the Kate Bush album where she has Bulgarian singers back her on it?

DC: No, and I would sure like to.

BW: It was the one that came out like in '91. [Sensual World (Columbia, 1991).] It's really beautiful.

DC: I'd very much like to hear that. No, my only knowledge of Kate Bush came from listening to her singing with Peter Gabriel, which was a stunner.

Onward to Part Three.

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THE BYRDWATCHER INTERVIEW: DAVID CROSBY -- PART TWO

THE BYRDWATCHER INTERVIEW:
DAVID CROSBY -- PART TWO