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David Crosby
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THE BYRDWATCHER INTERVIEW:
DAVID CROSBY -- PART THREE
DAVID CROSBY -- PART THREE
Stranger in a Strange Land
BW: I see you're still a fan of science fiction, which is something I wanted to ask you about.
DC: You spotted the David Drake, yeah. (Laughs.)
BW: I read one of his...
DC: Hammer Slammers?
BW: One of those "Draka" books.
DC: Oh, man, Drake and Sterling. Those guys are wonderful together.
BW: Have you ever read The Sparrow?
DC: No.
BW: It's a wonderful book, and the woman who wrote it [Mary Doria Russell] is from here in Cleveland, and she's very personable. In her book, slum children are the object of futures trading.
DC: (Whistles at the audacity of the notion.)
BW: Because investors are willing to educate them, in return for a piece of their future income.
DC: Wow.
BW: And it's sort of the logical conclusion of the whole idea of "futures" we were just discussing...
DC: Yeah, logical and horrible, but logical, yeah. Yeah, I read science fiction constantly, I love it dearly. There's a new David Brin out that I have on the bus, that I'm about to chew into. I read probably two, three books a week, usually.
BW: I noticed you mentioned William Gibson's name in a recent interview.
DC: Yeah, he's a favorite. I think Neuromancer is probably the quintessential science fiction book. Having read every Heinlein book that was ever written, all of them, and having started my career in reading on the Heinlein juvenile series -- read 'em all 10 times -- you know, I love Heinlein, but I think Gibson passed everybody with Neuromancer and Burning Chrome and those things. I think he just hit it. He's engendered an entire group of writers to write things like Snow Crash and Diamond Age [both by Neal Stephenson] and all those incredible, wonderful books that have come out recently.
BW: Bruce Sterling.
DC: Bruce Sterling, yeah, yeah.
BW: Dan Simmons, do you like him?
DC: Yeah, Simmons and Neal, what's his name?
BW: Neal Stephenson.
DC: Stephenson, yeah. And also, this British guy, Iain Banks. And the guy who just did Reality Dysfunction, [Peter F. Hamilton]. It's four books. It starts out with two in Reality Dysfunction and two in Neutronium Alchemist. It gets really good. Wonderful, wonderful, inventive stuff. But I mean, I go clear back to Bradbury and stuff too. Asimov, Van Vogt... you know, I love science fiction.
BW: And it's shown up in your music from time to time.
DC: Inevitably. Music is a great window into a person and if it's in there, you'll see it in their music. It's a window into their soul. You can see what a person truly is about if they really write.
BW: One of my favorite things about Neuromancer is all the musical references throughout the book. I counted about 25 or 26 musical references.
DC: Yeah, Gibson likes music.
BW: Oh yeah.
DC: I became a fax pal of his back when fax machines were the hot item, and we communicated. We still do from time to time.
BW: Something you said struck me, you were talking about Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I'm wondering, are you familiar with the whole idea of "memes"?
DC: Right...
BW: The concept that ideas are analogous to genes spreading in our minds and in the computer hard drives all around the world...
DC: Yeah, yeah.
BW: And it made me think of your comment about being a re-broadcaster. I think it's in your autobiography, and I've seen it elsewhere. You talk about re-broadcasting ideas.
DC: I think ideas are the most powerful stuff in the world now. And I think good ones have a sustaining resonance to them. I think they naturally go out and whack into other stuff and regenerate the ripple effect. I also think that one of the most crucial things that is going on on the Internet -- and elsewhere -- is cross-pollination of idea streams. I think when two people talk the way you and I are talking, we learn from each other, inevitably. If the communication is genuine, if you're not just in there posing and talking, repeating stuff that was on a TV show last night. I'll come away from this conversation having learned something from you. And that is potent stuff. I think that is how I grow, and I am convinced that if I don't grow, I will, uh... stop. (Laughs.) I think Dylan was right about that, that is one of the reasons why I'm doing this band [CPR], just 'cause I think "he who is not busy being born is busy dying," and I really need to grow. I really need to grow, I really need to play my music.
Somebody Else's Town
BW: You were telling me about a band that you saw down in the square last night.
DC: A local Cleveland band. Jazz band called Forecast, and they're amazing. It was a great band. And it was just so great that somebody was playing real music, you know, right out there in the middle of town, you know. And there was good crowd out there of people, and they were just excellent. And they've got one of the best drummers I've ever heard. The guy was just world class. But the whole band was truly excellent. And it was just great. You know, here you are, you're in somebody else's town and you don't know what to do, and you're tired of watching CNN, and the movie you want to see isn't on yet or whatever, and you go outside and bang! there is this incredible musical experience. Man, I stayed for hours, watched two whole sets of their music. It was just wonderful.
BW: I'm sure they'll be excited to hear your review.
DC: We invited them all to come down to the show tonight. I don't know if any of them will come, but why they were really great. Great horn player, fabulous bass player. Keyboard player is working with Stanley Clarke now. Brilliant, great vibe player.
Why
BW: We were talking a little bit about Pete Seeger earlier and we didn't really talk too much about why you were interviewing him: your new book and multi-media project -- Stand and Be Counted.
DC: Well, the idea that came to me was that most of the people that do benefits and peace marches and civil rights demonstrations and anti-war demonstrations and environmental and ecological stuff are all either friends of mine or acquaintances of mine, most of them friends. And I thought to ask them, why? Why did they, why would they put themselves on the line, and where did they get the idea? How did that ethic come about? And these are very articulate people, and obviously, you know, it matters to them to stick up for what they believe in or they wouldn't have done it.
So, I'm getting pay dirt, I'm getting wonderful stuff. And I'm not so much asking everybody, what did you do? How many benefits do you do a month? You know, how cool are you? I'm asking them, where did you get the idea, why do you do it? And I've gotten amazing stuff, man. I got an amazing interview with Pete. He was wonderful. I got an amazing interview with Sting. I got a great one from Elton. I got a great one from Melissa Ethridge. Incredible. Incredible one from the Indigo Girls. Incredible one from Joan Baez. Phil Lesh from the Dead, Paul Kantner from Airplane, Nash, Neil, Willie, Mellencamp. Whoopee and Robin, unbelievable. Henley, did him at Walden Woods. Very powerful stuff. Very powerful. We just went to DC for the Tibetan Freedom Concert, and we got Michael Stipe and Adam Yauch and some other people there. Very powerful stuff. I think it's gonna be a wonderful documentary and I think it's gonna be a wonderful book.
BW: So the film project is for sure gonna happen?
DC: Oh yeah, we got the money. It took me a year of fighting to get it, because of course there's no car chases, and nothing blows up, but I got it, and it's definitely happening.
Onward to Part Four.
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David Crosby
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