CHRONIC KIDNEY SACHA BEST MAGAZINE + PHILIPPE PARINGAUX CHRONICLE MAGAZINE ROCK & FOLK

CHRONIC KIDNEY SACHA BEST MAGAZINE May 1971 No. 34 Page 82
1 1971 33 rpm albums Ref: Atlantic SD 7203 us
It is not possible, there must be a trick. It is not normal that people are also talented. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, you know. Now, the group is fantastic, everyone knows. Well, that is imbued with history to prove they are as strong individually, together, they swing us every two months a solo album which there is nothing to say except that it is perfect, every time .
After Young and Stills, Crosby is the turn to come to sow panic in the rock world with an album that ridicules nine-tenths of the current production. For this recording, he did not choose anyone. As you can see, all the elite San Franciscienne is present. The Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Santana, Quicksilver, in short, everyone. The result? Indescribable, overwhelming beauty, finds, delicacy. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young is a bit like the Beatles at a time, we always believe that they can never do better, and three months later, boom, in the face. Tomorrow, there will be Nash may come attack us treacherously with the masterpiece of composition, but in the meantime so run buy the record of David Crosby, it's not every day that such records are made .

PHILIPPE PARINGAUX CHRONICLE MAGAZINE ROCK & FOLK N ° 52 May 1971 Page 79
"For my Lady Christine Gail Hinton." Last year, Christine was overthrown and killed by a bus. This disc is for her, totally sad, impregnated the whole memory of constantly painful. David Crosby, probably better than Steve Stills or that Paul Kantner, succeeds marvelously his first solo flight.
Maybe he has a true firewall and intimate feeling to express. And to support his speech, David Crosby, former Byrds member of CSNY, one of the figures from California who makes music, sounded the recall of his friends, and God knows he has. Not selected anyhow; people who share his life enough to understand a little more musically. All people living more or less together, or at least in very close contact, constantly exchanging ideas, musical or other, sharing their joys and sorrows (it's a little ass say it, but it's true) . Three or four large groups whose members are becoming interchangeable, find themselves more and more often to give a hand to the one who saves "his" album: the musicians and fine talent with a strong personality, who agree to the session and remain behind. Tomorrow they will be leaders in their turn, and today will be their leader sideman. This is good and the music can only gain in form and spirit. This happens in California and elsewhere (if the band Soft also trying it in England). David Crosby found himself in the studio with, brace yourself: Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, Grace Slick: choirs; Paul Kantner (Airplane), Jerry Garcia (Dead) and Jorma Kaukonen (Airplane): guitarists; Greg Rolie (Santana): the piano and organ; Jack Casady (Airplane), David Freiberg (Quicksilver) and Phil Lesh (Dead): bassists; Mickey Hart (Dead), Bill Kreutzmann (Dead) and Mike Shrieve (Santana): drummers. No comment ... And him, David Crosby, who sings and composes so well, his twelve strings sounded almost as clear as its former leader Roger McGuinn. David Crosby, now mature musician, artist while midtones and modesty, man reveals this record breaking deep, hidden behind this beauty floating veil that covers her voice. If it is not without having been influenced by Neil Young (which we find here much more than voice and guitar, chop-chop, in background - for example in compositions like "Cowboy Movie"), Crosby brings here the brilliant demonstration of the talent that hinted at these great songs
that are "Guinevere," "Woodenships", "Long Time Gone" or "Almost Cut My Hair"; intelligent sharing between the fire of rock and roll and the tenderness of a colorful inspiration of typical Californian colors. The musicians, outstanding used, are also not for little in the extraordinary beauty of sound of this album, full of long meditations on some stretched notes, dreamy and delicate climates ("Tumalpais High," "Orleans", "Song With No Word ") crossed by guitar buttons and voice of great purity (Joni Mitchell particular, at the end of" Laughing "or in this pretty piece a capella what" I'd Swear ... " . This would be only formal beauty and hollow if David Crosby had put into this record much of his soul, avoiding stylistic exercise. His mark to him is that of a peaceful beauty and purity of sound, romantic melodies (rock finally a minority in this record, if we want to dissociate the beat and violence). This is summarized in the beautiful "I Wonder Who They Are," which after an introduction of guitars a startling delicacy (four (or five?) guitars, Garcia, Kaukonen, Young, Crosby and ....? playing together), typical of the Grateful Dead, which swells when suddenly all fall (yes, they should be there all) of the votes.
- "I wonder who they are / The men who really run this country / And why they direct / this way /
What are their names / And what streets they live / I want to go there / This afternoon with you / And beg / To give peace to mankind / Peace is not too much to ask .
Hey, if it is precisely the one thing never ask .... Millions of discs as beautiful as this one will not help, David Crosby.